In the film after which this band is named, Jack Nicholson plays a writer driven to homicide by boredom and frustration.

Who knows what Jack might have done if he had endured this gig?

The Shining are a thudding rock band formed around two members of chart-toppers The Verve, who split three years ago.

The two, guitarist Simon Tong and bassist Simon Jones, have since criticised the string-laden balladry of The Verve classics such as The Drugs Don't Work and Bittersweet Symphony.

They still wanted to make some noise. This was all well and good, except their new outfit lacks a songwriting talent to compare with Richard Ashcroft.

Although we might accept the absence of melody and harmony as par for the heavy-rock course, the lack of memorable hooklines and changes of pace are less forgivable.

This is unfortunate for 22-year-old singer Duncan Baxter, who is more of a pin-up than Ashcroft and equally swaggering.

He has a good voice, as revealed on the one song - I Feel Young Again - that allowed him to use his natural range.

But he delivers this set in high-pitched, histrionic style, with loads of echo on the microphone and a preference for shrieking the choruses as if possessed by the same heebie-jeebies that got Jack Nicholson all wide-eyed and petulant.

Couple this with his macho strutting and his pouting lips and one wonders if Baxter has been studying the Robert Plant chapter of the book of Seventies rock gods.

When, for the last time, Baxter stretched his arms wide above his head like a football fan and yelled "C'mon!" before jettisoning his tambourine and stomping off, the punters didn't call him back.

Instead they moved just as smartly to the exits.

Review by Andrew Fisher, features@theargus.co.uk