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TARZAN (1999)

rocksound: McFly, Download Festival 2025

REVIEW: McFly at Download Festival. What an absolutely incredible sentence that is. A decade ago, such a spectacle probably wouldn’t have been possible, but off the back of Busted’s incredible showing on this same stage 365 days ago, having one of the UK’s most successful bands share their career’s work on iconic ground like this makes all of the sense in the world. It makes even more sense with the opening gambit of ‘Where Did All The Guitars Go?’ and ‘Land Of The Bees, showing off the band’s love for hair metal jubilance and sporadic prog in quick succession. But it’s the stream of hits that follow that show why they are so renowned and adored. An exuberant ‘Star Girl’, a grin-inducing ‘Obviously’ and an ingeniously-placed ‘All About You’, the gooiest song ever to have a wall of death requested alongside it, are all received with child-like glee those stuffed inside this tent, a reaction that encompasses everything that a festival like this should represent. No borders, no boundaries, no judgment and no limits. Just pure, unadulterated joy, the sort that we all should make more room for. McFly at Download? Absolutely.