There are many good words to describe Joan Armatrading but surely the best, the most apposite, has to be... impressive. Her singing, her songwriting, her playing, her quietly understated but complete control of the stage… impressive.

After 42 years there’ll be no more continuous travel. Enough with the torturous routing and the leaving home one year not to return till the next. However, this is not just her ultimate major tour. It is also, rather unbelievably, her first ever solo world tour.

And if there was ever any doubt that Joan Armatrading is more, much more, than those first great songs that brought her to the world’s attention – Love And Affection, Me Myself I, Drop The Pilot, Willow… - these shows incalculably support the claim.

For almost two hours Joan holds the stage, trawling through her career’s songbook, utilising various guitars (and playing techniques) and a piano. She shares some of the highlights of the last four decades and she gives us a glimpse of her world.

Her talent is on full display. The landmark songs, the rich, mellifluous voice, the superb musicianship. Her last few albums have seen her playing most of the instruments herself but here, alone on the stage, it is easy to see why she is also acclaimed as an instrumentalist.

Not for nothing was she at the top of the Billboard blues chart when “Into The Blues” came out. Her guitar playing surpassed many of her male counterparts (and with less histrionics). Indeed in 2007 Joan Armatrading became the first female UK artist of any colour to debut at number 1 in the Billboard Blues chart. She also became the first ever female UK artist of any colour to be nominated for a Grammy Award in the blues category.

It is fair to say Joan Armatrading is a woman of substance - borne out (if needed) by the Grammy and Brit Award nominations, the seven Honoury degrees , her own BA (studied for while on tour), the Ivor Novello and Basca Gold Badge awards. And also the personal milestones – meeting Nelson Mandela, getting the MBE, running the New York marathon...

The current tour kicked off in South Africa in April last year. With nearly every show to date a complete sellout, it sees her on the road until the end of 2015. It also encompasses the UK, Australia, North America, Germany, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, New Zealand and more concerts in South Africa,. Such has been the success of the shows in the UK that Joan returns in March 2015 to play a raft of further venues including Cardiff's St David's Hall on March 3.

‘Catch it if you can’ is a much touted phrase but here it never holds truer. This really is a show to be caught at any cost. Never to be repeated, affirmative. Multi-talented, conclusive.

Impressive is a very good word for Joan Armatrading.

Call box office on 029 2087 8500 for ticket details.