Judy Collins at Leicester Square Theatre

Judy Collins
Kenny White

Leicester Square Theatre, 22 April 2012

Last year I saw Judy Collins, then a sprightly 71 years old, for the first time and it was a wonderful experience: she was still in fine voice and full of wonderful stories and entertained her enthralled audience for two hours with selections of songs from throughout her career. It was really a magical concert and I was looking forward to seeing her again (especially that, given her age, I feel like the opportunities to catch her in the future will be much fewer). But this time was really a mixed bag and, although far from terrible, I felt that Judy's heart wasn't really in it for this show.

Best gigs of 2011

Looking back at my list of gigs for this year I feel more uncool than ever because so few would ever grace the pages of NME and a good many are actually in their 50s and 60s. Not that I care anymore because I can say without doubt it's an honour to see some of the legends I've had the pleasure of seeing for the first time this year. Plus I got to see a few exciting up-and-comers too, so I'm not completely without hope in the cool stakes! Anyway, here's my annual list of my 10 favourite gigs of the year.

10. Janis Ian at Cadogan Hall and Judy Collins at Leicester Square Theatre

(Sorry, I can't decide between these two!)

9. Emmylou Harris at the Royal Festival Hall

8. Laura Cantrell at Mondo Water Rats

7. Gillian Welch & David Rawlings at Hammersmith Apollo

6. The Twilight Singers at Concrete

5. My Brightest Diamond at St Giles In The Field

4. Jonathan Wilson, Dawes & Jackson Browne at The Borderline

3. Marianne Faithfull at the Barbican

2. Patti Smith at St Giles In The Field

1. Sufjan Stevens at the Royal Festival Hall

Judy Collins at Leicester Square Theatre

Judy Collins

Leicester Square Theatre, 12 June 2011

Early last year I passed up the opportunity to see Judy Collins live and I immediately regretted it. I thought that, at the ripe old age of 72, there wouldn't be many more opportunities to see her live but I needn't have worried: it turns out Collins still loves to tour and seems well able for it too, seeming more lively than many acts half her age and sporting a pair of high heels that even I wouldn't have been able to stand in for a couple of hours.