Beverley Knight at the National Portrait Gallery

Last night we went to see Beverley Knight play a short set at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Icon-acoustic season over the summer. She was in one of the lecture rooms that seated about 150 people, so was nice and intimate, and she is, apparently, the first singer ever to do a gig there. It was linked to the gay icons photographic exhibition upstairs but I'm not sure how or why.

Anyway, the seating was unallocated but we ended up right in the middle of the third row, within spitting distance of Ms Knight (not that I would, of course), in nicely banked seats so everyone had a great view. So, naturally enough, I forget to bring my camera! Ggrrrr! Just think of the close-up photos I could've taken...

On came the band, just keyboards and guitar with two of her regular backing singers and then on strode Bev looking fit in a figure hugging black top and sparkly black trews . She launched into 'Made It Back' to great applause and Bev is indeed back with a new album due out in September and a great single called 'Beautiful Night' which she sang and is on YouTube.

It was only a 40 minutes or so set, but, in between chatting and laughing with us all, she crammed in favourites including 'Gold' (dedicated to her friend Tyrone and to Danny La Rue), 'Piece Of My Heart', 'Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda', 'Keep This Fire Burning' and finished with 'Come As You Are'. It's a testiment both to Bev's voice and her writing that the songs worked very well cut down to just voice, keyboard and one guitar.

It was great to see Beverley in such a small space at the start of her promotion of the new album. I'm looking forward to hearing it soon. These photos were taken with my phone - next time I'll have my camera!