Stars: **

The last time My Bloody Valentine played Electric Picnic, they were trading on past glories and handing out earplugs.

This time around there were neither, but despite a main stage slot with a new album to plug, Kevin Shields and Co's wall of sound floated into the ether rather than being a concentrated assault.

Their set is all the worse for it. Shields’s and Bilinda Butcher’s vocals are drowned out in the repetitive noise, and there is no subtlety to their set – just a haze of propulsive clamour.

The muted crowd reaction said it all: here was a bored audience in a dazed stupor, rather than one in the presence of a legendary band.

This could have, and should have, been better.