What a bizarre night. Erasure are some kind of camp disco AC/DC. An unchanging lineup, a staid set of ancient classics that they always play every single time, a handful of new songs, and it's all over in a flash. It's a short night : they are on at 8.32, finished by 10.04 and I'm home in a coastal town by 11.20. It's also a unrepentant night of absolute irrelevance : 15 of the 20 songs are ancient, birthed when Margaret Thatcher or John Major was in power. They're good songs, timeless, classic songs, and ones that will endure and survive, songs that will live far – far – beyond the lifespan of the makers. Songs about eternal things, love, hate, loving to hate, and so on, songs about the absolute human condition, nothing to do with the outside world at all, and in their world, “A Little Respect” wasn't even the first single from its parent album, but the last single (!), but it's the type of song that most bands never even get once – once - in their lives, let alone be one of dozens of classics Erasure have in their body of work.

This tour sees Vince Clarke and Andy Bell turn the songs inside out, going for a revamped, updated, modern age presentation, each song turned into a thumping dicsco classic, using elements from the original, and long deleted 12” mixes, alongside an updating of he material, so it sounds like modern re-interpretations, or perhaps Vince Clarke's own remixes of his originals ; the songs are recognisable, and kept fresh, but – and but – even with the new arrangements, there's still people singing the songs out of time. But they're having fun. And that's Erasure's role, as entertainers. Andy Bell belts out hip replacements later in a Joy Division t-shirt, and Vince Clarke pretends to play guitar for two songs, and the backing vocalists preen and dance, and the audience pause for breath only when a song younger than 1991 appears. And the whole thing is over by barely 10pm. Time to get to the pub for another hour or two. Let's dance.

Oh L'Amour –
Star -
Breath of Life -
You Surround Me –
Elevation -
Stop! -
Make It Wonderful –
Drama! -
Victim of Love -
Ship of Fools –
Sacred -
Always -
Dead of Night -
Blue Savannah –
Chorus -
Love to Hate You -
A Little Respect -
Chains of Love -
Gaudete -
Sometimes