A Jolly Good Fellow, Pulse, System F – call him what you will, but there truly is only one Ferry Corsten, and it was a much welcomed late Christmas present that Ferry fans across the country received a month or so ago, when it was announced that he was on his way back down under. Giddy up. While fans were disappointed it wasn’t to be the much lauded and highly anticipated Full On Ferry tour, a club tour to support his latest Once Upon A Night release was still worthy of some excitement.

And it was that excitement that built over the space of a month, as we all pondered what kind of Ferry show it would be. Would it be like that night at the Hordern that people still speak about in hushed tones, or would it be a return to some of his classic Home gigs of years gone by? Ultimately, we could speculate all we liked, but come the night of the gig, we were all just glad the time had finally arrived.

Before the man himself, Marlo was on warm-up duties, and with some big tunes in his kitty, he wasn’t afraid to unleash a few of them. One of 2010’s more popular trance tunes, Sanctuary by Gareth Emery, sent a large part of the crowd into a sweating frenzy. That said, thirty degree temperatures outside hardly helped the situation, and things were getting sticky. Marlo wasn’t afraid to bang it out a touch, although wrapping things up with a remix of the Rob Dougan classic Clubbed To Death got us back into a nice spot for the arrival of his Dutch counterpart, and the main attraction: Ferry.

To rapturous applause a couple of notches short of total hysteria, the man was welcomed in true Sydney style – and as he launched into the first of the three hours allocated to him for this Once Upon A Night tour, it was little surprise that the sounds were those that featured largely on the compilations of the same name. Lots of hands in the air stuff, lots of vocals, and what one might call “commercial trance”, someone else like John 00 Fleming might call “out of a candy shop”, but other trance fans simply love. Maybe a touch disappointing for the Ferry fans looking for a dominating and inspired set from the Dutchman, but they too would be rewarded for their loyalty.

The second hour contained a trifecta of Ferry originals: the classic Fire, followed up by the anthemic Made of Love and Once (under the Pulse moniker) – all giving the fans what they wanted. Spirits lifted, Ferry seemed to hit his stride, and buoyed by the response to his own productions, he reached for the microphone and began telling us how awesome we all were. Well, that’s certainly what I hope he was saying, as the sound quality on said microphone was pretty average – leaving us all in a slight state of ponder.

Thankfully, he got back to the tunes, and as we moved into the third and final hour, there was a notable shift, with a few more tracks that may just appear on his new album, with plenty of dark rolling basslines to intrigue more than just a few of us.

As it ended though, he brought us back to more familiar Corsten territory launching into his Radio Crash and Brainbox from the breathtaking_Twice In A Blue Moon_ album, although the Marten de Jong bootleg of The Scientist from Coldplay had more than a few people scratching their heads. Coldplay? Really?

That said, as the clock struck 4, Ferry kept going, and when he closed with the truly epic Out of the Blue, there were smiles aplenty. While it may not have been an amazing set full of technical wizardry, or one that was layered with the classics that we all may have sought, it was fun, and as he acknowledged the Sydney crowd, he sincerely looked like he’d enjoyed it too.