Joe Jackson first emerged as a post-punk angry young man but such chip-on-the-shoulder belligerence has long since dissipated. Thirty years into his career, the tyro who majored in barbed, angst-ridden power-pop has matured into the kind of artist he would have instinctively loathed in his insurrectionist days.

His new album, Rain, is a polished set of piano-led adult rock songs from which the guitar is entirely absent, and he is true to this format at this rare UK show. Dapper and greying behind his grand piano, and accompanied by long-time bassist Graham Maby and drummer Dave Houghton, he is effectively fronting a slick, if unremarkable, jazz-rock trio.

Jackson is a fine pianist and his band are proficient, but the lack of a guitarist is telling. The opening Steppin' Out, his signature tune and 1983 top 10 hit, loses oomph in being reworked as a jazz-funk trifle, while even the acne-ridden teen angst of Is She Really Going Out With Him? is rendered disturbingly urbane.

Nevertheless, Jackson remains a skilled composer, and his lyrical candour ensures he is rarely dull. Invisible Man is a typically wry and acerbic reflection on being a jobbing musician after fame's spotlight has moved on, while Solo (So Low)'s bleak depiction of lonely mid-life alienation is authentic and moving.

The prog-jazz muggings of Abba's Knowing Me Knowing You and David Bowie's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) are misguided but the closing A Place in the Rain could be a piano-driven REM. Jackson may never escape cult status, but he appears entirely unconcerned by this fact.