At just past 9pm the main course arrived on stage, this time with a a ‘burnt-out’ black gown, large waterfall silver throat decore and various electronic paraphenalia taped to her head and arm. The audience screamed out appreciation at this tall, slim and quite striking-looking woman who responded with a genuine smile wider than the Thames. And as an immediate reward played one of many great songs from SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, ‘The Walk’. So often artists fail to open their shows with a recogniseable bang so it was great that Heap avoided her latest album and chose to go with the more familiar and much loved. The audience response was nothing short of ecstatic, and so started one of the outstanding live shows of 2010… Heap had been joined by Ben Christophers on backing vocals, guitar and Apple-Mac, in addition to the aforementioned, excellent drummer.

Next came ‘Swoon’ from the latest highly acclaimed album ELLIPSE, released in 2009. Heap took time out to explain not only the circumstances surrounding songs but took the audience through each step of the technical aspects. She reminded me of a little old lady fussing about in a kitchen, gathering recipes and talking to herself the steps she should take in making the whole thing work. Everybody loved what came close to being performance art as she built the sonic layers and topped it off with her stunning vocals. It was entertaining and fascinating. It also exposed the problems of Heap performing in what is essentially a rock venue. So integral to the show was her often humorous mutterings and movements that it was important for all the audience to see what was going on. This was not possible as it was a standing show on a flat floor (unlike the sloping floor at Manchester’s Apollo). Frankly, the sound quality was not briliant either and I’ve got to say that the previous Bridgewater Hall show was far more effective in telegraphing the brilliant live work by this very special and distinctive artist.

A couple of songs in and back came the Geese to complete Heap’s backing band, sounding far better than they did before. Heap’s set-list was masterful as she plucked the odd song from more distant history, like 1998’s beautiful ‘Come Here Boy’, a 2002 Frou Frou song, ‘Let Go’and even played rare B-side ‘Speeding Cars’. I counted eight songs from her latest album and they were good enough for me to make a mental note to acquire this quick-smart. That said, Heap’s renditions of SPEAK FOR YOURSELF tracks were my highlights of the night, and I suspect that were pretty special for Heap and her audience. The album represented Heap at her inventive, expressive, emotional and melodic best - a classic electro-pop album by any standard.