These small gigs are becoming a habit for Paul McCartney. Having put his touring plans on ice until his divorce proceedings are finalised, he has taken to playing occasional shows at venues such as the Highline Ballroom in New York and the Electric Ballroom in London. His latest foray took him to the 2,000-capacity Roundhouse, in North London, where he put on a neat, 90-minute performance which was the jewel in the crown of this year’s season of BBC Electric Proms.

Ostensibly there to promote his new album, Memory Almost Full, McCartney, 65, wisely elected to celebrate former glories rather than force feed the audience with too many new songs. He began and ended the show with Beatles songs - Magical Mystery Tour and Get Back respectively — which he sang while playing his iconic Hofner violin bass. And throughout the show he paid due attention to the many pop classics at his disposal.

Some of these, including karaoke perennials such as Hey Jude, Let It Be and The Long and Winding Road, have become so overexposed that even hearing them performed in person by the master himself did not quite restore their original lustre. But more often you found yourself gasping at the sheer brilliance of so many songs that have become part of the fabric of modern pop culture: Back in the USSR, I’ll Follow the Sun, Blackbird, I Got a Feeling and even the old Wings odyssey Band on the Run.

His four-man backing band worked hard and skilfully for their money. All the musicians were strong harmony singers, and the horn parts in Got to Get You into My Life and others were immaculately recreated on the keyboards. There were deafening blasts of pyrotechnics during Live and Let Die and the band was augmented at times by a string octet, seated behind a gauze curtain, most notably for an emotional rendition of Eleanor Rigby.

Less engaging was the maudlin Here Today, a song that takes the form of an imaginary conversation with John Lennon which McCartney sang in a tremulous tone, accompanied only by his own acoustic guitar. And there were, of course, some distinctly forgettable numbers from the new and other solo albums slotted in here and there.

There was lots of matey banter between McCartney and the audience and you could have imagined the event to be a genuinely intimate encounter were it not for the huge boom arm carrying a TV camera that swung past from time to time, obscuring the view of the stage.

It was nice to see McCartney up close, but the man of the people act extends only so far.

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