The Ticket gig of the week

The ascent of Imelda May gave us a rare reason to be cheerful in 2010. She ended a scarcely believable year with four sold-out nights at The Olympia – a stone’s throw from her beloved Liberties – and showed us just why the world can’t get enough. The voice, the style, the charisma. The quiff. “Shout if you’re not related to me,” she directed at the beginning of a blistering rockabilly rumpus on the final night, when she was joined at various times by Sharon Corr, ex-Dubliner Eamonn Campbell and Mary Black. Not everybody was, but we all wished we were. A heavenly homecoming.