THERE is a famous scene in the spoof documentary, Spinal Tap, in which guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, proudly displays an amplifier with a volume setting of 11. This is the level at which Status Quo begin.

Reading back over my notes – “onslaught”, “musical attack”, “relentless sonic assault” – it’s perhaps fitting that a band famous (again) for a song about army life generates enough synonyms for combat to fill a thesaurus.

It was my pleasure to chat with the band earlier this year while they filmed a video for a Help For Heroes re-release of In The Army Now at Bovington Camp. They were charming, accommodating, down to earth, and genuinely humbled by the sacrifices made by troops in Afghanistan. Tonight, they show a similar dedication to their own trade, playing with a ferocity and invention that barely hints at 40 years on the road.

They open with Sweet Caroline, a song as familiar to me as my own phone number, but I’m still utterly unprepared for the sheer onslaught of its live incarnation. The drums are actually drowned out by the guitars. Rick seems intent on sawing through his Telecaster using only a plectrum, while Rossi struts around like a ringmaster hammering out an amazingly inventive range of riffs and solos that trash the stereotype of a two-chord chancer. You can almost hear them thinking, “This is still the greatest job in the world.”

Rossi does the between-song banter, while Rick moves back on forth from a backline of pristine white Marshal amps as if on rails, pausing at front of stage in signature wide-legged stance to the delight of the crowd.

Rockin’ All Over The World, and Down, Down drive the set to its climax, with Whatever You Want the evening’s highlight and a perfect distillation of the Quo’s special formula – a pile driving blues-rock riff, blistering solo, and sing-along vocal refrain. It ain’t complicated, but as the man says, “I like it, I like it…”