Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band at The Royal Festival Hall

This evening Yoko Ono and her Plastic Ono Band played a concert at the Royal Festival Hall as part of this years' Meltdown festival. I saw Yoko sharing a stage with Patti Smith a few years ago but have never seen her in a full concert of her own material. So tonight was the night.

The tickets sold very quickly so we were sitting in the rear stalls with an odd crowd around us, loads of middle aged interspersed with young studenty-types. I had no idea what to expect and then suddenly there was a band picking up instruments, a few chords and then on came the tiny figure of Yoko Ono, dressed in black with a big white cap. We were in the presence of a legend.

Thunderous sound erupted, solid bass and drums, three sets of keyboards, vicious guitar riffs and the wailing scream of Yoko, alternating with speaking and singing, great percussion. How to describe the music? I can't.

Yoko sang a surprising number of old - really old - songs, like 'Open Your Box,' 'Don't Worry, Kyoko' and finished the show with 'Mindtrain' (with Ornette Coleman on sax). She was surrounded by names, with Mark Ronson on bass for a few songs, Anthony Hegarty singing a couple of songs with Yoko (including a lovely version of 'Toyboat') and, of course, Sean Lennon was her band-leader doing his best to re-create the mad guitar sounds of her early records and, later, his own band supporting Yoko on songs from 'Rising'. She also sang a couple of songs from the next album (due in September) including the title track, 'Between The Sky And My Head' (also the title of her exhibition at the Gateshead Baltic gallery last year). She mentioned a couple of times that she was booed when she played London 40 years ago and that made her nervous about tonight. She also said that she had to look up the words to the old songs since she forgets them to create space in her head for new songs.

In true avant-garde style, about three quarters of the way through the concert a big screen unfurled and we were treated to a fly crawling over a woman's naked body, up her leg, around her pubic area and then into her ear and over her lips while Yoko and band merrily continued the sonic barrage. At the end, the screen was also used to show us how to use the Onochord, a small light we were given on the way in that Yoko uses as part of her art shows and installations and she showed us how to say 'I Love You' with light flashes. I *love* my Onochord and flashed it liberally during the concert.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - love her or hate her, the world is better for someone like Yoko in it and I'm delighted and honoured to have seen her tonight.