HIS hair’s a bit whiter than in his seventies heyday, but Ian Hunter has the energy (and sunglasses) of a much younger man – knocking out more than 90 minutes of rock with barely a pause for breath. Lots of 23-year-old performers would struggle to keep up with the 73-year-old.

Within the first few bars of opening track Comfortable, a handful of fans jump out of their seats and make for the standing room at the front of the stage. Hunter mugs for them and their cameras, then briefly greets the audience before storming into Once Bitten Twice Shy, a rocky, bluesy back catalogue track which brings even more to the aisles.

With piano styles fresh from an East End knees-up, and the guitar and drums of a 1970s stadium rock band, the sound gels thanks to an easy relationship between the five-man band. They’ve clearly been working well together for a long time, and more importantly, they’re having fun.

While he may be less of a Seventies show pony than, say, The Rolling Stones, and isn’t selling out stadium gigs, there’s a real feeling of down-to-earth graft with Hunter and his band, and it’s hard to imagine the opulent theatre has ever had a gig test its acoustics quite like this one. When it’s loud, it’s very loud, with mandolin, backing vocals and Hunter’s occasional trips to the keyboard getting lost in the mix, but even in quieter moments the crowd still surges forward.

Although there’s not much banter with the nearly full house between tracks, that leaves more time for crowd-pleasers such as All The Way From Memphis, Roll Away The Stone and Saturday Gigs, alongside solid material from his new album, When I’m President.

In a rare aside to the audience, Hunter announces the last three tracks were from his new release, and adds: “If you didn’t recognise them, it’s because HMV only bought six copies in this town, and they’ve all gone.”

After 80-odd breathless minutes, the band disappear for fresh drinks, then begin a three-track encore which takes in Native American-themed Ta Shunka Witco and the classic All The Young Dudes, before leaving the stage after a taste of Goodnight Irene as the entire crowd get to their feet for a standing ovation and prove they enjoyed themselves as much as the band.