Working out the timeline and historic personnel of The Manfreds reveals a complex and musically incestuous story.

Suffice to say many years ago they were the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers, they morphed into sixties chart-busters Manfred Mann and then became simply The Manfreds.

We could go off at all kinds of tangents but as a delighted crowd at Lighthouse discovered it’s best just to sit back and enjoy the music, particular when the likes of PP Arnold and one-time local legend Zoot Money are special guests.

Still sporting three original members in lead vocalist Paul Jones, keyboards man Mike Hugg and guitarist Tom McGuinness, The Manfreds also feature Mike D’Abo who replaced Jones as front man when he left the band in the mid sixties.

Drummer Rob Townsend (Jones’ and McGuinness’s sometime colleague in The Blues Band), bass player Marcus Cliffe and saxophonist Simon Currie complete the line-up.

Their music offers an extraordinary and instantly nostalgic journey back to the Manfreds heyday half a century ago.

They stormed through a welter of hits - 5-4-3-2-1, Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Fox on the Run, Ha Ha Said The Clown, Semi Detached Suburban Mr James, The Mighty Quinn, Pretty Flamingo and many more.

Ebullient PP Arnold delivered her two biggest numbers Angel of the Morning and The First Cut is the Deepest and, just when we were wondering where the Maximum R&B of the title had gone, Zoot Money arrived to duet with PP on It Takes Two before launching into It Never Rains But It Pours.

Big Time Operator and Bring It On Home To Me were still to come as The Manfreds cranked up the Blues quota with a blazing version of Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightening.

As always The Manfreds stage act navigates a fine line between, blues, pop and R&B. There many facets to their musical history like Mike D’Abo’s songwriting talents with numbers like Handbags and Gladrags and Build Me Up Buttercup and Tom McGuinness’s stint in MacGuinness Flint and their mega-hit When I’m Dead and Gone.

All got a joyous airing plus the band’s new version of Van Morrison’s Bright Side of the Road and much, much more before a final encore with a highly appropriate If You’ve Gotta Go Go Now.