Genius or lunatic?

The ironically named Pop Group first smashed their way onto the late 1970s music scene with their provocative mix of punk, funk, avant jazz, dub reggae and left wing polemic.

They lasted only a few years, but their brightness burned on – sparking life into the mainstream through acts such as Rip Rig And Panic and Pig Bag.

Back to promote the re-release of compilation We Are Time, an almost original line up proved exactly why they're as vital today as back then.

Led by the furious yelp of front man Mark Stewart - a kind of equally obstreperous but alternate-universe anti-Morrissey, it was as if they were still 16, playing in a dingy youth club in hometown Bristol.

Ripping headlong into Trap, Genius Or Lunatic, Thief Of Fire and She's Beyond Good And Evil, the James Brown tightness of bassist Simon Underwood and drummer Bruce Smith provided the perfect backdrop for Garath Sagar's screes of atonal Prince-funky guitar and the mighty wail of Stewart's rage.

We Are All Prostitutes was saved until the very end, and although written in the last century, felt as dangerous and apocryphal as ever. Genius.