ON Friday, September 17, the dynamic Desmond Dekker returned to the Queen's Hall, Narberth, 35 years after his first appearance here in 1969 (writes Silver Fox). Luckily, most of the capacity audience arrived in time to hear the first set from the excellent, 'must see', Pembrokeshire locals, the Fred Herring Band. Within minutes, they got the appreciative crowd on their feet and dancing, with original numbers such as 'Dead Man Walking' and 'Cheyanne' standing out in their specially adapted reggae-style set. Fred Herring proved a brilliant start to the evening! The Aces came on stage and settled into a solid reggae rhythm to herald the arrival of the main man. Still in fine voice and bursting with energy, Desmond soon had the audience eating out of his hand. When Desmond said, "Jump!" they jumped. Frankly, for many of the crowd it was the only direction to move. The press in front of the stage precluded much in the way of lateral gyrations. The enthusiastic audience were in great voice and joined in on many of Desmond's old hits and a reggae (of course!) medley of old pop standards, including Blue Moon, Dream, Come Back and Hey Baby. It was essentially an evening of rhythm and vocals with some splendid backing harmonies from Delroy Williams and drummer Leroy Green. That unique chemistry between performers and audience was as high as it gets and needed to be experienced to be appreciated. A thoroughly satiated and exhausted (most needed wringing out) audience departed the Queen's Hall declaring it to have been the gig of the year - until the next one! Good to see many new faces in the audience. Come again soon. Now you know what you've been missing. A full programme in October kicks off with Cardiff based rising star Amy Wadge tonight (Friday). At the end of the month, acoustic American bluesman Catfish Keith heralds the start of a Queen's Hall winter blues season.