#basically me and my friend bought vip for the concert and got to take a group photo with p1h

[goldenhypen]

beloved em 🫂 i was so worried but i figured u just needed time to urself !! i hope ur doing okay, and if it doesn't feel okay just yet, that's alright too </3

hi beam !!! <3 thanks for being so understanding :( this is actually rlly nice to hear and i’ll keep this in mind cuz it’s possible i will disappear again v soon tbh 😭 but rn i’m doing ok after taking some time off for myself and it was rlly nice :’> hru doing lately? 🥹

[natromanxoff]

Mercury Roadrunner's Interview about Freddie Mercury with Peter Freestone – Part III

Thanks very much to Mercury Roadrunner (Pavel Strashnyy) for letting me share his amazing interviews! Originally shared here. Check the tag "MR interview with Phoebe" to see the other parts.

Here are the 6 main topics of this interview, beginning of each topic is written in bold:

1. Freddie's clothes and beliefs, drugging story

2. Freddie's family

3. South American tour

4. Memories about Brian, Roger and John

5. Books, plays and opera

6. Before and after concerts, Michael Jackson, first memory about Freddie, what how would it be if he was still alive?

PS: So, here is our third part, and the first topic is about Freddie’s clothes for concerts. On the Hot Space tour, we can see arrows in Freddie’s clothes. What was so special for Freddie about these arrows?

PF: I don’t know. It’s just something that got into his mind. They are also in the video for “Body Language.” I think it’s just something that fascinated him at the time. He just decided he liked arrows.

PS: I see. And where exactly did you source all those arrowed vests and jackets for him, for concerts?

PF: They were actually all made in America, they were made for him. They bought the T-shirts and painted them on. And with the leather jackets and the other jackets, they just made them. There was that one big jacket he had. He only wore it, I think, once or twice. With the actual arrows sewn onto it. He literally wore it two times, I think. The reason he didn’t use it was because he couldn’t take it off on stage, because as soon as he started sweating it stuck to him. So, there was no way he could just take it off. That’s why he stopped using it. But it was just a phase he went through.

PS: Speaking about Freddie’s T-shirts, Freddie used to wear quite a few T-shirts with logos of different gay establishments, different gay clubs, such as Haven, The Works. And the question is, how exactly did he usually obtain such T-shirts? Were they given to him as presents or did he buy them?

PF: Most of them were. I mean, obviously, we offered to pay, but then the manager says, “No, no, no. Take it, take it.” Because, of course, it’s going to be good advertising for them, isn’t it?

PS: With such a superstar wearing their T-shirts. Speaking of clubs, have you ever visited the famous Studio 54 in New York?

PF: Yes, we were there quite often. Usually on the Sunday night. And, it was fine, it was good. It was the Sunday, because he went to The Saint on Saturday. It was fun, it was good. It was so very, very different because of the history that was attached to it. But it was good, it was big enough for people to hide in. If you wanted to be seen in a photograph – yes, fine, well and good. But if you didn’t, then there were plenty of places where you could just stand or sit, or whatever.

PS: In what ways was it different?

PF: I mean, the feeling of the place. Because they spent a lot of money on the interior. With all the different lighting, stage, everything was there. It had that, sort of, bit of glamour.

PS: Actually, as we mentioned the holiday of Easter at the beginning of our talk, I would like to ask you, in your understanding, was Freddie any kind of spiritual person? Maybe not religious but sort of a believer, as we can see a lot of lyrics for his songs where he mentions God.

PF: He didn’t follow any organised religion, because it’s something that he never really spoke about, because he felt that and politics were, in fact, very private to a person. But I do believe he had a faith, he did have his belief, but not in any way that we would recognise.

PS: Coming back to our topic about clubs, could you please try to remember the story about Freddie meeting one of the members of Village People in one of the clubs?

PF: I’m trying to remember which club we were in. It could actually have been The Works where we met him, because I know it was just a chance meeting. We then went to some promotion thing that the Village People were doing. And we were there, we met up with David Hodo; he was the construction worker. They became good friends, and they would meet up quite often in clubs whenever Freddie was in New York. But it was just a chance meeting.

PS: There were some kind of rumours that some accident happened to Freddie when he met one of the Village People members in a club. Do you remember anything like this?

