After 27 years in the business, Joan Armatrading is touring without an album to promote, any new material to air or even a T-shirt stand in the lobby.

Now into her fiftieth year, she seems to be touring simply in order to confirm that she still exists.

So what has tempted this country-dwelling, childrens-comic-reading, chart-untroubling enigma back onthe road again? It can only be the love and affection of a hard-core of adoring fans- in which case the singer must have surveyed this somnambulant opening-night audience and wondered why she bothered.

The last time Armatrading played here there was dancing in the aisles; but then the last time she brought a drummer and a bass player with her. This tour sees Armatrading strip everything back to a trio; herself, her guitar and her huge, miraculous voice flanked by two gangling figures - the staggeringly versatile multi-instrumentalists Gary Spacey-Foot and Spencer Cousins - whose job is to drape a variety of sparse, jazzy textures around Armatrading's robust, melodic soul-pop.

This is tasteful in the extreme, but having noodled her way into the set with a laid-back lounge-piano arrangement of Drop the Pilot, you get the impression that Armatrading intends to spend the evening doing cover versions of her own material.

Isn't this what tribute bands are for? On second thoughts, isn't this what Tracy Chapman is for?