The 15-strong Oxford student a capella ‘boy band’ Out of the Blue enjoyed a significant boost to their popularity as a consequence of their journey to the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent. Viewing You Tube footage of their appearance as I write has given me my first glimpse of that dire show. A trip to the New Theatre on Tuesday supplied my first sight of the lads themselves. The evening proved not only painless but great fun.

The performance (there had been another the day before) had about it all the atmosphere of a gathering of the faithful, with the singers’ reception noisy, warm and heartfelt.

We were put in a good mood from the word go through an opening film in which we saw the leader of the team standing anxiously at the stage door, mobile in hand, summoning his colleagues from lectures, sports fields, romantic assignations and, in one case, a spot of nude modelling for a life class.

Having burst on to the stage, they roared at once into a tight and arresting version of The Beatles’ Got to Get You Into My Life which showed from the start the ingenuity that musical director (and tenor) Nick Barstow brings to his work.

Other material familiar to me followed, including, most memorably, Holland-Dozier-Holland’s I Heard It Through the Grapevine and Queen’s Fat Bottomed Girl, which was interrupted by an uncannily accurate presentation of the opening moments of the famous Bohemian Rhapsody video.

Other songs were less recognisable to me (some by Katy Perry, I learned in the interval) and it would have been advisable — and more professional — had they been introduced.

But an endearing amateurishness — though never vocally — is clearly what they strive for. I saw in their trombone-playing arm movements early on exactly what was meant by the “notoriously unprofessional choreography” mentioned in the programme.

But what the heck: there were fireworks to match the vocal pyrotechnics, plus the feelgood thought that it was all being done for some excellent charities, and even the onstage company of 130 local schoolkids for a rousing performance of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Until the next time, boys.