Free ear plugs were available. "You'll need them," I was warned. My Bloody Valentine, one of the loudest bands in rock's history, were back in action after an enigmatic 16-year absence, and their wall of noise was as forceful and uncompromising as ever.

The Anglo-Irish quartet's reputation rests on two albums, Isn't Anything (1988) and Loveless (1991), whose eerie drones and tortured gestation - the endlessly delayed Loveless almost bankrupted the record company - saw bandleader Kevin Shields lauded as the Brian Wilson or Syd Barrett of alt-rock, a reclusive and fragile perfectionist obsessed by sonic textures and extremes.