Tuesday 1 October 2013

Out and About: McFly's 10th Anniversary Show




WHAT: McFly’s 10th Anniversary

WHERE: The Royal Albert Hall

WHEN: 22nd September, 8:30pm

TICKET PRICE: £37.50 (incl. booking fee and postage)

What was it?
Near the beginning of the year, McFly announced that they would play a one-off show at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate their 10th Anniversary and it was promised to be special. Tickets finally went on sale and sold out in under three minutes. There was uproar so another three dates were added to make a four-day extravaganza of fandom partying.

One of my best friends, Jess, a McFly extremist from the very beginning immediately asked me to go. I couldn’t afford it at the time (student life, aye?), but she missed out on the tickets anyway. I knew she would try again but heard nothing from her so assumed she didn’t manage to snag any. Along came my 21st birthday and Jess arrived with my card and a bottle of Malibu for a night out. Inside the card was a print out for two tickets to the final night show! I told her off and then gave her a massive hug and poured her a drink. Now THAT is how to make your friends love you endlessly, right there.


The Show:
To begin an excellent day, me and Sara journeyed to Greenwich to see my lovable bestie’s (Jess) new student digs and meet her housemates, cue severe uni nostalgia and jealously. After a tour of the lovely place and a rather yummy burger, we trundled into central London to meet Nat (a Twitter friend of Sara’s) where we chatted and drank in a pub until It Was Time.

I love that moment when you get off the Tube and there are hordes of people who you know are going to the same place as you. It just makes me bubble with excitement and the atmosphere as we walked through the tunnel from South Ken to the Royal Albert Hall had us all bouncing. We arrived at the gorgeous, gorgeous Hall to find people EVERYWHERE. We spent a good ten minutes struggling to figure out which door was ours and where the hell the merch stand was.

The Merch: well, McFly don’t have the best reputation when it comes to appealing merch so we were both hopeful but prepared to be disappointed. They actually weren’t bad! All three were specific Royal Albert Hall ones, two black tees and a white tank top. Naturally, I liked the white one which was the most expensive at thirty-freaking-pounds!! The others were £20 which I expected. I couldn’t believe it, to be honest. THEN both of the black ones only had smalls left so I had to get the white one (which I’m actually wearing right now...).



The show itself was unbelievable. They played a nearly two-hour set, twenty-one songs, with no supports and we had a fantastic view from row 15 in the stalls. We were so close that we could see the expressions on their faces and I could actually see all four boys! I’ve seen them twice before and I’m pretty sure that’s never before been the case...

The boys played all of their biggest hits: ‘Obviously’, ‘5 Colours in Her Hair’, ‘Love is Easy’, ‘I’ll Be Ok’, ‘Star Girl’, ‘Shine a Light’ and an encore of ‘All About You’ and ‘The Heart Never Lies’. It was epic. Then were the special treats of Dougie singing ‘Transylvania’, Tom’s tribute to musical theatre with ‘McFly: The Musical’, Danny’s acoustic version of ‘Walk in the Sun’ which brought him and most of the audience to tears, the little-played ‘Little Johanna’, their new single and the appearance of James Bourne and Matt Willis.

YES. Two thirds of Busted were there!! Having seen Charlie Simpson at Warped last year, I’ve now officially seen Busted (ssh, that totally works that way). They played ‘Year 3000’ and ‘Air Hostess’ with the boys and joined in with ‘Shine a Light’. It was incredible. The entire Hall went INSANE. Matt Willis looked like he was having the time of his life. It was a bit of an ‘aww’ moment really.

To top it off, they couldn’t have picked a more perfect venue. A suitably grand venue for a momentous moment for the boys and their fans. The history, grandure and awe-inspiring Royal Albert Hall was set alight (not literally) with a massive glitter ball, an amazing light show and indoor fireworks as they played their encore. It was also the perfect backdrop for four such beautiful guys. Gah, Danny Jones. And Dougie who looked like a hippie pirate.

Source: Tumblr

The McFly 10th Anniversary gig at the Royal Albert Hall was a once in a lifetime show. It was hot, sweaty, emotional and an electric atmosphere. Perfection. I had serious Post-Gig Depression for a good few days afterward... Can I go again please?

Verdict: 10/10

Sophie

1 comment:

Leave a message, I'd love to hear from you!