IF there was ever an artist who sets out to make a statement out of his appearance, it’s Rufus Wainwright.

It not being enough to play and sing some of the most beautiful songs of recent years, th singer-songwriter never fails to put on a visual show – whether stockings and suspenders or a ball gown. So when he emerged from the darkness which cloaked the start of his set at Oxford’s New Theatre on Friday, it came as a surprise, nay a disappointment, to find him in the merely flamboyant, yet essentially normal attire of a red waistcoat, sunglasses, sparkly shoes and what he referred to as “Rupert trousers”.

Compared to his last visit to the New Theatre, when he requested no one apploud lest they interrupt his cycle of songs dedicated to his recently deceased mother, the singer Kate McGarrigle, this was a happy Rufus.

He crackled with energy as he shared camp banter and witty anecdotes - pondering on what Jericho might hold for the traveller and confiding in us about a young man he had seen perched around the back of an Oxford college earlier in the day (“he was either a student or a prostitute... I don’t know if he’s here but there’s a pass waiting for him back stage!”) As for the music... well, it was sublime, with songs from new album Back in the Game sitting next to classics dating back across his career. And the crowd lapped it up - sitting in rapt attention during the pin-drop moments of sheer beauty of just Rufus and his piano, and giggling like schoolchildren at his cheeky asides.

This was a real family show. A name check for his sister Martha, who has just released an album in memory of McGarrigle, was followed by a tribute of his own.

“We had a great mother,” he sighed, before saying they’d been “blessed” to explore her musical legacy.

This scion of a musical dynasty was joined on stage by two others – Teddy Thompson, son of folk-rockers Richard and Linda; and Leonard Cohen’s son Adam - a member of the Wainwright clan himself now, following the birth of Rufus’s daughter Viva to his sister Lorca.

The most heartfelt tribute to McGarrigle came not from Rufus but from Thompson and backing singer Krystle Warren, who delivered jaw-dropping renditions of, respectively, the great woman’s Saratoga Summer Song and an achingly-beautiful I Don’t Know.

More delights included the velvet-smooth and deliciously sparse Respectable Dive, an instant classic from the latest album, and the upbeat and lilting Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk. It was quintessential Rufus - just him and his piano.

“I cant wait to stand up in these pants,” he laughed afterwards, clearly struggling in those tight checked trousers.

Album title track I’m Out of the Game soars, the perfect vehicle to his extraordinary vocal range, while the sublimely miserable Going to a Town is pure melancholy.

The mood lightens with a little dig at Liza Minnelli, who, he tells us had been rude about his tribute to her mother Judy Garland. He confessed he had previously renamed his version of the Garland song The Man that Got Away, the Bitch that Got Away - but had now decided to “bury the hatchet”. “So this is your chance Liza!” he laughed.

Then it was time for a tribute to another of his own relatives - this time dad Loudon Wainwright III - and his song One Man Guy.

“Now I’m going to do a great song by his father,” Rufus says turning to Cohen. “It’s kind of upbeat and depressing as only he can do.”

The tune, Everybody Knows, is a show-stopper, sung alternately by Wainwright, Thompson and an appropriately gravelly-voiced Cohen. It is lifted from the darkness of the original with a tango beat and subtle cabaret delivery.

His own The Art Teacher, in contrast, is spacious, fragile and confessional, and had us on the edge of our seats, as did the deeply-personal Montauk, his tribute to Viva or “Adam Cohen’s niece” as he described the latest addition to his clan.

If that had been all, we’d have left happy. But it was far from over.

The encore was heralded by a butch chap in angel wings and loin cloth - and, sure enough, our hero soon emerged in similar attire. He had promised that we’d get to see his legs on this tour, and he wasn’t joking.

The stage descended into surreal camp panto - at one point involving an enormous foam rubber baguette sandwich. By then the crowd were on their feet and loving the spectacle; a carnival cherry on the top of a musically brilliant dessert.

On his latest album, Rufus claims to be Out of the Game. From tonight’s performance he’s anything but!

Tim Hughes