Staging a greatest hits tour before one of your band members has reached 20 may seem a little over-ambitious, but what McFly have achieved in songwriting in less than four years is pretty impressive. Founding member Tom Fletcher (relatively old at 22) has certainly seen more than his fair share of success since missing out on a place in the now-disbanded Busted.
The stage was set with a high-camp video to the tune of Stayin' Alive, featuring drummer Harry Judd as John Travolta, guitarist Danny Jones in Jake LaMotta mode and Fletcher and young bassist Dougie Poynter play-wrestling in towels, which was enough to fill the entire arena with piercing teen screams.
The first song of note was Obviously, which popped up after a rather rock-heavy start. For Transylvania, a change of lead vocals (Poynter this time) proved the band can really complement each other's voices and performances. I'll Be OK followed but was surpassed by a roof-raising cover version of Rihanna's hit Umbrella, complete with some stomping guitar.
Recent single The Heart Never Lies - McFly's first ballad - was very well received. Then the boys, perhaps ill-advisedly, decided to reverse the set and pop up at the back of the arena playing lesser-known hits such as Please, Please.
Back on the main stage, they covered Queen's Don't Stop Me Now, with Fletcher on piano. Sing-a-long classic All About You was an obvious encore, with pyrotechnics adding the finishing touch to Five Colours in Her Hair, McFly's debut, and arguably catchiest, single.
There could have been more audience interaction, as it took about an hour for the band to warm to the crowd and do more than shout or make odd animal noises, but the quality of musicianship more than made up for any lack of social graces - and perhaps some of McFly's attraction lies in those grunts. The banners on show would certainly suggest so.
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