You wait for ages for a Steve Winwood gig and three come along at once, not so much from a performance quality aspect but from a where-to-stand consideration.

Star rating ***
You wait for ages for a Steve Winwood gig and three come along at once, not so much from a performance quality aspect but from a where-to-stand consideration. Winwood's current band was born to play in Ronnie Scott's, somewhere intimate where everyone gets a similar deal soundwise. Sadly, the Arches isn't Ronnie's.

Everyone can't be by the stage, having, apparently, a blast. At the mid-way point, where screens projected the onstage action and auxiliary equipment boosted the sound, it was a bit thrashy, certainly by the time we got to Higher Love. Up back, near the mixing desk, wasn't perfect but tune out the distractions and it was possible to appreciate what his latest album, Nine Lives, suggests: namely that Winwood is in his best form for years.

Nine Lives's best songs sound somehow simultaneously vintage and timeless. It's a back to reality thing, making music on real instruments in the moment, like a jazz band with a Hammond organist powering the bass pedals, and it's an approach that makes Winwood's catalogue sound of a piece. From the primal I'm a Man into Jose Neto's African guitar lick and Karl Vanden Bossche's bubbling percussion from Nine Lives' Hungry Man was a natural segue. Similarly, the 1970s Traffic material, including a terrific Light Up or Leave Me Alone, emerged revitalised.

Winwood's voice remains a blue-eyed soul marvel and in Paul Booth he has a saxophonist who can really build a solo as well as work the Hammond while Winwood moves to guitar. With the estimable drummer Richard Bailey making everything feel right, there was much to enjoy. I'd just like to hear it properly.