Where most Britpop outsiders make lacklustre comebacks with half-hearted new material, Babybird’s Stephen Jones seems to get more venomous with every tour.

Fifteen years after he started out, there are no tales of domestic bliss or reformed good character for the rapier-tongued singer-songwriter – tracks from new album Ex-Maniac include titles such as Drug Time, Failed Suicide Club (“yes you’ve made it/you’re here at the failed suicide club”) and Unloveable, which he persuaded Johnny Depp to play guitar on for the LP version.

Depp might have enticed a slightly larger crowd than Jones’s tight four-man band drew here, but the cult following the grumpy romantic lures were rewarded by his mix of poisonous lyrics and endless indie hooks.

If You’ll Be Mine encapsulated his ability to rattle off a heartfelt power ballad without risking sickliness, and Bad Old Man sounded like a pop take on the jaded sleaze of Pulp’s This Is Hardcore.

You’re Gorgeous, as usual, was a speeded-up parody of the soppy rubbish it was taken for during its nano-second in the media spotlight, lasting barely 20 seconds before succumbing to an onslaught of rambunctious guitars.

When he’s bitter and irritable, Jones is unstoppable.