WE could, with a bit of stretching, call this a homecoming for Simon Emmerson and his merry band of minstrels, also known as the award-winning collective Afro Celt Sound System.

Although as London as they come, guitarist, producer and DJ Emmerson, although he lives in Bridport, is an honorary Pooleite due to his close connections with the town’s Lush empire where he is musical director. Yes, really.

His birdwatching activities with Lush head honcho Mark Constantine also led to the extraordinary Synaesthesia album of birdsong and more.

Add that to time served with The Imagined Village, Everything But The Girl and Scritti Politti and I think we have established his credentials.

So to ACSS, which emerged in 1995 following Emmerson’s production duties in Africa, work with World Music supremo Peter Gabriel and his link with artist and band founder member Jamie Reid amongst other things.

Eclectic is the word invented for this exuberant lot.

The 10 of them emerged on stage without ceremony for an evening of joyous uplifting tunes, fusing African rhythms with sounds from across many continents, along with plenty of drum and bass.

I won’t pretend to be able to name any of them, but mostly they sounded great – and always better with added vocals.

Dhol drummer Johnny Kalsi, mainstay for 20 years of the Dhol Foundation is the star of the show with his effervescent musicianship and cheerleading – marching through the auditorium at one point.

Multi-talented N’Faly Kouyate, master of every instrument which has a name I can’t pronounce, is the energetic frontman, even videoing the performance of his colleagues at one stage.

Thus we had a couple of hours from the band Emmerson dubbed ‘the Wurzels of world music’, mixing old tracks with new material from forthcoming album Flight.

Emmerson himself mostly remains in the background, mostly leaving the showmanship to others.

There was a little bit too much drum for my liking and the sound mix remained bass heavy throughout, but it was party time in Poole and a little bit of sunshine was welcomed on a grey November day.