PF: Accident, no. There was that time in one of the clubs, there was a group of us and David was there with us. I went to the toilet and told Freddie, “Just stay here.” And he says, “Yes, yes, yes.” And then I went to the toilet and when I came back, of course, he wasn’t there where he was supposed to be. And then David came and found me and said, “You better come and give Freddie a hand,” I said, “Why? What?” He said, “You have to see it.” We went round the corner and there was Freddie jumping in a big, sort of, net container where there were all the plastic cups from the drinks you just threw away. He was just jumping up and down in it, because someone had actually put something into one of his drinks, and he just had gone… happy. [laughs] So, between David and myself, we just lifted him out, took him and stood him by the bar and wouldn’t let him go anywhere.

PS: Coming back to the Hot Space times, you can be actually seen in the backstage footage of the Milton Keynes Bowl show, and you are walking together with Freddie to the stage. Can you please share any special memories about this show?

PF: The show itself, no. But the night before the show, he was bitten on his hand by his boyfriend at the time, Bill Reid. He bit him and drew blood between his thumb and his forefinger. So, Freddie was having a bit of a problem playing the piano at that show. As far as the music goes, it was another big outdoor Queen show.

PS: Speaking about the Hot Space tour, in general, what was the most specific moment or, maybe, your personal memory of it?

PF: No, not really. One tour blends into the next tour, whether it was Europe or America. When you are actually on tour, it’s basically the same every evening – soundcheck, show, out, hotel, travel to the next place. It became very much routine.

PS: As a viewer, you have seen only one Queen show, right?

PF: Yes, the show I have seen was one of the Wembley shows in 1986. It was the Friday night. He had friends over from America and he wanted me to look after them. And then Joe actually took care of him for the show.

PS: And you saw it not from the stage but as a viewer?

PF: Yeah. We were all sat in the royal box, which was, sort of, the VIP area. You don’t get any good view or anything, and this is in any show. It’s either right at the side or whatever. You don’t really see anything. It’s really a place where celebrities can go and sit so that the audience can go and see them. That’s what it was about, really.

PS: What are your memories about Freddie’s family? This is our second topic. What are your memories about Bomi and Jer.

PF: I probably saw them five times in my entire life. He tried very much to keep his music life totally separate from his family. The music side of him did not really fit with their strict Zoroastrian faith. He didn’t want to push their noses in it. He would bring them to one show each tour of Europe when they [Queen] were in London, and that would be it.

PS: Even if you saw his parents five times or something, could you remember, in general, your impression of his father? As we can see his mother, Jer, in some documentaries. But what was his father like?

PF: His father was just quiet, very, very quiet. Which was unusual in that sort of family, because normally it was the male who was dominant, and the females were submissive. But it was very much the other way round with this family. The mother did a lot more talking. I probably had more to do with them after Freddie died than when he was alive, because I talked to them to find out what they needed for the service and everything. The whole world had had him for twenty odd years, he was owned by the world, so I felt it was only right particularly at this time that his parents got what they needed. They should never be burying their son. That’s not supposed to happen. So, for them to be able to deal with the whole thing I felt it was only right to actually accommodate them with the funeral service and everything. So that’s why I say that I probably spoke more with them then than at any time before.

PS: Do you have, maybe, any kind of memories of Freddie spending time together with his sister, Kashmira?

PF: She came to Garden Lodge not even as much as his parents did, because she lived in a different city, she lived in Nottingham. If their parents came to Garden Lodge, maybe, six times, she would have been there, maybe, three. They spoke on the phone every now and then, probably not even quite as much as with his mother. It wasn’t a close, close family like so many people believe families should be, but then I fully understood it, I fully understood his feelings there.

PS: Do you find any similarities between Kashmira and Freddie? Are they in some ways like each other?

PF: I think so. But I found out a lot more in the more recent years than while Freddie was alive. She enjoys her life with what Freddie has given her. And the way she honours Freddie because Freddie gave her 25% of his money. And she’s buying these really classy, good quality jewellery and cigarette cases and everything, and then she lends them to the Victoria and Albert Museum in Freddie’s name. So, she’s enjoying the money but letting the world know that it’s only through Freddie. I admire her for that. If Freddie was to actually be seeing what she’s doing, he would be over the moon because she’s enjoying the money. So many people just cannot, but she is, she is definitely enjoying it.

PS: She has a total right to do so.

PF: Yes, very much so, because she’s doing what, I believe, Freddie would have wished her to do. Because he enjoyed his money, so that’s why he gave it to her so that she could enjoy her life, enjoy things. And, as I say, the things that she buys she lends to museums in Freddie’s name. So, he’s still there, he’s still represented. I think that’s perfect.

