But there’s no substitute for the thrill of an evening in the Albert Hall itself.Proms box office 020 7589 8212; Proms website www.bbc.co.uk/proms. The self-proclaimed “beautiful Little Richard from Macon, Georgia” will not leave the stage. “Why does that red light keep flashing? Does someone want me to stop?” he asks. Of course, the packed house is happy for him to extend his blend of pantomime kitsch, pentecostal-inspired fervour and rollicking cabaret for as long as it takes. Just turned 67, with an elaborate pompadour (now more Dallas extra than New Orleans drag queen), he puts in a performance that could make it on sheer force of personality alone. But, when the notion takes him to knuckle down and perform a song as opposed to holding court, preening and grandstanding, his lavish band – complete with raucous horn section and two drummers – is more than ready to do justice to his retinue of Fifties classics.

The self-proclaimed “beautiful Little Richard from Macon, Georgia” will not leave the stage. “Why does that red light keep flashing? Does someone want me to stop?” he asks. Of course, the packed house is happy for him to extend his blend of pantomime kitsch, pentecostal-inspired fervour and rollicking cabaret for as long as it takes. Just turned 67, with an elaborate pompadour (now more Dallas extra than New Orleans drag queen), he puts in a performance that could make it on sheer force of personality alone. But, when the notion takes him to knuckle down and perform a song as opposed to holding court, preening and grandstanding, his lavish band – complete with raucous horn section and two drummers – is more than ready to do justice to his retinue of Fifties classics.
The beautiful Little Richard likes to do things his way, but between taking time out to surround himself with multi-racial dancers pulled out of the audience (“I want some Jews up here and black people, do we have any black people in the house?”) and regaling us with stories about his time spent with the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, he delivers when you least expect it.

While the classics “Tutti Frutti” and “Lucille” are squandered, he delivers a joyous “Jenny Jenny”, a raging, aching “Send Me Some Lovin’ “, and saves some astonishing ivory interplay with the band for the closing blues, “Let it Roll”. Grannies are twisting in the aisles, the twentysomething crowd with the peroxide and DAs blending in easily alongside them.That Richard Penniman and tonight’s co-headliners Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry are able transform this metallic cavern is a testament to the continuing strength of the cultural uprising they helped to ferment back in the mid Fifties. This European tour is billed as being the three founding fathers’ “last time together live”, and perhaps the shadow of mortality, and the well-documented competitive spirit between all three, inspires new levels of commitment.Certainly the opener, Jerry Lee Lewis, is on fine, contrary form and more focused than at a previous London appearance where his piano playing was heavily supplemented by an off-stage back-up. Tonight there’s a smoky organ lacing his interpretations of “CC Rider” and “Georgia On My Mind”, but there’s no mistaking Lewis’s trademark mastery, flowing through a set that easily embraces dark blues, hardcore honky-tonk country and, of course, a rock’n'roll finale with a lugubrious rather than explosive “Whole Lotta Shakin’ “.It was only fair that the 74-year-old Berry, the senior member of the pack, should headline. His songs are an indelible slice of 20th-century American poetry, his pioneering guitar style nastier and more incisive than ever The class of ‘55 isn’t ready to leave the stage On this form, why should they?.