Ghost Of The Robot, Scala, London

He wasn't wearing the coat. Neither was he wearing eyeliner, nor did he at any time in the gig bare his chest to the Buffy fans who had come out to see their favourite vampire, Spike, and his band play at London's Scala. Ghost of the Robot's final gig of a virtually sold-out European tour was a curious event sitting halfway in the Buffy universe and halfway in the pop-rock world of a band trying to get off the ground.

The band too is a near half-and-half combination of three very young boys in the rhythm section, Charlie, Aaron and Kevin, fronted by old-timers James Marsters (aka Spike) on lead vocals and Steven on lead guitar/keys. Sure, having a TV star in the band helps greatly but as with Keanu Reeves's band, Dogstar, these guys will never get out of the "Spike's band" box.

The crowd was exactly what you'd expect: hysteric teen girls swooning against the front of the stage, mums in the back and the odd goth wandering around in a dog collar. Still platinum but dark rooted, James was pudgier than on Buffy so keeping the shirt on was perhaps a considered move. Relaxed and comfortable in his denims with a tight black T-shirt, he is no rock god on stage, thank god. At 40, he's older than he looks but still buff even in inflated form.

As for the rest of this Californian band, most interesting is James's co-founder and key songwriter Charlie De Mars. He is a gifted musician with potential, but the band needs to gel before he can really make use of it. The music runs the pop side of rock with a bit of LA's Weezer in the mix. They share the lyrics which are no great shakes and James has a slightly unsettling tendency to return repeatedly to the Lolita theme - "Know they're gonna say you're too young for me/ but think if I kiss you, that would be fine." Erm, right.

Does the band rock? Well, yes it can, but not often. "Dangerous" and "David Letterman" are decent songs from their first and only album, Mad Brilliant, but many just lack hooks. James's singing, though competent, is overly measured and the bouncy, almost goofy, boy trio in the back seems odd fronted by our familiar vampire. That is, until you realise that James is actually not Spike. All the initial cries of "Spike, Spike!" faded as it became clear he wasn't going to be "staccato", "punk" and "mysterious" (his words describing how he nailed Spike's Britishness).

Instead, he played coy and smiley with a lollipop in his mouth where Spike's cigarette would usually hang. Hearing him chatting California-style with the audience, it was intriguing how different he really is. James isn't a bad actor and that's enough for GotR fans.