Marking her first concert on the Isle of Man, Irish music legend Sinead O’Connor let her voice do the talking.

With a minimal stage set and a stripped back, excellent backing band, Sinead sang a set of her favourite songs and showed why her return to performing live, after more than five years away from the stage, has caused such huge interest.

She opened with a version of John Grant’s ’Queen of Denmark’ that was at times gentle and bombastic, her voice easily filled the room.

What was unexpected was the audible gasps that followed each song, such was the force and the power of hearing a singer such as Sinead up close.

Next song in was a strident version of ’Take Me to Church’, and it was clear how much she was enjoying the experience, cutting a relaxed and happy presence on stage.

She held the crowd in the palm of her hand with two simply beautiful acapella songs, ’I am Stretched on Your Grave’ and ’In This Heart’, the former greeted with a stunned silence, followed by a loud gasp and an exclamation of ’Oh wow’ from somewhere deep in the crowd.

The ripple of anticipation that swept through the audience when Sinead sang the opening lines to ’Nothing Compares 2 U’ was quite something to behold.

To sing one of the most famous songs of the past 30 years with such little fuss and to still have the power to fill the song with aching emotion and power that left many in the crowd visibly moved, shows that she has lost none of the potency and talent that made her such an irresistible force when she first exploded onto the music scene way back when.

As the night went on, Sinead clearly enjoyed herself more and more and the songs kept flowing, seamlessly moving from ’Last Days of Our Acquaintance’, where she ended the song by cracking up in laughter after forgetting one of her lines, to ’Thank You For Hearing Me’.

With a gentle, final song, ’Milestones’, she gave a grateful and endearing wave to the crowd and she was gone.

I don’t think I was alone in wishing the concert would have continued for another couple of hours.

Support came from the Irish folk-pop group, Screaming Orphans, who warmed up the crowd with a great set that was full of upbeat songs, and were given a warm and well-deserved ovation .

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers