Christina O'Neill's verdict: Four stars

It's easy to be cynical about a band like McBusted. They are a supergroup comprised of the whole of McFly and two thirds of Busted - two of the most marketable, child-friendly 'boybands with guitars' in Britain - with a rather uninspired portmanteau name.

 

Though in fairness, the six-piece been very successful; their music is fun, diluted pop-punk, and they sing about petty adolescent worries that no doubt strike a chord with their largely teenage fans - and sending older fans in their twenties on a nostalgia trip to when the boys first came on the scene.

 

Kicking off their Most Excellent Adventure tour at Glasgow's SSE Arena, they pulled out all the stops by turning the stage into a massive arcade machine with Sega Megadrive style graphics and massive buttons - making the show a night to remember. They started off with recent single Air Guitar, followed by One For the Radio which had everyone out of their seats. The show was broken up with funny video sequences with lots of Back to the Future references - including a replica of the DeLorean time machine car which was lowered onto the stage. Cheesy, but impressive.

 

Busted slow ballad 3am was the song that showcased the band's vocal talent; when most people would argue that the fusion of both bands is potential overkill, their quintet harmony melded really well - and it actually came across rather soulful. Their set was laced with vocal interplays - and from Matt's occasional high notes to Danny's huskier croon, each member seemed to bring their own quality to every song.

 

There were a lot of Busted and McFly covers to please the crowd, but they still performed songs from their debut self-titled album. While the stage was bathed in red light and lit up with spitting fireballs, they dropped album favourite What Happened To Your Band - a tongue-in-cheek, jaded anthem they penned about the members' post-fame existential crisis - probably McBusted's most defining song so far.

 

Even though the members are in their late twenties to early thirties, they've still retained much of the youthful enthusiasm that they had from their early years - and it was really infectious. There was lots of jumping, running and, during Riding On My Bike, even cycling about the stage - as well as countless synchronised guitar jumps and on-stage skanking. They even came out dressed in wedding outfits for a cover of Busted's Crashed the Wedding, with Dougie in a bride's dress and Matt as a groom - though Harry dressed like a Chippendale vicar was truly a sight to behold.

 

McBusted's 'man-child' behaviour is obviously an integral part of their charm - at one point they played Street Fighter on the projector screen, jumping on the giant buttons of what they claimed was their 'record-breaking' gigantic games console. There was even a KissCam during It's All About You, which helped immerse the crowd in the experience even more.

 

For someone who loved the two bands over a decade ago, the gig was a long, drawn-out guilty pleasure. The stunning special effects, their onstage presence and their commitment to a high-octane performance could have impressed even the most sceptical gig-goer. It's easy enough for naysayers to brand the supergroup as a manufactured, chewed-up-and-spat-out music industry Frankenstein project - but the boys have talent, bags of enthusiasm and raised the bar for other bands of their ilk when putting on a show.