Bryan Adams, Eden Sessions

EVER since I heard Run To You as an 11 year old boy, I've been sold on Bryan Adams.

So to see him live 32 years on, as close to my own backyard as a global star is ever likely to get, was quite an experience.

Run To You is a microcosm of the 57 year-old Canadian's work, which spans almost 40 years.

A great riff, uncomplicated lyrics, a foot-stomping mid-tempo beat and a voice that has more gravel than a millionaire's driveway.

At Eden he produced a breathless two-hour set, during which he never left the stage.

He tore into the opening four tracks without pause, before introducing himself and his band.

On lead guitar was Keith Scott, with whom Adams has been friends since the age of 16.

The pair of them had great fun fronting the show, with Scott demonstrating his digital dexterity on numerous occasions.

The first few bars of classics such as Heaven, Everything Thing I Do and his most enduring hit Summer of 69, brought gushing recognition from the packed crowd.

Looking middle-aged chic in their black jackets, white shirts and dark blue jeans, the band's interaction both which each other and the audience was perfectly pitched. Enough to raise a chuckle in between songs, but not too much so as to become a distraction.

I was forced to watch most of the heavyweight hits through a selection of camera phones in front of me (not to mention some tuneless sing-a-longs), but Adams was clearly more on board with the technology than me.

He filmed and photographed the crowd and promised to put it on Instagram later that evening. And the torch on a camera phone is the new cigarette lighter, it would seem.

I was a little disappointed that he didn't crowbar in any songs from his 1987 Into the Fire album - my personal favourite - but I won't hold a grudge.

An encore which included Eddie Cochran's C'mon Everybody sums up Adams really. He spent two hours urging us to sing, wave our arms and shake our backsides. And that's exactly what we did.