BLUESMAN Joe Bonamassa made a triumphant return to Bournemouth in front of a packed crowd. It has been over a year since he last graced this stage but it was well worth the wait.

Starting with Slow Train and Last Kiss he spent the next two and a half hours holding the crowd in the palm of his hand. This was no greatest hits show because, as he pointed out, he has released 140 songs on 12 albums over the last 12 years but has never had a hit single. He blamed this on the length of the songs making them unsuitable for radio play and then promised to continue making them “18 minutes long”. With the entire set consisting of just 16 songs, he proved true to his word.

An acoustic guitar solo on Woke Up Dreaming gave a fantastic display of the man’s talent and deservedly resulted in the biggest reaction of the night.