Only one musician on the planet could pull-off a cover version of Nelly Furtado’s Maneater, which mixes funky R&B and Medieval Latin. Then again, probably only one musician has the versatility and vision to be able to take his audience on a thoroughly entertaining journey through 1,000 years of popular music – from a lament penned by Richard the Lionheart to early Beatles songs, via Gilbert and Sullivan and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. That musician is Richard Thompson.

The project was inspired by a request to Thompson from Playboy magazine, which, in 1999, asked him to list his top ten songs of the millennium. The recording of the 1,000 years show made in New York in 2002 remains one of my all-time favourite albums, so I was relishing the chance to see Thompson’s millennium pick of the pops live. Along with the rest of the audience on Saturday, I wasn’t disappointed. The choice of songs may have changed, but the show remains true to Thompson’s concept.

He adopted the air of an eccentric Oxford don presenting a lecture, punctuating the musical journey with anecdotes – and the odd dodgy joke. His small backing band comprised the skilful and energetic Debra Dobkin on percussion and Judith Owen on vocals. Owen is well known in the US, and should be far better known here. For trivia fans, Owen is the wife of Harry Shearer, the voice of Mr Burns and Ned Flanders in the cartoon show The Simpsons.

She has a beautiful and expressive voice and, like Thompson, is remarkably versatile – effortlessly switching from singing an Elizabethan madrigal to a seductive version of Cole Porter’s Night and Day and a fantastic version of Cry Me a River, a song made famous by Julie London. Incidentally, if you want to hear more of Judith, she has a new album out, called Mopping Up Karma, which can be found on iTunes or Amazon.

Thompson helps his audience rediscover lost gems, particularly in the second half of the show, which concentrated on the 20th century and featured his versions of a couple of sixties classics, including The Kinks’ ever-so-slightly psychedelic See My Friends and a wonderful cover of The Easybeats’ 1966 hit Friday on My Mind.

Sadly we didn’t get Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt (a medieval-style version of Britney’s Oops! I did it Again), but Nelly’s Maneater was a good substitute to bring things up to date.