Masters of modern soul, Mamas Gun have surprisingly never played a concert in Leeds – that is, until the soulful outfit arrived at the Brudenell Social Club as part of their current European tour.

Named after the second album from neo-soul act Erykah Badu, Mamas Gun owe far more musically to the Philadelphia soul acts of the seventies like The Delfonics and The Stylistics rather than the soul acts that arrived later.

Were you to close your eyes when hearing the vocals of lead singer Andy Platts, you could have travelled back in time to the Soul Train television show from the seventies. His sweet, soulful refrain was delicate yet powerful, constant without constraint.

The band are rightly proud of their new album DIG!, recorded on analogue equipment in Leeds at All Things Analogue Studios, so much so that the majority of their set consisted of tracks from the new outing.

The album sees the group going down a more blue-eyed soul route; think Paul Carrack and Squeeze in their more soulful moments, and the picture becomes clearer. However, the album title track was co-written by the influential musician Brian Jackson, often referred to as the musical genius behind the Gil Scott-Heron classic tracks such as The Bottle.

Commencing with Hardest Yards and Food For The Flames, both from the new album, showed the confidence Mamas Gun have in their new songs; bright and breezy, they easily led into more familiar territory with I Need A Win, where the band crossed the finishing line with ease.

London Girls aptly had a name change to Yorkshire Girls as the mutual respect between the band and audience became even more apparent. Why a band of this calibre are not playing bigger venues is a question that is hard to fathom, though if they were to move to bigger stages, some of the intimacy and delicacy of their songs would surely be lost.

The keyboard skills of Dave Oliver are an intrinsic part of the band; his playing brought Good Love and then Joy to the fore before the evening closed with Golden Days and This Is The Day on a night where the soul of Marvin Gaye and the harmonies of The Temptations came together with Mamas Gun wearing proudly the crown of the kings of new soul music.

Mamas Gun play Hangar 34, Liverpool, on Friday, 17th April.