Ian Brown strode on to a darkened stage to the sound of stabbing strings and a welcoming cheer so overwhelmingly male that you almost expected to see strippers when the lights finally came up. Instead, a five-piece band had shuffled into place behind a skinny bloke in a zipped-up sports jacket and baggy jeans, who began to shadow-box while chewing furiously on gum.

If Brown were still trading on his former band the Stone Roses’ brief but blinding spell in pop’s spotlight, he would surely be running out of steam by now. A decade since the Roses split, with one era-defining album and a forgettable follow-up under their belts, Madchester is but a hazy memory.

That Brown could still pack out Brixton Academy with a crowd akin to baying wolves suggested that the singer has moved on with momentum. At least it did for about six seconds, until his briskly proficient band struck up the opening chords to the Roses’ anthem I Wanna Be Adored.

The song had definitely dated, but with beefed-up guitar parts and lashings of percussion, it proved an ideal opener, not least because Brown’s painfully, if predictably, off-key vocals were practically drowned out by the audience. If only they had chanted so loudly to the singer’s solo work.

When tracks from his current album, The World Is Yours, had a discernable tune, Brown’s muffled howl had its own charm – he may be as bad as a deluded X Factor contestant, but no one on the planet sounds like him. When they didn’t, they veered between the sort of bassy dirge that teenagers play to keep their parents out of their bedrooms and drunken karaoke.

Yet still it was hard to tear your eyes away from his boyish body and hollow cheeks. Brown still oozes charisma and ego – after introducing his band, he demanded an additional cheer for himself. Were he to go the way of most of his fans – beer belly, bald patch, bored-looking girlfriend by his side – you suspect that his only career option would be a Stone Roses reunion.

For now, the amount that he spot-jogs on stage should keep him trim, and when even the diehard fans came close to losing faith after 90 minutes, I Am the Resurrection brought them back on board. No reunion just yet then.

Ian Brown plays AECC, Aberdeen, Mon 3 Dec; Academy, Glasgow, Tues 4 Dec; Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Thur 6 Dec; and Manchester Central (G-Mex) on Fri 7 Dec and Sat 7 Dec, 2007

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010