Declan McKenna proves that age is not a barrier when it comes to wowing a sold out Islington Assembly Hall crowd.

Day 4 of BRITs Week Together with O2 for War Child and following a successful opening week that included intimate shows from Catfish and The Bottlemen, Yungblud and Jack Savoretti, I am finding myself heading towards Islington Assembly Hall for showman Declan McKenna’s night.

As I am queuing up, I am informed by the lovely venue staff that I should head upstairs at the balcony area for Declan’s opening song as I wouldn’t want to miss the view of what he had planned for the audience, and I do as I’m kindly told. The night starts with a short but strong  and heavy on indie bangers performance by Scors, who have accompanied Declan on his previous shows that week. Time goes past quickly and as the opening band says goodbye to their fans, a playlist full of old rock classics starts blasting from the speakers and the pit, which is full to its capacity by now, quickly jumps in to sing along. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds by The Beatles comes on and so does McKenna and his team. They are unsurprisingly met by an overwhelming amount of cheers and clapping by his fans as they see him looking glamorous as ever in his denim shorts, silk shirt and his distinctive glitter make up look.

What Do You Think About The Car single Make Me Your Queen marks the start of the setlist and the audience, as expected, starts to sing along to Declan’s acoustic track. Three minutes in I realised what the venue staff meant by ‘wouldn’t want to miss what he had planned for the audience’ as red confetti fills the whole room, creating a spectacular atmosphere and setting the bar really high for the remaining of the show. Isombard and Mind continue the same energetic flow and as we are exclusively introduced to the next song T.K.L.O.E. from his upcoming album, Zeros, Declan jokingly says “Please don’t put it on the Internet before I do”, and thanks his fans for letting him play new material before proceeding to the funky tunes of The Kids Don’t Wanna Come Home.

“There’s a boy, fifteen, with a gun in his hand. And the people with no audience say should be hanged”, the 21-year-old emotionally croons and no one misses a chance to sing along to the lyrics of Paracetamol, one of the songs that brought Declan’s lyrical mastermind to the media’s attention.

By now the temperature has dramatically been raised in the venue and a lot of fans are on top of their friend’s shoulders as the night continues with Why Do You Feel So Down where McKenna breaks into a spectacular mini dance. Taking a break in front of his piano, he sings unreleased track Be An Astronaut. Listen To Your Friends, Humongous, and British Bombs are up next before the powerful encore comes on. Inviting everyone to raise their hands in the air, his first ever single Brazil starts playing. The song that brought him to fame six years ago when he was only 15 years old, will forever be one his career’s highlights.

We unfortunately come to the closing track of the night, his ‘energetic, guitar-driven’ newest release, Beautiful Faces, which brought the packed out crowd of London’s Islington Assembly Hall on their toes for one last time before he epically kicked his mic stand and jumped on the audience to thank them like a true rockstar he is.

Photos: Lina Molloholli