While Axl Rose has been taking longer to record one new Guns N' Roses album than the Beatles took to lay down their entire oeuvre, his former bandmates are enjoying a creative purple patch with a new firebrand frontman.

GN'R bassist Duff McKagan, drummer Matt Sorum and guitarist Slash now make up Velvet Revolver with Scott Weiland, a shirtless poser who has all the magnetism but less of the megalomania of his predecessor.

Less famous here than in the US, where his old band Stone Temple Pilots were a major beneficiary of the post-Nirvana alt-rock boom, these days Weiland is an American Pete Doherty, with a history of drug problems and a police rap sheet longer than his discography.

He fits perfectly with a bunch whose shocking tales of self-abuse, stopped hearts and an alcohol-induced burst pancreas are well documented, though their debauched cool was undermined last night by numerous small children distractingly scampering about to one side of the stage.

Thankfully, the band don't seem to take their roles, bringing two great strands of rock into the present day, too seriously. "This is a song about sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and more sex," said Weiland introducing Superhuman, a strutting rocker with the chorus, "Cocaine, alcohol, lady lay, withdrawal".

Slash, all hair, cigarettes and leather trousers, looked like a cartoon rock god playing twin-necked guitar on an unlikely cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.

An imminent second album, Libertad, also offers nothing more profound than riotous, fist-pumping rock. One frenzied new song, Just 16, was about a schoolboy's good luck in sleeping with his teacher.

Other new tracks, including She Mine and Get Out the Door, offered squealing guitars and hook-laden choruses, though The Last Fight was a less successful attempt at an Oasis-style mid-paced anthem. The highlight amid all the noise was Fall to Pieces, a rare ballad with a cascading guitar solo from Slash.

Another cover, Talking Heads' Psycho Killer, and a song each from their respective former groups, proved popular, but the wealth of fine originals proved that this is a thriving band that no longer needs to look backwards.