The Mac Band brought the house down as usual at The Three Tuns in Sutton Coldfield, Saturday 24th July but fortunately they're redecorating now. With their lively renditions of famous covers and lots of visual interest they soon won over the crowd. Pretty girls ended up as their backing singers and some people borrowed their percussionist, Brendan's, hats and bongos.

The sound was very loud and driving in a long thin room which made audience-watching inevitable if you weren't at the very front.

People, I noticed, soon made the transition from watching to jiggling to pogoing. As they danced, one ingenious old chap in red slipped from one empty chair to another like a sneaky voyeuristic weasel as a lady with her head against the monitor signalled her friend that the music was loud but her friend waved her hands in the air like she just didn't care.

Not being young with a life like an open book, I liked their 'Lady Madonna', 'All Right Now', and the chorus of 'Hey Jude'. However, their 'Delilah' was a hoot as a large, bald man in a suit sprang to his feet to make love to his wife in appreciation when it started.

With their new and very talented young guitarist, Mike, The Mac Band now has something to offer fans of blistering, screaming solos. Impressively shredding his way around the fret board, this is a young man who - whilst he doesn't have a funny face like Bren the percussionist - brings rock virtuosity into play. Adrian, the drummer,  Mike's dad, was justifiably proud of his success as people applauded his great solos.

I'd been happy peeping around the young ladies shaking their booties and pointing at alternate walls with their elbows until I heard Mark's singing on Prince's 'Kiss' and simply had to get up to see who was out-camping the original. It was he. As numbers ended he'd confide with the crowd, chattily, 'That was exciting, wasn't it?' or 'That was nice.'

The drums and bass together were driving the dancing with a big no-nonsense sound all evening whilst the curiously bespectacled John McCarthy on keyboards produced massive synth sounds so authentic you wondered where the brass section was standing.

At the end of the evening the audience was screaming, 'We want more!' and the Mac Band didn't disappoint. Older gents like myself and the seat-hopping weasel man would have known all the sixties material, but often the crowd got very excited at modern songs. There was a good version of 'Cars' and people roared along with 'Valerie'.

Bob, the lead singer, is always excellent and gave a rock-solid performance. There seemed more harmonies than I remembered from previous gigs too.

Overall, having seen The Mac Band a number of times in recent years, it was clear that this is a very experienced and professional outfit, loud and confident, playing a compelling set. The audience warms to them and they're good at encouraging support. It was also interesting that their sound has evolved and matured so that they're now not just crowd-pleasers - they're playing a raft of truly impressive pop and rock standards tighter and better than ever before.

Highly recommended if you like to jiggle and boogie with your mates.