THEY were the break-up and make-up songs that provided the soundtrack to a thousand and one teenage heartaches.

Each one was an opera in miniature, three-minute tales of latter-day Romeos and Juliets etched in 45 rpm vinyl… bottled memories that now seem to get better with the passage of the years, rather like a vintage wine.

And if Frankie Valli’s Four Seasons was once the very personification of the tear-drenched genre then this fabulous tribute band – with their slick jackets and even slicker moves – must surely be the nearest thing there is to the real deal.

For these guys not only look totally convincing, they also manage to capture every vocal nuance, from strangulating trousers falsetto to big bad bass, creating a four-part harmony with the power and presence of a jumbo jet set for take-off.

And it doesn’t take us long to leave the runway. Initially propelled by Late December 1963 (Oh What a Night), this classic sets the tone for what is to follow, which is hit song after hit song.

Big Girls Don’t Cry, Let’s Hang On, Beggin, Rag Doll, Sherry Baby… every one’s right on target, taking you back to that long-lost world of dance halls, youth clubs and the back row of the cinema on a Saturday night.

As you might expect, this capacity crowd absolutely loves every single minute of it, the so-called silver surfers lapping up the sounds of youth as if thumbing through the faded pages of some recently discovered old diary.

Yes, it was a barnstorming show all right, a chance for all those of a certain age to travel back in time and wistfully look over their shoulders to a lost era of relative innocence.