Live Review: Lloyd Cole - Thornbury Theatre

“If you enjoy a song you don't recognise tonight, it's almost certainly from Standards,” quips indie pop troubadour Lloyd Cole. The self-deprecating Brit is, of course, referring to his newest material, from last year's 'comeback' set. He's the self-aware type - he knows he's playing to an ageing fan base, who have tonight left the kids at home (“stop checking your texts, your eldest child can deal with it”) to come and hear the '80s hits.

And, Cole, alone on stage with just acoustic guitar, delivered those hits alongside the so-called unrecognisable songs. Across two sets, Cole played stripped down versions of the songs '80s indie kids loved when he was leader of Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, alternapop's prince to Morrissey's queen.

Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken, 2CV and Forest Fire resonate with extra melancholy thirty years on from their appearance on Cole's debut Rattlesnakes. You can feel the (filled-to-capacity) audience bristle with nostalgia and regret as he sings 2CV's even-more-poignant now “We were simply wasting time”.

You can feel the (filled-to-capacity) audience bristle with nostalgia and regret as he sings 2CV's even-more-poignant now “We were simply wasting time”.

However Rattlesnake's centrepiece Perfect Skin - the BIG hit - is tossed out with a flippancy as Cole drops in jokey asides, changes lyrics (“At the age of ten she looked like Brigitte Bardot” - not Greta Garbo - well, makes much more sense, really…) and then quickly moves on.

Cole's voice is as rich as when it first warmed our ears and his guitar playing is far more skilful than he is ever given credit for. The sound at the Thornbury Theatre is beautifully crisp - and no one in the room talks, or even moves, as he plays - so even the quietest of moments are heard by everyone as if standing front of stage. And, the timbre of the guitar can be appreciated in every corner of the room.

Other Commotions' back catalogue highlights included Easy Pieces' Lost Weekend (1985) and Mainstream's fan-favourite Hey Rusty (1987). Cole also selected carefully from his '90s solo period, delivering the likes of Undressed and Butterfly.

Proving too that his songwriting skill, like his voice, has remained intact over the passing years, the new Standards songs sit in his set as comfortably as the old 'standards'. In fact, last year's single Period Piece already feels like a long-lost treasure, given its subject matter of ageing and looking back on a life lived as he sings, “I am not afraid to die”. [And, just to hear the word “chagrin” used in song is enough to remind you how special Cole is.]

Fittingly, Cole's encore features Bob Dylan's I Threw It All Away as, like Dylan, Cole has survived the heady heights of commercial fame and the bottomed-out lows of industry disinterest. Tonight shows a reborn Cole who has earned the right to eternal admiration for breathing life into his past while continuing to write songs that effortlessly blend with his legacy and have the potential to be firm favourites in the future.