McFly rock the Regent

McFly, Ipswich Regent, October 15

WHEN it comes to music everyone has their guilty pleasures - the band you know you shouldn't really like but can't help singing along to.

Rather embarrassingly, given that I'm a 25-year-old man and not a screaming teenage girl, Mcfly would come pretty close to the top of that list for me.

While I can't confess to actually owning any of their work I have to admit they do what they do - probably best described as a guitar-based mixture of pop, rock and punk - extremely well.

That was certainly the case last night when the four lads, Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd, thrilled hundreds of fans at a sold-out Ipswich Regent with a characteristically energetic performance.

The band were back in town as part of their Greatest Hits tour - rather surprising you might think given they've only been going since 2004.

But with 12 top ten singles, including seven number ones, and three multi-million selling albums there is definitely enough material to go around.

From the moment they bounded on stage and broke into opening track That Girl, it was clear we were in for a good time.

Stopping briefly to say hello to Harry's dad, who was hidden away among the throng of ecstatic teenage girl fans, they then launched into a string of hits, including the raucous Friday Night, 2004's Obviously and the foot-stomping Star Girl.

Half an hour in, they whipped the crowd into an even bigger frenzy with new single The Heart Never Lies, and a fantastic version of Rhianna's summer hit Umbrella. This was followed by All About You, Please Please and Room on The Third Floor, which threatened to blow the roof off the newly-refurbished theatre.

An encore of Don't Stop Me Now and their debut hit Five Colours in Her Hair ensured no-one went home disappointed. Unfortunately it looks like I'll be singing their songs for a little while longer.

CRAIG ROBINSON