Ever since Elaine Paige implored me (and the whole of Argentina) not to cry for her, I have been a huge fan of the diminutive songstress.
I was there when she ascended to the Heaviside Layer in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats with the song that became her signature tune. I was a student in London eking out my grant to get a standby when she made the right moves in Chess and witnessed her regretting rien as Edith Piaf.
And I guess, judging by the demographic, that many in the audience at the William Aston Hall in Wrexham, have also grown up with EP and love every note she sings.
Frontman of the support act, the John G Smith band, modestly explained that Ms Paige had heard them play in a club in Soho and asked them to become her new band, as if plucked from obscurity, but I suspect they were already doing swimmingly well on the circuit.
A short set of quirky songs, which would sit happily with any Radio 2 listener, and it wasn't long before EP took to the stage, resplendent in silver.
The woman who has starred in more smash hit West End and Broadway musicals than anyone else of her generation and who played her farewell tour in 2014, took us through songs from her favourite contemporary songwriters: Burt Bacharach, Randy Newman, Jim Webb, Paul McCartney to name a few.
Bread's Guitar Man, Paul Simon's 50 Ways to Leave your Lover and a Carole King number were given the EP treatment and people liked it. But the whoops and cheers were reserved for when she embarked on a solo version of her and Barbara Dickson's hit single I Know Him So Well.
And a real fear towards the end of the concert that she had perhaps lost her Memory was quickly assuaged. Add in If You Love Me (Really Love Me) by Edith Piaf and With One Look from Sunset Boulevard and the fans were satisfied.
My favourite song of the evening was a relatively unknown Carly Simon song Two Little Sisters, which obviously brought back her own memory of a former life in Barnet with her own (older, as she pointed out!) sibling.
Thanks Elaine - a splendid evening of song.
