STUART Rowe’s Lighterthief is many things: a band, an arts collective, a production company, a recording studio, a record label and a champion of up and coming young artists. 

The first two to step under the capacious Lighterthief umbrella played on Saturday night at the Arts Centre (which, with its seated audience seems an odd choice for these funky young gunslingers but people were dancing in the aisles at the end anyway) and they both look very much like popstars-in-waiting. 

Wilding is a four-piece outfit built around the melodic tunes, remarkable voice and elegantly dishevelled persona of the eponymous George Wilding who is a model of the handsome, sensitive-songwriting young man. 

George sidesteps the multiple pitfalls of this genre with the knowingness of his lyrics and an ability to rock out when he wants to, Ruby Confue, on the other end of the dishevelled/introspective spectrum, is all super confident showbiz: shiny costume changes and everything.

She sings beautifully in an idiom she describes as Urban Jazz, ably backed by some of the usual Lighterthief suspects - plus an excellent bass player who also beatboxes - making the core band  a satisfyingly self contained entity. 

The music of both acts is, as you might expect, impeccably arranged and performed. You haven't heard the last of Ruby and George.