THOUSANDS of music fans of all ages converged on Cheltenham Racecourse last weekend, to enjoy headline acts Russell Watson and Alexandra Burke as they performed charity concerts in aid of LINC (The Leukaemia and Intensive Chemotherapy fund).

On Saturday Russell ‘The Voice’ Watson was joined by special guest Natasha Marsh, The National Symphony Orchestra and The Kings School Chamber Choir for an evening of celebration which culminated in a performance of the mighty ‘Nessun Dorma!’ On Sunday, the heat was certainly on for a ‘cool’ line up of performers including former X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke.

Young and old gathered in the scorching heat to enjoy all three support acts, which began with Twenty Twenty, whose tunes brought a youthful ‘Busted’ vibe to the gig and got the crowd up and dancing from the start.

With follow up act Chelcee Grimes and street dance group Six D, the audience were well warmed up and ready for Rebecca Ferguson. Last year’s X-Factor runner up gave a gracefully stylish performance of covers and songs very familiar to many in the crowd from her TV appearances last year.

When Alexandra Burke finally made it to the stage at just before 9pm, she did not disappoint the eager audience, with her raunchy costume and fabulous choreography adding a little bit of magic to her chart-topping voice, before disappearing just before 9.30pm.

Although some were disappointed at the star’s all-too brief appearance, Alexandra chose her best-known songs, including Broken Heels, Perfect, Bad Boys and a beautiful accoustic version of Allelujah! to best please her fans, complete with fabulous male backing dancers for video-perfect choreography.

It is a shame that Alexandra was not better able to showcase her newer material, and although the audience were kept entertained by fabulous bands all night, some of the crowd who were expecting a full-length concert felt short-changed by such short sets from the big names.