The glitterball was finally turned on eight numbers into Richard Hawley's set, for his softly swaying song Hotel Room, but it could have twinkled away all night.

For almost every song in the Sheffield crooner's arsenal is a lovelorn slowie perfect for a smoochy slowdance, a fact he knows all too well.

"Okay then, let's ballad!" was his opening command, rocking being something that younger musicians do.

Hawley, a long-term jobbing guitarist whose stints with Pulp and the Longpigs kept him working but out of the limelight, finally found fame with his last solo album, Coles Corner, just before he hit 40.

An equally mature audience fell for a vintage sound characterised by low, twanging guitars and sweeping strings, and lyrics that see our lovesick hero perpetually walking down a dark road towards the sea.

The mood here could have been sombre, with new songs such as Roll River Roll and Valentine, from his latest album, Lady's Bridge, shuffling along at a particularly funereal pace.

But the singer brightened things, not with faster music (although Serious had a lively touch of Shakin' Stevens about it), but with stand-up comedy.

He fired out gags like a Christmas cracker between tracks, insulting Ipswich, Runcorn, his wife and the Irish, and getting enough big laughs to sustain a career in stand-up if his musical popularity ever fades again.

A remarkably enthusiastic audience also contributed towards the party feel, giving Hawley's bandmates a five-minute ovation just for the hell of it.

If yearning epics such as Darlin' Wait for Me and his extraordinary closer The Ocean brought a tear to the eye, the crowd flooding home was all smiles.