By Anthony Boni

THE performance by Years and Years at the BIC was energetic and exciting. There were a range of ages attending the concert however the overwhelming majority were young children and teenagers.

The floor was packed-out with bustling fans and although there were some empty seats, the atmosphere above the stage was positive.

The opening act, Mabel had an unannounced start but the songs she played were effective in getting the audience ready for the type of indie pop music that Years and Years specilaise in.

Despite hardly interacting with the audience Mabel got the crowd going with her cover of Say My Name and by the end everybody was eagerly waiting for the next support act, MO.

MO immediately had much more energy than her predecessor, but it wasn’t until she sang Lean On that the audience really began to dance and scream.

Years and Years frontman Olly Alexander performed the show in shorts, white trainers and long white socks as well as a flash of glitter under his eye; typical to his style.

He began wearing a large coat but quickly removed it after the first couple of songs. Opening with their popular hit Take Shelter, which was the perfect way to get the crowd buzzing for some more Years and Years tracks.

He then performed a new song called Mother on the piano and although it was unknown to most of the audience, they quickly started to nod their heads and sing along.

As soon as the start of Shine played, the audience screamed and began to bounce. During this song, Olly got down from the stage and reached out to the audience much to the annoyance of his security.

Everybody around him was stroking his arm and singing along. After having a brief chat with a member of the crowd about his girlfriend he performed the recent single Eyes Shut on the piano which sent the crowd wild.

Everyone waved their hands in the air and turned their torches on whilst moving in synchrony to the slow tune. He then performed one of the more memorable songs where he combined Drake’s Hotline Bling and Katy Perry’s Dark Horse in a weird but interesting mashup that allowed some of the fairweather fans to get involved with the singing.

After leaving the stage halfway through Desire, everybody stomped their feet and screamed until Olly returned to the stage in a change of coat and performed his closing song, King.

This was the predictable but ideal choice to perform last as it is the song that shot the band to fame.

The entire arena sang, clapped and cheered him off the stage in a fantastic end to a fun and thrilling night.