Nancy Sinatra was the first strong, sassy, sexually confident woman in pop. Without her, there would have been no Blondie or Beyoncé. Yet her historical contribution to music has been reduced to her kitsch 1966 hit, These Boots Are Made for Walkin'. At least Morrissey knows better. He not only invited her to take part in this year's Meltdown festival but wrote her a song as well.

Live, Sinatra is assured and charismatic. Gliding on stage, dressed in a demure floor-length beige coat, she is more classy mum than sex kitten. Only her excessive use of black eyeliner hints at her sultry past. "I'm Nancy, let's get friendly," she says, huskily.

With songs this great, it's hard not to. From the coquettish Lightning's Girl and 1960s snapshot In Our Time, she erases the past four decades with a shimmy. Singing in front of a slide show of her bikini-clad self, she looks on not longingly, but with a satisfied grin.

She answers cries for her collaborations with Lee Hazlewood with a simple: "You know I can't do those without Lee," concentrating instead on two new songs from the upcoming To Nancy With Love tribute album. The Morrissey-penned Let Me Kiss You gives her an air of grandiose sadness. Two Shots of Happy, by Bono and the Edge, is an astute portrait of her father, and as she sings it she walks around the stage with one hand in her pocket - just like Frank.

But this is a celebration, not a wake. And despite being handicapped by an overzealous band who seem intent on making her sound like a guest star at a Dire Straits gig, These Boots Are Made for Walkin' is so good that Sinatra has to play it twice, climbing down from the stage to show how it's done.