Mercury winner is pure gold

In his first London concert since his September victory, the shock of which was so great that he said he looked like "I'd stolen the Crown Jewels" when pictured on the cover of this newspaper, he dazzled and hypnotised with a voice that is not from this planet.

Special guest Boy George, who sang You Are My Sister for the loudest applause of the evening and a bunch of flowers from Antony, said to the crowd: "Thank you for embracing one of the most beautiful voices I've heard in a long, long time. Every time I hear him it breaks my heart."

I, too, have been enjoying playing his music to people all year, just to see the looks on their faces when they hear his fathomless tones for the first time. It's like discovering a new colour.

Still unused to genuine popularity after years working on New York's gay performance-art circuit, he seemed nervous at the grand piano. When not playing he ran his fingers along its edges, lifted the lid up and down, touched the keys without depressing them.

After a seemingly flawless Cripple and the Starfish he marched to the sound man at the side of the stage and gesticulated furiously, before immediately apologising for "being a little Mariah Carey".

His jumpiness may have added extra quivers to his emotion-wracked voice, which swooped intensely over tortured expressions of gender confusion such as My Lady Story. With the subtle accompaniment of the six-strong Johnsons, including violinist, cellist, acoustic guitarist and the world's most underused drummer, For Today I am a Boy sounded like a sparse chamber piece.

His choice of covers was typically esoteric - All is Loneliness by blind avant-garde composer Moondog, a stunning interpretation of Leonard Cohen's The Guests, and Candy Says, Lou Reed's tale of a doomed transsexual that has become Antony's signature tune.

Like his heroes Boy George and Marc Almond, it is easy to envisage a long career for Antony, drifting in and out of fashion but always in demand for the utterly distinctive sounds that float from his mouth. For him, at least, that Mercury win is the beginning, not the end.

Antony & The Johnsons, Florence & The Machine, VV Brown