McFly deliver a topping performance at Wolverhampton Civic

Apr 22 2009 By Justine Flavell

McFly

Civic Hall, Wolverhampton

April 21

There seemed to be a representative from every age group at the not-as-rammed-as-I-thought-it-would-be Civic.

But perhaps it’s because the ‘sell-out‘ didn’t take into account the fact the most of the audience would be smaller than usual.

Having said that, there were some folk even older than me AND without the child accessory.

I had a teenager in tow, who promptly disappeared to jump up and down nearer the stage.

I’m not a fan - Kings of Leon and Alter Bridge are more my thing - but I’d seen the energetic foursome at a V Festival and been quite impressed.

After half-an-hour of screaming false alarms, the lights finally dimmed to herald the arrival of Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd.

All we could see were coloured wands and a mass of bright little squares, as everyone aimed their phones/digital cameras toward the stage.

As the music started though, the backing cloth dropped, revealing two huge fans - definitely not the screaming teenie variety - behind metal fences.

Then we were blinded by lights, and deafened as the sound engineer cranked up the decibels for a long intro. Finally, a song began, and thankfully the screaming subsided, so I could make out the excellent One for the Radio, accompanied by superb vocals.

"Are you ready to sing with us?" shouted Tom.

You can guess the response, and I really began to wish I’d brought ear plugs, as the band launched into the foot-stomping Obviously.

"Jump" came the instruction and (almost) everyone complied, to Room On The Third Floor.

Tom then announced that the band wanted to find the best city in the country, to be decided on the swiftest fast-food delivery service, and Dougie phoned Dominoes.

"We’d like a Texas Barbecue Chicken pizza, extra large, to be delivered to the stage bar door, Civic Hall," he said - even leaving his mobile number.

Which I might just sell on eBay  … (joke). 

The clock was ticking - it was 11 minutes past nine.

At 9.34pm the pizza arrived. The delivery chappy, ushered onto the stage, looked understandably bemused.

After getting a couple of "pizza girls" on stage to tuck in, Tom, Danny and Dougie continued to leap around with boundless energy and to sing superbly.

Highlights for me were the retro-sounding Do Ya, the Girls Aloud cover Promise, and the very new Down Goes Another One.

Crowd-pleasers were It’s All About You (of course), the excellent Last Song, and the encores, Lies, and Five Colours in Her Hair.

As I guided a contented teenager back to the car though, I did wonder if anyone at Dominoes believed the delivery bloke’s explanation - as he returned drenched in sweat, and shivering with stage fright.