The Blockheads @ The Liquid Room

Resuscitating the past is always a perilous proposition. But to regroup without your talismanic figurehead can turn a tricky revival into an unforgiving challenge that borders on self-indulged delusion. And as the legendary Blockheads step up to the stage, a foreboding sense of car crash curiosity envelopes the Liquid Room. Ripping into a skin-tight Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, the perennially young cockneys instantly wipe away any lingering doubts with a groove-laden, zesty performance. Sounding like a debauched East-end knees up, they lack the spasmodic showmanship of Ian Dury but appease this with the fun-loving flamenco of tracks like One Love. Dipping after the zenith of Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll, it's still an extraordinary jazz funk freak out that sounds as fresh today as it did three decades ago. Rather than a ravenous rejuvenation, tonight is more an effusive exorcism of yesteryear's ghosts. [Billy Hamilton]