Walking into The Prince Bandroom to catch the last of local favourites The Cassette Kids’ set, I was amazed to find the room as packed as I had ever seen it – a full hour before the main act was due to start. The room was full of punters either not attending the next day’s Big Day Out, or not worried about going with a fairly epic hangover. The line at the bar would’ve given the front of the D barrier at the BDO a run for its money.

The Cassette Kids finished up their fun, punchy set, and we took to finding a decent vantage point for Calvin Harris.

His six piece band – seven, if you include his amazing back up singer Aya – took to the stage to cheers of ‘Calvin! Calvin!’ The man they’d all come to see burst on to the stage a minute later with an insane amount of energy that he maintained for the entire show.

Opening with the very apt The Rain (the chorus of which goes ‘These are the good times in your life’), Harris had the crowd in the palm of his hand from the very beginning.

His high-energy set moved through his many hits, including Acceptable in the 80s, Ready for the Weekend, Merrymaking at My Place and The Girls. His massive crossover smash with fellow BDO artist Dizzee Rascal got only a brief run – after about 30 seconds the band stopped and Harris advised that ‘that’s all [they’re] legally allowed to play.’

It would be almost impossible to pick a crowd favourite, with the audience losing their collective shit for each and every song, singing along to every word. This proved extremely useful at times, as the audio wasn’t great and there were several times during the show when you could barely hear Harris’ vocals.

The second half of his set was the dancier half, including recent hit Flashback, leading up to closer I’m Not Alone. If you did have to pick a biggest track for the night, this would come close. That unmistakable melody damn near tore the roof off.

Despite desperate roars for an encore, the band were done for the night. The crowd slowly filtered out, sweaty but delighted.

Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that Harris is a consummate performer. He’s an absolute professional and had the crowd right where he wanted them from start to finish. That delightfully thick Scottish accent doesn’t hurt either. Yes, I swooned a little.

For someone who wouldn’t have described herself as a massive Calvin Harris before the show, I left a raving convert. The show was tight, professional and a shitload of fun. By all accounts his set the next day was just as good. If he becomes a festival regular on these shores, that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.