While I’ll admit I’m normally happier seeing in the new year relatively quietly with Jools Holland’s Hootenany or similar this year The Recks rounding off their best year yet alongside newer band Mojo was enough to lure me out to The Imperial Hotel and the wilds of Rocquaine.

With a few familiar faces in the band, particularly guitarist Nick Coleman who I’ve seen more in his solo acoustic guise, Mojo kicked off the night in the slightly awkwardly laid out confines of the hotel’s restaurant.

Their set started out with a smooth, almost poppy feel with Dom Laine’s bass and Vikki Richards keyboards driving the tracks and it was great to hear keyboard being used fully in some original material.

As the set went on the band’s sound developed into an almost post-punk/pop direction with Laine’s bass often being reminiscent of Peter Hook’s in Joy Division and New Order and with Coleman’s electric guitar providing atmospheric flourishes over the top.

Across the set the band kept feeling in the verge to taking the energy of their performance up a level, though it never quite got there – I think in part due to singer Vikki being rooted somewhat by the keyboard even when it wasn’t being used in the song.

The high points of their set came as they took the elements of post punk and added in something of a hint of the psyche-indie of the later Manchester scene and while covers of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart and a kind of indie take on Born To Be Wild went down well they were, for me, the lower points of a set otherwise made up of their own material that came with a lot of promise and potential.

After their most successful year to date with gigs around the UK and festivals as far afield as Sweden as well as recording both locally for new tracks to be released in 2020 and at BBC’s Maida Vale Studios it was clear as they took to ‘the stage’ that The Recks were in the mood to have fun to round off the year and celebrate.

Across two sets we were treated to not only the band’s established live favourite but new songs as well and it was a new one that started the first set and grabbed the attention from the off.

From there the first set largely focussed on The Recks’ slower numbers with Milk’s Gone Bad and Low Life as early highlights before a heavier than usual (and good for it) take on You’re What I Want.

While still seemingly in it’s early stages, a new song inspired by the band’s favourite Weymouth haunt The Belvedere Inn showed a lot of promise and, as they rounded the first set off with the extended version of Lights, it was clear the crowd who had packed the lower area of the restaurant in front of the band were going to be ready to dance for the second half.

As promised the second set, leading up to midnight, upped the energy from the off with favourites like Lovers In The Night and She Ain’t No Revelator.

While the band seemed to be dealing with a few sound issues on stage they didn’t let that phase them as the audience were singing and dancing along throughout — testament to how these songs that, on paper, may not be the most obvious either thematically or in terms of definable genre really work for the listener, highlighted here by a terrific performance of Spanish Relations.

As midnight approached we got what has become almost the band’s signature song Train Wreck and then after a few attempts at Auld Lang Syne in the audience The Recks finished off with Valentine.

As there was no way for them to leave the stage unless the audience let them, an encore of recent single and long time live favourite Porcupine followed, that saw the ‘fourth wall’ between stage and dance floor entirely shattered in one of the best renditions of the song I’ve heard or seen that closed the night on an energetic high and saw the new year and new decade in on an exceptionally fun note.