London's live music lovers are spoilt. Week in, week out, more than any other city in Europe, London enjoys a regular procession of pop acts through its many world-class venues. But even against this backdrop, Sir Paul McCartney's one-off performance for the BBC's Electric Proms series brought a special sense of occasion to the Roundhouse. Barmen, taxi drivers, ticket touts and even music writers joined fans in whipping each other up into a pre-gig frenzy seldom seen in the capital.

One minute the crowd were screaming for the Beatles legend, the next, he was bouncing jovially onto the stage, giving his trademark V-sign and launching into the Beatles' psychedelic classic from 1967, Magical Mystery Tour.

Having expected his appearance to be prefaced by a grandiose speech from some BBC type, I found the suddennessof his appearance rather shocking. Then again, Sir Paul is one person for whom the cliché about not needing any introduction is entirely appropriate.

Now in its second year, the BBC's well-respected Electric Proms series has also featured Mark Ronson and Noel Gallagher and is billed as "a new music experience". With this in mind, there were murmurings that Sir Paul was planning to concentrate on his more recent work. Most fans would doubtless have been happy enough with this arrangement (with the obvious exception of The Frog Chorus), but Sir Paul went one better, picking out a selection of his songs from four decades of music with the Beatles, with Wings and as a soloist.

Got To Get You Into My Life from the Beatles' 1967 album, Revolver, was next up. It's a track that Sir Paul is famously proud of writing, and which he clearly relished performing, his svelte physique, cheeky grin and lithe movements giving little evidence that we were watching a 65-year-old man who is currently going through what must be an enormously stressful divorce.

Recent solo single Dance Tonight was pleasant enough, although whether the song would have held its own in the music market without the McCartney cachet is highly doubtful.

A far stronger track from his recent album, Memory Almost Full, came in the form of That Was Me. An honest, self-aware and reasonably un-mawkish reminiscence on his life and career, the song embodied the gritty, bluestinged edge of the early rock'n'roll records that inspired the Beatles in their fledgling years.

Another highlight was an acoustic segment during which he accompanied himself on guitar for a spinetingling rendition of Blackbird.

Having turned up bang on time, Sir Paul made no mention of his divorce and after delivering a rousing singalong encore consisting of Hey Jude, Let It Be and Lady Madonna, he thanked everyone from his band to the sound technicians, confirming his status as a class act with a code of conduct belonging to a more dignified era. Today's pop whipper-snappers could learn a thing or two from him, and not just about music.