The Get Happy tour is somewhat of an institution, bringing joyful music to the masses of pop-punk-rock lovers. The tour was specifically designed to be teenie friendly, with as many dates as possible having low or no age limits.

Army Of Freshmen are a band that everyone seems to have heard of except me. They have been running around like hyperactive children gaining fans everywhere they go. One magazine said they have two too many keyboardists, but it doesn't come across as "annoying" in their live show. Ten Thousand Years seems to throw itself at you like an excitable puppy dog, and was certainly the kind of song I was delighted to hear as I entered Hammersmith Palais.

Next up were Wheatus who, I hate to inform you, failed to impress me or many other people for that matter. They were two hit wonders of the most wonderful kind, but apart from Teenage Dirtbag and Little Respect there isn't really much great about the set. Next please!

Then came Son Of Dork: the new band of James Bourne from Busted. Son of Dork are never going to get any proper respect from the rock world as they are basically a pop band with guitars. However, I am not going to deny that their songs are amusing and bouncy and very fun indeed. Much like any band, they sound much heavier live than on CD. Ironically some circle pits sprang up as soon as the first chords of Eddie's Song were played.

During the breaks songs such as Yellow Submarine and the theme from Happy Days were played. Strange... but fun.

Bowling For Soup burst on stage to cheers and applause. Dressed in strange sports gear, they began proceedings with Our Hometown from Drunk Enough To Dance and Friendly Goodbye from their latest release (The Great Burrito Extortion Case). Everyone got jumping like they were on pogo sticks and sang along like their lives depended on it. Before playing I'm Gay they announced that were filming the video for it that evening, so everyone made an extra effort to act like a lunatic. Mid set they had a special break: "Your very own Bowling For Soup photo opportunity", during
which they pranced about posing.

They left Girl All The Bad Guys Want and 1985 until the encore, but they got two of the most crazed reactions from the crowd. Then they played through I'm Gay again, for recording purposes, and got the Download dog onstage in order to announce that they are going to make an appearance at this year's festival. They finished on a cover of I Wanna Be Sedated, with Jaret changing the lyrics to "I wanna be naked".

All in all the tour did exactly what it said on the tin: it made the contents of Hammersmith Palais very happy.