A lot of French pop music is a bit like Scottish cuisine. Standing in a Glasgow chip shop one is baffled by the presence of the frozen pizza, disconcerted when it’s thrown into the deep fryer and revolted when the fat soaked lump of fried bread is handed to the customer. French pop to the Anglophone ear is the aural fried Mars bar, an artefact that is appreciated in the land of its creation but never likely to gain an international following.

Jane Birkin tried to prove this hypothesis with the second song of her set in last night’s performance in London’s Roundhouse. The lyric mostly consisted of “do” “da” and “dee”. The only thing missing from the arrangement was a backing chorus of spotlit Smurfs.

Birkin is touring the world at the moment and doing in a way that defies both geographical logic and the known science of climate change. Having just arrived from Canada via Paris she did one show in London before jetting to Buenos Aires.

People who know a lot more about her work than I do tell me that her last London show in the Barbican was much more of a crowd pleaser. The audience joined in the singing and several were moved to tears. Last night’s show (pictures here) rarely brought the crowd together in the same way. Any mention of Serge Gainsbourg raised a cheer and Birkin claims that he transformed the French language. Gainsbourg is a national hero in France. When I see a picture of him I can’t help thinking that a social work department hadn’t been taking their child protection responsibilities seriously enough.

There was quite a bit of well received sloganeering. Birkin has written a song about Aung San Suu Kyi and performed it after a fairly long speech. Even her best friend would have to admit that her talent for lyric writing is not quite in the same league as Gainsbourg, or even in the same sport.

Birkin made the detour to London to perform a fundraiser. The money raised from the show is going to Anno’s Africa, a charity. Among the people and organisations which were thanked was Hermes, maker of luxury clothing, handbags etc which I know is favoured by most readers of this site. The company made a donation to cover the cost of putting on the show and I hope that even readers with Marxist scruples about charity donation take its support for underprivileged African children into account when next buying a handbag or silk tie.

At nearly two hours the performance could have done with a little bit of pruning and a few more better known songs. For sentimental reasons I had been hoping to put up a clip of her version of La Javanaise but she didn’t perform it. Though even if the evening felt a little flat the predominantly French audience’s admiration for the woman was beyond question.

Fans of Hermes who wish to explore these ideas in greater detail may feel more comfortable here – The Purse Forum, the web’s #1 community for handbag lovers and shoulder fashion fetishists – the rest of you can stay where you are to carry on discussing the finer points of contemporary Marxism. And no sneaking off!