Star rating: ****

Almost 30 years after Josef K split up, the return of the band's singer in his first full live solo show for 19 years is a major event. With Haig's old band finally acknowledged as a major influence on a new generation of artfully inclined guitar acts, it's a chance, too, to see how the original songs have survived.

There remains a worry that Haig might be upstaged by the indie disco that precedes him. As it is, the flamboyant salute with which he opens this first leg of a mini-tour that takes in Glasgow and Dunfermline next month is a healthy sign of nerves and dry self-deprecation.

Wielding a fire-engine-red guitar and sporting tinted shades and the skinniest jeans this side of Kate Moss, Haig - with the band who accompanied him on last year's Cathode Ray project - launches into the punk funk of Trouble Maker, opening track of the just-released Go Out Tonight album. In a set split 50-50, old material oddly sounds fresher than the new songs, which seem cryogenically frozen in some parallel-universe hit parade.

Between songs, Haig confesses nerves, throwing in silly-voice non-sequiturs purloined from Al Murray and Harry Hill. "You've gotta do something to break the tension" is his excuse. He needn't worry, even if he accidentally adds to the levity by standing with hands on hips a la Frankie Howerd before gurning his way through new single Hippy Dippy Pharmaceutically Trippy. Hearing his holy trinity of It's Kinda Funny, Sorry for Laughing and Something Good, however, remains a quietly awesome experience.