Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info It’s been 12 years, 11 months and 20 days. Tonight, that feels like no time at all. More than a decade since being declared “dead” by frontman Ellery Roberts, WU LYF are back. The Greater Manchester quartet were, for a short time, possibly the most talked-about band in the UK. Maybe even the world. In around 2010, photographs of nine kids in a car park with their faces covered, surrounded by smoke bombs, sparked a frenzy. Information about WU LYF was scarce, and that vacuum sent the rumour mill into overdrive. Jay Z was a fan, that one was true. Stories of burning crosses onstage and charging £50 for their debut EP less-so. And to begin with, WU LYF did little to dispel myths. Preferring to shun the whirlwind of media attention. Shortly after the release of Go Tell Fire to the Mountain, their first and only album, they denied their aloofness was anything to do with fuelling what the New York Observer pegged as: “Carefully designed anonymity”. Instead, it was more a 'rejection of narcissism'. (Image: Piran Aston/NOW WAVE) That said, it's true they have always seemed like a group in control of their narrative. And tonight’s comeback feels like it has been managed with a similar precision. This time around it’s via a series of three shows in the tiny upstairs venue at Salford’s King’s Arms, each with a ticket ballot. In spite of their denials, WU LYF know how to maintain some allure and mystery. Entering the fray in suitably atmospheric style to Gavin Bryars’ Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, any cynicism that might accompany such attention to detail doesn’t last long – barely a couple of bars of A New Life is Coming. The song is their first release in 13 years and their opener for the last of their three Salford shows. A decade in stasis has done little to diminish WU LYF’s power. They are euphoric, exhilarating. Warm and welcoming, rather than some mysterious party you’re hearing about instead of joining. (Image: Piran Aston/NOW WAVE) Addressing the crowd, Roberts describes the evening as “a family reunion”. Faces from the band's first life, roughly 2008 to 2012, are dotted around the packed venue. There is a lot of love in the room. And this is reciprocated. Today, WU LYF benefit from always being musically quite difficult to categorise beyond their own description of “heavy pop”. As was back then, Roberts’ delivery is all gravelly larynx-shredding gusto. The band sounds massive – now swelling from a four-piece to five. But these don’t sound like decade-old songs. In Spitting Blood and Concrete Gold, drums roll through reverb-heavy guitar just like they did first time around. And as WU LYF grow into the show, the 12-year hiatus feels smaller and smaller. (Image: Piran Aston/NOW WAVE) Yet this isn’t simply a nostalgia trip. There are excellent new songs. Some chest-beating Springsteen-esque tub-thumpers. At least six on the setlist tonight are new – the aforementioned A New Life is Coming, Wound, Gift, Sunn Lillies, All is Forgiven, Letting Go. The group, perhaps no longer encumbered by the weight of hype, feel as fresh and visceral as ever. In their own words, time away has been spent 'trying to escape the shadow cast by the spectacle of their youth'. They add, perhaps understandably, that in their first life WU LYF were "killed" by words, and have always been better "experienced rather than discussed". (Image: Piran Aston/NOW WAVE) In the tiny King’s Arms, large chunks of the show are performed with Ellery among the audience – WU LYF clearly enjoying being back as much as the crowd. The spectacle is genuine and special. Back in 2010, the band's mystery was short-lived, and it is to their credit that it now feels like the least interesting thing about them. “Hey, do you still care?” asks Roberts in A New Life is Coming. Tonight feels special and the answer is resounding.