Hecklergigs: The Duke Spirit @ Ginglik, 31/1

London’s public toilets have long provided ageing single men with a source of entertainment, and Ginglik, a converted ex-loo underneath the sharp end of Shepherd’s Bush Green, is keeping this fine tradition well and truly alive.

The Duke Spirit are playing here tonight, and this rather excellent little venue is inexplicably full to the rafters of greying rockers, nervously sipping their beer as sweaty young support punks Dead Kids leave the stage and push past them.

Far from being the onlookers at a gig by a band returning with only their second album, it feels like being magically transported to row A at an Oasis stadium-stuffer, but the presence of these obvious rock aficionados does attest to the underground popularity of the band’s first album, Cuts Across The Land.

Released in 2005, the album was a hit with the critics but not the record buying public, and when the group were dropped by their record label (having left their first when it went bust), fans feared the worst.

We needn’t have worried though, because while not much has been heard from The Duke Spirit for what seems like an age, they have actually been playing a staggering 285 gigs across America and recording a pretty tidy new album with Queens Of The Stone Age producer Chris Goss.

It’s this sophomore effort, entitled Neptune, that opens proceedings tonight, and although a bass malfunction requires the band to leave the stage and start again, it doesn’t dull the beginning of a strong performance.

Goss’ production on the album has added plenty of horns and strings to the mix, and although lead singer Leila Moss whips out a succession of noisemakers (a harmonica, maracas, and even metal bars), the rather cramped stage means that they are simply doing what they do best here - primal rock and roll noise.

Moss is a force to be reckoned with, throwing some amusing devil horn shapes as she strikes pose after pose, and current single The Step and The Walk is a treat. The band’s time away seems to have toughened them up, and while the gravel remains at the bottom of Moss’s sultry vocals, they are a tightly controlled unit raising the bar at will.

Of course, ending the pre-encore set with the powerful one-two of Love Is An Unfamiliar Name and Cuts Across The Land is welcomed with open arms, but the night’s final tune, Into The Fold, is a new track lapped up by the crowd.

There is a hardened confidence to the new look Duke Spirit, and the reception of the new material is promising for a band who deserved better the first time round. Maybe this time they will get their reward.

[story by Tom Atkinson]