This is the modern way

People used to wave lighters at gigs but now they hold up their mobile phones to take photos. They lit up the first few rows of the Academy as we waited for the Kaiser Chiefs to appear.

But then again, you would’ve been lucky to make it through the security with a Zippo. I had a burly bouncer-type paw through my bag. What was he looking for – a sharpened nail file, a penknife, or maybe a gun? I didn’t think I looked especially like a homicidal maniac. However, I was comforted when my mate’s bag was similarly manhandled, and she told me they confiscated a pen from her friend last time they were there. Well, they do say the pen is mightier than the sword…

In the spirit of tameness, even the support acts were sipping from bottles of water (that’s what it looked like from my vantage point, admittedly, it could have been gin). The first lot bounced around energetically. The second lot bounced as well, while sounding like a cross between Siouxsie and the Banshees and Goldfrapp.

I like my rock stars to be rock stars, so was gladdened to see the Kaiser Chiefs opted to swig beer in between their bouncing around. Ricky Wilson had obviously been brought up properly, as he collected all the T-shirts that were thrown on stage and folded them up them nicely. But he was pretty damned marvellous at the rock star stuff too – mid-I Predict A Riot he snarled “Not very sensible” and launched himself into the crowd.

Writing NME-esque music reviews has never been among my journalistic ambitions, so I’ll leave it at that. Suffice to say, the Kaiser Chiefs were amazing and we came away very taken with Mr Wilson. Stage presence and plenty of stamina are very attractive attributes in a man.