Keeping calm was never an option for the screaming fans who packed out the theatre to welcome Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Dougie Poynter and Harry Judd back to town.

But the boys did play louder and harder than ever before.

A shout out first, though, for Chelmsford powerpop punk band The Hype Theory who got the audience pumped and were treated like headliners instead of show openers and rightly so.

Support act Ivyrise were good too, their cover of Adele’s Set Fire To the Rain went down a storm.

This was McFly’s night though.

Formed in 2004, their debut album, Room On The 3rd Floor, hit the charts at number one; earning them a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest band to do so – a title taken from The Beatles.

Since then they’ve gone on to release three successful studio albums, Wonderland, Motion in the Ocean, Radio:Active and a greatest hits album.

They have clocked up 18 consecutive top 20 singles, seven of which reached number one in the UK singles chart and scooped a Brit Award for Best Pop Act.

Fifth studio album Above The Noise was released to huge acclaim, spawning one of the band’s biggest singles.

After the audience – mostly females, mostly young, all screaming - performed an impromptu group performance of YMCA, the boys came on all guns blazing and never stopped.

Neither did the yells of we love you. My ears are still ringing.

A shout out to the parents, mainly dads, too; beer in one hand, surfing the net on their phones with the other trying to ignore their daughters’ hormonally charged cries.

The boys are great live performers; belting out old hits, giving fans a sneak peek at tracks from their forthcoming sixth studio album and performing a crowd-pleasing mash-up of tracks by One Direction, Rhianna, Busted, Bon Jovi, Goyte and Whitney Houston.

They had great banter with the audience and each other; some celebrity reality show chit chat by king of the jungle Dougie and king of the dancefloor Harry diverting into talk about bottoms.

It’s clear to see why, eight years on, they’re still rocking sold out venues.

WAYNE SAVAGE