LONDON, Ont. - Avril in April was perfect time to scream the night away at the John Labatt Centre last night.

Canadian pop princess Avril Lavigne pulled in a crowd of 9,200 screamingly happy fans at the downtown London arena. The place was jammed with young girls thrilled by the rocker they would most like for a cool older sister.

Lavigne is touring to support her 2007 album, The Best Damn Thing. She's sold about 30 million albums worldwide.

"You guys are such a rocking crowd tonight," Lavigne said, setting off a volcanic round of screams. "London always has a good crowd. We're glad to be here."

Lavigne was on for a too-short 80 minutes, which still had plenty for the fans -- lots of hits, costume changes, dancers, flags and such treats as Avril on the drums and piano and Avril rapping.

Lavigne, conspicuously blond with a big splash of fuchsia in her mane, was in a black top and pants with glittery decorations. She switched to a faux military jacket with lots of trim, switching again to a halter top.

The Napanee superstar finished up her encore with a great romp through Sk8er Boi and one final change, into a pink hoodie, making Lavigne, 23, look not much bigger or older than most of her fans.

Lavigne opened with Girlfriend, the big hit off Best Damn Thing. By the third song, it was back to Complicated, her first big single.

In the early numbers, Lavigne was surrounded by dancers outfitted in gym-style garb, dark and drab.

Also drab was her visiting the "make some noise, London" line several times too often. Once is the limit.

Much better were the rockers Don't Tell Me and The Best Damn Thing and singalongs. It was cute when her piano excursion had the fans screaming when the star's black nail polished digits loomed on the big screens.

Last night was Lavigne's third trip to the downtown London venue. She played here in 2003, pulling in 9,500 fans, and 2005, when 8,800 Avrilites were in the house.

This time, the posse around Lavigne demanded restrictions on access by Free Press photographers. The Free Press wouldn't agree.

This puts Avril in the company of Ozzy Osbourne and Axl Rose, who also became camera shy. Avril, those are old guys with stringy hair and a random grasp on what's going on. You are better than that.

So are your fans. By Gwen Stefani standards, the choreographed routines and all the dancers' drab outfits -- West Side Story of the darned, cheerleaders or glam wear -- are pretty predictable. Lavigne is much more a stroller and marcher than a dancer.

Those comments don't really count for Avril fans and their moms. In fact, the girls are probably tired of hearing about it from their older sisters, who would be the Stefani fans in the family.

To this critic, who remembers that 2003 concert when it took most of April for Avril to make one little spin move on stage, she is more animated and at ease on stage. She still seems happiest when she has a guitar around for company.

It's Avril the fans come to see. Proof can be found from the entrepreneurial mom-type who approached Al Berry, the bassist in Lavigne's fine touring band, to see if he needed a ticket as he was out for a walk. Berry politely declined.