ROCK and roll rule number one - don't turn your back on your past.

Admittedly, in the case of American greats REM, while this doesn't mean performing the by-now embarrassing tune Shiny Happy People, it does mean that a score of their tunes generations of folk have fallen in love with being dusted down and given a new lease of life.

Certainly the greatest reception here was given to such classics as Losing My Religion as frontman Michael Stipe - mysteriously adorned with a dark stripe of face paint around his eyes and looking part cat-burglar, part comic-book hero - almost invited the audience to join the "church of REM" .

Equally brilliant was the anthemic Everybody Hurts, the band's own 'hymn from the 90s' and the cue for a huddle of dedicated fans at the front to hold lighters aloft, no doubt while simultaneously wiping a tear from their eyes.

Other highlights included the beautiful piano-led Electrolite, bittersweet Leaving New York from current album Around The Sun and Stipe - complete with megaphone - blasting his way through early REM standard Orange Crush.

This was all played out against a backdrop of stalactite-like bars hanging from the ceiling and bursting brightly in a myriad of colours, almost as captivating as Stipe's boundless amounts of energy as he leapt around the stage in true rock star fashion.

It's been nearly six years since my first experience of REM live (Glastonbury 99) and, while their new material might not have been as well received as their older songs, they proved they still know how to put on a show with considerable aplomb on a night where Stipe was the hero.

Joby Mullens