This may not be the summer of love but I have reason to believe this was the gig of the year.

Arthur Lee is a cult legend whose West Coast band Love split in 1968 after making their critically-acclaimed third album, Forever Changes.

Appearances by Lee are as rare as hens' teeth and this gig sold out in a flash. Like Syd Barrett, he has reached god-like status among fans of psychedelia.

After five years in jail, he is in remarkable fettle. There cannot be a cooler 54-year-old ex-convict on this planet. At least, not one who wears rhinestone shirts and a bandanna underneath his Stetson.

Still, I thought, he can't really be up for this. Surely his extraordinary songs would sound like pale imitations without the rest of Love.

Not guilty. Lee has found a band who play his songs as if they were their own. Even acoustic wonders such as Alone Again Or survived the electric treatment.

And Lee's voice, always on a par with contemporaries Scott Walker and Tim Buckley, was gorgeous.

He lovingly delivered the different styles his songs demand, from the Dylanesque jive of Bummer In The Summer to the folk melody of And More Again.

The sing-along strum of You Set The Scene and the breakneck psychedelia of Seven And Seven Is were equally potent.

The crowd loved them all, roaring after each one. Goosebumps all round.

A legend has returned.

He has no new songs but his old ones can blow the roof off.

Review by Andy Fisher, features@theargus.co.uk