Aaah, Lee Aaron… there can’t be a middle-aged metal man alive that didn’t once have a big poster of Lee on his bedroom wall at some point back in the eighties; when the editor suggested I might care to have a listen to Ms Aaron’s new live album – her first – all those misty-eyed, rose tinted memories came flooding back – Of course I’d like to have a bloody listen!

So here we are, front and centre for a nicely recorded trip through Lee’s near-forty year career; she reminds us it’s been that long by opening with a languorous take on Deep Purple’s Mistreated, which is a surprise but, it has to be said, in a nice way. It’s obvious from the get-go that Aaron’s voice has matured beautifully over the years, and she sounds absolutely wonderful throughout.

Strangely enough she throws in another cover at track three – the Montrose chestnut Rock Candy, which suggests a misplaced lack of faith in her own material (whither Only Human?) but from there on in it’s all the ‘hits’ and more. A fired-up Metal Queen comes early, and Aaron’s band – Sean Kelly on guitar, Dave Reimer on bass, John Cody on drums – sound tight and energised.

You’ll have your own favourites, of course, but for this old glamster it’s the more melodic, fun tunes that surprisingly hold up the best. Powerline is brilliant, Some Girls Do is even better and the titanic Whatcha Do To My Body sounds just as good now as it ever did, which is bloody good in case you didn’t know, and a testament to Lee’s great songwriting as much as anything else… At the end of the day, talent will out, and this collection underlines just what a talented lady Lee Aaron is, whatever the style of music she sings.

Unabashed nostalgia, maybe, but every now and then it’s nice to be reminded that every one of us still Hot to be Rocked…

Power, Soul and Rock n’Roll is out on September 20th. If you can barely hold on til then, hears a video of our heroine in action…