Triumphant return for the troubled rockers promoting their fifth album 'Shangri-La Dee Da'

The very long period of addiction-overshadowing-creativity imposed inactivity appears to have been used by Stone Temple Pilots as a learning curve. After so many years of singer's drug problems, enforced sabbatical and 'splitting', separate work, the band's return to a London stage that was an absolute triumph.

STP have grown up and out of its troubled past that started in 1996 when Scott Weiland was ordered to attend live-in rehab centre. Now they are a mature version of its earlier self without losing power, rawness and showmanship when STP take their sold-out auditorium on a journey to a shore of desperation and hope, washed with waves, from a baby-surf to a tsunami. 'Vaseline', 'Big Empty', 'Interstate Love Song', 'Heaven And Hot Rods', kick out the gems.

On an unadorned stage, the only décor being a logo in the background, the band deliver a show that was as big as Space Needle in the grunge capital. Weiland is one of the greatest showmen around, mixing Iggy Pop-ness (body language as much as naked torso), nu-Metal God (stance and tattoos) and young Rod Stewart (with all the agility of moves). With simple props - hat, feather-boa, megaphone, shades and, even, a towel - Weiland leads the three musicians into the world where sounds matter.

Hard-rocking, metalling, spacing-out and then, all positioned front stage for a segment of calmer, Unplugged-like moments which Scott announces as 'We are Weezer'. The fifth album 'Shangri-La Dee Da' offers all the known elements that grew out of the grunge episode (STP were formed in 1987) to become an ambition to be the new Led Zeppelin. There is no real aping going on but the way Robert de Leo plays his guitar (and looks to a certain extent) is pure Jimmy Page heralding the sonic picture into an epic land.

It gets voluble as hell and then hushes to a whimper, all handled with an incredible confidence and visible performing joy. The period that saw the backing trio team up with another singer for Talk Show one-off album (self-titled, 1997) and Weiland's own '12 Bar Blues' (1998) are all but forgotten and their future look secure once again.

Tonight the world majestic applies: STP is an elevation.