Music
McFly @ Derby Assembly Rooms, April 1
Published Monday, Apr 2 2007, 10:02 BST | By Miriam Zendle
Full disclosure before I start this review: I love McFly. I think their work is fun, poppy, danceable, easy to listen to and brilliant to put on at a party, on the whole. Okay, so this may not be an opinion held by the journalistic community at large (and it certainly ain't NME's idea of good music), but it's one I'm sticking to. Don't deny that you boogie on down to 'Obviously' when it comes on of a Friday night at your local club, or that you ballroom dance about the room with your best friend when 'All About You''s chorus kicks in, because I've seen everyone from 6'1 rugby boys to 5'2 waif-like students throw their hands up in the air and have fun without worrying whether they're being 'cool' or not.
As far as the music itself goes at Derby Assembly Rooms, there was little to complain about. McFly, their skills honed by various tours and three albums-worth of material, provided a polished, professional and cheerful performance with some brilliant vocals coming from lead singers Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones, while an interestingly hairdoed Harry Judd held everything together on the drums, only once rising from his seated position at the back of the stage to make himself known to the room at large. A couple of beautiful songs from supposedly 'difficult' second album Wonderland (in fact, pretty much their best release to date) were performed alongside recent tracks like the fantastically weird 'Translyvania', penned by bassist Dougie Poynter and so the night sped by faster than Jay Kay in his favourite vehicle.
Unfortunately, the skills of the pop band were not quite enough to prevent the night from disintegrating into misery and chaos as things came to their conclusion. McFly's fans do have a propensity to be young, female, and blind to the perturbation of others. From the unnecessary and constant screaming in the ridiculously long queue outside the Tardis-like Assembly Rooms (fact fans: some girls had been sitting at the front of the queue for 28 hours...) to the violent pushing and lack of regard for others that many of the fans had, there were many less positive aspects to this concert. Dull, slightly stalkerish-in-tone anecdotes about topics such as having spotted the back of Dougie Poynter's head in a window (?!?) abounded, while vitriol spewed from the mouths of badly-brought-up teenage girls, angry, as we all were, at the constant roiling movement of the crowd, but who took their frustration out via the medium of personal insult.
All in all, though the first half seemed to be going places, the behaviour of the crowd as the concert advanced made sure the latter part was a blur of violent movements, visibility issues and ridiculous behaviour from many in the audience, meaning enjoyment was severely impaired. We can only hope things improve during the rest of the band's tour, as if you're able to concentrate on what they're doing rather than fighting for a viewpoint throughout, you might even give it 6/5.
As far as the music itself goes at Derby Assembly Rooms, there was little to complain about. McFly, their skills honed by various tours and three albums-worth of material, provided a polished, professional and cheerful performance with some brilliant vocals coming from lead singers Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones, while an interestingly hairdoed Harry Judd held everything together on the drums, only once rising from his seated position at the back of the stage to make himself known to the room at large. A couple of beautiful songs from supposedly 'difficult' second album Wonderland (in fact, pretty much their best release to date) were performed alongside recent tracks like the fantastically weird 'Translyvania', penned by bassist Dougie Poynter and so the night sped by faster than Jay Kay in his favourite vehicle.
Unfortunately, the skills of the pop band were not quite enough to prevent the night from disintegrating into misery and chaos as things came to their conclusion. McFly's fans do have a propensity to be young, female, and blind to the perturbation of others. From the unnecessary and constant screaming in the ridiculously long queue outside the Tardis-like Assembly Rooms (fact fans: some girls had been sitting at the front of the queue for 28 hours...) to the violent pushing and lack of regard for others that many of the fans had, there were many less positive aspects to this concert. Dull, slightly stalkerish-in-tone anecdotes about topics such as having spotted the back of Dougie Poynter's head in a window (?!?) abounded, while vitriol spewed from the mouths of badly-brought-up teenage girls, angry, as we all were, at the constant roiling movement of the crowd, but who took their frustration out via the medium of personal insult.
All in all, though the first half seemed to be going places, the behaviour of the crowd as the concert advanced made sure the latter part was a blur of violent movements, visibility issues and ridiculous behaviour from many in the audience, meaning enjoyment was severely impaired. We can only hope things improve during the rest of the band's tour, as if you're able to concentrate on what they're doing rather than fighting for a viewpoint throughout, you might even give it 6/5.
