The latest venture was to see my childhood favourite band – McFly as they returned to Cardiff for a show at Alexandra Head in Cardiff Bay.
On arrival, I had missed part of opener Who’s Molly? but I was impressed by what I heard from the Swansea rockers. They were tight and a good band for the future.
Next up was Cardiff’s Ben Ellis. He showed some talent bringing a pop rock sound to the stage with tracks including Ed’s House and the really catchy No One Sleeps in Hollywood.
Deco turned up the intensity with their 80s electro sound and got the crowd involved by taking selfies to submit for a video for Photograph and getting the crowd to sing along.
The main support slot was filled by Sam Ryder who brought his upbeat and positive attitude to Cardiff. He had incredible stage presence and the crowd were singing along to every word. I’d not really listened to Sam Ryder as a solo artist before (I had heard his work in Close Your Eyes), but I definitely came away a fan, with Mountain being one of the stand-out songs.
An extremely loud singalong to Bohemian Rhapsody in the break (literally one of the stage crew came out to film it, it was that loud) as well as other classic rock tracks later, and McFly take to the stage to YMCA (something that would be revisited during the set) before breaking out into Where Did All the Guitars Go? and Land of the Bees.
The set included a good mix of songs from throughout McFly’s 21-year career including the likes of Room on the Third Floor, Obviously, Happiness, Honey I’m Home and Forever’s Not Enough. I was also delighted that Transylvania was included in the setlist as it has been a long-time favourite of mine.
Danny led a quick-fire singalong medley of classic hits including YMCA and Twist and Shout.
During All About You, Harry’s daughter joined him on stage to play the drums and towards the end of closer Five Colours in Her Hair, three more of the McFly kids came out on stage to join in which was adorable.
There was another adorable moment with the band calling out someone in the crowd and bringing her on stage to propose to her girlfriend – she said yes!
There were so many memorable moments and you could see that the band were absolutely loving their time on the stage, and the crowd absolutely loved it too.