The walkway arching over the stage was a puzzle. Kaiser Chiefs strode down it for what would have made a magnificent entrance had a black gauze curtain not almost obscured the view. An exuberant Ricky Wilson, you reckoned, would be running its length all evening. In fact, he didn’t set foot on it again. What a waste.

Wilson, however, had several cunning set pieces up his silky shirt sleeves. A mere minute into the boisterous opener, Everything is Average Nowadays, he scrambled down from the stage, clambered on to the crowd barrier and held his arms aloft. There were hands all over him – those of the security guards propping him up by the bum and those of dozens of fans desperate to squeeze the star. For a moment, it felt like an exhilarating encore. As a start, it was sublime.

Everyday I Love You Less and Less had tightly packed fans on the floor of Earls Court bouncing in unison – from the stands they looked like trampolining ants. The biggest indoor audience in Kaiser Chiefs’ history provided deafening backing vocals as a blistering light show kicked in.

“Yer a right noisy bunch,” Wilson announced, his smile a mile wide.

Dressed in faded black jeans and a tight shirt that suggested some dieting has gone on since the summer, the singer never stopped moving – he was at the back playing percussion, then kicking his legs up at the lip of the stage while rattling a tambourine or launching himself high in the air.

During Take My Temperature, he vanished for several minutes, somehow turning up on the top of the sound desk in the centre of the audience. It was, literally, a magic moment – could there be a secret tunnel, we wondered. He returned to the stage by striding through the crowd, something few singers of stature dare to do these days.

Two new tracks were aired – Never Miss a Beat and You Want History, both promisingly funky updates on the band’s shouty rock sound. A short, mid-set run of so-so, Blur-like numbers was the only lull and every hit was a winner, with Ruby, I Predict a Riot and an encore-closing Oh My God the highlights. This year hasn’t quite been a vintage one for Kaiser Chiefs, but, boy, did they go out with a bang.

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