Patti Smith

A Fender Stratocaster guitar may not be everyone's idea of the perfect Mother's Day gift, but Patti Smith's son Jackson chose wisely. When mum plays it for the first time tonight, she kneels down, points the fret board into the monitor, and as the feedback howls, launches into a blistering version of "25th Floor" from 1978's album "Easter." This, from a woman of 57.

Although Patti Smith has been based in New York throughout her artistic career, London is her second city and she chose this tiny college hall to try out material from new album "Trampin'", accompanied by her regular touring and recording band, consisting of guitarists Lenny Kaye and Oliver Ray and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty. "We'll do the new songs really badly," she warns, incorrectly. New number "My Blakean Year" pays homage to the radical British thinker and poet William Blake, while "Peaceable Kingdom" and "Gandhi" both surpass much of her 1990's output.

The Bible has always been an inspiration but these days Smith sounds more spiritual than ever. "Forgive my iniquities, Lord" she prays at one point, in contrast to the famous line "Jesus died for somebody's sins - but not mine" from "Gloria," with which she closes the set.

Except that's not quite the end, because this being St Patrick's night, she finishes with an absurd Irish murder ballad, accompanying herself on clarinet. In a recent interview, Smith claimed "I think my contribution to rock'n'roll has always been for me like military duty. This is sort of how I feel, that I am always somehow recruited again."

It's good to have her still in service.