Not being a fan of the brat pack jazz/blues movement that has emerged over the last year or so, I was expecting to find last night's Katie Melua gig a bit dull.

But I was pleasantly surprised. The 20-year-old darling of BBC Radio 2 was soulful, bluesy and a joy to watch.

Barely out of her teens and just over a year after leaving school, Katie looked just a slip of a girl in a T-shirt and hippy skirt.

But her voice was like velvet and she demonstrated a gutsy blues style and impressive songwriting repertoire that took her way beyond her years.

She was introduced to a packed audience by Mike Batt - the man behind The Wombles - who discovered Katie last year.

Mike, a former pupil of Belle Vue School, Bradford, accompanied Katie on piano, along with a fabulous blues band.

Katie started with an acoustic version of Faraway Voice, a song she wrote in memory of singer Eva Cassidy, and sang tracks from chart-topping debut album Call Off The Search and her new yet-to-be-released album.

At times, when she wasn't singing and the band took over, the young star looked a little uncomfortable, as if she didn't quite know where to put herself. But that's just lack of experience, and her beautiful voice more than made up for it.

I didn't care for the rather cringeworthy Spider's Web, a song Katie wrote "for Iraq" that sounded like a naff Eurovision entry, but I enjoyed the haunting Belfast, the raunchy My Aphrodisiac Is You and a noisy, bluesy version of The Cure's Lovecats. And, of course, the crowd-pleaser Closest Thing To Crazy. She ended with a charming folk song from Georgia where she spent her early childhood.

Special mention for her support act, Tom Baxter, a lovely, mellow singer/guitarist who reminded me of David Gray.

A sell-out audience of all ages went home very happy.