`A triumphant performance'

Texas are not exactly the coolest band in the world. To some, in fact, their blend of pristine white soul encapsulates everything wrong with pop music today: bland, derivative and fatally weakened by its over-reverence for the past.

The people who sold out the Point on Friday night, however, hadn't come to be lectured, or even challenged; they'd come to sing along to a string of infectious, chorus-heavy pop hits. And Texas, a group of unpretentious Scots who have waited over a decade to reach this venue, were only too happy to oblige.

From the moment the tomboyish Sharleen Spiteri, resplendent in designer lavender, sauntered on and launched into recent single In Demand, it felt like one of those gigs that would be carried by sheer goodwill alone. The band was on red-hot form and even sceptics must have been struck by how songs like Black-Eyed Boy and Halo, polite and polished on record, were transformed here into powerful, raunchy rock anthems.

There may have been seven other people on stage, but this was unmistakably Spiteri's show. She simply held the crowd in her hand all night, reeling off anecdotes in her earthy Glaswegian accent and even bringing an over-enthusiastic fan up on stage for some genuinely funny banter and an impromptu gyrating dance.

After a slightly sluggish acoustic interlude, the band got back into the groove with storming renditions of their Motown homage, When We Are Together, and the Abbaesque Summer Son. By now the crowd was going, in Spiteri's appreciative words, "absolutely mental", and the gig was spinning towards a joyous conclusion.

For the encore, she donned her black leather Elvis outfit and belted out a karaoke version of Suspicious Minds before closing sentimentally with Say What You Want, the 1997 hit that rescued Texas's career from oblivion.

It was a triumphant performance. If their records were remotely as entertaining, they'd be unstoppable.