It’s no secret that there’s a very high standard that ‘boybands’ (and we mean that in the most technical term) have to uphold when putting on a show, thanks to the likes of One Direction and McBusted and their un-drainable energy.

But as The Vamps take on their first arena tour, with two sold-out dates at The O2 in London thrown in there for good measure, it’s pretty clear that they’re up for the challenge.

A little over a year after they supported Taylor Swift on that very same stage, The Vamps are back, they’re headlining… And they’re all looking very good, to be frank.

If you were able to catch the lads at their theatre tour late last year, then you’ll already know the gist of what they’re serving up – they haven’t had any new music out since their debut album ‘Meet The Vamps’, after all. (Unless you count their Christmas album, which is outstanding, but not quite so relevant in May).

But while the setlist is similar, the band have turned things up to a whole new level, and with the impressive screams of the crowd very clearly boosting their energy levels into some terrifying territory, The Vamps filled the arena with their hits incredibly easily.

The band kicked off the show in a strong way, starting with ‘Wild Heart’, ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Somebody To You’, and then before we knew it, they were flying into the cover mash up of our dreams.

Shoving ‘Uptown Funk’, ‘Seven Nation Army’, ‘Shake It Off’ and ‘We Can’t Stop’ into one mega song? Yeah, that’ll do it.

That wasn’t the last of the covers either, after plowing through ‘Last Night’ (which was a big favourite of the night), each member of the band got to showcase their individual talents in a very cute segment.

Tristan made the most of the pyrotechnics on hand with an epic drum solo, Connor gave Sum 41’s ‘In Too Deep’ his own unique spin and James even had his own frontman moment with ‘Move My Way’, the song he wrote solo for ‘Meet The Vamps’.

After another unconventional cover, this time a tribute to My Chemical Romance’s ‘Teenagers’, it was back to pure Vamps goodness with ‘Another World’ featuring Brad’s impressive piano skills, ‘Lovestruck’, ‘Girls On TV’ and ‘Oh Cecilia’.

By the time the encore rolled around with ‘Risk It All’ and ‘Can We Dance’ finally finishing things off, we don’t reckon there was a healthy voice left in the crowd thanks to all the singing/screaming along. Including ours. No regrets.

All in all, it’s obvious that it’s only a matter of time until The Vamps outgrow even these arenas and graduate to stadium shows, especially since there’s about to be a whole load of new material to show off once their second album drops on November 27.

But until then, we will gladly watch this four-piece in any venue, at any time, simply because they are SO.MUCH. FUN.

By Charlotte Warwick

Setlist:

Wild Heart

Hurricane

Somebody To You

Uptown Funk/Seven Nation Army/Shake It Off/We Can’t Stop

Last Night

Move My Way

In Too Deep (Sum 41 cover)

Teenagers (My Chemical Romance cover)

Another World

Lovestruck

Girls On TV

Oh Cecilia (Breaking My Heart)

Risk It All

Can We Dance