“Hello Bingley, I’m back”.

With that, Gareth Gates strode on stage in his home town to deafening applause and cheers at Bingley Arts Centre tonight.

With a James Dean-style quiff, tight black jeans, a fitted tweed jacket and a black bow tie, he immediately had the audience in raptures with his version of Bryan Adams’ Heaven as he opened his acoustic set.

And they were certainly in heaven as they enthusiastically joined in with what he described as their “beautiful Yorkshire voices”.

From then the place rocked as the former Bradford choirboy turned pop star, turned West End star, took us on a journey through some of his favourite songs, including Guns n Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine, Elvis Presley’s Suspicious Minds and Extreme’s More Than Words, as well as some of his new material which could see its way on to a new album.

The hen-do atmosphere heightened when Gareth claimed he was hot and removed his jacket to screams and whistles from his adoring crowd, which was dominated by women of a certain age.

He might have sold 3.5 million records in the UK alone since being runner-up to Will Young in the UK’s first Pop Idol in 2002 made his name, but last night he was also at pains to credit his supporting acts.

After each song, he invited the audience to applaud his guitarist Pete Rinaldi.

But he was also full of praise for the talented members of the Gates Academy, the performing arts school which he founded 18 months ago, who performed an impressive repertoire of dance numbers and pop songs before he came on stage.

The 36-strong troupe, aged from five to 19, included his teenage sister Jessica, who sang a moving duet called For Good, from the hit musical Wicked, with fellow student Elyse Willets, 15.

Ahead of the gig Gareth said it was great to be home.

“I try to come back to Yorkshire every couple of months because I love it here, and love being with my family,” he said.

“It’s an amazing feeling to be performing in Bingley.”

Carolyne Coyle