★★★

Kid Creole's second visit to this venue in a year, following a sold-out show last summer, was a somewhat less packed affair.

But the crowd on the return night, dressed more like hired hands for DIY SOS or Ground Force than the fly gangsters of 1980s New York, made up for any gaps in the room.

Starting with the overlooked song (No More) Casual Sex, frontman August Darnell set the template from the get-go. In a purple suit, with his accomplished band dressed like Bugsy Malone try-outs, the pace was frantic.

The hits – Annie, I’m A Wonderful Thing, Stool Pigeon – all from the band’s last peak period album of 1982 (and certainly what the audience wanted to hear), were deftly dispensed in the middle rather than being held until the end.

But mention should be made of the Coconuts themselves. Not the originals, Darnell joked, the three girls cavorted in their smalls all evening, even coming back dressed as cave women for the first of the two encores. They pouted, attempted choreographed moves and generally felt a little end-of-the-pier - too Carry On to comfortably sit with the smooth, increasingly respected music of the band. Their presence felt ever so slightly dubious.

Still, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts, and by the set finish at 11.30pm, the nine-strong outfit had stretched, broken down, extended and tweaked their mildly song-shy history into a slick show.

Darnell might want to think about playing it straight next time (perhaps solo) but for this crowd it was a stellar night.