The role of producer is one that often remains hidden from the public view. But if you want an example of how they can transform a project then look no further than Bernard Butler’s work on Mark Eitzel’s current offering Hey Mr Ferryman.

Eitzel made his name with US indie pioneers American Music Club before embarking on a series of solo albums, this being the tenth, and his often outrageous but poignant songs have rightly earned himself a fiercely loyal cult following. Add the input of former Suede guitarist Butler, however, and instantly they’re elevated into the realms of the thoroughly classic sounding.

Tonight is a rare treat; the only UK date where Butler joins the band’s line up, which also features bassist Gareth Huw Davies and Patrick Nicholson from R.O.C. and Globe Theatre music maestro Stephen Hiscock on drums. The Bush Hall is so full it’s an effort to squeeze yourself in through the doors at the rear, let alone find a vantage point near the front.

While Butler coaxes plenty of magic from his trademark cherry red semi-acoustic Gibson, with a style that’s two parts blazing Ziggy Stardust-era Mick Ronson to one chiming Johnny Marr. No wonder Eitzel jokes at one point ““We’re kidnapping him and taking him on the rest of the tour.”

But the guitarist remains very much in the shadows, with Eitzel’s big voice and even bigger personality very much centre stage. The content of the lyrics is unashamedly heavy, dealing with all the big subjects - death, time, sex, love, drugs and alcohol. But his between song patter is the perfect antidote, as he’s an hilarious raconteur, getting big laughs with scandalous tales of his life before and after coming out as gay, wife beating theatre directors and drag queens.

He riffs off the crowd effortlessly too. When someone shouts, after ‘An Answer’ from the new album, “that song is fucking awesome”, rather than take the compliment he comes back with a light hearted but very punk rock “fuck you!”

The audience member is right, though, it is awesome. Although there’s enough of a spread of tracks from his career to keep the older fans happy, the brace of new material is what dazzles most brightly. ‘The Last Ten Years’ is a soaring highlight, with its central chorus of “I’ve spent the last ten years/Trying to waste half an hour” lifted and dropped all over the place by Eitzel’s dextrous vocal performance,

Probably the best is saved til last though, namely ‘Mr Humphries’, which indeed is a touching tribute to the uber-camp character from 70s comedy ‘Are You Being Served?’, imagining him condemned to rot in a retirement home in his later years. It shows, probably more than anything else tonight, that despite his long and very respectable back catalogue, Mark Eitzel is surely only just beginning to hit his true creative peak.