Our year of concerts

This year truly was a year of concerts. Many of our favourite groups and singers were touring this year, and we were lucky enough to secure tickets to some great shows.

It all kicked off with Jason Donovan at Worthing Assembly Hall just down the road. This was such a fun concert, we were only a few rows back so we had a great view, and I had a fantastic time singing along and waving my arms. It was such a good atmosphere!

We followed that with a trip to see his contemporary Kylie Minogue at the O2 in London. Quite a contrast! The audience for Kylie was fantastic, really well-mannered and there was lots of effort put in to outfits. Kylie has a great back catalogue from over the years so there were plenty of songs to sing and dance along to, with some fantastic backup singers and dancers.

Then it was back to the O2 for my favourite group of all - Pulp and the You Deserve More tour. I've seen them several times over the years and they always put on a great show. We had really good seats and I loved the structure of the show - two neat halves with an interval in the middle. Pulp showcased songs from their brilliant new album More, and I'm sure that Jarvis Cocker looked directly at me and asked me to meet him by the fountain down the road.

Over the summer we found ourselves at Wembley several times. Getting tickets for most of our concerts was not in any way easy, and tickets for Oasis were the most difficult. We spent a whole morning queueing and the whole experience was stressful, but worth it. We were seated right up at the back and the audience was a little rowdy but it was an amazing night. An intimate venue can be nice to feel a connection with the group, but nothing beats being part of an enormous crowd all singing along together to a classic song like Wonderwall. 

You may be unfamiliar with Blackpink as a group but I'm sure that you will have heard of the very popular song Apt. performed by Rosé, one of their members. My daughter is a huge fan of Blackpink, and so when the tickets went on sale we rushed to buy decent tickets for her, me and my husband. Then they announced another date for the following evening, and just before the concerts we discovered that we could buy tickets for all four of us for the same price as just one of our original tickets! So we went along for a second night running, this time with my son in tow.

I made a big effort before these concerts. I downloaded the setlist and made sure that I knew at least the chorus to all the songs. One of their songs, Shutdown, was my second most played song of the year on Spotify because I had it on repeat while learning the rap. We made bracelets and took along Blackpink light sticks. 

The first night we had great seats down the front to one side and had a fantastic view. The second night we were in the cheaper seats at the top, but we had a great view of the stadium as a whole and could really appreciate the way that it lit up with all the pink light sticks. I had a great time dancing and singing along, and I hope that my daughter enjoyed the concerts too much to be embarrassed!

Our final trip to Wembley this year saw Chris Martin thanking us all for coming out on a Wednesday night to see Coldplay - as if we'd had any choice on the day in another mad rush for tickets! When we booked the tickets early in the year this was intended to be our first concert with both teenagers, as having seen them live a few times we knew that it would be a fun, colourful show. We weren't wrong, they loved the light up wristbands and confetti, bouncy balls and special glasses.

Our amazing year of concerts came to an end right where it began, at Worthing Assembly Hall, with The Lightning Seeds. We were standing for this one, but because it's a small venue we were still close to the front. Maybe a bit of a comedown from the last time I saw them back at Glastonbury as a teenager, but I do love their music. It's so boppy, and some of their lyrics really resonate with me. And so nice to be safely back home just twenty minutes after the concert finished!

Finally there's the one that got away. We would have loved to have seen Radiohead this autumn as we've never seen them live, but despite our best efforts we weren't able to secure tickets. 

Never mind, even though next year doesn't look to be quite as busy we did manage to get tickets to see Take That (or I think three of them at least) in Southampton next spring! I missed out on their last tour because I'd just had a baby, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

Did you get to any concerts this year?

Young Voices 2022 at the O2 Arena

Last week we made our third trip to London to watch the Young Voices choir perform at the O2. In 2018 we watched Harry perform, in 2020 both children sang in a concert that they managed to sneak in just before the lockdown, and this year we took Harry along to watch while Mia performed with the choir.

This year marked the 25th Young Voices concert after the show was cancelled last year. This show had already been postponed twice from earlier in the year, so it was quite a relief to see it finally take place.

We arrived at the O2 early, so we took the tube over to Stratford for a walk around the Olympic Park and had dinner in the shopping centre. Then we joined the crowds of proud parents, relatives and friends, and made our way into the arena and found our seats. Our school was on the opposite side and we weren't able to get close enough to talk to Mia, but we could just about see her. We waved frantically and were pretty sure that she was waving back.

It was a great show as always. There was a stunning opening moment when the lights went out and you could see all the children waving little lights in the dark, before the show started with O Fortuna. The choir was accompanied by dancers, singers and musicians. The arena lighting was amazing and really complemented the performances, and when all the singers joined in with synchronised dance movement it looked fantastic across the arena. 

It amused me that most of the parents there were fully making the most of a night out without their children. There was constant traffic from the audience seats to the bar, people were coming back to their seats carrying trays of beer and full bottles of wine. The glass of wine that I had beforehand definitely helped my moves in the audience participation rave segment!

We had another brilliant night out watching the concert, and I'm quite sad that my children won't be taking part again as they move to the senior school. If your child ever has the chance to take part in a Young Voices concert then I'd absolutely recommend it, it's a brilliant experience for them.