When Gruff Rhys held up a sign introducing this show as being about the “lives, wives and tragic fall of John Z DeLorean”, he was making a brave stand for an often-reviled musical exercise — the concept album.

Still, it’s worked so far. Neon Neon managed a Mercury nomination for Stainless Style, their debut of retro electronic music about the ill-fated DeLorean sports car and its creator. And this show was a sell-out.

There was humour to be found here but Rhys never played if for laughs. He even managed to introduce Raquel with a straight face, describing it as a song about DeLorean’s affair with Raquel Welch “which may or may not have happened”.

Perhaps some fans of Rhys’s band Super Furry Animals will regard this as a bit of a joke, seeing as it takes its cue from late Seventies disco and Eighties synth-pop. But the Welshman’s vocal added a sombre quality amid the synthetic beats.

The studio project with US producer Boom Bip was effectively staged, featuring the album’s guest singers. Cate Le Bon provided her icy vocal on I Lust U and there was the comical Har Mar Superstar, a squat, balding rapper who did some pretty hopeless breakdancing.

However, Rhys was the reason most people were there, and the lovely, forlorn Steel Your Girl was a reminder of his song-writing prowess. Neon Neon is a superior side project, but the Super Furry Animals singer shouldn’t forget his day job