McBusted

Last night I had the immense pleasure of going to see McBusted in Nottingham. They were amazing. And I mean, amazing. It isn’t very often you get a performer who can put on a show and still maintain the level of singing that is exactly the same as their recordings. This is the third time I’ve seen McFly (James and Matt were a welcome addition from Busted for this tour) and they still remain one of my favourite acts to go and see live. They are simply amazing.

The show celebrated everything I love about McFly and Busted. They are just fun loving guys who just want to perform and share their music. And they’ve written some amazing songs. My personal favourites are Obviously, Crashed the Wedding and Love is on the Radio to name a few. Sadly, they didn’t sing the last one, but they did the other two as well as some of my other favourites. I’d completly forgotten that Busted did the song from the Thunderbirds remake, which can be viewed here. It’s surreal to think that it was a decade ago when some of these songs came out. Although, re-watching old music videos it’s plain to see how far they’ve come – as people and as a band. It couldn’t be prouder of them.

What I loved about the show was that while they did the same set that they had done every night with the same theatrics and spectacles, it was unique. I don’t think any other show will have Danny doing a little Mariah Carey twiddle (that’s obviously a technical term…) at the end of All About You, bot Dougie and Danny losing their picks in their mic stands on the UFO just after Star Girl, James singing the Robin Hood song to us, or a hat and two bras being thrown on stage. Every show they do i quirky and individual to that night, never to be replicated ever again.

Having James and Matt in the mix was a genius idea. They just added to the hilarity and personalised experience. All six of them play similar music, came from the same origin and are all good mates. At heart, all it is is a bunch of lads going on a tour up and down the country and they just happen to play instruments too. It’s refreshing to see the band having such an amazing time that the audience can’t help but get excited too.

I love seeing McFly, and McBusted was no exception from this. I wish them a successful rest of the tour and a long and happy career ahead of all of them. My friend is going to see them in May and I am so tempted to tag along if someone drops out. Without sounding mean, I kind of hope they do. I had so much fun! It is so good! Ugh, I want to go back!!!

As It Is

So, on Tuesday I got to see one of my favourite bands at the minute – As It Is. For those unfamiliar, you can click here to check out their music. I myself would recommend Can’t Save Myself or January, to name two of my favourites.

I found this band due to the lead singer doing a pop/punk cover of Let It Go from Disney’s Frozen. After that, I started checking out his other covers (I am especially in love with his cover of Teenagers by My Chemical Romance) before I found his band. I now have both CD’s and am working on learning the words. I felt quite bad, being so near the front and not actually knowing the words. Especially since he – the lead singer, Patty – was so lovely by coming out and meeting everyone, taking pictures and what not. Ah well. I do know all of the words to the two aforementioned original songs, both of which were sung on the evening, so that was all good.

My favourite thing about the gig, I have to say, was the venue. The Maze is this really small and intimate back room of a pub in central Nottingham which I had never been to before. I got so close to him it was unreal. I might sound a bit fangirl/stalker-ish, but I swear I’m not! I’ve never gotten so close to someone whose music I love and whoI admire as a person. Patty also does vlogs on YouTube, which you can check out here and if you saw the post ‘Revision and Why Your Parents Don’t Understand You’ the other day, it was his video that inspired that.

What astounded me was that he was just wandering around, meeting people and taking pictures. Even if there were less than forty of us present, he came out and met every single one of us. Patty stood there for a good 40-50 minutes meeting everyone. He even posed for pictures, kissing my friend on the cheek! It was one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to for content and audience interaction. He made sure to look everyone there right in the eye – or at least down their camera – and even came down into the audience int eh middle of one of the songs and sung in amongst us.

I’m so glad that I got to go – to be honest I never would have thought that a few months after discovering him his band would go on tour and come so close! Thanks again to Louise for spotting that the tickets were on sale, and to three other friends for coming along and enjoying the night with us!

Making Music

So yesterday i participated in the Great Orchestra Experiment. This was a collaboration between my orchestra and our adult, professional equivalent. We performed twice to primary school children, who were the ‘lab assistants’ and had to participate in experiments to do with various musical and sound features. All in all, it was really successful.

Our set list went as follows:
1. Mission: Impossible
2. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, First Movement
3. Captain Ocane
4. Celebrate
5. Feeling Good
6. Soul Bossa Nova
7. Hall of the Mountain King
8. Superman March
9. Mambo (from West Side Story)

There were no hitches, except for one of e presenters being a bit bitch when her co-host didn’t call her by her ‘scientist name’. I mean, come on: there is no need to correct him in front of all the little kids. Although, it was really funny when a small child talked back to our conductor.

It was amazing to be a part of something so inspirational like that. As our hosts kept saying, I started out in their position, and The Great Orchestra Experiment was far more exciting than what I did. (Performing alongside the Halle Orchestra might be more prestigious, but TGOE was tonnes more fun!). If I were one of the kids in the audience, I would have loved it. I would have been far more interested to carry on my instrument off my own back instead of being forced into it by the school.

The only negative things that I would have to say about the whole day was that my instrument got mis-recognised twice. I play the bass clarinet, which looks like this:

Got that? Okay. It first got called an oboe, which looks like this:

I can sort of see it: they’re the same colour, both woodwind instruments. Yes, the oboe is a lot smaller, but it was a small child that said so, that I can live with. But then it got called a bassoon, which is this:

Does that look anything like a bass clarinet? No! And it got called that by a member of the orchestra! The traitor! I was offended on the bass clarinet’s behalf.

Other than that minor incident, it was a truly successful day. Both concerts, on in the morning and one in the afternoon, went well with no problems. I will be glad to (hopefully) never do Superman ever again, as the bass part is very tiring. The problems came when i had to go back to school in the evening to perform in our Spring Concert. I was shattered! When i was there I had to play my normal clarinet and the tenor saxophone. *Sigh* Busy, busy bee…

Rehearsals

You know it’s a bad day when instead of missing lessons all afternoon I ditched rehearsals and voluntarily went to class. I stayed for the first set of rehearsals because I still struggle with the piece, but for the second set I went back to lesson. I just can’t stand Miss near concert dates. She turns into a malicious dictator when she’s behind the conductor’s stand. It’s a startling transformation. Still, now I only have the concert to do and that,s the last of it for another year. (We don’t continue into the Summer Term because of people leaving for exams and what not). Give me the strength to get through this! Only one more time, only one more time…