Upgrading to the 1,800-seater New Theatre since their show at the Playhouse last year, Out of the Blue brought their high energy show to us in time for their traditional end of year celebrations. And although not a sell out, there were few empty seats to be seen.

These shows are targeted at Oxford students - OOTB's home crowd - a specific audience who, in my seating area anyway, all seemed to know each other. Attending the Out of the Blue end of season spectacular is clearly now a de rigeur social event in the college calendar. But thankfully, with a trademark effect of screams, the curtain finally rose, the chat in the aisles and across rows subsided, and at last I could focus on the music.

I have to confess my expectations were high after last year's Playhouse venture but it took a few uninspiring numbers for this set to warm up. It was styled International Men of Mystery and I was certainly mystified by the first number with one band member, for reasons best known to himself, dressed up as superman and two others as gangsters.

The music eventually started to settle with an instrumental medley of Bond themes; half the band providing vocals and the other half the dramatic visuals. Indulging their natural male passion for macho posturing OOTB seemed to vitally enjoy an extended sequence of pretending to fire guns, throw bombs and collapse to the floor. Then a large and cuddly looking Pink Panther appeared (to the Pink Panther theme, naturally). Attention grabbing - but did we really need the diversion from the vocal artistry on show? You can combine good music with comic interludes but they should just be interludes, otherwise the show's artistic impact begins to diminish. The audience laughed, but I have to confess this sketch was lost on me. So I focused instead on the excellent six-part percussive and instrumental vocal backdrop.

Luckily the material soon picked up and began to show the variety and change of pace and staging I associate with OOTB. Babylon started off shakily, due in large part to the problems the lead was experiencing with his headset microphone, but gained in power. The lead on You Don't Love Me Anymore had similar problems but went down well - the song was uninspiring but lyrics very funny.

The leads were of varying quality throughout, possibly because some of the singers had ongoing problems with their mics which had still not been rectified after the interval. A high point was Vishal Bhavsar on The Lion Sleeps Tonite. This was one of the more coherent stagings of the night, as Vish expired on stage and was raised to life singing (by Superman again - who else?). And then, a welcome change of pace and material; Gus Turner's strong lead on I'm Too Sexy, delivered with presence and real individualism.

The second half opened with Fat Bottomed Girls, with a line or two from other Queen classics thrown in. The backing was excellent but once again the lead seemed affected by microphone difficulties. This also affected The Shape of My Heart with the backing vocals clearly crisper than the lead.

Then we were treated to a barbershop medley - the cleanest sound, harmonies and delivery here. The barbershop element seemed to have been minimised in this show, which was a shame as it works so well.

The ever popular Title of the Song went down a storm but although the arrangement was strong, with four singers sharing the lead, the song was not so well staged or as dynamic as last summer. This critique of boy bands was followed by a take-off of boy band dance routines in Every Little Thing I Do.

OOTB is obviously a democratic group and need to be congratulated on sharing out the singing duties so equally; however, in this show the leads were clearly of varying quality and presence and even the decision to share chat with the audience led to a diminishing of pace and focus. Technically there were microphone problems, and at several key moments the quality of the backing vocals was superior to the lead, but it was the crucial matters of pace, choice of material and choreography that diminished this show's impact. It was an accomplished and successful evening's work, and the set included only two numbers used at the Playhouse last summer, but I am forever hoping that OOTB will put vocal and performance quality above pleasing their student friends and create shows to appeal to a wide ranging audience. And lose the air guitar boys - the show really doesn't need it!

Kathryn Karakaya, 25.05.04