When Status Quo started their tour earlier this month, a reviewer from a national newspaper was sent to the gig: "The joke has worn thin as plod rockers opt for autopilot." Either he saw the wrong band, or something had changed by their two-night residence (both sold out) in Oxford on Wednesday and Thursday last week.The New Theatre was alive with Francis Rossi look-alikes, T-shirts shrieking out "Are We Rockin' Yet?" and men and women of a certain age saying "Oh, hello, how are we?" to each other.

These are real followers, revellers in the extraordinary sensation that is, after 40 years, a live concert fronted by Rossi and his partner-in-rock (and one year older) Rick Parfitt.

As they kicked off with their standard opener, Caroline, the stalls rose and remained on their feet for 100 minutes. Middle-aged couples swayed gently in the circle, not far from two teenagers head-banging like Dervishes. The sound is prodigious at a Quo show, but so is the deadly accuracy of the guitar playing (here the contribution of bass-player and cheer-leader John Edwards mustn't be forgotten). Parfitt doesn't do front man' antics and jokes as Rossi does, but he is the finer musician of the two and still a blinder of a rhythm guitarist. When he steps forward to the front of the stage, you take notice!

Francis Rossi is the showman: he still draws good sounds from his 1957 green Fender Telecaster, often speaking' the notes with his lips during his solos. His wiry frame strolls nonchalantly around the stage (the unofficial choreography of the whole evening - honed over decades - is a very clever thing in itself). And only he talks - chatty, at ease, in control, witty, devil-may-care . . . and then they all turn and rip into another classic.

There's no particular point in my reporting that Status Quo sang Rockin' All Over The World, Down, Down, Whatever You Want and other standards; off their new album, Gravy Train is more interesting than Beginning of the End (which is the single).

Autopilot? Hardly. Professional? Fantastically so. Enjoyable? Just a bit.