McFly, Portsmouth Guildhall, Memory Lane tour - 14 May 2013

Fifth time is a charm for McFly, although every time I have seen them they have been amazing.

The band is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, scary when you think about it as even though they have been doing other things the band has been touring pretty  much every year since they started.

The chemistry of the guys on stage is electric, you can almost imagine them playing in a spare room somewhere and having as much fun as they are performing in front of their fans. I also love with McFly that they haven't really, over the past few years, played big arenas but preferred to stay with the smaller venues which is great for fans.

I think this is probably the second greatest hits/memory lane tour I have been to but then you know the songs and you know what you are getting and can dance your heart out.

They are still my guilty pleasure and I do love them. I hope these boys are still going in another 10 years.

I was near the front for the first time which was great, and Harry threw his drumstick into the crowd which landed very close to me.

Great songs, great atmosphere and a fantastic band.

Set list: 
- Memory Lane
- That Girl
- Star Girl
- Transylvania
- 5 Colours in her hair
- Falling in Love
- Room on the Third Floor
- Obviously
- Corrupted
- Nowhere Left to Run
- Lies
- I'll be Ok
- Bubblewrap
- Smile
- It's Alright/ YMCA/ Don't Worry, Be Happy
- Shine a Light
- One for the Radio
- Memory Lane

Encore
- Love is Easy
- It's All About You
- The Heart Never Lies

The stage with Tom in the corner - 

McFly, Portsmouth Guildhall, Wednesday March 7

Last week I saw the amazing band McFly at Portsmouth Guildhall.

This was the fourth time I had seen the band, Portsmouth Guildhall, Bournemouth International Centre and Southampton Guildhall, each time the gig was just fantastic.

 

 

I will admit I'm not a massive fan of the band but I do like them. I'm not signed up to their Super City fan site but if they are playing locally I will go with my sister, who has liked them since they burst onto the scene in 2004, and have a really, really good time.

 

 

A lot of the fans were probably about 12/13 when they came out but are now in their early twenties reverting back to that simple time when they could scream throughout the gig and not get throat ache. I was surprised by how many young fans there were, many of which probably weren't born or were just babies when the boys released their first album.

 

 

The band played a load of their hits Five Colours in her Hair, Obviously, Lies and Shine a Light. They also added some new songs to the 'Keep Calm and Play Louder' set list, a Bruce Springsteen sounding number called Touch the Rain and a very rocky, very cool, Red, which was just amazing. The taster of the new songs makes me excited about the new material coming up for the band.

 

 

Danny also treated the crowd to a little mega mix mid song including Living on a Pray, You don't know you're beautiful - One Direction, Dance with Somebody, and  Somebody I used to know, just amazing how he can turn his voice to anything so expertly.

Danny, Dougie, Tom and Harry all have a comfortable ease when on stage and make sure they have a joke and interact with each other and the crowd.

This included Danny playing conductor on All About You, stopping and starting the crowd singing the long 'youuuu' at the end of the song, many times over much to the amusement of Tom.

This band are my guilty pleasure and I love them live. Great mix of guitars, four good looking guys, catchy lyrics and a fantastic crowd atmosphere.

I think McFly are one band who will continue to get better and will also continue to make songs together.  This showed after three members in the last year or so have dabbled in Reality shows (Danny - Pop star to Opera Star, Harry - Strictly Come Dancing and Dougie - I'm a celebrity get me out of here) however, they  come back together to do what they know best and obviously still love doing.

If you can see them do, even if you aren't a fan you will have a good time.

I don't think this will be the last time I see this band live.

Twit Chat

I think I am becoming addicted to Twitter. I don't spend every waking moment thinking about it, but when I'm online I cannot stop checking the updates seeing who has posted what and when. And I will admit I can go days without posting anything but as soon as I get on there I post so much... all my 'witty' comments pop into my head when I'm on there and I seem to post something every few seconds, sad but true.

It is a place where you can get an insight into a celebrities world and know what they are doing or what they are thinking at any given moment. In our celeb-crazed world I am often surprised that a lot of celebs are willing to share everything with the public, but then I suppose they do it on their own terms when they want not when the press forces them to.

I have noticed how increasingly papers and the press are using social networks such as Twitter for stories, especially when it comes to famous people. When Philip Schofield and Fearne Cotton posted updates on Holly Willoughby going into labour the papers were filled with both sets of updates being used as the source of stories. Tom Fletcher from McFly recently announced he had proposed to his girlfriend and she said yes, and over the next couple of days it was on news stories and in websites.

Papers have been known to put out messages asking for stories from people on Twitter. It is a easy way to connect with the community and people.


I am surprised that also with the Imogen Jones story in which she has had an affair with a Premier league footballer, an injunction has been placed on any papers naming him. However, within a couple of days Twitter was alive with people saying who it apparently was and everyone was very willing to comment on it.

Twitter is a funny beast, the defamation defences have been changed to accommodate what people say on it. Courtney Love famously was sued by a designer as she was not too pleasant about her designs on Twitter. But it seems people can get away with a lot more on twitter as it is a very personal device almost as if someone is looking into exactly what you are thinking.


I just get enthralled by what people publish, the news is posted here pretty much first. It is also unlike Facebook, which is a place where you are linked to friends from your past and present, you get updates from those who you used to know mostly. Twitter lets us enter a world that we were once barred from.