WE-EE-LLL!

Sixty years on from Shout, Lulu bows out with a Boom Bang-a-Bang

Many singers make their name with their first album. Lulu managed it with her first word. It was quite a modest word – ‘Well’ – but on her debut single, Shout, she turned it into a blast, stretching it to more than ten syllables, filling it with fun and freedom.

And she was only 15. Now she’s 75 and doing a farewell tour. It’s half greatest hits, half autobiography.

‘I’m the weirdest person,’ she tells a packed house. She doesn’t convince you of that

– as lifelong celebrities go, she seems relatively grounded – but she has certainly had a curious career.

The hits have nothing in common bar her mighty voice. From the Eurovision bubblegum of Boom Bang-a-Bang to the blazing warmth of Bob Seger’s We’ve Got Tonight, from David Bowie on form with The Man Who Sold The World to John Barry having a rare Bond off-day with The Man With The Golden Gun, an evening with Lulu is a lucky dip.

She makes it work by turning it into a TV show, full of endearing stories and evocative clips of herself and her famous friends. She does virtual duets with Bowie and Tina Turner, for whom Lulu co-wrote a minor classic, I Don’t Wanna Fight.

Best of all, she sings along with a duet she once did with her late ex-husband, Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees. As they sing together, there’s so much love in their eyes that you feel duets should be de rigueur for divorcing couples.

Introducing Relight My Fire, Lulu talks about her fondness for ‘the boys’ of Take That. And suddenly here they are, strolling on to sing it. Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen end up on their knees, bowing down before Lulu. ‘They’re family,’ she says, and you almost believe her because their signature tone – cheesy but jokey – chimes with hers.

When she leaves the stage there’s a heartfelt standing ovation. Then she trots back on and ends up where she began, with Shout. You wonder if she’ll delegate the opening note to her powerful backing singer, her sister Edwina (65), but no, Lulu does it herself, in style. She goes out with a bang. And a boom.

The album of the week comes from Lucy Woodward. She’s been a member of a witty girl-band, The Goods, and a backing vocalist for Rod Stewart.

Her latest solo album is a winner, full of jazzy rhythms and pop-soul hooks, piercing thoughts and soaring vocals.