November 24, 2004 11:21

WORTH THE WAIT(S)!

The singer's first British date in 17 years is watched by Hollywood stars, rock icons, TV presenters and, er, Jamie Cullum...

A galaxy of stars turned out to see Tom Waits play his first UK show in 17 years last night (November 23).

Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, Muse[/url] frontman Matt Bellamy and Elbow’s Guy Garvey all made the pilgrimage to London Hammersmith Apollo to see the US singing legend, who has not played on these shores since 1987.

They were joined by actor Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton, who are making a new version of 'Charlie And The Chocolate Factory'.

According to XFM, tickets for the 3,000-capacity show sold out in 20 minutes, and were changing hands outside for upwards of £300.

The two-and-a-half hour performance drew heavily on material from new album ‘Real Gone’, while for the encore, [/a] wheeled out an upright piano for a string of songs from his early Seventies period. He also brought his son to the stage to play percussion in a band that also saw him reunited with guitarist Mark Ribot.

Also spotted in the crowd were Zoe Ball and Norman Cook, [a] and Jamie Cullum.