DANCE music DJ and pioneer Pete Tong played the first night of his Ibiza Classics tour at the Bournemouth International Centre on Tuesday night and absolutely blew the sold-out venue away. Joining him for the ride were the 65-piece Heritage Orchestra, Beverley Knight, house legend Robert Owens, Becky Hill, three equally talented backing singers and DJ Andy Baxter.

I arrived over an hour before the start of the main set and a few thousand people had also arrived early to get in the mood to Andy Baxter’s set with the floor filling up well before the main concert started.

As the lights went down and the orchestra made their way to their positions you could feel the atmosphere building. As the first notes rang out over the speakers and were immediately recognised by the crowd the whole venue started to move and never stopped all night.

As you would expect the light show was excellent as was each of the guest artists. Beverly Knight and Becky Hill were brilliant additions each delivering three or four remixed versions of club classics while Robert Owens showed why he became a legend in the house music scene.

Backdrop pictures of Ibiza and some of the iconic clubs along with bespoke film of dancers and scenes from those clubs helped to transport the crowd to another place and time.

I am not and never was a devotee of dance music but this is truly a show for everyone. During the course of the one-and-a-half-hours, even I recognised the majority of the tunes as Pete has chosen a set of classics that have worked their way in to the subconscious.

The crowd greeted the start of each new track with a roar with the whole standing area and most of the seated sections dancing along and having the time of their lives.