Back in the late 1980s, Andrew Roachford was signed to CBS and scored hits with the likes of Cuddly Toy, Family Man and Kathleen. Then there was a slow fizzle to obscurity, since Roachford was apparently too much of a rocker for the soul crowd, but not rocky enough for the headbangers.

Alive and kicking, he is back with a new album on the M3 label, Heart of the Matter. Better still, he has surrounded himself with an excellent band, capable of following him through the smooth soul ballads, bumping R&B grooves and forays into funk that comprise his current set.

This unusually polyglot crew, with musicians from Ghana, St Lucia, Italy and Ireland, gels around the leader with a relaxed expertise that gives Roachford the space and opportunity to turn it up, cool it down or go soaring out on a musical limb.

He seems, if anything, to be singing better than ever, his high and supple voice often reminiscent of Stevie Wonder in his Talking Book era.

When he sat at the piano to sing Heaven Is, he looked every inch the classic soul balladeer. Elsewhere, as in Loving the Hard Way, he joined his trio of backing singers in adding layers of harmonies that suggested the songs had a secret inner life.

During Was it Love, he cued in his guitarist for an intricate jazz-inflected solo, then counterpointed it with a sequence of nimble vocal balletics. The band rolled up their sleeves for a flat-out version of This Generation, and also refurbished Lay your Love on Me, Cuddly Toy and Naked Without You.

Maybe Roachford doesn't know how to be fashionable, even daring to suggest that a war that overthrows a dictator as vile as Saddam Hussein might not be 100% misguided (this drew applause from a sympathetic crowd). Is it time for Roachford Redux?

· At the same venue tonight.