‘Some things never changed after all these years – I still love skater boys!” proclaims a giddy Avril Lavigne to a sold out Alexandra Palace. An explosion of red confetti, cheap guitar riffs, and bratty pop punk vocals about an unlikely romance between a girl who does ballet and an adolescent punk then combine to inspire non-stop whooping from the crowd.
When Lavigne, now 38, initially released Sk8er Boi in 2002, she was a teenager providing mixtape anthems for jorts-wearing teens who snogged one another in mall car parks. This is reflected by tonight’s nostalgic outfit (red tartan skirt and hole-ridden tights) and a largely thirtysomething audience, with the skater boys now skater dads. But nostalgia is one hell of a drug, and it’s hard not to feel re-energised by a crowd who treat Ally Pally like it’s the raucous dancefloor at a high school reunion, air guitars and all.
