Waiting to get into Komedia, a tallish, dark-haired chap pushed past us to the front of the queue, looking slightly disorientated. “Does anyone know how to get upstairs?” he asked, peering around. “I’m the singer.”

In some ways this lack of direction rather sums up Lloyd Cole’s career. His first incarnation, with his band The Commotions, provided jangly, downbeat guitar pop, somewhere between The Smiths and Aztec Camera, before he discovered America and re-invented himself as a Country and Western singer.

That was certainly the impression on Sunday night, anyway. Armed with just an acoustic guitar and his gorgeously bruised voice, Cole reinterpreted many of his classic songs with a distinct country flavour.

Bittersweet tales of love and life, framed within arch, quirky reference points, offered both humour and humanity, and reminded us why Cole was required listening with most right-thinking, angst-ravaged teens in the mid-1980s.

Highpoints of the set included Are You Ready To Be Heart- broken?, Lost Weekend and Perfect Skin, which evoked half-remembered, romantic summer days. Covers included Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen and Human by The Killers.

The delivery may have changed but Cole remains a source of enormous melancholic comfort.