NOTHING happens in York on a sleepy school night in March.

Nobody knew this gig was happening, apart from a handful of Charlie Buckets and Veruca Salts who had won golden tickets from Minster FM, Stray FM, Yorkshire Coast Radio. Festival favourites Texas had crept behind the old Odeon with guitars in tow.

Far from being a sweatbox, only 150 people watched in surprising comfort.

Sharleen Spiteri's opening gambit was berating poor Ben from Minster FM for his pun-laden introduction: the first victim of her caustic wit but not the last!

Nobody else sounds like Spiteri and she isn’t in a hurry to sound like anyone else.

She throws her fringe around with the joy of a teenager singing into a hairbrush yet confidently knowing she has sold 40 million albums.

New songs such as Work It Out stood toe to toe with the anthemic Summer Sun, The Conversation and Halo. The band played with energy and power from the downbeat featuring ever-present Scottish stalwart Johnny McElhone, whose basslines have kept pub jukeboxes busy since Altered Images.

The crowd were astounded by the announcement that I Don't Want A Lover was now 28 years old, as they realised they weren’t as young as they thought. Great songs do not carry a sell-by date.

On the eve of International Women's Day Spiteri owned the room: strong, edgy, gentle, cool, creative, beautiful and hilarious. It is safe to say a few men and women at this clandestine gathering may have fallen ever so slightly for her multi-faceted charms.

Mariah Carey et al take note that less is more. There is no need for dog whistle runs or constantly putting your flowers in the window. Simply throw a black and white Telecaster around your shoulders and leave nothing in the dressing room as you deliver heavily hook-laden tunes with a smile.

An audience singalong of Say What You Want provided the perfect encore after a respectful doff of the cap to Orange Juice's Rip It Up.

Often first airings of new material are anxious and uncertain but these were like coiled springs, exploding fully formed without a hint of work in progress.

Glasgow’s love affair with country-tinged anthems continues to be in safe hands. Based on this Texan display, “Houston we don't have a problem.”