Things kick off with a film of what looks like a youthful Lionel Richie running down a corridor - but in fact it's a live video feed of Richie now, making his entrance. Dressed in a billowing shirt and satin trousers, the grinning 57-year-old has barely aged a day since 1982.

But then, seeing Richie in 2007 was always going to involve suspension of disbelief. From the demand for tickets on this tour, you'd think Britain was still in the 1970s/80s when Richie new releases soared to No 1. "I'm coming home!" he says. That's the title of his comeback album, but he says it with such conviction you'd swear the LA resident had been born in a back-to-back in Barnsley.

Richie subsequently presses every well-worn audience response button known to man. "Fire" is rhymed with "desire", and a simple "Come ahn!" gets 12,000 people clapping.

He may be an incorrigible ham, but between the schmaltz and wisecracks, his pop constructions have a carefree quality preserved from more innocent times. "Are you ready for some Comma Daw?" he cries before a sublime Easy. Running With the Night has its authentic "pew-pew" 1980s syn-drum. An excellent funk segment - with hilarious photo - recalls Richie's Commodores days, when his afro was "out of control". One or two new slushy ballads and an awkwardly heartfelt antiwar speech remind everyone that we're in 2007, not 1977, but it's soon back to Richie's 21 top 10 hits. "Hello, is it me you're looking for?" asks Richie, inevitably, and 12,000 people forget about embarrassing themselves and noisily agree.

· At Manchester Arena tonight (0870 190 8000), then touring.