McFly - MEN Arena - 23/11/06 by Dannii Martin

After only a year, McFly were back at the MEN arena playing to a packed out crowd. As the lights went down and the girly screams reached an almost ear drum bursting volume – the crowd were ‘treated’ to a very homo-erotic video whilst waiting for the band to appear. The video, accompanied by The Bee Gee’s ‘Staying Alive’, was set in a changing room, apparently back stage, and showed 2 of the members rolling around on top of each other in just a towel whilst the other 2 ‘busted some moves’ in boxing attire and 70’s dance clothing. Perhaps a little inappropriate considering the average age of their fans is about 10.

It was the biggest show of their tour and the first standing arena show the band had ever played and it seemed they were regretting it almost as soon as they walked onto the stage. Fans were almost scratching each others eyes out to get to the front and countless young girls were being pulled over the barrier with all kinds of ‘battle wounds’. The band not only looked worried but almost baffled as to why people were acting like this. This prompted singer Tom Fletcher to tell everyone to calm down and be nice to each other. What a nice guy everyone thought.

This being their ‘Greatest Hits’ tour, the band churned out the usual favourites including ‘Room On the 3rd Floor, ‘Transylvania’, ‘I’ll Be Ok’, ‘That Girl’ and ‘Obviously’. Their cover of Queen’s ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ which features on their greatest hits album was also played as well as a truly amazing cover of Rhianna’s ‘Umbrella’ - nothing better than a fast pop-rock version of a R n’ B chart topper! There was a brief cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’, accompanied with a mass Mexican wave – but this was just to fill time whilst they were experiencing technical difficulties.

The best part of this show came in the middle. The lights went down and the band left the stage. Two minutes past by with fans wondering what had happened to their idols. Quicker than you could say “Busted, who?” the lights came up and the band appeared on a small stage in the middle of the crowd to play part of their set. This just proves what nice guys McFly really are. They must have sprinted as fast as their legs could carry them to get there as quick a possible, just so that all the people who had paid the same amount of money but couldn’t get close enough to the band still had a chance to be close enough to see the sweat. It certainly seemed to go down well with the people at the back at the arena. Not so much with those at the front though. McFly’s part acoustic encore consisted of the crowd pleasers ‘All About You’ and ‘5 Colours’.

Although there is no denying that these 4 young guys are very talented and deserve to be where they are – they could still improve. There were small differences that could be noted from last year’s performances which just knocked them out of the faultless performance bracket. There was no stage set to speak of; just the band and their instruments and their stage banter left a lot to be desired. Apart from the generic ‘Hello Manchester’, they made very little interaction with the crowd. Perhaps they are going in a minimalist direction, but it could also come across as they don’t feel the need to make any effort anymore. .