Switch Live 2008

The first ever Switch Live event occurred on Sunday the 12th of October and needless to say it was a huge success, hosted by a variety of Radio One DJ’s such as Fearne Cotton, Nick Grimshaw, Annie Mac and Kelly Osbourne. The day was packed full of famous artists from pretty much every popular music genre. Fans of Ne-Yo, Miley Cyrus, McFly, Fall Out Boy and more filled out the Hammersmith Apollo in the hope to catch a glimpse of their idols in the flesh. English Indie-Pop band, McFly, opened the show with gusto, immediately getting the crowd going with their feel good instrumentals and aesthetically pleasing band members: Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter, best known for their number one singles 5 Colours in her Hair and All About You. They set the bar extremely high for the following acts, but sadly, not all of the artists could measure up…

Second up was N-Dubz, a North London three-piece band, best known for their Number 26 single You Better Not Waste My Time. The tinny sound system, if anything, improved the sound of their energetic warbling, which failed to impress most of the fans and resulted in several glo-stix being thrown towards Tulisa, Dappy and Fazer, which did not go down well with Tula ‘Tulisa’ Contostavlos who proceeded to make a pathetic effort in chastising the crowd with a feeble cry of “I don’t want to be cheeky but the people who throw things only ruin the show for everyone else. Let’s boo them on three, 1, 2, 3! Boo!” or something to that effect before leaving the stage, much to the relief of most of the crowd, give or take a few rather disappointed N-Dubz fans.

Next up was teen pop sensation, Miley Cyrus, who thrilled the crowd with her rather excitable dancing and head-banging, belting out three songs that no one in the room had seemingly heard of – even the screaming girls with I heart Hannah! scrawled across their cheeks/foreheads/chests, you name it (have they not heard Miley doesn’t want to be known as her Disney alter-ego Hannah Montana anymore?) – before ending her set with hit singles 7 Things and See You Again, much to the crowd’s pleasure at the fact that they could finally sing-a-long. Miley definitely aimed to please and her legions of fans were not disappointed despite the fact she seemed to continuously check herself out via the big screens placed either side of the venue.

Britain’s Got Talent winner, George Sampson, came up next with a brand new dance and a new found talent for ‘singing’. To put it bluntly, George was a great disappointment as his fans came to see one of his spectacular dances which made Mint Royale’s remix of Singing In The Rain famous. The hundreds of girls, dressed with George memorabilia and raising their banners for George definitely did not come to see him standing and smiling for as long as he did. All I can say is we wanted a dance and George did not come through yet there is no doubt that he did not leave empty handed and probably has a new addition to his phone’s contact list in the form of Miley Cyrus…

Fifth was Ne-Yo, dressed up to the nines in a grey suit and hat and wowed the crowd completely. Even if you weren’t a huge fan of Ne-Yo (like me) you found yourself falling under his spell as he danced effortlessly around the stage (better than George Sampson did…) and generally exciting the crowd. Vocally he was amazing, and sounded even better than he does on record. Needless to say, I fell head over heels for Ne-Yo (until Patrick Stump arrived and I snapped out of my little Ne-Yo filled reverie). Ne-Yo is a must see. He is ridiculously sexy.

Basshunter followed and belted out his two hit singles Now You’re Gone and All I Ever Wanted by four scantily clad dancers bouncing around him energetically. He was adorable and managed to get the entire crowd dancing to the beat with excitement but the whole time I kept thinking “Fall Out Boy are next…” and grew ever tiresome of the thumping beat of Basshunter and began to wish it were over and soon enough it was.

The tension was thick as we waited patiently for Fall Out Boy and, finally, the four beautiful boys arrived and completely owned the stage and stole the entire stage, singing a total of eight songs, a couple from From Under The Cork Tree and Infinity on High and – much to mine and Richard’s delight – they played Saturday from Take This To Your Grave (in which Pete threw himself into the crowd for the second and I almost stroked his face before getting thrown into the mosh pit and punched in the stomach so hard I was convinced I would throw up), they also did an awesome cover of My American Boy by Estelle as an intro to Sugar We’re Goin’ Down which was simply amazing. Despite the vast variety of fans, most of the crowd knew the words to most of the – more recent – Fall Out Boy songs and seemed to be really taken in by the magnificence of Patrick, Andy, Joe and Pete.

To sum it all up, Switch Live was pretty much one of the best events I, and many other people, have ever been to due to the variety of acts and the general awesomeness of all the people who attended. But even though it was an amazing day (and I even cried afterwards due to the fact it was my first time to see FOB even though I’ve been a fan for about five years) even though some of the acts didn't really measure up but Fall Out Boy made it all worth the pain of standing up for six straight hours, sweating and panting up against complete strangers - what a way to spend a Sunday afternoon! I couldn’t help but feel pissed off when the boys standing behind me ripped my ‘Forever a Lake Effect Kid’ banner out of my hands after I had slaved over it and even stolen numerous school supplies to secretly make it in my art lessons. And I couldn’t help feel slightly jealous when Sarah managed to grope Pete Wentz’ ass, but don’t worry girls, my sources say its very firm.