God Help The Girl, 100 Club, London

God Help The Girl is a curious project. For the uninitiated, it consists of Stuart Murdoch, various bandmates from Belle & Sebastian, and three all-new singers forming a Pipettes-style girl group, originally convened to provide the soundtrack to a major motion picture of the same name.

The film is yet to be shot, but the band appears to have taken on a life of its own, having released an LP and now playing a handful of live dates. This is clearly a welcome development for the audience at this sold-out show at the 100 Club, many of whom have clearly been patiently waiting for new B&S material since the last album three years ago.

Well, the name and line-up may be different, but the lyrics and arrangements are instantly recognisable as coming from the B&S stable: they even open with a version of ‘Act of the Apostle', originally from The Life Pursuit. There follows a short but damn near perfect set of songs from the album and Stills EP, with Stuart providing lead vocals on album track ‘Perfection as a Hipster' (performed by Mr Neil Hannon on the record).

Some Belle & Sebastian fans have in the past grumbled that Murdoch's clarity of purpose on their first couple of albums got diluted after the band became a more democratic operation. In its own bigger and more confident way, God Help The Girl has something of the singular vision of those early records: in fact, I wonder if this is what he's been aiming for all along?