It has been a pretty emotional and euphoric few days. Some things just draw you to your feet.

On Saturday morning, I leapt off the sofa to celebrate Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal that won the World Cup for England against old rivals Australia, while on Monday night, the sight of a 40-something man skipping off the Brighton Centre stage drew me to my feet with the same mixture of excitement and disbelief.

I wasn't the only person to jump up as Peter Gabriel played pied piper and led his merry band of musicians on a full lap of the Centre auditorium during an uplifting, cheese-eating-grin-inducing rendition of his classic song Solsbury Hill.

A one-off gig that was already pretty damn good suddenly became brilliant in that moment.

The crowd seemed to explode into life as Gabriel churned through the gears to have the crowd forgetting their inhibitions.

For many artists, that would have been the pay-off. Gabriel could have then walked off knowing he had given the crowd something to remember.

However, within seconds, he was launching into Sledgehammer from the album So wearing a jacket illuminated with flashing bulbs. Again a show-stopper but he wasn't finished.

The beautiful, heart-melting In Your Eyes (also from So) was followed by Signal To Noise, a powerful track which rises to a crescendo that demonstrates drummer Ged Lynch's immaculate timing, before the final encore of Biko.

It was an appropriate end as Gabriel and his band fly to South Africa this week for the 46664 concert designed to raise money for AIDs charities and championed by Nelson Mandela.

It will be the first time Gabriel has played his groundbreaking human rights song in South Africa and it was an emotive end to a night which had steadily risen to a climax as he worked his way through classics such as Red Rain, San Jacinto and Shock The Monkey and a comical version of Games Without Frontiers on which he and backing singer Melinda Gabriel darted round the stage on motorised scooters.

The smaller surroundings of the Centre compared to the arenas Gabriel is used to playing added intimacy as did the simplistic but effective set.

Gig-goers were quick to snap up Live At The Brighton Centre T-shirts after the show as mementos of truly a night to remember.