Warming the heart – for just £1 a song

TIM DE LISLE

Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott Opera House, Blackpool Touring until December 17 ★★★★★

Joss Stone Merry Christmas, Love Out now ★★★★★

At a time when the price of everything is ballooning, Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott have made sure that no ticket for their winter tour will cost more than £30. As they squeeze in 26 tracks, this works out at about a pound a song.

In fact it’s even better than that because they bring a big-name support act. Billy Bragg (HHHHH) comes on at 7.30, fills the house, plays his early hits, makes a short speech on behalf of the underpaid, and doesn’t so much warm the fans up as fire them up. At nearly 65, he’s still the lovable face of the left.

Heaton and Abbott hit the ground rocking with a seven-piece band that includes a horn trio, so the low prices haven’t led to any skimping. Their sound is hard to put your finger on: it’s pop-folk-country-soul with a whiff of music hall.

Heaton is a 60-year-old man who wears a waterproof jacket indoors and keeps it on all evening. Abbott is a 49-year-old woman in comfy jeans who is happy to play second fiddle even though she has a voice like a first violin. Both were members of The Beautiful South, and before that Heaton was in The Housemartins (with Fatboy Slim, among others).

This show finds room for the best bits of all of them.

From The Beautiful South, there’s the delicious sadness of I’ll Sail This Ship

Alone and the scathing dexterity of Don’t Marry Her.

From The Housemartins, there’s the homely soul of Think For A Minute. From the horns, there are fleeting solos that fly straight to the heart.

And then there’s Heaton and Abbott’s own oeuvre – five albums, the last two of them chart-toppers. ‘We’re in the Guinness Book Of Records,’ Heaton announces, ‘as the oldest femalemale duo to have a No1 album. A record that will never be beaten.’

I wouldn’t be so sure about that: they may well break it themselves.

A very likeable show catches fire in the last 20 minutes, with giant balloons bouncing around and dad-dancing in the aisles.

Heaton and Abbott take photos of the fans, still crowdstruck after all these years. They finish with a life-affirming version of Caravan Of Love, the Isley-Jasper-Isley classic which

The Housemartins made their own by removing all the instruments.

In the record shops, it’s time for the Christmas albums. If you’re looking to save money, this could be the place to start.

Cliff Richard is back with Christmas With Cliff (out now, HHHHH). He’s still singing

well at 82, but the songs are either dreary old chestnuts or forgettable new ones. This is Cliff’s third Christmas album.

Another octogenarian,

Neil Diamond, has gone one better – or two if you count A Neil Diamond Christmas (out now, HHHHH), a two-disc anthology drawn from his first four Christmas LPs.

He too has a weakness for the old cliches, but he breathes flavour into them with his elegant backing and effortless phrasing.

If this were an episode of MasterChef, all the contestants would be serving one dish: chestnuts, dusted with sugar. And the winner would be…

Joss Stone. On Merry Christmas, Love she’s in fabulous voice, channelling gospel, radiating joy, and delivering the definitive version of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Next year, she should do a Christmas tour.