The veteran rockers were the headline act at Heywood’s Wood Wine and Roses Festival with the audience dancing to hits such as Too Many Times, If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too? and their worldwide smash Live It Up.

Organisers said the combination of top music with fine wine and other activities capped off another successful innings for the festival, in its 22nd year.

Festival committee chairman Ross Barclay said while official figures had not been finalised, he believed 2015 numbers were the largest in the festival’s history. “Word of mouth has travelled right around Australia — we had people from everywhere coming to Heywood,” Mr Barclay said. “I would say we had over 12,000 people. That’s a massive figure for a town the size of Heywood.”

Sunshine earlier in the day gave way to clouds with the heavens opening up in the late afternoon. Mr Barclay said the heavy downpour caused attendees to run for cover but conditions returned to normal in the evening.

“Everything was going fine until 4.30pm to 5pm — it just poured down,” Mr Barclay said. “We had thousands out and about and they all ducked for cover. Thankfully, that cleared up and we had a great night with Mental as Anything and the other bands.”