The Bluetones are a good band. Their debut, Expecting To Fly, now nearly two years old, is full of beautiful touches and delicately shimmering songs. At their best they evoke the easy charm of The Stone Roses (first coming) and the melodic bite of The Las, and suffer by comparison with neither. Which makes the dullness of their live show a touch baffling.

In the flesh they are proficient, but no more. The delicate touches and lovely sheen that they put onto vinyl are dulled by the rough and ready nature of performing, and being more disposed towards underplaying everything they are not capable of summoning the bluster that could paper over the cracks.

True, they were not helped by a sub-standard PA system.

True, the large number of new - and therefore unfamiliar - songs in the set contributed to the sense of the low-key.

True, they did occasionally brew up a storm with the likes of the sublime Slight Return. But the occasion was, on the whole, under-whelming.

There was enough here to suggest that their future is assured, with a hatful of new material, but enough too to suggest that no matter how sassy their songs or how charming their style, the Bluetones' virtues lie more in the studio than on the stage.