THE first time I saw Kings of Leon was arguably the performance that shot them to fame.

Headlining the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury in 2008 opened the door to millions of more fans along with the help of that little-known single Sex is on Fire.

Fast forward to a much warmer night in Manchester and alongside a sell-out arena crowd I was eager to see what direction the Tennessee band would take next.

The boys had taken a break over the last three years after 'problems bigger than drinking more Gatorade', as Jared Followill famously tweeted, finally came to a head.

But they stepped out on stage as though they had never been away, opening the set with Closer the southern rockers soon had the crowd singing and swaying along with their biggest hits Molly's Chambers, Fans and Use Somebody.

The crowd waited for a break as hit followed hit with songs from their latest and yet to be released album expected from the Grammy award winning band. But instead they were pummelled with some of the band's electrifying best with not even a chord from new material.

It felt like this was more a gig where Caleb and co were checking if their fans were still there after their break and still cared.

By the looks on their faces as they stepped off stage, they definitely got the answer they wanted.

Welcome back Followill family, you have been missed.