The last time I saw Ian McLagan perform in the open air, he was sharing a Wembley stage in 1984 with Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana and Van Morrison in front of 100,000 ecstatic fans. But the former Small Faces keyboards man looked happy enough doing his own roadie work for his late afternoon appearance at the Truck Festival.

With the sun blazing down and The Lemonheads still to come, McLagan and the Bump Band were the perfect act to liven up the two-day festival, which brought 6,000 music lovers to Hill Farm in Steventon. When you have played with the Faces and the Rolling Stones, and are backed by the tightest of bands from Texas, you know how to get a party going.

Playing with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, he recalled, had been "fun, maybe too much fun", before chuckling about Woody's dalliance with a young Russian girl. But it seems to have fallen on McLagan to remind everyone that the Faces were much more than a hard-drinking band of hotel wreckers. John Peel, no less, rated them as the best live act he ever saw and hearing again Cindy Incidentally and Glad and Sorry hinted why it really was once cool to like Rod Stewart. Mac is not alone in recognising the late Ronnie Lane as that band's greatest talent and throughout the set he paid tributes to his old bandmate, who became a victim of multiple sclerosis.

The opener I Will Follow, from McLagan's new album Never Say Never, shows he can effortlessly pull off rollicking keyboard driven- rockers, while Date with an Angel reveals a touchingly sentimental side to music. His voice is surprisingly good, suggesting that you can't play with the likes of Jagger and Marriott without learning something. With the young audience seemingly full of Small Faces fans, McLagan's one mistake was to ignore his sixties' back catalogue. All or Nothing could have brought the hour-long set to a perfect climax for closet Mods among the Truckers.

As for the Faces, if the directionless Stewart had any sense he would be banging on McLagan's door for a reunion. But the singer long ago forgot about good taste, along with his debt to Mac and the two Ronnies. Maybe it will all come down to Ron Wood's good sense.