I'M SORRY ABOUT THIS I REALLY REALLY NEED TO TELL SOMEONE ABOUT THIS OR I'LL IMPLODE
AND, CONVENIENTLY, THERE'S NO SCHOOL HERE TODAY, SO I'M KIND OF STUCK WITH THE INTERNET
AND THIS WILL BE TREMENDOUSLY LONG AND PLEASE FEEL FREE TO NOT READ IT BECAUSE I JUST NEED TO SHARE THIS IN SOME WAY
So. Um. I saw Mallory Knox on Saturday? (and, sadly, the rest of my time since then has been spent hanging around at the London Stansted airport because Ryanair fucking sucks, but it waS ALL TOTALLY WORTH IT OMFG HOW CAN A SINGLE BAND BE SO STUPIDLY PERFECT)
Okay. Okay. Deeeeeeep breaths. Because I haven't even started this yet omfg and nobody really needs so muh caps lock.
So, well, to start off, it was really fucking cold. Like, snow-not-melting cold. (I am not used to that, okay.) And I decided it would be a brilliant idea to go and queue and there were like three people there an hour and a half before the doors opened but tHEN THE DOOR OPENS, OKAY, AND MIKEY FUCKING CHAPMAN (he's the singer, btw, in case you didn't know, which I'm guessing you don't) WALKS OUT JUST LIKE THAT AND GOES "starjumps, guys, starjumps" AND THEN SOME REALLY SWEET STUFF ABOUT HOW HE DIDN'T WANT US TO BE COLD AND WE SHOULD GO SOMEWHERE ELSE AND KEEP AN EYE ON THE QUEUE FROM THERE, WHICH IS REALLY CUTE, BUT NO MIKEY NO
(also I think I should add that I was really freaked out because none of the other three people seemed very impressed by the fact that he'd just walked out of there and I was terrified of looking like a psychopath, which I am, but still)
this is going to be so long omfg I don't really know whether to bother typing this because no one will read this far down
So then the doors opened and I got this brilliant dead-centre barrier spot and, yeah, the cold was worth the while
And then idk, the opening acts. Chasing Outlaws were pretty good, The First were okay but they got kind of boring after a while (even though I felt the singer up multiple times because he was constantly jumping at the barrier like, literally right in front of me) and when they finished the singer basically appeared out of fucking nowhere and gave me a setlist, which was nice
oh yeah and in the middle of one of their songs, bizarrely, Elissa Franchesci appeared on stage and started singing too, which was weird
and then Blitz Kids were so brilliant omfg even though I hardly knew any of their songs, which was annoying
I will forever be proud of the fact that when the singer was in the crowd, he grabbed my hand and used it to jump back onstage (and land on his ass)
and then they went off and wOW the atmosphere was the most exciting thing ever and we were all screaming and then thEY CAME ONSTAGE AND EVERYTHING WAS FUCKING PERFECT IN EVERY SINGLE WAY AFTER THAT
I CRIED ACTUAL TEARS DURING BEGGARS AND IM NOT SURE WHY
I think one of the best things was how a. happy, and b. incredulous they seemed up there. Like, the whole time, they all had this massive smile on their faces, and Mikey and Sam and Dave all started crying a little bit onstage and wow. Just wow. And just, I don't know, they seemed so overwhelmed when Sam would sing one of the quieter parts and every single person in the room was singing along, and oh my god
ALSO THEY PLAYED SO MANY NEW SONGS (album release show, duh) AND WE WERE ALL PERSUADED TO SING ALONG TO THE "ALL WE ARE IS BROKEN" ON CREEPER AND THAT, MY FRIENDS, WAS FUCKING EMOTIONAL
AND EVERYTHING WAS BEING PROPERLY, PROFESSIONALLY FILMED AND I CANNOT
And then the encore, and Oceans, and ohmygodoceANS. Everyone went totally batshit, of course, and it was so powerful I can't even describe it, and then Mikey just came down and started grabbing everyone's hands and then got up there into the barrier right in front of my face and JUMPED INTO THE FREAKING CROWD AND IM NOT SURE IF I'LL EVER FORGET THERE, JUST LOOKING BACK AND SEEING HIM THERE ON TOP OF EVERYONE AND SMILING SO MUCH
AND THEN THEY ALL CAME DOWN TO THE BARRIER AND OMFG THEY ARE SO PERFECT
AND I DONT THINK I'VE MENTIONED I GOT AS GOOD AS A SHOUTOUT ONSTAGE BECAUSE MIKEY WAS ALL LIKE "thank you so much for coming to see us, something about how people have travelled a really long way, from Ireland, from Spain" and duh, I don't think anyone else did travel from Spain and they obviously knew I was coming because I've been harrassing them on Twitter since the day I was born and they're not that big, so all the acquaintances I'd made around me just started screaming and pointing and they sort of grinned at me like "oh, that was you?" aND OMFG
AND THEN
AND THEN
AND THEN
AND THEN I WAS OVER AT THE MERCH TABLE BUYING THE CD (two days before everyone else could ha ha I'm privileged) AND ONE OF THE GUYS THERE LOOKED AT ME AND WAS LIKE "you're the girl from Spain, right? you were in the Hello video too" and I'm like omfg yes I am and he's like "would you like to meet the guys?" and wHAT EVEN and then "they've been looking forward to meeting you, come with me"
I JUST
AND THEN WE SOMEHOW PASSED THIS GUY WHO WAS LIKE "thank you so much for coming, you're in the video too, right? you're famous!" AND IT TURNS OUT HE WAS MIKEY'S DAD
I
HOW
AND THEN I MET THEM ALL, ONE BY ONE, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BARRIER (I think it's a testament to how genuinely nice they are that they took a picture and signed a cd for every single person that asked them, which was maybe around 400 people) AND I GAVE THEM TANGERINES AND THEY ALL THANKED ME ABOUT A MILLION TIMES EACH AND HOW IS MIKEY AN ACTUAL PERSON AND SAM ACTUALLY ASKED ABOUT WHERE MY DAD WAS IN THIS WEIRD PARENTAL-CONCERN WAY AND JOE ASKED ME WHAT MY NAME WAS AND SAID HE READS MY TWEETS AND THAT HE SAW ONE THIS MORNING SAYING I HAD TO GO CATCH MY PLANE AND HE THOUGHT "wow, tonight's gonna be mental"
AND DAVE
DON'T GET ME STARTED ON DAVE
LIKE, THE FIRST THING HE DID WHEN HE SAW ME WAS GIVE ME THIS REALLY LONG HUG AND THEN THANKED ME 74839589394 TIMES AND THEN I ASKED HIM IF HE COULD SIGN THE ALBUM AND HE WENT "no, I'm writing you a note too" and he did and he told me I got two x's instead of just one and I'm in love.
oh and Sam gave me a goodbye hug too which was nice
also Signals is a fucking perfect album and everyone in the UK should go and get Lighthouse on iTunes because come on, people, it's free and total fucking absolute perfection
IDK I'M EXTREMELY EMOTIONAL RIGHT NOW, IN CASE YOU CAN'T TELL, AND I'M ALSO SORRY FOR GOING ON AND ON LIKE THIS BUT IT WAS GENUINELY THE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE AND I JUST
SOBS
on a parting note (finally?) mikey tweeted me this. I love him so much.
