I HAVE to confess, I am a bit of a closet fan of Will Young. So much so that I convinced a friend of mine that he wanted to go and see the former Pop Idol star at Swindon’s Oasis on Wednesday night, just so that I could reluctantly tag along.

There, I have said it.

But I detected I was not the only one playing this game of deception, as me and my companion for the evening – a burly, rugby-playing, Fosters-loving, train driver – played an endlessly enjoyable game of ‘spot the dragged-along husband’ throughout the evening. In conclusion I think it is safe to say that if any chap had been dragged there by his missus, it certainly wasn’t unwillingly.

Okay, so I must also confess that I have also been to see Will perform live before, so I thought I knew what to expect. But that was more than five years ago in Glasgow, when he bounded onto stage with seemingly endless energy wearing – what was then – a very outlandish pair of skinny blue chinos.

I therefore should not have been surprised then to see him appear on stage wearing what can only be described as a Samurai outfit with his traditionally well-groomed quiff absolutely nowhere in sight. But surprised I most certainly was. I was almost reaching for my glasses to check it wasn’t a trick of the light.

As the shadow of a man appeared on stage behind the microphone a chatter went around the hall – is that a top knot? A top knot?! Surely not! Young is famously known for being a well-dressed individual – albeit certainly with an elaborate sense of fashion - with an enviably quaffed quiff. So to see that mane scraped back into a short pony tail certainly took some getting used to.

But I think that is part of the singer’s enduring appeal – the slightly unexpected. I think he is often type-cast into a category alongside the utterly wholesome Michael Buble as being the sort of singer you take your Gran to see, but I think that is underselling Young.

Because Will is actually really quite edgey, and his songs tell a tale of many a broken heart and sinking right down there to depths of despair, without becoming whiney. He strikes the balance right though, so you end up leaving with your head held high feeling wholly uplifted.

The previous evening’s gig in Oxford led to on-going banter, along with the confession that he had been utterly flummoxed by Swindon’s roundabouts – which he likened to Russian dolls, a roundabout within a roundabout within a roundabout.

13 years in the spotlight (has it seriously been that long?) have certainly taught Will a thing or two about entertaining. He still continues to draw in crowds of people wherever he goes, packing out concert halls and theatres up and down the country – or in this case an almost sell-out audience at the Oasis.

He certainly embraced the spirit of the venue - which he claimed saw him needed butterfly stitches on his face after an unfortunate incident in the pool as a child – and made numerous attempts to shoot a basketball through one of the hoops from the stage. He didn’t manage it, but that’s beside the point.

A scrum at the front to catch his towel was also certainly an interesting sight.

A highlight of the evening that is right up there with some of his best numbers though? Watching two married women giggling like fifteen year olds as they skipped away from the merchandise stand with a pen in each hand, that when tipped strips Young down to his undies.

Okay, I admit it, the train driver also bought one.