The Beat at The Studio

In truth, it was only two-sevenths of the Beat, the most musically adventurous of the bands of the great British ska revival of the post-punk years.

But we, the newly middle-aged whose teenage record collections have been flashing before our ears loudly this year with tours by Simple Minds, Buzzcocks, Psychedelic Furs, and soon Th' Dudes, didn't really seem to mind.

Nostalgia's like that. Very forgiving at high volume when mixed with alcohol.

It was enough for most of us that original co-frontman Ranking Roger and drummer Everett Morton were in there with a crew which included Roger's son, Ranking Jnr, also on vocals.

The rest of the players delivered largely dead-on facsimiles of their Beat forbears - especially new saxophonist Chico who got the woozy tone and phrasing of his ancient predecessor, Saxa, just right.

But it all sounded pretty gutless, actually. That the band came on to find their microphones weren't working didn't bode well for the rest of the set.

And a set which sometimes veered towards best-forgotten album tracks, a curiously remixed version of Twist and Crawl, a daft soft cover of the Clash's Rock the Casbah and some new songs which seemed to embrace the ska cliches the original Beat bent to their own ends, left this rabid old fan feeling frequently nonplussed.

Yes, the vocal enthusiasm of Ranking Snr and Jnr was infectious.

And the beginning of Mirror in the Bathroom was brilliant, possibly because it demonstrated the band's reggae-schooled sense of space and minor key dramatics.

But points deducted for not playing Dream Home In New Zealand .

As a ska nostalgia party powered by a tribute band to itself it didn't lack for hup-hup energy. But appropriately enough, given ska's trademark colour scheme, it was a chequered kind of night.