Jackie DeShannon at Dingwalls

Jackie DeShannon's melodic folk rock meets soul meets MOR music style may not please everyone but her first ever live performance in the UK certainly went down well with the mostly middle aged male audience at Dingwalls last night. Still looking very like her promotional photos of the mid 1960s, with long blonde hair, the 61 year old singer songwriter ran through many of her best known and still fresh sounding hits, including When you walk in the room, Don't turn your back on me and Needles and pins. Many of her songs were hits for other people, including Bette Davis eyes for Kim Carnes, Breakaway for Irma Thomas (and later Tracey Ullman) and Come and stay with me for Marianne Faithfull, but her own versions showed she has lost none of her early vitality. She moved into MOR territory with her Bacharach hit What the world needs now and Put a little love in your heart, but it was the early self-penned work that stood out. Jackie's band was excellent and overall it was great to see and hear an under rated 60s legend in the flesh for the first time.