It is an unseasonably wet, cold and miserable evening in July, yet thousands of people are standing in the drizzling rain at Epsom Racecourse - clutching their umbrellas.

Why? Because the original pop idol, Will Young, is about to perform an open-air summer concert as part of Epsom Live – a series of five nights of music and horse racing.

The 33-year-old has certainly come a long way since winning Simon Cowell’s first Pop Idol 10 years ago, and he’s still going strong despite many of his contemporaries falling by the wayside – Steve Brookstein anyone?

Having not seen Will Young in concert before and not overly familiar with his work, other than the obvious pop hits, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

But I was attending with a Will Young uber fan who was more than happy to get me up to speed on all things Will.

After an hour and a half long set I came away impressed, not only by his showmanship but his vocals, on stage band and comedy interludes – all while standing in the rain, quite an achievement in itself.

At one point Will yelled, ‘Do we care about the rain? No’, before sticking two fingers up to the sky and promising that later he would ‘moonie’ the rain.

Storming through his set Will brought out all the feel good favourites including You and I, Leave Right Now, and Evergreen – his first pop idol single now rarely played I’m told – as well as some of his newer hits Jealously and Come On.

A highlight for me was me was a cover of Amy by Jacksonville blues rocker Ryan Adams – a nice change of pace.

The sun may not have been shining but the British spirit certainly was and it was clear everyone had enjoyed the night.

Epsom Live concerts will continue through July and into August with performances by Razorlight on July 19, the Rat Pack on July 26, and a Last Night of the Proms concert on August 2, when we'll all be hoping for better weather.

For more information and tickets visit epsomderby.co.uk