If there is one thing headliners UB40 and The Stranglers have in common, it is their ability to inspire massive loyalty from their fans.

Musically, they may be chalk and cheese but both bands are still legends of their chosen genres after decades of success.

The Stranglers were the support for UB40 at the Brighton Centre although the man who sat next to me may disagree.

He sat through The Stranglers' set and never came back for UB40.

Dressed in their obligatory black, The Stranglers may have evolved since their punk beginnings in the Seventies but, with Paul Roberts on lead vocals, they are still a great live band.

They ripped through covers of All Day And All Of The Night and Walk On By while the biggest cheer was, unsurprisingly, for Golden Brown.

However, for all Roberts' enthusiastic writhing on stage, there was hardly any discernable movement from the massed crowd. They were there for Britain's premier reggae band and the West Midlands' finest.

Anyone who says they have no rhythm should be made to go to a UB40 gig. Whether a massive fan or not, and I confess I fall into the latter, their beat is so infectious you cannot fail to be carried along.

The standing area was transformed with a sell-out crowd dancing along to a selection of hits including One In Ten and some easy-on-the-ear stuff from their latest album Home Grown.

The distinctive vocals of Ali Campbell and Astro sounded superb in harmony with a band that has 20 years of playing together to fall back on. The brass section gave the band their distinctive feel and they were enjoying themselves as much as the crowd.

Rat In The Kitchen got the fans really jumping but if there is one song which can be guaranteed to raise the roof, it is Red Red Wine - and it did.

From the double platinum Labour Of Love album, Ali and Astro have made the song their own.

A few more tunes from the same album were met with equal rapture while the feel-good factor lasted until the final song as they closed with Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, the song they covered for the England rugby World Cup team and an anthem which had a packed centre swaying until the lights went up.