THIS exuberant show is not to be confused with those increasingly soulless Commitments tours that dragged on far too long with ever diminishing numbers of cast members from Alan Parker's 1991 film.

Think instead of the aforementioned movie, the Dublin musical comedy-drama adapted from Doyle's 1987 novel, the first of his Barrytown Trilogy. Doyle himself has written the book for the West End version that is now being toured by Phil McIntyre Entertainments after two years in the Smoke.

Brian Gilligan has stayed with the show to reprise his London role as Deco, the singer with the sweetest of soul voices but alas a bit of an ass-soul to boot: the Deco who frankly deserves to be decked.

Quick refresher course: The Commitments is set in 1986 in the north side of Dublin, where the silver-tongued dreamer and putative band manager Jimmy Rabbitte (Andrew Linnie) wishes to build a band on the foundation of his black American soul and blues idols, Otis, Wilson, Marvin and the rest. His reasoning: the Irish are the blacks of Europe; Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland; and northsiders are the blacks of Dublin, and soul music is the politics of the people; a mantra as familiar as the Choose Life speech in Trainspotting.

We first encounter the incorrigible Deco leading the Christmas singing at The Regency, and one by one Rabbitte auditions his band, in a revolving door of a scene where Jimmy's Da (erstwhile Coronation Street soap star Kevin Kennedy) has a curt insult for all and sundry.

The last to join is the mysterious, mystical, motorcycle-riding, ageing trumpet player to the stars, Joey The Lips (the scene-stealing Alex McMorran), who will work his way through the backing singers, Natalie (Amy Penston), Bernie (Christina Tedders) and Imelda (Leah Penston).

Dubbing his band The Commitments to reflect their hard-working ways, Rabbitte oversees his bunch of misfits striving to spark a Dublin soul revolution, but such a path to soul salvation can never run smoothly, not when band members are as head strong as Deco and drummer Billy (John Currivan).

The narrative is full of Irish wit and whimsy, if prone to caricature, the storyline leading into such songs as Take Me To The River, Mr Pitiful, Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Knock On Wood and the finale of Mustang Sally and a glorious Try A Little Tenderness.

You will all have your favourites from soul's golden age, but Thin Line Between Love And Hate has never sounded better in a show that is indeed full of soul passion, commitment, fury, humour and top-notch performances from Caroline Jay Ranger's cast of rowdies. You may not connect with all the characters as there are so many, but you will with the way they play.

This is the start of a 2017 run of big musical after big musical at the Grand Opera House; the torch has been lit by Gilligan, Linnie and co and a hot season of shows lies ahead.

Roddy Doyle's The Commitments, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3024 or at atgtickets.com/york