The Others kept faithful to their blues base but stretched it to give the blues a good punking.

They upped the tempo to amphetamine speed and inserted off-kilter guitar plucking to accompany frontman Alan Donohoe's physical and vocal pogoing.

Stick-thin with an unhealthy palour and the centre-parted thatch of an Eighties public school boy, Donohoe's yelping, shouting and sub-Elvis leering was The Others' music personified.

Part Ian Curtis, Mick Jagger and Jonny Rotten, Donohoe's "projecting" was as good as the music.

In fact, The Others were in danger of out-punking punk or a gothic, early Eighties rendering of it although their web site sternly advises "they're not punk, as that word has finally ceased to have any useful meaning."

Nevertheless, it really could have been 1983, listening to Joy Division or The Cure. But, despite the dark, energetic brilliance of the music, the problem is, it's 2005.