"Long time, no see," is the inevitable call from the crowd, when the applause for Paul Buchanan's entrance finally dies down. "So," he says, looking overwhelmed, "no pressure, then." This, a de facto Blue Nile show, billed otherwise due to the absence of one member, marks the band's first tour in a decade; their recent album High was the first for a similar stretch. Blue Nile fans have to learn patience. They know they may not see their hero again for a very long time. "Rags to Riches - before I die," calls out one desperate punter.

Surprisingly, given the band's notoriously slow work rate, they play two new songs, and sashay through Strangers in the Night, Buchanan living up to his reputation as the Scottish Sinatra. His gorgeous, weathered, expansive croon swoons through this spacious, elegant music: metronomic percussion, clipped, abstracted funk guitar that chimes and glistens hypnotically, and powerful, low bass detonations. The best songs - A Walk Across the Rooftops, The Downtown Lights, a good two thirds of the set, in fact - generate incredible emotional force, not least through the deceptively simple, dream-like quality of Buchanan's lyrics.

Then there's Tinseltown in the Rain, jewel among jewels on the Blue Nile's extraordinary first album. The crowd sings along at Buchanan's invitation, something that would usually be an annoyance beyond words, but here it is pure euphoric celebration. "Do I love you?" he asks. "Yes, I love you," we chorus back, and then the bittersweet sucker-punch: "Will we always be happy go lucky?" There is no other body of song in popular music that so exquisitely crystallises the yearning, terror, uncertainty and rapture of love. If another 10 years pass before Buchanan steps out on to a stage again, it will be worth the wait.