It’s hard to believe that it is now 40 long years since Paul Jones recruited a bunch of mates to form The Blues Band with the idea of playing occasional pub and club gigs.

Even though back in 1979 they were rejected by at least one major record label for being “too old”, they proved a near instant success. Now four decades and countless albums later, they are still at the top of their game and still sporting almost exactly the same personnel .

Now as then we have Jones on vocals and harmonica, Tom McGuinness and Dave Kelly on guitars and Gary Fletcher on bass - a formidable line-up augmented at The Tivoli on Friday by Sam Kelly, Dave’s son, on drums.

Stepping in for regular drummer Rob Townshend, Kelly junior did a sterling job, giving the band a new dimension with some brilliant musicianship.

Not that any of The Blues Band are less than superb as they proved steaming through an evening of vintage blues and R&B with a couple of folkie frills lobbed in for good measure.

They opened with three tracks from their latest album The Rooster Crowed, and ended more than two hours later with the Louis Jordan crowd-pleaser Let The Good Times Roll. In between they visited their own individual and collective back catalogues and a welter blues classics like Howlin’ Wolf’s Down in the Bottom, Muddy Water’s I Can’t Be Satisfied, Blind Willie McTell’s Statesborough Blues, a spot of Blind Boy Fuller, a little Staples Singers and much, much more.

A great evening with wonderful musicianship from all concerned. There are no weak points. However, were I forced to pick personal high-spots, they would undoubtedly be Dave Kelly’s vocal and slide guitar work and Sam Kelly’s drumming. Brilliant stuff.