Back in the club, a successful leafleting campaign packs the crowds in, and it’s back to thrashing the strings using the ‘1′, ‘2′ and ‘3′ keys as the notes fly past. When at home, you continue to practise to build up your repertoire and further impress the audience, which leads on to busking mini-games, schmoozing with industry types and moving on to bigger and better gigs. This career system really helps bring Backstage Pass to life.

It stops the game being just about the music, and leads you through the turbulent life of a struggling musician. This is just as well, since the shrill, barely recognisable midi files that shoot knitting needles into your ears simply don’t do the franchise justice.

The songs don’t appear to correlate particularly well to the rhythm-action gameplay, and the lack of any kind of volume control means you’ll not be playing this game in public (at least, I hope not, in case I find myself sat behind you on the bus and wind up in jail for murder). It was a wise move, adding some humanity to the Guitar Hero franchise on the platform that was least capable of supporting its gameplay style.

The core rhythm-action now only constitutes about half of the game, with the rest suitably filled up by rehearsing, leafleting, busking and strategising your way to the big show. By only using three strings (more than adequate for this kind of music, right R&B fans?) the essential stage shows are very accessible, yet still sufficiently challenging; shored up by enough anticipation for the gigs that each song really feels to count toward your burgeoning career.