Although Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall had the (predominantly) female audience in the palm of his hand from the moment he walked on stage, it was So Beautiful, five songs in, that really got the crowd excited. This one-time pop playboy, whose band have become such a brand that he now successfully puts out his albums via his own website rather than through a major label, relished singing the words “She was beautiful but oh so boring”.

A hitherto polite audience suddenly rallied with whoops and overhead claps at this backhanded celebration of the ordinary gal. This is pop for Shirley Valentines, and a six-night residency at the Albert Hall proves that there are still plenty of them around.

With a laddish dress sense that’s half designer-half High Street, a long-standing reputation as a model-dating pop star, and a voice that has always suggested origins on the other side of the Atlantic rather than, in truth, the Lancashire side of the Pennines, Hucknall appears to be a perfect mix of something to aspire to, and something attainable.

This Tom Jones effect seems as successful now as it was with his first hits 22 years ago. Fans swooned to the romantic The World and You Tonight, grooved to the much-loved cover of the reggae classic Night Nurse (as if it was just a jingle to sell medicine and not a seminal 1970s reggae classic), and waved their arms, rave-style, to the chorus of Fairground. Musical snobs, Hucknall’s crowd certainly ain’t.

Halfway through the set, Hucknall told the stewards that it was fine by him if fans wanted to take photographs, bringing on a white flashing wave of cameras and a sea of tiny blue mobile phone screens.

Simply Red has always been all about Hucknall, yet the group name represents the importance that he places on having a tight, classy, brassy band behind him when he plays live. Midway through, Hucknall and Co had found a free-flowing funkiness that sounded as loose and easy as their eleventh Top Ten album, Stay.

By hiding behind a guitar for Holding Back the Years, Hucknall managed to remind everyone that this oldie is not just a soundtrack for snogging slow-dancers, but a great ballad. Closing with the 1989 cover of If You Don’t Know Me by Now, he and a choir of 2,000 female voices (plus the odd husband here or there) serenaded each other. He may have his critics, but having that many fans bid you farewell like fond former lovers takes some doing.

Further performances Wed and Thurs at the Albert Hall (020-7589 8212)

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