From 1978, on and off, Robert Forster was half of the cult Australian act the Go-Betweens, a band beloved by U2 and R.E.M. but never quite the commercial success that they deserved to be. Two years ago Forster's musical partner, Grant McLennan, died in his sleep at the age of 48, a loss his friend could cope with only by writing songs. The result was The Evangelist, a solo album haunted by the ghost of McLennan, and on the London date of Forster's UK tour his late partner often seemed to be there in spirit.

Starting the show solo was a brave, though ill-conceived, move for a man whose guitar playing can teeter towards rudimentary. A trio of favourite Go-Betweens songs was delivered deadpan, in a gravelly growl located somewhere between Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen. To say it was morose would be painting too bright a picture, yet Forster's dry sense of humour frequently surfaced in his literate lyrics. McLennan, always the chirpier, chattier of the two, would have been telling his mate to lighten up.

In a smart, grey suit, the tall, slim, unsmiling singer resembled a geography teacher, and his occasionally lengthy song descriptions were given like lectures. The Go-Betweens classic Born to a Family was described as “the story of my life, primarily between the ages of 17 and 21”. The middle-class, posh-spoken Forster then sang about his simple, working-class roots. By then, he had been joined by a three-piece band - they arrived one at a time, several songs apart, slowly building the sound through styles as diverse as early R.E.M., late Velvet Underground and Orange Juice. Forster's behaviour grew comical as he skipped sideways on one leg, took giant steps forward like a big bird and suddenly grabbed at handfuls of air in front of his face. The music though, was relentlessly inventive and beautifully moving. The highlight was a dreamy, folky Demon Days, taken from The Evangelist but written by McLennan just before he died. If there wasn't a tear in Forster's eye, there certainly were a few rolling down the faces of fans.

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