Texas, Roundhouse, London, gig review: Sharleen Spiteri was in exuberant form

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“London, you're sounding like shit,” Sharleen Spiteri cajoles in a Glaswegian accent seemingly unsoftened by 20 years living “round the corner” from this Camden cavern. The crowd soon buck up, so a night billed in comforting fashion as “Texas songs and stories from the last 25 years” becomes a raucous celebration that plays to the strengths of the Scottish outfit and their live-wire singer.

Spiteri is in exuberant form, the 48-year-old seeming not to have aged since her band's mid-nineties pomp, when Texas swam against the Britpop tide by mining American influences, chiefly classic Motown and glossy pop-soul.

While far from gamechangers, Texas have written enough decent songs that two hours rarely drag. Highlights range from the country twang of eighties outlier 'I Don't Want A Lover' through a thumping 'Halo' to a pulsing 'Summer Son' and 'Say What You Want', where the diminutive vocalist shows a sweeter, higher register beside her formidable blues-rock holler.

Surprises are few: a brief, yet winning snatch of TLC's 'Waterfalls' and a dedication to Serge Gainsbourg, but then tonight is about earthier virtues – the underdog stars (38 million sales and counting) that know how to party.