Busted at the Royal Albert Hall, London, review: Nostalgic, polished set left everyone buzzing for more

To be a fangirl - or boy - is a wonderful thing. The sense of euphoria you feel when your idols are playing your favourite songs is second to none.

Usually, a fangirl's obsessive nature peaks as a teenager. But sometimes all it takes is a band coming back together 10 years on - when they're in their 30s and the fans are all mid-20s - to rekindle those same adolescent feelings.

And that's exactly what happened for the majority of the audience members when Busted played a one-off gig at the Royal Albert Hall this week.

The Albert Hall's plush red velvet seats weren't all filled, but somehow most Busted fans I spoke to didn't even know the event was happening until recently.

As the lights dimmed, the crowd screamed and Charlie, James and Matt casually strolled out. No warm-up act, no big fan-fare. They weren't even on a raised stage. It felt intimate and personal.

For the first 40 minutes or so, the trio performed a beautiful, stripped-back acoustic set accompanied by a saxophone and cello which added something really special. They played their slow songs as well as pared-back reincarnations of their more up-beat classics.

Unsurprisingly, their newer records (written since the band reformed) received less of a reaction than the hits we'd all loved as children and teens. An acoustic version of "Meet You There" gave us all the feels, while "Sleeping With The Light On" had us all singing out at the top of our lungs.

Although the band's voices sound practically the same as they used to, they reinvented their hits for grown-up fans. And it totally worked.

The deafening roar that emerged when James asked who'd been on the first Busted tour suggested my flatmate and I were not the only loyal fans in the audience, and the fact that everyone seemed to know all the words - to the old songs at least - confirmed it.

Despite Charlie's past quitting of the band and refusal to join Matt and James in McBusted at first (let's just gloss over those, shall we?), there was banter between all three, which the crowd unsurprisingly loved.

Matt is the real showman of the group, who always made sure to look up at and interact with the whole audience.

James told a sweet story about being a young boy and watching a performance of "Don't Dream It's Over" at the venue on TV at home. The band then sang a stunning cover of the tune, and it was touching to see how much singing in the venue meant to them all.

There was an interval at the end of the stripped back set, followed by an slightly random DJ set by Dan P Carter. Did it seem a bit odd? Yes. But did teenage pop rock favourites like "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" also get the crowd's energy levels up? Most definitely.

Half an hour later, the lights dimmed again and Busted returned wearing fresh outfits (Charlie for example had changed from a navy blazer to a shiny bomber jacket) and with a completely different energy.

There was a lighting change - the warm neutral glow had been replaced by pink and blue strobes - and there was a total gear change.

This was when we all really became pre-teens again, going nuts to "Air Hostess", "Crashed the Wedding" and "3am".

New songs have an electro vibe that feels very different to the old Busted bangers, but they provided a welcome break from the screaming, singing and dancing.

It was a long set but everyone was buzzing for more. The encore finished on an absolute classic: "Year 3000", which left us all on a huge high.