Following the outrageousness of support act Othon’s set – which features the slight and heavily pierced pianist hammering at the keyboard while wearing pair of boxing gloves, accompanied by vocalist Ernesto Tomasini who, with a stage manner not far removed from David Walliams’ turn as Vulva in Spaced, delivers camp lyrics in a vocal range covering several octaves – it would be difficult for Marc Almond to make a dramatic entrance. However he manages it with ease, bounding on stage, flanked by a sizeable band (most of whom will unfortunately not be heard much during the evening, being buried in the sound mix under rather boisterous piano and drums). Considering the ill health that the singer has been known for in recent years, it is a genuine surprise to see him so energetic and with such a strong voice, and it is tempting to view the optimistic lyrics about feeling ’stronger’ and living in the moment in his opening few songs as Almond putting this past misfortune behind him.

However, as he goes on it becomes more and more clear that there really hasn’t been that much thought put into the choice of songs. Over a fairly scrappy couple of hours Almond belts out every number with the same showy enthusiasm, which when it fits is very entertaining, such as in the playfully evil cover of Aleister Crowley’s Tango Song, featuring a chorus of ‘Give me pleasure, give me death’, but renders the quieter and more thoughtful songs from his repertoire somewhat meaningless. Although it would be cruel to begrudge him for having such a good time on stage, it does raise the question of whether artists should be expected to suffer in order to do justice to their work.

There are still a number of highlights, including a section of Russian songs from his 2003 record Heart of Snow as well as latest release Orpheus in Exile that manages to be both cold and romantic, Almond’s often amusing stage banter and the evening’s climax of euphoric versions of Scott Walker’s Jackie and Soft Cell’s Say Hello Wave Goodbye. It’s just that, given such a lengthy set (including not one, but two Marc Bolan covers), it would honestly have been a case of less being more.