With The Wedding Present revisiting charted territories for the first time in over a decade, Chadders and Bickers back on speaking terms and Dinosaur Jr planning a comeback in the summer, it seems as good a time as any to dig out your brother’s faded ‘Hup’ tour shirt and head off down to Milletts for a pair of 14-holed Doctor Martens boots.

One band whose comeback has perhaps been a little less fortuitous in terms of ironing out the red carpets and welcome mats is that of The Wonder Stuff, which is a little unfair considering that at their creative peak they were selling more records than the likes of Keane and Razorlight put together, and whether their latter offspring dare admit to it, their legacy can be heard quite distinctively today (in The Kaiser Chiefs and The Zutons, to name but two).

For a band who are just about to celebrate their 20th year in existence, its quite refreshing to note that there are just as many Russell Lissack fringes and Karen O bob-mullets as tie-dye clobbered dreadheads, disproving the theory that their music has aged as rapidly as its creators. Not that Miles Hunt and Malcolm Treece, the two remaining original Stuffies in the current line-up look that much worse for wear, except being a little thinner on top maybe.

It also makes a pleasant change to hear a band whose creative zenith was during the latter period of Thatcher’s tenancy in power actually re-emerging with a clutch of new material that doesn’t sound like an embarrassing rewrite of days gone by. Instead, the likes of ‘Better Get Ready For A Fist Fight’ and ‘Was I Meant To Be Sorry?’ pack more punch than a Ricky Hatton right-hander from five feet, while the acerbic wit of ‘Bile Chant’ and philosophical musings of ‘Head Count’ merely serve to remind one and all just what an underrated lyricist and performer Miles Hunt really is.

Of course, no Wonder Stuff show would be complete without hearing 'the hits', and with recently recruited fiddle player Erica Nockalls expanding their ranks to a ten-legged groove machine, the likes of ‘Circlesquare’ sound as monumentally vibrant as it did when it first emerged almost fifteen years ago to the day. Likewise the poignant ‘Piece Of Sky’ is still a worthy tribute to the late Bob Jones, while ‘On The Ropes’, ‘Unbearable’ and ‘Ten Trenches Deep’ evoke the unsurpassable trio of power, passion and perfection respectively.

More importantly, tonight’s performance proves that The Wonder Stuff are as enthusiastic about their art as they were two decades ago, and to dismiss them as being nostalgia trippers would be nothing short of puerile and ridiculous.