BOB Dylan's Never Ending Tour rolled into Bournemouth last night with a vintage show that even had the legendarily grumpy singer-songwriter smiling.

It was the spontaneous singalong reaction to Just Like a Woman lovingly delivered in traditional 40-year-old Blonde On Blonde time that seemed to warm Dylan's heart. He doggedly stuck to his contemporary re-arrangement, but clearly felt he was among friends.

He was too. His five piece band played superbly, Dylan was in fine voice, the sound was great and the 4,000 strong BIC audience loved it.

From the opening number, Maggie's Farm, to the final encores of Like A Rolling Stone and All Along the Watchtower they were swaying, singing and at one with an engaged and sharp Dylan.

Playing keyboards throughout, he led his booted, suited and (with the exception of lap steel player Donnie Herron) behatted ensemble. with the eccentric air of a casual control freak. I'm sure it was no coincidence that Dylan was wearing the biggest, blackest hat of all.

The show was pure magic.

Stand out moments included Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again, Ballad of a Thin Man and a gloriously extended version of Summer Days.

I found myself getting annoyed as midway through a brooding, building version of Masters of War, a squealing teeny kept yelling "Bob I Iove you" at a shattering pitch inches from my ear. This effectively drowned out the lyric "You fasten the triggers for the others to fire/Then you set back and watch as the death count gets higher."

But why should she know about the Bay of Pigs or Cold War paranoia? There are other things to worry about these days and anyhow it's good to know that at 65, old Bob can still interest a pretty young girl.

It was certainly an interesting crowd. Far from being made up a exclusively of paunchy 50 and 60-something blokes, there was a huge cross-section of fans.

They were all there. Dylan's people. The farmers and the businessmen, the banker's nieces and probably even a guilty undertaker or two.

A great night!