It’s hard to get a room full of people to listen to you. Unless you're Chrissie Hynde.

“Take your iPad and take it away,” the Pretenders frontwoman told a person in the crowd at York Barbican, urging the audience to put their phones away. “If I can see one, we’ll just stop.”

Refreshingly, you probably won’t have seen that many photographs of the rock band’s gig last night (Thursday, October 31) on social media – because people listened to Hynde.

It’s not hard to see why. Her voice is still as powerful as ever and her stage presence is too. Oh, and she’s still really cool.

Hynde walked out of the darkness in a pink blazer, black t-shirt and thigh length black boots over her jeans, strapped on her sparkly Telecaster and launched into the pure rock and roll Losing My Sense of Taste.

The song leads the band’s latest album Relentless, released last year.

A Love, also from that album, was next with Hynde’s voice going in harmony with the jangly riffs of guitarist James Walbourne.

The band – also consisting of Dave Page and Walbourne – continued through old and newer songs – like Kid and Junkie Walk – before dedicating The Buzz to Johnny Thunders.

Hynde praised the New York Dolls and Heartbreakers member as one of the great guitarists.

She said he would be looking down on them but then quickly suggested that he might actually be looking up instead, saluting the ground as she did so.

Hynde’s personality and humour shone through the entirety of the set.

The 73-year-old told jokes and laughed with those on stage, telling the audience that they keep her right.

“Don’t you hate to be rushed,” she quipped after a fumble from guitarist Walbourne before launching into Talk of The Town.

She unstrapped her guitar and grabbed the microphone to deliver a heartfelt rendition of I Think About You Daily.

“Thanks for your patience,” she later joked, segueing into Back on the Chain Gang.

Forty-two years after its release, the song sounded as fresh as ever – with people in the crowd around the Barbican unable to resist leaving their seats to dance to it.

'Who wants to dance?'

A woman could be seen dancing in the aisle later to Thumbelina, looking as though the country-esque guitar solos being poured out by Walbourne had put her into a trance of pure euphoria.

Hynde must have noticed this to.

“Who wants to dance?” she asked as the opening bars of Don’t Get Me Wrong kicked in next.

And the crowd clearly did – people stood and danced all round, even gathering by the stage to share a special moment.

After they’d caught their breathe, Hynde went back to her punk roots with Precious.

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The band bowed out after this but the crowd wouldn’t let them off that easy.

They returned with their cover of the Kinks’ Stop Your Sobbing – the first single released by the Pretenders.

Then came what many had been waiting for: I’ll Stand By You.

Hynde clutched the microphone as she delivered a stunning vocal in the way that only she can, doing the song – the band’s most popular – every bit of justice.

They could have left it at that but decided to pick up the drums and delve into Middle of the Road to close the show.

“I got a smile for everyone I meet,” sang Hynde as she brought the showcase of why she is surely one of the greatest vocalists ever to a close.