KEY POINTS:
Only rarely do we see artists late in their career - when they could comfortably coast on past glories or back-catalogue - extend themselves into new territory, as Joan Armatrading did in her powerful and assertively bluesy set before Bryan Ferry.
After a well-received, acoustic opening bracket at the Logan Campbell Centre by Auckland singer-songwriter Danny McCrum and Ben Jurisich, Armatrading announced her intentions by kicking in with A Woman in Love from her current album Into the Blues - and proved that when it comes to playing rocking electric guitar she has found her natural idiom in the blues.
Yes, she did play some of her older material - an electrifying Show Some Emotion and Me, Myself, I among them.
But it was on new songs such as Something's Gotta Blow where she really delivered, and made clear that far from resting on considerable past glories and a 30-year catalogue of songs, she was pushing into new and rewarding areas.
And her huge smile when she announced just how rewarding - her album went to number one on the Billboard blues charts - was further vindication.
Armatrading and her tight, cracking band delivered with such fierce commitment I'd guess many in the audience could have called it a night then and still gone home happy.
Bryan Ferry, in a suit that probably cost more than my car, was a slow starter.
His cool take on Dylan's bitter Positively 4th Street lacked the venom or vindictiveness the lyrics insist on, but he, too, had a terrific band and when they kicked in with some astringent sax and discordant keyboards they effectively, if briefly, conjured up that old Roxy Music magic.
His set had a natural upward trajectory through the ever-popular Jealous Guy, and by Let's Stick Together and other past glories Ferry - by then in a spangly jacket - had the almost capacity crowd in that dreadful building on their feet.
Armatrading and Ferry are both what we might call middle-aged, not that you'd have known it on the night.
