WELL, this was certainly different.

The Levellers are usually brightly dressed in garish shirts, bouncing around the stage and purveying pretty loud alt-folk rock.

But here they were, all dressed demurely in black (apart from frontman Mark Chadwick’s bright white trainers), sitting calmly on chairs and playing what they described, in the widest of terms as ‘acoustic’ music.

Now, to my mind, electric keyboards and bass are not necessarily acoustic, but that’s splitting hairs and this gig wouldn’t have been half as good if it had been just six blokes arranged around a single microphone with fingers in their ears.

Indeed, it wasn’t even just six Levellers – they were augmented by three more souls from art-rock band Moulettes, delivering the likes of percussion, slide guitar and five-string cello – into a pretty full sound.

We were lucky to see them at all, the previous night’s gig at Hackney Empire having been scrapped due to a family bereavement, but they were back, professional as ever.

Essentially, this tour is showcasing Together All The Way, the second ‘Collective’ acoustic album of stripped back songs given a more folkie treatment, and a couple of new numbers, hence the producer being Sean Lakeman. The vast majority of its tracks were performed, of course.

And it was also a chance to see relatively new member, the multi-instrumentalist Dan Donnelly, once of Celtic Social Club and briefly, The Wonder Stuff, who has fitted in seamlessly with his mandolin, guitar, ukulele, harmonica and much more.

With stalwarts Jez Cunningham, bass, Charlie Heather, drums, Matt Savage, keyboards and the unfeasibly tall Jon Sevink on fiddle, this had all the making of a real event.

However, it started slowly, with The Game, from classic album Levelling The Land, followed by the traditional Lowlands Of Holland and Liberty Song, but Chadwick is nothing if not great at building an atmosphere and the arrival of Levellers’ standard Battle Of The Beanfield got things moving.

Although it took until nearly the end of the 75-minute set for the audience the rise to the occasion, it was one of those warm-natured gigs with the crowd and band perfectly in tune.

Drug Bust McGee, title track Together All The Way, Sitting In The Social and the sublime, new, Man O’ War followed. By the time old favourite Julie made an appearance, things were buzzing.

The relatively new Ghosts In The Water preceded Born That Way and Haven’t Made It before crowd pleaser The Boatman, The Cholera Well, The Road and Far From Home closed a fine set.

Back swiftly, the nonet rampaged (if one can rampage while seated) through Hope Street and a rousing version of Rev Hammer’s Down By The River ‘O’ before they finally departed via the classic drinking song Just The One. Magic stuff.

Sadly, no 15 Years, Dog Train, Belarus or Exodus, but one can’t have everything!

Support came from the fast rising Wilswood Buoys, from Mersea Island, Essex, two guys and two acoustic (in the true meaning) guitars channelling Frank Turner to the nth degree.

They’ve supported Saint Frank, got him to produce them and had a few good tunes from debut album A New Beginning, particularly Crisis, but also Must Be Love, Save The Queen and A Place To Call My Own.

They were also stopping off at the Firkin Shed in Bournemouth the following night for a free gig on their way home.