Remember Crackout? Three Bicester kids with a sound as big as the world falling down stairs onto a minefield and the coolest bass player on the planet. That was a couple of years ago now of course and things have moved on. Rachel is gone, the sound is tighter, more efficient and great things are predicted. Steve’s grown his hair and still cuts a dashing figure while drummer Nick remains the spooky-eyed kid. Those bursts of sonic mayhem still rear their spiky little heads but nowadays he songs just don’t seem to be there. There’s nothing in the new set to touch ‘Chuck’. The magic, it seems, left along with Rachel.

King Adora are the latest pretenders to that most frequently contested throne - glam-rock. They’re accordingly spiked-up and made-up and they’ve got a singer, Matt Browne, who plays his guitar like his shoulder’s been dislocated and sings like the words are lumps of vomit. So far, so good. And, unlike the rather dreary Glitterbug the week before, King Adora are good, The influences are exactly what you might expect - bit of Motley Crue, bit of Sex Pistols, even a bit of Suede if you catch them in the right light, and of course more than a passing nod to the still definitive Hanoi Rocks. There are occasional moments of subtlety in tonight’s set but mostly it’s a great wall of sound that’s a bit like your kid sister dying in extreme agony. It comes in two-minute bursts and thankfully has little time for posing or indulgence.

The new single, ‘Big Isn’t Beautiful’, manages to merge into the rest of the cacophony so you wonder whether mainstream crossover is imminent but there is a conviction here and a large well of energy that’s just waiting to burst out. All of which leaves just one nagging question: do they actually sell rock in Hanoi?

Ian Chesterton