Roxy Music

This could have been a travesty: an acclaimed British rock band re-forms after almost 20 years for a brief world tour that is essentially a promotional tool for a new Best Of collection. Money is involved, of course - as Bryan Ferry told The Irish Times, the promoters were "very persuasive" - but Roxy Music played anything but safe on Saturday.

You could sense Roxy fans of the svelte Avalon era shift uncomfortably in their seats for the first 20 to 30 minutes as Ferry - surrounded by original members Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay, long-time drummer Paul Thompson and session guitarist extraordinaire Chris Spedding - dived into material familiar only to diehard Roxy fans.

As their previous life flashed behind them in fuzzy archive images, Roxy Music existed again: wonderful art rock and pop enmeshed in a screen of caterwauling guitars, squawking wind instruments and washes of electronica. Not even Ferry's unusual lack of charisma could spoil the effect. Next came the hits, revived from the abyss of memory and sounding quite good.

They ended not with something obvious such as Dance Away or Angel Eyes, but with the title track of their second album, For Your Pleasure. As the song faded, Ferry and company walked off stage one by one, leaving a memory of not so much a cynical exercise as a nothing-to-lose job undertaken with care, consideration and respect. Roxy Music: surprising us again.