Got to see him in the early 1990s, a great evening Tom, a natural raconteur with an easy stage presence played a storming set.

Missed his 60th birthday gig a couple of years ago, but got to see him last week.

The Tabernacle, in Ladbroke Grove offers a varied bill in a converted, I think, Greek church. Downstairs there are smaller community based events and a decent restaurant. Upstairs, a concert hall. A good size stage with decent size hall, flanked by a balcony on 3 sides.

The only problem is they always turn up the heating to a highly oppressive level.

The crowd was a mixed set, Notting Hill luvvies and locals, a fair few long term followers of Tom and I suspect a good number of young musicians who feel that Tom is a mentor to them.

A later show of hands suggested more than half the audience were seeing Tom for the first time.

Managed to miss most of Orlando Seale And The Swell, a nine piece, young, mixed sex group featuring violins and double bass, in the style of The Mumford Brothers. From what I did see, I would say go and see them before they’re big.

Tom came on and did his first set consisting of 7 numbers and featuring 2 guests singers, Melissa James, a black soul singer and Swami Barracus. Both recent graduates of one of his farm house weekends where he invites 20 unknown songwriters with the aim of writing 24 songs in a weekend. They both sang one of their own songs, backed by Tom and his band. As Tom said, rap is not his genre of choice, but he was certainly enjoying himself on stage with Swami.

No time for a break as the second guest support act hit the stage.

Hamell On Trial. Not a group, but a New York guy with a 1937 Gibson guitar, once described as Bill Hicks, Hunter S. Thompson and Joe Strummer rolled into one, given his looks you would probably cross the street if you saw him coming towards you.

Musically, somewhere between Billy Bragg and Seasick Steve, his powerful protest songs went down a storm. Tom, not standing in the wings peering through the stage curtain trying not to be seen, spent the entire act right bang in the middle of the auditorium thoroughly enjoying the music he was seeing and hearing.

Tom’s second set was considerably longer than his first.

Most of his classic songs got an airing during the evening. I had forgotten just how many good songs he had written. He played most of them.

Mixed in were a few newer ones, "Risky Business", about bankers and the banking crisis and one about the Iraqi war would probably have merited a high chart position if Tom had promoted them.

Special guest in the second set was TV Smith. He sang one of his own songs, "The Lion And The Lamb", duetted with Tom on another, a recycling protest song, and stayed on to be band member for the rest of the set.

Listen to Tom on BBC 6 Music and you’ll hear a man who is still much in tune with new music. If you can, go and see him live. It seems he plays about 3 gigs a year, just for fun but what fun it is. He does it because he likes it. You will like it too.

I must have the same musical tastes as Tom as I would highly recommend both support acts. Not sure when you might see or hear Orlando Seale, but Hamell On Trial is on UK tour for the rest of January.