OF course Gabrielle was never going to remove those trademark black sunglasses, not even on a dark freezing night in February!Instead she asked for the stage lights to be swung onto the audience, and yes, the sight which greeted her was a full house at the Ipswich Regent.

OF course Gabrielle was never going to remove those trademark black sunglasses, not even on a dark freezing night in February!

Instead she asked for the stage lights to be swung onto the audience, and yes, the sight which greeted her was a full house at the Ipswich Regent.

Reassured that her Suffolk fans were all present and correct, and with a trusty teapot perched on a stool beside her, the singer songwriter launched into a show which revealed her range.

Her husky voice which has earned her comparisons with Eartha Kitt, made it hard to distinguish some of the earlier vocals but by the time she got to her biggest hits the audience knew all the words anyway.

From chart-topping pop to r&b and rock, Gabrielle belted out all the fans' favourites including When a Woman, Fallen Angel, Rise, Out of Reach - from the Bridget Jones's Diary soundtrack,

Every Little Teardrop and Give Me a Little More Time. Tracks including Sunshine got them dancing in the aisles.

She was accompanied by a forceful five-man band and two backing singers, who the star was happy to let have their moment of glory.

Britain's soul queen first arrived on the scene when she won the Best Newcomer Brit award back in 1993 for her debut album, Find Your Way. That same year her debut single Dreams had gone straight into the chart at number two before rising to number one. Was that really 15 years ago?

She finished with her own inimitable version of Tracy Chapman's Fast Car, woven into Dreams...and had walked off into the darkness well before the band played on for a spectacular finale.

Tracey Sparling