After a support set from tour companion Pete Roe in which you could have heard a pin drop like a thunderclap, Laura grinned at the Saturday Ironworks crowd: "I don't know if you've seen, but there are No Crowd Surfing signs."

It was never going to happen.

But the rapt Inverness audience didn't seem too bothered about the fact that Laura and Pete's tour was less about throwing TVs out of windows and more about getting up to speed with Radio 4's schedule, Alan Bennett's audiobooks and the odd trip to an appealing church.

Laura treated us to a set bulging with old favourites from her debut album Alas I Cannot Swim as well as a fistful of songs from the second due out in March.

Not to mention one "so new it's even too new for the new album!", according to chatty Laura.

There's a cool glamour about the 19-year-old who almost delights in her supposed awkward shyness and discomfort with the banter she's expected to produce.

Of course, she's a natural.

Braving the uncomfortable heat of her lovely cashmere jumper, bought in a thrift shop in New York, Laura was all understated glamour and gawky charm.The crowd seemed almost wary of breathing to break the spell as the set majored on Marling's uniquely individual songs, such as Ghosts, My Manic And I, Failure and Cross Your Fingers.

But the often unnamed new songs seemed to have moved on a stage. Playing the second album songs through to her musician father, Laura revealed he'd been a bit concerned he was the subject of the wonderful No Hope In The Air. It's not about him, she confirmed, but wondered what someone would write about her in a song - surely a knowing reference to the fact her relationship with Noah And The Whale's Charlie Fink supposedly inspired their entire new album!

Perhaps we should love Laura while we can, as she revealed that her imminent Christmas single release is a personal life goal achieved.

The first song she ever learned on guitar was Neil Young's heroin-inspired Needle And The Damage Done, a surprising choice of song for her dad to have taught a child.

But it seems the Marlins specialise in the the unexpected. Disapproving of encores, Laura made a pact with us to stay but to play the encore songs as part of the set. And with just one more song to go, she threw back her head and revealed in Blackberry Stone a brand-new high register as pure and perfect - but different - to what we'd heard till then. A late contender for gig of the year... MC

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