It has been 12 years since World Party last toured Britain, and Karl Wallinger, responding to a shouted reprimand from the crowd, appears to acknowledge that they may possibly have been a little slow to return. Yes, he agrees, with a grin and a mildly embarrassed shrug, it is about time, isn't it.

Wallinger's veteran band's long-term silence is perplexing, as in the early 90s they seemed likely to rise to stadium-filling status. Yet his absence is to some extent understandable: in 2001, the singer and guitarist was taken ill with a crippling brain aneurysm that required five years of rest and rehabilitation.

Flanked by a busy eight-piece band, the greyer and chunkier Wallinger is in rude health at this fervently received comeback show. It seems fitting that they open the evening with Waiting Such a Long Time, a new track that shows he has not lost the knack of penning cerebral, erudite pop essays drenched in gorgeously winning, Beatles-esque melodies.

Wallinger switches to keyboard early on for She's the One, the 1997 World Party album track turned into a national anthem by Robbie Williams, but draws much of the set from their 1990 high-watermark album, Goodbye Jumbo. The environmentalist concerns of Put the Message in the Box and Is It Too Late are set to retro stylings, yet betray a band that were presciently ahead of their time.

"We'll try to see you again rather more frequently," mumbles the shamefaced singer as World Party exit after the ferocious, Dylan-esque Way Down Now. Karl Wallinger may still have a great album in him. Whether he gets around to making it is another question.

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