I went to Avril Lavigne's brilliant nostalgia-filled show at Castlefield Bowl and only one thing was missing

Following her breath-taking set at Glastonbury last weekend, Lavigne’s latest stop was a performance at the highly unique and intimate Castlefield Bowl, which overlooks the train lines of Manchester, something that Lavigne acknowledged during the show, admitting that the venue was “cool”. 

Before I get into Lavigne’s performance, how great were Simple Plan? They brought tremendous energy to the stage and got the crowd engaged and jumping from the outset with the crowd-pleasing ‘Jump’. Lavigne billed her tour as her ‘Greatest Hits’ tour so it was only fitting Simple Plan followed suit and so they did as they performed hits such as ‘I’m Just A Kid’, ‘Perfect’ and invited the crowd to “play with their balls” during ‘Summer Paradise’.

Perhaps the highlight of the Canadian four-piece’s performance though was when they brought a number of people dressed in Scooby Doo costumes onto the stage for a funky rendition of ‘What’s New Scooby Doo’, which got the crowd roaring.

Lavigne’s energetic set got off to a red-hot start as she belted out fan-favourite ‘Girlfriend’ to get the crowd singing and bouncing before following it up with ‘What the Hell’ and a surprise early rendition of ‘Complicated’.

‘Smile’, ‘Here’s to Never Growing Up’ and a snippet of ‘Hot’ followed before Lavigne stepped off the stage and a video montage documenting some of her biggest moments from the ‘Let Go’ era played on the screen. 

The Canadian was at her absolute best throughout the evening. She performed at a relentless pace through the night, barely stopping to interact with the audience as she belted out song after song in quick succession. However, when Lavigne did speak the audience followed every instruction as if their lives depended on it - a testament to Lavigne’s ability to control the crowd as a performer.

Later in the night, the Canadian brought Simple Plan back out on to the stage for a performance of the four-piece’s hit song ‘Addicted’, which was halted half-way through in order to bring a handful of lucky fans onto the stage . One of them was celebrating her birthday and was among the fans to have received a signed skateboard. Needless to say, that is a birthday to remember. 

Performances of more recent hits in ‘Bite Me’ and ‘Love It When You Hate Me’ followed before Lavigne belted out her biggest hit in ‘Sk8er Boi’ in unison with the audience to wrap up the first part of the set that was filled with nostalgia, excitement and happiness.

After the Canadian returned to the stage for the encore, the only blot on the night was it ending in a somewhat downbeat fashion as she wrapped up the show with three ballads in ‘Head Above Water’, ‘When You’re Gone’ and ‘I’m With You’ to close what was a thrilling performance.

Avril Lavigne Castlefield Bowl Manchester setlist

• Girlfriend
• What the Hell
• Complicated
• Smile
• Here's to Never Growing Up
• Hot
• My Happy Ending
• He Wasn't
• Don't Tell Me
• Losing Grip
• Addicted - with Simple Plan
• Bite Me
• Love It When You Hate Me
• Sk8er Boi

Encore

• Head Above Water
• When You're Gone
• I'm With You