A CAPACITY audience was treated to a marvellous celebration of "the protest song" last night featuring the anarchic rock band, Chumbawamba, and singer-guitarist Brendan Croker.

The stupendous double bill lived up to expectations as the two acts - inspired by timeless and powerful lyrics - sang their hearts out.

Chumbawamba, who once doused Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at the Brits Awards, this time used music to cock a snook at authority.

Leaving behind their electric guitars, the six-piece sang a cappella-style, occasionally accompanied by acoustic guitar.

Most of the titles were from their new album, English Rebel Songs 1381-1984. The Cutty Wren celebrates the Peasants' Revolt of 1381; Song On The Times is about the repeal of the 19th century Corn Laws; The Bad Squire condemns the harsh treatment of poachers; Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire laments the plight of the private soldier in the First World War; while the elegy for Britain's collieries, Coal Not Dole, dates from the bitter miners' strike of 1984-85.

Chumbawamba also performed some of their own compositions, including the powerful anti-war song, Jacob's Ladder.

Croker, formerly of Mark Knopfler's Notting Hillbillies, invited members of the audience to pick any number from one to 40. He then turned to the appropriate page in his book of Essential Protest Songs and sang, accompanying himself on guitar.

His musical bran tub turned up classics like Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land, Bob Dylan's Blowin' In The Wind and Strange Fruit - a chilling indictment of lynch mobs in America's strife-torn Deep South. Powerful stuff.

Updated: 15:47 Wednesday, June 18, 2003