IT is an absolute joy to review these two. With both approaching 60, they’ll never again get the recognition they fully deserved in the late Seventies, when they were feted by the likes of Pete Townsend and appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test, but it’s reassuring that the roots of rock and roll are still strong.

In the past, their dislike of each other stood in the way of artistic progress, but since their hugely successful reunion last year, there appears to be a degree of tolerance as Barrett, the musician, plays along with Otway, the songsmith and joker.

Best known for the 1977 hit single Cor Baby That’s Really Free, the duo can also boast the seventh best lyric ever. A BBC Millennium poll put the B-side of that classic record, Beware of the Flowers (Cos I’m Sure They’re Going to Get You, Yeh), above writers as brilliant as Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. Otway also scored a top-ten hit.

There was more than enough in the 20-number set to satiate a packed audience, who responded with rapturous applause.

Ed Waugh