&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/79690?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Roddy+Frame+*+review%3AArticle%3A1647804&amp;ch=Music&amp;c3=Guardian&amp;c4=Pop+and+rock+%28Music+genre%29%2CMusic%2CCulture%2CJohn+Hughes&amp;c5=Pop+Music%2CNot+commercially+useful&amp;c6=Dave+Simpson&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1647804&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Review%2CLive+music+review&amp;c11=Music&amp;c13=&amp;c25=&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FMusic%2FPop+and+rock&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;Deaf Institute, Manchester&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Is everyone alright up there?&quot; asks Roddy Frame, eyeing the venue&#039;s miniscule balcony. &quot;It&#039;s just like the Palladium in here.&quot; Hardly, but the Scottish singer-songwriter has been daring to dream ever since his old band Aztec Camera&#039;s 1983 debut, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Land,_Hard_Rain&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;High Land, Hard Rain,&lt;/a&gt; catapulted him from East Kilbride to international stardom when he was just 19. Appearances are rarer now, but his enduring reputation as one&amp;nbsp;of the finest songwriters of the last 30 years means gigs like this are a white-hot ticket.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Frame of 2011 isn&#039;t the political idealist who once offered his help to the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/21/archive-orange-juice-miners-strike-benefit-1985&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;National Union of Mineworkers&lt;/a&gt;, but a romantic wordsmith who documents love&#039;s ups and downs with guitars, big tunes and words as poetically beautiful as &quot;Clusters of heavenly jewels, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lipwalklyrics.com/lyrics/507519-azteccamera-thenorthstar.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;gaze down on Earth&#039;s lonely fools&lt;/a&gt;.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With his perfect quiff, soaring croon, stunning fingerpicking and chiming jangles, Frame could almost be Morrissey and Marr inhabiting the same body. In plain black shirt, the handsome 47-year-old looks absurdly youthful, eschewing the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2002/aug/16/artsfeatures.shopping1&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Postcard Records-era fashion sense&lt;/a&gt; inspired by Mark E Smith&#039;s tank tops, and visibly thrilled to be back.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;I&#039;m not prolific,&quot; he quips, perhaps unwittingly explaining his career stops and starts. But the new White Pony &ndash; inspired by the late film-maker &lt;a href=&quot;http://wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com/2009/08/sincerely-john-hughes.html&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;John Hughes&#039;s mentoring of a young girl&lt;/a&gt; &ndash; sounds every bit as skyscraping as the oldies. From &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM3mB6WrhJ4&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Oblivious&lt;/a&gt; to a tear-jerking &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ken3aiFzyDY&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Down the Dip&lt;/a&gt;, they tumble forth in an embarrassment of riches. When the crowd sing the first verse of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0NvZ4SsXAw&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Walk Out to&amp;nbsp;Winter&lt;/a&gt;, you fear grown men will start weeping, but a euphoric &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4pWcVPUybE&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Somewhere in My Heart&lt;/a&gt; suggests Frame is the sound of forever-young Scotland, immortalised by the belief: &quot;The closest thing to heaven is to rock&#039;n&#039;roll.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;rating&quot;&gt;Rating: 4/5&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/popandrock&quot;&gt;Pop and rock&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/john-hughes&quot;&gt;John Hughes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davesimpson&quot;&gt;Dave Simpson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our &lt;a href=&quot;http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html&quot;&gt;Terms &amp; Conditions&lt;/a&gt; | &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/help/feeds&quot;&gt;More Feeds&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p style=&quot;clear:both&quot; /&gt;