MARTI Pellow turned his back towards the audience and rubbed his buttocks, raising near-hysteria in the packed SECC, as he quipped: "If I knew that was all I had to do to please the crowd, it would have been a very short show!"

MARTI Pellow turned his back towards the audience and rubbed his buttocks, raising near-hysteria in the packed SECC, as he quipped: "If I knew that was all I had to do to please the crowd, it would have been a very short show!"

The slight singer has been working out and is fitter and healthier than on past tours and full of chat.

But it is a pity the adulation was directed towards him, because the band on stage amounted to much more than Marti's cheeky-chappie Colgate grin.

Opening with mega-hit Love Is All Around and The Temptations' Get Ready, followed by Julia Says, they introduced their new song In Every Heart A Fire Burns, a tribute to Roy Orbison from recently-released eighth album Timeless.

Wishing I Was Lucky picked up the pace, followed by mid-tempo disco-ish new track Too Many People.

But the highlight came around halfway into the set, with a four-song acoustic break-out with Graeme Duffin and Graeme Clark on guitars and vocals alongside Marti demonstrating how accomplished the band really are.

There was a lovely trio of vocals and excellent guitars on Learn From Each Mistake and Heaven, while It Don't Come Easy and Goodnight Girl completed the "unplugged" set.

Tommy Cunningham's drums then crashed back in for a pleasingly chunky rock-out A Little Help From My Friends.

Sweet Surrender, Temptation and Sweet Little Mystery invoked the screaming reaction you expect, while the closing crescendo of funk-pop was pure Wet Wet Wet and the audience left satisfied.