Well, it's virtually Christmas and everyone's in party mood. The prospect of two Acolytes gigs in a week is something anticipated keenly by all the assembled. And with the festive season in full swing (on the evidence tonight's of tonight's crowd, anyhow) everyone's wondering what surprises will be in store. This is answered when Mike arrives onstage in a hat covered in gold glitter and trailing tinsel around his neck. Wacky or what? ('What' - ed.)

So the band take to the stage with their new opener 'Euroshit'. Previewed earlier at recent gigs, this time it gets its most impressive airing yet and is the song that gets the floor moving, featuring a real collison of ideas: the bassline is an amalgamation of 'Pump Up The Volume' and 'Theme From S'Express', the slide guitar is stolen from 'Preacher Man' and the middle eight from 'I Want You Back'. Bizarre! Third in is a barnstorming version of 'Ethnic' which later draws admiring comments from those who've previously missed it. Now what did I say about surprises? "You'll like this one," promises Andy and the rest of the band storm into 'Meet Me...' with the floor in raptures.

Amongst everything that the band do tonight, there is still one thing that niggles me about a certain aspect of their stagecraft. For example: "This is a song that Charles Manson stole from the Beatles..." Guess who?

Then at some point in the evening's proceedings Newboid sees me squaring up up for a shot of the band and charges over to kick me in the chest and knock me over backwards. Nice one Newbs.

The set is strong and takes the audience by force - some are even surprised that it's so good, which just about squares with the reaction all over when the band have a good night.

Eventually they finish and leave the stage having rightly impressed everyone present. And no one is more impressed than Alastair, who whips over to the microphone and starts to chant 'More! More! More!'. The Acolytes crowd - who are notoriously bad at demanding encores - join in and the band turn in a rousing version of 'We'll Bring The House Down' before leaving the stage to an elated ovation.