Tony Allen

"Rarely has a music of resistance been so musically irresistible," said one critic when called to comment on Tony Allen’s archetypal influence. With a career spanning four decades and thirty or so albums – including those made with Fela Kuti and Africa 70 – it’s fair to say that tonight we are in the presence of greatness.

As Allen saunters onstage in yellow patterned attire with matching skullcap and trademark shades we see that the moniker of his latest offering, Secret Agent, owes more to the difficulty of pinning down its free-associating sound: Allen doesn’t do sartorial inconspicuousness. Neither do his band; a worldly looking bunch of a similar vintage to their leader, they resemble a sort of Africa 70 tribute act. But as opener 'Elewon Po' surges to meet the reverential hush of the crowd with groovy guitar riffs and an insouciant fanfare of horns it’s clear these guys are the real thing.

Indeed, the band provide tonight’s best moments – 'Africa Disco Beat' has them showing an energetic zeal, inspiring the audience to swing elbows, raise knees and flay dreadlocks. Particular praise has to go to the spasmodic phrasing of the tenor sax and a spanking bass solo on 'Black Voices'. The musicality tonight is all too rapturously received but there’s something amiss.

It is clear Allen hasn’t lost his political edge. He takes the opportunity to decry corruption and injustice in the Nigerian military but even this rabble-rousing likeness to the man Brian Eno once lauded as "perhaps the greatest drummer who ever lived" seems somehow off-key. There's an understated casualness to Allen's performance which might testify his experience and professionalism, but it comes across tonight as plain lacklustre. The essence of Afrobeat is raw and hard-hitting; it's supposed to be wild-man music that makes the blood boil, and this simply isn’t. Perhaps it's the age-old problem of trying out new material against established classics - always a recipe for anti-climax - or the rather staid atmosphere endemic to the Picture House, but something about tonight's show is just slightly off-beat.