"You'd look good in a pair of spats," my wife said to me after admiring FLC's frontman Huey Morgan's footwear at their Academy gig.

No I wouldn't.

You have to be as cool as Huey to get away with wearing spats these days. You have to talk in that infectious Noo Yawk drawl and, most importantly, you gotta have a stack of cracking songs.

This the Fun Lovin' Criminals have in spades, with tracks from their new album Classic Fantastic proving to be instant...well, classics.

And they lived up to their name (the fun lovin' bit, anyway), with some hilarious banter - including an on-stage telephone call from one of their entourage claiming to have been left high and dry on the Cowley Road and turning the air blue. In the hands of New Yorkers, profanity is an artform, and this interplay was a joy.

But back to the music, and the gems just kept on coming - Scooby Snacks, King of New York, Korean Bodega, Big Night Out, but it was the anthemic Fun Lovin' Criminal ("Stick 'em up punk...") which got the biggest cheer.

A triumphant return after five years away. Just don't leave it so long next time.