IT may seem remiss of Belle And Sebastian never to have played York in their 20-plus years, but then again, Hull is still waiting, as frontman Stuart Murdoch noted, no less apologetically.

Leeds, from the City Varieties to the Town Hall, has been a regular stopping point, but York was the chosen one this time, and B & S devotees gathered from York...Leeds...Hull...and beyond for the show that sold out the quickest of all their 16 British and Irish dates.

After all, this is officially the best place to live in the UK – if you’re a Sunday Times reader with Sunday Times tastes– and Belle And Sebastian were about to make it better still.

Especially after support act Julien Baker, all the way from Memphis, Tennessee, served up sad songs as black and bleak as her dress code, sang loudly, talked very quietly, improved with the introduction of her piano and a violin player, and will learn plenty about stage craft from watching Belle And Sebastian from the wings.

Like Baker, these Scots once cut reluctant, diffident, distant, even fey figures in concert, but two decades have honed them into a truly fantastic live act, warm and humorous, vibrant and soulful, as engaging as the much missed folk big band Bellowhead.

B & S are a pretty big band on stage these days too, nine up there, swapping instruments, positions, sometimes lead singers, with myriad keyboards and guitars, trumpet for extra soul power, and Murdoch as the front man who has become everything that Morrissey no longer is.

Every night on this tour is different: only eight of the 18 songs had featured in the set the previous night at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, even fewer – six – two nights earlier at the Troxy in London, and all three shows would have been equally satisfying.

Here are songs that touch the heart and increasingly move the feet too, especially on new album How To Solve Our Human Problems.

What an opening threesome, Nobody’s Empire, I’m A Cuckoo and We Were Beautiful, and by the end the new record and the classic “red LP” (If You’re Feeling Sinister) were rivalling each other for most picks.

So many highlights, from Sweet Dew Lee to Poor Boy, from The Boy With The Arab Strap to the encore heaven of Judy And The Dream Of Horses. And, yes, audience members had a chance to dance on stage, all part of the all-inclusive B & S these days.

That stretched to complementing the video projections with York details: photos taken that day at York Station and the Minster, a York KitKat advert, a reference to that new Best Place title; Murdoch, the charming show host and commentator throughout.

How to solve our human problems? Going to a Belle And Sebastian show would be a good start, but how to solve a problem like the 2018 Morrissey might be beyond even them.