If Antony and The Johnsons hadn’t won the Mercury Music Prize earlier this year – sending sales of I Am A Bird Now soaring - there is a high chance that tonight I wouldn’t be so squashed amongst the mass of devotees that have made his UK jaunt a complete sell-out. However, when an artist is this intense, passionate and just so damn powerful, a few thousand adoring fans in West London is the least you’d expect.

From the moment the huge figure of Antony shuffles onto his piano stool, there is complete silence - you can hear a pin drop. All eyes are on the guy with that voice – a voice that divides opinion like no other. Some have said (unbelievably) that his voice is ‘horrible’ which couldn’t be further from the truth. From a beautifully understated ‘Cripple And The Starfish’ through a stirring ‘You Are My Sister’ (Boy George included) to an iridescent ‘Hope There’s Someone’, it is a voice that’s seemingly not of this world - such is the unique, otherness of Antony’s delivery. There is no current equivalent.

What is clearly evident throughout the evening is the British-born giant's ability to turn someone else’s music into his own. He plays no less than three covers tonight – Moondog’s ‘Always A Loneliness’, Leonard Cohen’s ‘The Guests’ and Lou Reed’s ‘Candy Says’ – all of which fall away from their original form, only to be remoulded by these devoted musicians and Antony’s quite incredible command of melody. During the encore, the audience get to experience this gift first hand, when, during the acapella of ‘Trust Your Mother’, he has the crowd sing the harmonies. What’s so exciting about this performance - ‘gig’ sounds far too ordinary – is the feeling of affirmation in the music. Beneath the questions of transgender, the images of violence and pain, and the Warholian iconography, there lies something simply magical and forever enchanting. Which makes tonight very, very special indeed.