THE last couple of times Chris de Burgh has played Bournemouth, he appeared at the much larger Bournemouth International Centre so I was quite surprised to see that this time around he was playing at the Pavilion.

Turns out the place was sold-out and provided the perfect setting for an intimate re-imagining of the story of John and Grace as told in the classic book Moonfleet.

A mixture of ballads, love songs with a few lively sea shanties thrown in took us through the entire Moonfleet and Other Stories album from 2010 and the first 45-minute portion of the show.

A quick turn around and Chris and the band returned to the stage for a longer set to perform Into The Light in full.

An album that has eighties power pop stamped all over it provided a much livelier set with the audience joining in.

The participation peaked during the classic Lady in Red when he left the stage to stroll around the crowd and engage with as many people as anyone can when they are still singing the song.

An opportunity to choose the next songs on the set list followed the Into The Light section and not surprisingly Don’t Pay The Ferryman put in a storming appearance.

The stage show was excellent as were the band, the voice is still as good as ever and many of the audience have been along on the musical journey for almost as long as Chris has.

I could well have stayed at home today but on a long, cold, wet October night this was a gig to warm the soul and I made the right choice, as did everyone else in the Pavilion.