We thought Mike Skinner had hung up the microphone as The Streets with ‘Computers and Blues’, a paean to his early days; but the band reunited for an unexpected tour this year, which saw them smash the Academy in April, to sing the old songs again. Selling out that event in double quick time Skinner and co have caught everyone on the hop with the announcement of two more dates in January 2019. It’s hard to deny that a revisit of the early-noughties feels pretty appealing: it’s easy to forget about the refreshing slap to the face we all got from ‘Original Pirate Material’ and concept-album extraordinaire ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’. Skinner has a magical ability to take bare-bones material and the minutiae of life, and come out with anxious, philosophical, hilarious tales. His affable everyman status, and rough-edged musical awkwardness is the real illusion, drawing us in, celebrating the mundane, before we realise the truth: Skinner is a crafty bastard. Tickets go on sale Fri 4 May and you know they will fly out fast.

Fri 18 Jan & Sat 19 Jan at O2 Academy, 16-18 Horse Fair, Birmingham B1 1DB, 7.30pm, £tba academymusicgroup.com