Sports Team had the thousands-strong crowd working up a sweat on the final stop of their UK tour at a sold-out Brixton Academy.

Have Sports Team slept at all in the last three months? From in-store shows to festival slots to a sell-out headline tour, it seems to have been both feet on the gas for the English six-piece. Their debut album Deep Down Happy earned them a place on the UK charts, second only to Lady Gaga, and a Mercury Prize nomination last year.

It starts like a fashion show on stage – frontman Alex Rice struts out to ABBA’s Mamma Mia in a (faux) fur coat and a hat that looks like something out of the Saatchi Gallery. Throw in a few pairs of sunglasses, the cat-ears headband, a baby pink beret, and a fluffy (also faux) fur scarf, and you have your runway line-up. Then they tear into Here It Comes Again and all hell breaks loose. There appears to be more beer in the air than in plastic cups and fewer feet on the ground with each song as the moshing and crowd surfing ensue.

With confetti already blasting into the air in the third song Margate and the CO2 cannons going off mid-set during M5, it was clear they’d be pulling out all the stops, as usual. We’re even blessed with a cover of The Wannadies’ You & Me Song as well as a taste of their new music with The Game, while their latest single Happy (God’s Own Country) blends in perfectly amongst the likes of classics Camel Crew and Kutcher.

The show reaches a crescendo in the closing with Stanton, and Robbie Williams’ Angels soundtracks the band’s exit in signature fashion. We might all need a few days to recover from this night, but if the next Sports Team show were tomorrow, there’s no doubt we’d all be back there in a flash.

Photos: Abigail Shii