Kings of Leon @ The Apollo

LEGENDS abound about the animal magnetism that Kings of Leon exude on stage - rumour has it that wannabe girls would queue out of the band's dressing room in the hope of, ahem, a more intimate performance.

And far from the shambling characters that the spacier vibe of the new album may suggest, Kings Of Leon are certainly a tightly-honed beast on stage.

Singer Caleb Followill, wearing a pair of astonishingly tight trousers that probably help him hit the high notes, has become a charismatic presence, eschewing the attention-grabbing on-stage antics of contemporaries like Johnny Borrell in favour of leading his band through their impressive back catalogue with a fierceness not always apparent on record.

And it all seems easy for them - Nathan Followill blows bubbles while pounding the drums with an intensity that would make even Dave Grohl wince.

Coming across partway between Elvis and Mick Jagger, Followill and his family are venerated like the Second Coming - proof perfect that a repressed childhood is no barrier to dirty rock and roll excess.

Recent single On Call is both haunting and meaty, but it is the older material from the band's Aha Shake Heartbreak album - including Molly's Chambers and The Bucket - that sends the crowd wild. The entire standing area rolls back and forth, and the balcony seems in real danger of collapse.

Even as the pace slows for Milk, the attention of the audience is all on stage. Over the years, Kings of Leon have become braver, more experimental, a more complex band, without losing the ability to write tunes that sound like instant classics.

Their performance at the Apollo justifies the fact that tickets sold out within three minutes of going on sale. Kings of Leon are a band who have become much more than the sum of their parts.