London The Venue

THE ALWAYS present Delta 5 live self-assurance is now partnered with the trimmings that go to make up the 'good ole rock and roll show' – a trouble-free PA, intelligently-used lights and a decent-sized stage. But the Delta 5 themselves are still light years away from becoming merely another 'good band'. From the first drum beats of 'Delta 5' all of their individual and irresistible style is on display. Who mentioned po-faced?

The anthemic starter quickly surges into 'Anticipation'. Julz, stage left with hair piled to a crimson doughnut, has already discharged her guitar n favour of non-stop dancing in circles around her mic stand as if in heavy training for the next London marathon. On the opposite flank lurks Alan. Slicked-back barnet, white shirt with bow-tie (does it spin?) toking on a ciggy.

Pondering was I how they could compensate for the missing brass of the revelationary LP, but the mad axeman's spitting chord shapes combine rhythm and lead, volleying forth a wide-bodied frequency-filling melody.

This is particularly in evidence in 'Innocenti' and the jaunty little knots lobbed into 'Trail'. Here Julz and Beth swap lyric lines and trade Red Indian whoops of a calibre likely to scare any nearby gunslinger into digging the spurs in fast.

Alan takes another biscuit when, by twisting amp controls, he covers the sixties tinged bass pulses of 'Final Scene' with a grating, space-age boiling-kettle sound that buzzes from the intro to the last note of screeching feedback. On 'Journey' his Gretsch exudes a scorching Neil Young-ish acid-toned tunnel of sustain that spreads through the mix.

The twin basses double up for a thunderous belt across the already hard-to-resist dance rhythms of 'Circuit'. Compulsive stuff. if a shade too bottom heavy. Julz gradually winds up her larynx to screaming pitch. Previously she rapped through the last chorus of 'Final Scene' but her verbals were drowned beneath the coupled voicings of Bath and Roz. Shame. I wonder what she said?

A two-piece brass line-up steps to the stage for the closing three numbers. They ring out, bouncing around the room colourful additions that strengthen and punctuate. rather than dominate, the overall arrangements. The windy duo certainly bolster 'Shadow' which terminates the set and leaves the freely perspiring hordes with spines-a-tingling from its haunting last line.

The Delta 5 have clearly reached a peak. Tonight and the album are testaments to that. They're great now but the question is, what can they do next?