McFly Power To Play tour returns to Cambridge Corn Exchange

Even more impressive, the band everyone’s here to see - noughties pop heroes McFly - sold out the same venue a week before tonight’s return. 

With the audience a mix of teenagers with their parents, twenty-somethings reliving their adolescence and a surprising number of indie hipster types, a sea of iPhone cameras light up the room as the four-piece walk on stage to Village People’s ‘YMCA’.

Just one song in, everyone has their arms in the air clapping along to ‘Where Did All The Guitars Go?’ whose overwhelming message, or mantra, is “rock and roll is good for the soul”. 

McFly returned to the Cambridge Corn Exchange for their second concert at the venue as part of their Power To Play tour. (Image: Lucy Jolley)

Performing with tireless energy, like is their last ever show, the crowd remain equally amped up for older and newer anthems. 

‘One For The Radio’ is an early highlight: full of heavy riffs and pounding drums, the live rendition could fill a stadium. Even the swaying ‘Too Close For Comfort’ packs in some gritty guitars. 

During ‘Everybody Knows’, a young girl called Maya is chosen to join the band onstage to play the cowbell. 

As if such a moment isn’t wholesome enough, everyone chants her name together (and it later transpires that this is her first ever concert too). 

“It's party time,” Danny shouts before launching into the nostalgic joy of ‘Star Girl’ and the uplifting foot-tapper ‘Happiness’. 

McFly performing at the Cambridge Corn Exchange as part of their Power To Play tour. (Image: Lucy Jolley)

‘Obviously’ has everyone in the room screaming back the lyrics as if the two-decade-old song had just been released 

An acoustic rendition of ‘All About You’, meanwhile, adds to the song’s romantic nature as the crowd is split in two to sing the harmonies under the tutelage of conductor Danny who, contrastingly, is bouncing among the crowd during final song ‘Red’. 

While most bands of their era would stick to playing their greatest hits, McFly’s current live tour is built upon their new album, demonstrating the confidence they have in ‘Power To Play’ and their heavier sound as a whole. 

And, although some rock purists would raise an eyebrow, it’s hard to argue with their credibility when they put on a show as impressive and energetic as this.