THERE were stars in her eyes all night. It was a fan's dream - she sat in the front row, gazing up in love and admiration. From the start of the concert Michelle McGinley, from Donegal, was singled out by the great Jimmy Scott for special treatment. He sang to her as if he had forgotten the rest of us.
At one stage, he stopped, looked at her, and smiled lovingly. "My girlfriend," said the great jazz singer, pointing to the pensions consultant who seemed to have captured his heart at the start of the concert. "There was nobody else in the room except me and him," Michelle said afterwards, beaming from ear to ear, still reeling from the joy of being sung to. On The Town smiled indulgently, concealing seething jealousy. Hmmmm.
"I never thought I'd see him," she said. And how did she feel while he was singing to her? "Mesmerised," she said breathlessly.
The entire crowd gathered in Vicar Street was mesmerised by Jimmy Scott. "We love you, Jimmy," Gavin Friday shouted out at one stage, no longer able to contain himself.
Jimmy loved it. "Hit the toon, baby," he told Hilliard Greene, the bass player with the three-piece band, The Jazz Expressions, who played with him. "That was my boss," Jimmy told us. And Hilliard joked back: "We'll give you your pay. Just half . . . maybe."
The diminutive singer broke all our hearts. He sang Some- times I Feel Like a Motherless Child. "I think we all do sometime or another," he said. B. P. Fallon watched carefully before he took pictures (no flash, of course). Philomena Lynott sat elegantly beside him, enjoying the whole show. "Can you make sure he comes back again?" she asked On The Town afterwards. Eh, yes. Consider it done. Comedian Ardal O'Hanlon was spotted chatting to Mark Doherty during the interval. Singer Mary Coughlan was there too. Actor Stephen Rea was up near the front with a group of friends - he summed up the night: "Staggering!"