RICHARD BELL is delighted after dancing himself into an exhausted heap at Fuse @ The O2 Academy.

And so onwards we venture into the cavernous expanse of the main room of the O2 Academy to mingle with the hardcore clubbers at Fuse, a legion of devoted dance fans eager to bounce to every last beat of this brilliant night.

In spite of the £15 entrance price, there are no lovely deals on drinks to greet us, and so immediately I realise I’m going to be spending a lot more money than I had hoped.

But no matter, I know I’m in for a good night, and after about an hour of standing around with very little musical accompaniment to entertain us we were greeted by the first act of the evening, Camden band Ou Est Le Swimming Pool?

Unfortunately the best song these guys play for their entire set is their first, and that was only enjoyable because it sounded precisely like a Presets song.

Following that they settle into their own style, which comes across as Hadouken without any of the energy, and the result is objectionably dull.

The crowd seemed to be feeling the same way, and after an extremely ill advised fight with a crowd member the band were subsequently booed and hissed for the remainder of their set like some pathetic pantomime villain.

Eventually they cleared the stage for Annie Mac who instantly won the crowd back over.

Mac is greeted on stage with a deafening cacophony of cheers and applause.

Now, in all honesty, I am not a listener of her Radio 1 show, nor have I ever caught her live before so I had no idea how much I would enjoy the next two hours of my life.

The enormous basslines very nearly shook the drink right out of my hand, and with that my friends and I danced for the entire two hour set without even a single break. I’ve never known time disappear so quickly, though supposedly it does go faster when you’re having fun, and I was most definitely having fun.

Finally, drenched in sweat at the end of her set, I find myself in a crumpled mess.

Exhausted and drained, I decide I’ve had enough and simply have to head home for bed.

I’m ashamed of myself, but there it is. I’m reliably informed by a friend’s Facebook status that the closing act Hervé ‘shook the Academy to the ground’, and having subsequently checked out his Myspace site I can believe it.

Fuse is constantly the best place to find the biggest and best names in the country for clubbing in Oxford, and in spite of a dreadful opening act and the enormous size of the venue they once again manage to fill the massive room with vast crowds, huge tunes and an inescapable feeling of tremendous energy.

Just phenomenal.