YOU will have never seen so much Ben Sherman and so many checked shirts in your life.

An Ocean Colour Scene set is no longer just a gig, it's a cultural trip back in time to a world of Mods and Northern Soul.

Thankfully, the band is comfortable with that stereotype. Pilloried as the architects of "Dadrock", OCS became the antithesis of the sound embraced by the music press, once the frenzied guitar riffs of The Riverboat Song faded from the airways.

But, frankly, who cares? At a packed Grand Opera House, Simon Fowler, Steve Craddock and company put on a mesmerising show.

It was billed as an acoustic performance, but that was somewhat misleading. Rather than stripped, it was more a case of Ocean Colour Scene sitting down.

If not, it's the first time I've seen a Les Paul at an acoustic set. Did it matter? Not a bit of it.

If anything, the variation between layered acoustic guitars and whining electric gave the set a more defined, and imposing, sound.

Fowler's vocals were crisp, Craddock waved his guitar like a wand conducting the audience on a 90-minute trip through a decade of classic rock.

It was an appreciative and, at times, boisterous crowd which belied its increasingly greying hair.

What they witnessed, on this last-night-of-tour stop, was a building crescendo. It began slowly, with the melodic Second Hand Car, increased with superb renditions of The Circle and Better Day, before exploding with a euphoric The Day We Caught The Train. A fitting finale.

"Thank you, Vikings," Fowler quipped as the cheering continued. No, thank you.