大象传媒

It's a real vein-melter: rock, jazz, soul and a dash of urban ennui. Mr Hudson and his band, The Library, have obviously been reading up on their contemporary classics, their music artfully cross-referencing The Kinks, Herbie Hancock and Chet Baker.

Kettle drum and sumptuous keys courtesy of Silver Jones adding an ear-tingling tang to the standard guitar, bass and drums. At the centre is Mr Hudson, world-weary, words and emotions wrung out of the poor fella, his observational rhetoric counterbalancing the band's groove-based jams on songs such as 茂驴陆Bread & Roses' and 茂驴陆Too Late, Too Late'.

Big hair, big voice, BIG talent, what a right entertaining little madam Amy Winehouse is. Downtown sassiness, docker's tattoos and the beehive barnet, an altogether alarming collision of the gaudy and the glam. Flanked by her band, oh-so-dapper in those crisp suits, Winehouse slinks about the stage, stopping occasionally to touch the 'do in a gesture of reassurance. Her take on classic soul and blues is suitably down and dirty, 茂驴陆Know You Now' managing to be both coy and a little bit forward, a song of innocence and experience.

The sound recalls Phil Spector's rampaging Sixties heyday, Winehouse' voice the foundation stone around which this particular wall of sound is constructed. By glorious increments her band layer guitar, bass, drums, brass and harmonies, gathering their canvas around that voice. And my, what tales that voice will tell.

Love's treated Ms Winehouse badly. 茂驴陆Me And Mr Jones' finds her flaunting a devil-may-care, all-men-are-feckless-devils attitude, but 茂驴陆Wake Up Alone', possessed of a powerful, smothering vulnerability, tells the true story. She is a curious mix of the in-your-face and the insecure, a latter-day Diana Dors, her boozed-up, messy and haphazard existence both an allure and a distraction.

In terms of personal engagement Winehouse is somewhat lacking, sullen and standoffish, albeit not in an affected way. Musically, however, tonight's performance, from the bombastic soul of 茂驴陆Rehab' to crystalline shimmy of a funk-infused 茂驴陆Valerie', is hard to fault. And hell the girl can sing.

Francis Jones