What I wore: Top [McFLY Tour 2007], Denim shirt [H&M], Leggings [New Look], Ankle Boots [Dorothy Perkins], Necklace [DIY-ed]
It’s been at least 5 years since I saw McFLY, so when they announced they’d be stopping off in Southampton on their ‘Keep Calm and Play Louder’ Tour I jumped onto Ticketmaster and booked those tickets faster than you can say ‘5 Colours in her hair’. Some may scoff at my love of this band but despite what you think of their recorded versions of their songs or their stints on reality TV shows, if you really want to get an idea of what McFLY are like as a band? See them live.
Me and my sister arrived at the Guildhall at about 6pm and two queues on either side of the building were already huge and only got bigger as we headed inside at 7pm.
There were two support acts. Raising Maisie (@raisingmaisie), a polished punk indie-eqsue band, all suited and booted with big hair and eyeliner. And the main support for the tour, Ivyrise (@Ivyrise). Ivyrise are a very McFLY-eqsue pop punk band who really played up the crowd, they also took to the queue before the gig to get people to sign up to their mailing list and I got a nice high-five from guitarist Dan cos I’d watched them on YouTube before the gig. Hopefully I’ll get to see them again in May on their tour.
It was another hour before McFLY came on and our view pretty much sucked for most of the gig (too many tall people and me at 5′ tall, you do the math lol) so most of my photos are pretty horrendous. They opened up playing ‘God Save the Queen’ on guitar, leading into ‘Nowhere left to run’, the whole crowd went wild, camera/iphones flashing and a giant surge to push forward towards the stage. Notable moments from the gig were old favourites such as ‘Star Girl’, ‘I Wanna Hold You’ and (a personal favourite for me) B-Side ‘No Worries’. It was a real treat to see them able to pull songs out from 4/5 different albums and medley them, as was the case with POV/She Falls Asleep pt2/Down Goes Another One.
Danny Jones was especially on point a this gig, channelling Springsteen’s front man capabilities to get the crowd to sing along to a medley of covers, of artists such as Rihanna, Whitney Houston and One Direction, mixed with ‘Everybody Knows‘.
What really impressed me was their 3 newest tracks; ‘Red’, ‘Touch the rain’ and the tentatively named ‘Do what’cha want‘. As someone who wasn’t that big a fan of their more electro sound for ‘Above the Noise’, these new songs are a promising return to their earlier The Who and Springsteen inspired sound mixed with a good dose of Blink-182.
And a McFLY gig would not be complete without a few random moments, from Dougie’s preacher call and response, Tom saving Dougie from a little humiliation of not knowing the whole of the Sponge Bob Square Pants theme tune and a Danny-led chant for their long standing guitar tech Neil.
All in all my boys did not let down. Their vocals and musician-ship really shine when live in front of a crowd and, quite honestly, they know it.
Definitely looking forward to the new album! And you guys should too!
