Nils Lofgren/Malvern Theatres

WELL, we’re certainly talking about rock royalty here.

Nils Lofgren may have played the bridesmaid never the bride as far as old mucker Bruce Springsteen was concerned, but there’s no doubt that he was the better musician.

Springsteen is best known for his stadium anthems. He forsook his folksy roots once he realised he could steer his Fender Stratocaster through the stratosphere of riches and fame.

But Lofgren also had a long association with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, a far more esoteric outfit than the E-Street Band, and he therefore falls somewhere in the middle of genres.

This year marks Lofgren’s half century of life on the road, and the quality of his stagecraft bears witness to this immense achievement.

He paints a soundscape that draws deeply from his very earliest influences, also being – among so many other things – a skilled accordion player.

His rendition of examination piece Flight of the Bumblebee during the encore reminded us not only of the man’s virtuosity, but also the range of his musical knowledge.

Yet this is only a fraction of his talents. You would expect a man of his generation to know his way around a fretboard, and he most surely does. But the truth is that this is the man with the Midas touch for any instrument that feels the touch of his fingers.

For example, he plays the Celtic harp as if he’s known it all his life. Yet it was actually a fairly recent present from his wife Amy.

But most of us were here for the guitar songs, and in that department he never disappoints. Lofgren’s got that 1970s funky, percussive guitar style, superbly demonstrated on numbers such as Rusty Gun and Call of the Road.

And it’s no surprise that a man who sports a voodoo witchdoctor’s hat, loose robes and lurching walk on stage should be a fan of Keith Richards. His homage to the Rolling Stone titled Don’t Go, Keith was a heartfelt prayer calling for the old reprobate’s immortality.

Elsewhere, he did Carole King’s classic Going Back great justice as you would expect for a man who has not only played great music, but also survived five decades in an extremely fickle industry and is still plainly at the top of his game.

John Phillpott