Is 70 minutes too short for a headline slot? Plenty would argue that when you’re paying £50-plus a ticket, then yes it is. And normally I would agree.

But when Richard Ashcroft bid the crowd at Margate’s Dreamland a goodnight on Friday after a little over an hour, few were complaining.

The Verve frontman had just rattled through a slew of his former band’s biggest hits, rabble roused on England’s behalf ahead of their Euro 2024 final on Sunday and proved that, nearly 30 years on from his heyday, he still has a voice which can enchant.

It was short though. Mind you, the crowd - here for the latest in the Margate Summer Series - had been treated to a triple-header.

I’ll be honest and say as I arrive at the venue at 7pm, I do so to the sounds of Dodgy’s Good Enough coming from the stage. Which, given it’s the band’s biggest hit (climbing to the heady heights on number four in the charts back in the Britpop days of 1996), would suggest the end of their set is nigh. And, indeed, after Grassman rounds off their contribution to the evening, they’re off.

Up next is far more exciting. Because Shaun Ryder - he of drug-addled Happy Mondays fame - is something of a legend. That he continues to perform and look as healthy as most of the crowd can remember, is both a tribute to him turning his back on some of his ‘recreational’ habits and a blessing. His band, Black Grape, were, back in the day, a rather thrilling proposition - a mish-mash marriage of rap, dance and rock born from the disintegration of the Mondays.

There’s no Bez anymore throwing shapes, but Ryder and rapper Kermit sound, in truth, as good as ever and seem in good spirits with plenty of between-song jibber jabber. There is, as you expect, a heavy dose of effing and jeffing, but, frankly, you’d be disappointed if there wasn’t. It is organised chaos in the best possible way.

Their 45-minute set leans heavily on 1995’s It’s Great When Your Straight…Yeah debut - so we kick off with In The Name of The Father, before getting Temazi Party and the set being rounded off with Kelly’s Heroes. But the stand-out is Reverend Black Grape which stands majestically out as a classic slice of the 1990s.

I’m going to say it, but watching from the back of the venue, the mood in the crowd (sparse for Dodgy, busier for Black Grape) is relatively subdued. But then it is a slightly chilly July night and the beers haven’t kicked in for many yet. Plus, I have managed to kick mine over, which at nearly £7 a pop is not to be taken lightly.

Black Grape take their bows and are great value.

And, of course, for 45 minutes of them, we probably get a lesser slice of the main man.

Richard Ashcroft - as rake-like as ever - saunters on stage at around 9pm with a floppy hat from which anyone not right at the front can barely make out those famous chiselled features of his. He does remove it - albeit very briefly - to reveal (and comment upon) his fine head of hair - still styled as we all remember it. If there is one improvement Dreamland can usher in, it is surely video screens.

He kicks off with Space and Time from The Verve’s Urban Hymns opus and during the course of the set we also get the likes of Weeping Willow, Sonnet and a beautiful rendition of Lucky Man.

En route, we take in his big solo hit, Song for the Lovers plus the likes of Break the Night With Colour and Music Is Power. The build-up is slow and steady…but it’s those jumbo hits which turn a good show into something to remember.

His music isn’t the ‘everyone up on your feet let’s go crazy’ sound of Black Grape but his voice has aged magnificently. By the time he kicks into The Drugs Don’t Work, the entire crowd are singing along to every word and he is absolutely note perfect. It’s easy to forget just how good he is when he gets in his groove.

He heads off the stage before returning for his two final numbers - C’mon People (We’re Making It Now) which he changes on occasion to ‘C’mon England’ and also switches up for the occasion by including a couple of verses of New Order’s 1990 World Cup hit World in Motion.

But then it’s the big one. The undisputed classic. I’ve heard Bittersweet Symphony so many times over the years it’s lost some of its oomph. But tonight it is all returned.

His powerful version of the song revives all the emotion of the lyrics and it reasserts itself as an anthem for those of us who lived the 1990s (and judging by the crowd’s age, most of those at Dreamland did).

It was so good, it was worth the entry money for that alone. Yes, 70 minutes is a short set by most standards, but this ended on such an almighty high I will forgive him. Richard Ashcroft is still essential viewing.