There's a buzz around Tinariwen because their powerful electric guitars and real-life story of rebel fighters turned musicians gives them rock 'n' roll credibility.

Band leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib took the stage first for an opening solo with his curly, windswept hair, looking like a darker, younger version of Robert Plant, who - as a big fan of the band - was in the audience to see them.

And then the rest of the group appeared - six men swathed in long robes, wrapped in Touareg headresses and one woman, unveiled, with flashing eyes.

"Welcome to the desert" they said and their music said the same with its twanging guitars, handclaps, and basslines as agile as a beetle in the sand.

Several members of Tinariwen fought in Mali's Touareg rebellion and have now found an international audience for their raw desert blues.

Much of their music has the steady trudge of a camel caravan rather than anything more up tempo. As Andy Kershaw said on Desert Island Discs the other day, Tinariwen certainly know how to roll.

There's a danger for those of us not versed in Tamashek that many songs sound samey and the first part of the set wasn't varied enough in pace or mood.

For a band that are so striking in their appearance, they are rather sedate on stage and it was about six numbers in before a faster groove got things moving.

But there were magic moments such as Assouf, a song which means "nostalgia" in Tamashek, the subdued lighting suggested music around a fire in the limitless space of the desert.

Towards the end, the heavily turbaned bass player Eyadou Ag Leche prowled around the stage wielding his guitar like a Kalashnikov. The wildly enthusiastic reaction at the end seemed like a welcome release of suppressed energy.