Joe Jackson

This most singular of artists unfurled the bangers early doors at Alexandra Palace – before taking a very different turn

With the lights dipped Joe Jackson seated stage right at a lone electronic keyboard, began the first half of his two hour set before a busy Town Hall Birmingham on Sunday night and looked a little like a particularly accomplished busker.

Tonight was a rare evening in the company of one of the UK’s greatest singer songwriters. From his initial success with intelligent new wave hits ‘Is She Really Going Out With Him?’, ‘It’s Different For Girls’ and the more sophisticated ‘Steppin’ Out’, through concept albums such as ‘Jumpin Jive’

A Dylan-obsessed English teacher then invited the class to bring in song lyrics for analysis and discussion. After the Howard Jones and Duran Duran fans… there was me.

For a guy who used to have the reputation of being an "angry young man", Joe Jackson seems to really be enjoying himself now. It takes this writer back to a 1984 show in Boston, Massachusetts when Jackson seemed a bit somber and unexpectedly announced that the concert that night was to be his last show ever.

How to distil a 40-year catalogue into two hours? Rather than go down the standard greatest hits route, the Joe Jackson Four Decade tour revisited one album from each decade of the singer-songwriter’s career, beginning with his most recent work.

Joe Jackson, The Palladium, 40 years on, Jackson still wins a standing ovation