The poor sales of recent albums by Sir Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger highlight an uncomfortable truth about the 60s' biggest stars. The public prefers them frozen in time, buying greatest hits instead of their latest efforts.

The only major 60s artist apparently to embrace such thinking is the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. His first British appearance in 13 years contains only a handful of songs under 25 years old, one of them a sly cover of the Barenaked Ladies' homage, Brian Wilson.

That may be necessity - Wilson is suffering writer's block - but it also shows self-knowledge remarkable for someone usually characterised as a damaged casualty.

He has always noted his mid-60s music's unique allure. The prospect of seeing that music performed live simultaneously excites the fan's most lofty and most prurient impulses.

You get to hear Pet Sounds, widely considered the greatest album ever made, while seeing if Wilson is as weird as those stories about playing piano in a sandbox suggest.

To a degree, last night's show satisfied both urges. A thick-set man in a stars and stripes jumper, Wilson certainly cuts a curious figure.

He has an odd habit of miming lyrics as he sings them, pretending to drive during Don't Worry Baby. Between songs, his announcements vary from touchingly naive to downright peculiar.

But nothing can distract from the music. Reproducing the complex sound of mid-60s Beach Boys records is no mean feat, but his 10-piece band acquit themselves wonderfully.

Their harmonies are glorious. Wilson himself is in better voice than anyone with his history of drug addiction should be.

The material is as exquisite as any in rock's history. Pet Sounds bursts from the stage, sounding unique and remarkable - sounding, in fact, like the best album ever made.

Wilson's show is one of three currently touring, each containing one original Beach Boy. There have been lawsuits and vicious public arguments, as much part of the Beach Boys' career since the mid-60s as premature death, addiction, violent abuse and insanity.

That the music Wilson performs transcends the tawdry soap opera of America's Favourite Band is testament to its incredible and enduring power.