It was the first time I'd seen Derek performing as a  solo act and I wasn't disappointed. He was brilliant very engaging and had us all singing along with him. I particularly enjoyed his first set and was pretty much up dancing constantly as was everyone else. I was also very fortunate to be on one of the front tables closest to the stage so even when I wasn't dancing (which wasn't very much) I still got to really enjoy the music and the atmosphere.

Derek sang a wide selection of songs both old and new including old classics like Just a Memory & Closer to more recent dances like The Real Deal & Until the Dawn/And Get it on. We also did quite a few floor splits so the beginners in the room could also join in alongside the more 'seasoned' dances and there were quite a few options for the beginners such as the popular dance Cowboy Charleston.

One of things I particularly enjoyed that night was dancing to some of the amazing classics which we really don't do very often at all. We danced My New Life, Hot Tamales, Save the Day, Sinatra and Chardonnay, Big Blue Tree, Galway Girls, Patient Heart & Walk the line (to name just a few) - I haven't danced this much in ages!

What also made a nice change was that we did two partner dances - Tempted and Barn Dance (thank you Jackie Clouting for dancing with me). I really don't get many opportunities to do these types of dances as they are not routinely played in our local socials so it is such a treat to be able to dance these - particularly to live music from someone so talented. I have to admit I didn't do the best job with either dance as I've only ever picked them up from following others at previous socials but fortunately no video evidence exists showing my terrible attempts so that's one good thing.

I couldn't believe it when we got to the end of the night, the whole evening had gone so quickly and I would have been quite happy to carry on dancing for at least another hour - all this despite the heat as well. We ended on a couple of party dances including Black Coffee for which the floor was completely filled and Derek did an encore for us as well so I think we may have slightly run over but it was well worth it.