There can't be many genuine US soul divas residing in West Hampstead. So if you spot a funky lady with gigantic hair boarding a train at the Thameslink, it could well be Chaka Khan.

She's been there for so long that this live comeback for her first album in a decade, Funk This, was also a homecoming of sorts. "It's my town, it's where I live," she shouted excitedly.

After some years of what she describes as "self-medicating", Yvette Stevens has been sober since 2004 and has also embraced God although, mercifully, she didn't go on about that too much.

As she's now behaving more like a 55-year-old grandmother, perhaps Chaka Khan also needs longer to warm up her phenomenal vocal. Because this show had a slow start with a disappointingly loose version of the Eighties hit I Feel For You, during which the backing vocalists did more work than her.

The fans were singing along soon enough, though, with Chaka Khan building up to a blistering vocal during Ain't Nobody by her old band Rufus. Tony Maiden from the group was back on stage with her, supplying crisp guitar funk, and given his crotch-grabbing jeans and sunglasses, he looked and sounded like a man who still lives in the Seventies.

Will You Love Me? did at least possess a more modern dance rhythm, while another new song Angel was delivered with passion. She told us she wrote the ballad some years ago when she was "high", adding that her troubled career has parallels with Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston, who should apparently remind themselves they are "God's angels". Through The Fire was another redemptive tune, during which the veteran diva shook her body and grunted lyrics about being a "bad, bad girl".

That song was sampled by Kanye West and it's worth remembering that Chaka Khan has worked with Stevie Wonder, Prince and Miles Davis. So as a surprise guest, perhaps British soul singer Beverley Knight was initially a bit underwhelming. But she rose to the occasion as the pair dueted on I'm Every Woman.

The dodgy dancing in the audience may have signalled that Chaka Khan was now in cheesy disco territory. But it was still a suitably feelgood finale to a welcome comeback.