f the makers of the Simpsons were to create a character of a stereotypical New Orleans Bluesman, they’d struggle to come up with someone who wasn’t a dead ringer for Dr John.

Dressed in a snappy suit, voodoo regalia, wearing sunglasses indoors at night, carrying a cane and speaking in jive talk, the ‘night tripper’ is the quintessential cult musician, who has been playing music since the fifties, only finding success when gunshot-injury (?!) to his hand forced him to ditch the guitar for the piano. Seemingly every Geography teacher in South Wales seems to have turned up for the show at the converted church of The Point, which Dr John and his equally eccentric band The Lower Nine-Elevens imbue with the atmosphere of a gritty blues bar in Mardi Gras.

Playing a tight, focused set of his unique mix of funk, psychedelia and blues, Dr John is nothing short of a first-class entertainer. Trading quips with his charismatic drummer Roscoe and randomly jumping to his feet to dance (more of a shuffle given his 68 years), the man just oozes coolness.

The highlights of the set are his two most famous hits, Such A Night and Right Time Wrong Place.

After the encore, Roscoe invites the whole audience for a drink at the pub across the road, where the band will be drinking “apart from Dr John, his ass will be back at the hotel.� Shame, if the witch doctor of funk had been up for a drink, there would have been a stampede to join him.