It’s an old story but there’s nothing like selling a few million records to skew your self‑perception. Take past and future Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, whose solo career now spans seven albums. A selection from each, plus a choice cover or two and perhaps a surprise from the outer reaches of the Blur catalogue and we’d have all gone home slightly flattered not to have been spoonfed Song 2 or Park Life.

Oh no. Instead, joined on stage by a shaven-headed security guard wearing a CIA-style earpiece (heaven knows why; I’ve dallied in less mild-mannered charity shops), plus double-bassist and drummer, Coxon celebrated Monday’s release of the long and winding The Spinning Top by forgetting Blur and his solo past to play all of it (bar, for reasons never explained, Far From Everything) in running order, before covering Elizabeth Cotten’s folk staple Oh Babe, It Ain’t No Lie.

And Coxon performed mostly sitting down, visible to only the tall and those at the bar, where the bored crowd’s chatter meant he was inaudible. “Play us a new song,” shouted someone before Feel Alright. Coxon didn’t get the joke. Or the barb behind it.

That the Syd Barrett influenced The Spinning Top is worth cherry‑picking for live shows made the evening even more perplexing.

Showing a certain English rusticity, In The Morning (about being woken by so much birdsong that it seems safe to assume Coxon lives in an aviary) was a life‑affirming madrigal, while Tripping Over’s instrumental climax was a rare reminder of his other-worldly way with a guitar.

Alas, unleavened by anything familiar or anything more than an occasional change in pace, everything else meandered by in — yes — a blur.

How could he possibly think this alienating indulgence was a good idea?