REVIEW: Declan McKenna at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea

Twenty-three years ago it was a young Oasis treading the famous boards and this time it’s up and coming, like many before him, 18-year-old singer songwriter Declan Mckenna.

Hitting the ground running from the off, Declan soon has the largely teenage audience singing every word back to him from a frenzied moshpit with girls and boys alike. It’s proper pop star stuff. Very impressive.

It was also refreshing to see three of his band were females – still not something you see very often, but will hopefullly inspire girls in the audience to pick up a guitar.

Hightlight of the show was early single Paracetamol, seeing Declan dispense with his guitar, dancing round the stage and ending up crowdsurfing among the estatic audience.

Despite the house lights going up, the band are soon back onstage, creating a mad rush back to the front of the stage. ‘Are we allowed to so a song twice?’ asks Declan as they launch into the a manic rendition of Isombard to round off a thrilling night.