★★★

GIVEN The Human League’s enduring appeal, the release of career-spanning box set A Very British Synthesizer Group seems long overdue.

The electronic heavyweights opened with a gripping version of Being Boiled, performed by frontman Phil Oakey in front of a kaleidoscopic projection. The 61-year-old’s vocals were largely excellent, only faltering occasionally during higher pitched songs Soundtrack To A Generation and Mirror Man.

The backdrop eventually split vertically to reveal the rest of the band on a raised stage, complete with keytar and synths perched on white, Star Trek-esque stands.

It was a set that occasionally suffered as a result of the variation in quality of the band’s back catalogue, with the likes of One Man In My Heart and Tell Me When grating slightly. But when the highs were as iconic and brilliant as Don’t You Want Me and Oakey’s era-defining Giorgio Moroder collaboration Together In Electric Dreams, you could only admire how good they are at their best.

It came as no surprise that the crowd comprised mainly of fans on a nostalgia trip. At one point, Oakey pertinently likened the atmosphere inside the Brighton Centre to that of a rally.

His band were essentially a legacy act preaching to the converted, and they loved every minute of it.

Tom Furnival Adams