“I live on the right side, I sleep on the left, that’s why everything’s got to be love or death!” belted out Harry McVeigh, along with hundreds of others, to close an enthralling and quite superb set.

As a drumstick launched by Jack Lawrence-Brown hit my friend on the head and fell into my sweaty palm, White Lies walked off stage having successfully kick-started their UK tour with a depressingly brilliant gig.

Having only one album of songs to call upon it was never going to be an all-nighter, but in the hour they were on stage, it was dark indie rock of epic proportions.

From the very first note of opening track Farewell to the Fairground it was clear these guys had become incredibly tight performers since I witnessed their breakthrough performance at Glastonbury six months previously.

And, my, how their stage presence has improved since the summer, when “rabbits in headlights” came to mind.

Previously a little wooden, rigid and evidently nervous on a big stage, Harry now prowls the stage like a true front man, feeling every song and with a powerful voice to match - even bassist Charles has acquired a few new moves.

The rousing performance of To Lose My Life was a perfect example of the band’s rightly new found confidence, having just completed a successful European tour and coming to terms with a number one debut album.

Set closer, Death, was superb. No more words needed.