24th September review

Carling Academy, Islington

My review

The tiny Islington Academy is a far cry from the arenas Good Charlotte are used to selling out in America. Still, they manage to play their hearts out. The 800 capacity venue sold out in around an hour, and tickets were being sold on auction site eBay for around £80 in some cases. This shows how determined GC fans are, and singer Joel acknowledges this by thanking everyone as he says he knows how hard it was to get tickets.
Support comes from unsigned British Beef, who were added at the last minute. They seem so glad about landing this support spot, and play half an hour of chirpy pop punk songs which the crowd seem to love.
At 9.30 the lights dim, the crowd scream, the introduction plays and Benji, Billy, Chris, Joel and Paul walk on stage. They leap into the bouncy pop punk of The Anthem and the crowd go insane. You can't help but be mesmerised at a GC show - the energy of both the band and their fans is addictive. The set they play includes many new songs, such as SOS, The World Is Black and Ghost Of You, as well as classics such as Girls and Boys, The Young and the Hopeless and Hold On. They play for around 75 minutes and decide to bypass the cliché leaving the stage, then returning to do an encore type thing, and just keep going. They end with latest single Predictable, then 800 happy, sweaty and tired fans pile out of the venue, reminiscing every second.