Thirty-somethings who were students at the start of the Nineties may remember Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine.

The band's album 30 Something and accompanying T-shirt were essential accessories in an era of indie music which fell somewhere between the baggy dance of The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses and the grunge rock of Nirvana.

Lifted by the agit-pop lyrics of Jim Bob, driven by the guitar of his sidekick Fruitbat and accompanied by lo-fi percussion recorded onto a battered old tape deck, Carter USM scored a series of indie hits in the early Nineties and even headlined Reading Festival in 1991, with their riotous rants and wise-cracking wordplay set to clattering, melodic punk tunes.

Fifteen years later - ten since Carter released their final album - and Jim Bob was downstairs at Komedia. His latest album School is a low-budget concept record: A witty reminiscence on the subject of headmasters, caretakers, foul-mouthed food technology teachers and school orchestras.

Having abandoned his electric guitar for a traditional acoustic and without Fruitbat, the role of Jim Bob's accompanist has, for this tour, fallen to Brighton-based singer-songwriter Chris T-T, who himself has a considerable arsenal of lyrically incisive, politically outraged material.

Playing a solo set in support, T-T raised a big cheer for his scathing anti-hunt anthem, The Huntsman Comes A' Marchin', from his current mini-album 9 Red Songs.

Switching from guitar to piano, he also displayed the emotional depth of his sensitive songs, quite distinct from the doggerel so many of his contemporaries produce.

Jim Bob, with T-T playing rollicking barrelhouse piano and occasional glockenspiel behind him, showed he has lost none of his sweet charisma, youthful looks or spontaneous humour, despite now being distinctly 40-something.

Inevitably, the old Carter songs raised the biggest response from the audience, who sang happily along to classic hits such as The Only Living Boy In New Cross, banging on their tables.