If you follow me on twitter you would've known, before I got rather sick I went watching Kate Nash on the 20th April as part of her Girl Talk tour. I sadly missed her touring last time so luckily I got a ticket with my mate Isobel to watch her perform in Gorilla Manchester. Now before reviewing the actual gig, I'm going to talk about the concert venue itself (it's not a positive one). Over the course of my life I've been to numerous concerts from the age of 12 onwards that have been 13+, I have attended these gigs without parents because I look older due to my height (5ft 9.5). Bare in mind that as I write this I am 17 years old, to turn 18 by the end of this year. So while I'm stood in the queue with my friend, along with roughly 30 people one of the security guards comes out telling the front half of the queue that you will be ID'd if you look under 13, which is reasonable as the gig up for 13+.
However, this idea swiftly changed when another 10 minutes later the security guard walks up the entire queue stating that everyone will be ID'd regardless of their age, now if you think for a second how ridiculous is this concept! There was discussion amongst the queue about this because most because being 17+ have not brought ID with them because they obviously don't look below the age limit. When it came time to let people in, my friend and myself along with 20 other over 13 year olds got rejected from entering the gig because our forms of ID did not display our date of birth on them (we had college passes and you have to be 16+ to go to college in the UK). So being the British fans we are, we held a strike refusing to move and chanting songs by Kate Nash that were appropriate to the situation such as "Dickhead" and "Rap For Rejection". An hour into the gig and after being refused to speak to the manager, we were eventually allowed in with our college ID's but at this point we'd missed more or less the entire set of the support band, only hearing 3 songs.
So to conclude the rant so I can get on with reviewing the actual concert, if you do happen to know of a band or artist that is performing at Gorilla in Manchester I recommend you don't bother going as even 20 year old were denied access and unless you want to carry your passport around risking it getting lost or stolen, missing half your gig is extremely disappointing. Now on with the proper review, the support band was called The Tuts and I managed to speak to one of their members after their set as she was helping out with the merchandise table. Oh what I heard of them, the band was a real crowd pleaser and everybody was having a good time, I wish I could elaborate more on them but because of missing most of their set there isn't much more I could say except that they're all lovely girls and dress stunningly! I definitely want to go watch them if they're in the Manchester area in the future.
Now on to the main event and that is Kate Nash! The venue was quite small inside and even though being late I seemed to spot a good place in the crowd, roughly 6 rows back or so which was nothing in the venue! Kate came on just after 9 and opened with a short home made video of her lip syncing along to an old song, which for the life of me I couldn't remember sadly! But it was a very unique and more personal approach for an opening number, below is a photo of the set list which is not mine, I've taken this from a girls tumblr account so if you click the photo it'll take you through where there's more Kate related posts.
Kate performed every song effortlessly, including some old favourites which got the crowds going absolutely bonkers for as well as her vinyl single 'Free My Pussy' which was influenced from the arrest of Russian band Pussy Riot. Throughout each song, Kate had miniature TV's dotted around the stage along with a projector behind her playing short videos of go-go dancers and basic images of love hearts to tie into the Girl Talk theme. People got invited up on stage and Kate infact jumped off stage crowd surfing to them practically fall infront of me, my mate and some other fans to which we all danced together in a little circle (there's a video of me on youtube dancing with kate ha). Overall the concert was mind blowing and was the best I've been to this year, if you can get around to watching Kate before her tour ends I highly recommend you do as I will when she comes around the North West next time! I'll leave some images below of the gig that I took.
Last night was unreal, the support bands and the main band themselves blew me away! The line up was 'Twin Atlantic', 'The All American Rejects' and 'Blink-182'. It was wonderful. I arrived outside the venue with my friend for around 3pm, there was around 30 people roughly who were all very lovely. We just relaxed really, had some McDonalds and at 5:30pm everybody was allocated into different lines due to there being 7 different entrances.
At 6pm we were let inside, it was a frantic rush to get the another line which would lead us into the stalls (standing area). We were all given white wristbands with a blue zig zag pattern on so that we were entitled to receive our concert ticket back at the end. Once led down the many set of stairs everybody ran to the barrier, some being almost tackled be security to slow down. Thankfully me and my friend made it to the barrier, and then was instructed to sit on the floor until the first act came on.
The first act was 'Twin Atlantic' I've been a fan of this band for quite a while and only found out on the day that they were standing in place of another good band 'Four Year Strong'. Their set-list consisted of songs off their new album and their known single 'Free'. The boys performed very well and only played a short set of around 45 minutes.
Next to come on stage was 'The All American Rejects', these guys were known for their single 'Hope It Gives You Hell' a few years ago, bursting on stage to 'Dirty Little Secret' the crowd and myself jumped around crazily, singing along. The front man of this band - Tyson Ritter was a bundle of energy throughout the entire set. One of their crew members had their birthday celebrated on stage as well yesterday with a birthday ham, they also got to perform 30 seconds of their own band, which name I can't remember.
Then after a 30 minute wait, the glorious 'Blink-182' graced the stage. The energy in the room was sky high, performing all their known songs such as 'I Miss You', 'What's My Age Again?', 'Rock Show' etc a few of their older songs also went down a storm. A special performance of the song 'Wasting Time' was also done. Not being played in around 15 years, people were swaying along to the acoustic song, singing their hearts out.
I can't recommend enough to go watch 'Blink-182' they filled a big gap in my heart that night, I can guarantee the band will be back next year with another European Tour, that will probably be even better than this one. Growing up listening to the band from such a young age steered me into my music taste today, which to me is a wonderful thought. Below I'll leave some photo's I took of the support bands and the main band, enjoy!
Fagan x
It's been a week or so since I gave the opportunity to win a new, untouched 'Blink-182' book which was released a few months ago, explaining their absence and what has happened since the boys were all over MTV.
I'm glad now to be able to announce the winner, and that is Addy Ringwald!! If you'd like to get in contact with me about your address so I send it to the right place then please message me on here and we shall arrange the passing of data.
Hopefully that has been a success for you as it has for me, I'm hoping to do another giveaway very soon, I'm just debating the method to go about and what to give away for next time. Hope you're all well, a post regarding my 'Blink-182' gig experience will be up tomorrow night.
Fagan x
I've decided to finally add my 'LookBook' account onto my blog page, I was going to do this a while back but only having one look up I decided against it. I'll be doing a few shoots over the weekend while I have spare time before my final exam.
If you could hype and/or comment on any of the photos that would be very appreciative, I intend to update my account every now and then but not as regular as this blog. I'll be sure to keep you up to date as to when I post new looks and if I plan any special shoots.
LookBook Account - http://lookbook.nu/fagan
Fagan x
I arrived at the HMV Ritz in Manchester for half 2pm, the concert was starting at 6pm that night. When I parked up, I was in front of 'The Horrors' tour bus and they had already been given a parking ticket. I met up with my friends and we waited for any sight of the boys. During our wait we saw both supporting bands 'Bo Ningen' and 'TOY' getting all their kit ready.
On Saturday at the HMV Ritz, the well spoke about band 'The Horrors' will be performing alongside two support bands. There's tickets still available to order and you can also pay on the door, a reasonable price of £15. Being different to normal boy bands, 'The Horrors' are a more adult classed band, yet they are not dull and quite.
The boys provide a very energetic show, with a lot of movement and special light effects. If you individual music and something out of the ordinary then this band is for you! I shall be attending the gig on Saturday with a few other bloggers, being able to make a full evaluation of the night by Sunday afternoon. Being a fan of the band for a couple of years, I shall be anticipating this concert as it will be my first time seeing them live.
Fagan x
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