ASK anyone over 30 to name a song by Babybird and they'll all say the same thing. You're Gorgeous was a worldwide hit back in 1996, at the height of the Britpop era.

Most one-hit wonders only have one song worth shouting about, but that couldn't be less true of Babybird, aka Stephen Jones.

He famously released six albums in his first two years and put out four more after that.

Prolific, witty and largely low profile, Jones always had far more in common with the likes of the Wedding Present or Half Man Half Biscuit than the lad-rock of Oasis.

Everything went quiet in the early 2000s until a more sustained comeback started in 2010.

If his frankly stupendous performance at the Fleece was anything to go by, it's a shame he ever went away.

Although the first two songs fell a little flat, from Failed Suicide Club onward it was all gold.

Jones specialises in touching tales of bruised love, with some wonderful lines that prove he's the missing link between Morrissey and Guy Garvey on the list of England's great lyricists.

Each song was better than the last, with newer tracks like www.song just as strong as classics like Cornershop.

It was the kind of gig that made you want to immediately go out and buy the entire back catalogue.

But it wasn't just understated stunners like Out of Sight and Goodnight that made it one of the finest gigs of 2012 so far. The wit in his songs was matched only by Jones' acid tongue between them.

One persistent, and very drunk, heckler proved perfect fodder, and was repeatedly destroyed in endlessly inventive slurs.

Why would anyone argue with a man with a microphone and a thesaurus of perfect putdowns?

Like all supposed cynics he's a softy at heart, apologising to an 11-year-old fan in the front row for not playing his favourite song.

Then he said something unrepeatably filthy, but the sentiment was genuine.

Unsurprisingly he didn't play the big hit, but after a performance of this quality, no-one went away unhappy.