THE triple-vaccinated (in his own words) bachelor boy bounded back onto the BIC stage with the energy of a man half his age on Tuesday night.

His legions of adoring fans greeted every song with enthusiasm and with such energy that Sir Cliff undoubtedly feeds off it.

Much has been written about the Peter Pan of pop, who is reaching his 81st birthday next week, but there is absolutely no sign of it in the way he moves and acts on stage during this performance of the ‘Great 80’ tour.

For this gig, Sir Cliff dressed elegantly in a black embroidered shirt, black patterned trousers and a white tailcoat which was changed for sparkly jacket and then a waistcoat later in the show.

His extensive repertoire dates back to the 1950s, starting with that Rock ’n’ Roll classic ‘Move It’, which still sounds as if it has just been written and was the first of many high points of this wonderful show. ‘Do You Wanna Dance’ was introduced by Sir Cliff telling us how he imported the first Fender Stratocaster into the UK back in the 1950s, which was actually being played by Bobby Harrison this night. Bobby even teased us with a few seconds of ‘Apache’ in recognition.

A large proportion of the audience had probably made the entertainment journey with him for the 63 years judging by the warm reception to each song. Sir Cliff even sang ‘Older’ and laughingly said it was about growing up with his audience.

The second half of the show started in a true rockin’ fashion with ‘Green Light’ and continued with ‘Carrie’ and ‘Devil Woman’.

The hits were all there, some were in a medley in order to get them all in - Living Doll/ Summer Holiday/ The Young Ones/ Congratulations was the Medley for me, with the roof of the BIC lifting with the clapping and singing.

‘Miss you nights’, singing on a stool alongside his two backing singers, slowed the crowd to merely swaying, with the lights emphasising the emotion of the song.

However, in a flash the tempo was raised with ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore’, the massive number one hit from 1979 which stayed top for four weeks. This was a prompt for the audience to invade the aisles and the front of the stage, clapping and singing along to Sir Cliff’s obvious delight.

I enjoyed the overall quality of the performance, with an artist not simply churning out the hits, but making an effort to ensure variety by including new songs and some obscure album tracks such as ‘Heart will Break’ and ‘Lost in Lonely World’ that serious fans obviously relished and he enjoyed singing.

The encore was ‘Golden’, a song he dedicated specially to his audiences through the years. Sir Cliff is a uniquely special British act, and it is no surprise why he is able to have been around for so long and at the top of his game. After this display of quality and showmanship, I cannot wait for the ‘Great 85’ tour.