PS: Our third topic is about Queen’s first tour in South America, as it was a very special one. What are your favourite memories about this one, if you can try to remember?

PF: The memory that sticks in the mind was the police escort that we had going back from the first show in Argentina. There are photographs all over the place, with John Deacon playing with the gun and them travelling in an armoured truck and that sort of stuff. That was something incredible. It’s something that you could tell your grandchildren you were there, it’s one of those things. The shows themselves were wonderful because Freddie was playing to the biggest audiences that he’d ever played to at that point. And he loved it, he loved being on the stage. The memories I have are more offstage than onstage. There was the very, very quick drive from the hotel to the airport after the show in Venezuela, because the president died that day and they were going to close the country down to go into state mourning. If the band and the set and everything were still there, we would never have been allowed to leave. There were no flights, there was nothing. So, we drove so, so fast through to get out before the lockdown happened there. It was amazing. And then, of course, there was Mexico, in Puebla where there was this old, old stadium. And the backstage, you just wouldn’t believe what was there. It was just broken down, old cement and concrete. No locks on doors. There was one toilet that we had to create a sign for, so when you went in you put “Engaged”, and when you came out you put “Vacant”. There was no lock on the door. And then, of course, that was where there was the problem with the crowd. The band didn’t know anything about, none of us did until afterwards. The reason that batteries and everything were thrown at them on the stage was because, apparently, before the fans could go in, the police took all the batteries out of recorders, cameras and everything, so none of the show could be recorded or filmed. But then when they were inside, the crowd could buy their batteries back. And the crowd thought that this was part of a deal with Queen and that’s why they started throwing stuff at them.

PS: Very extreme concerts, right?

PF: But when Freddie was on stage, he thoroughly enjoyed it. It really fulfilled his dreams.

PS: The fourth topic is: A lot of people ask you about Freddie, but we must remember that actually you were quite close with all Queen members. My question is about each of them. What are your special memories or stories? Let’s start with Brian.

PF: There’s a photograph. There was Brian, myself and Brian’s security. We were down by the pool. I cannot remember which hotel. I was lying on the grass in the sun and Brian was there and we were chatting. And then his bodyguard came and just sat on me. There’s a photograph of it on the internet. And Brian just sat there laughing. He just laughed and laughed and laughed, and didn’t do anything to help me.

PS: Any special memory about Roger in all those years with Queen?

PF: Again, this was in South America where he and I had a go-kart race, there was this amazing go-kart track near one of the cities. I was out there with Roger, there was a group of us out there. We had this amazing race. Because he loves cars, he’s always driving cars. He decided he was going to be champion go-kart driver. That was fun. All the things are fun that we did. John had the family with him [in South America] some of the time. I used to babysit his children. I think there were three boys at the time. There’s photographs round and about of me with John’s children playing around at the airport. I was there to make sure to keep an eye on them. The off-duty times were really good memories.

PS: The fifth topic. Freddie, in one of his interviews, said that he considered reading books not a very interesting activity. Could you please try to remember whether there was some certain book or books that had an important meaning for Freddie?

PF: In the twelve years I knew him, I never saw a book in his hand. He would read magazines, like Architectural Digest, because he just loved furnishing things inside the house, on the properties he owned. But I never really saw him reading a book. But, saying that, with the intelligence that he had, he must have read books. I think probably they are things that he learnt at school. He was very clever. I finished the boarding school at eleven, and he carried on until he was seventeen, so he probably would have learnt so much more that I did. But I never saw him with a book in his hand.

PS: In that case, could you please try to remember any theatre play or opera libretto that he liked because of the storyline or the characters?

PF: It started off as a play but then it was made into a film. He saw the play in London when they put it on. And it was called “The Women”. He found that fascinating. It was a comedy film about how women dealt with divorce and separation and love, and all that sort of thing. It was just very quick-witted. He loved everything. You had to listen carefully to understand the joke. In so many of these films, they do short, quick sentences. He would pay attention to those sort of things. That one he went to because he wanted to see the play. Most of the time, he went to see plays because of the people who were in it. His friends would invite him to a show. I bought the tickets and took him to see the play “Little Foxes” in New York, and not because he would be interested in the play or what’s going on, it was purely because Elizabeth Taylor was the star. A lot of the time, he went to these things because of who was in it rather than what it was.

PS: Was there any opera libretto that he liked the most because of the story or characters?

PF: Not specifically for story and characters, because anything that Montserrat could sing, he just loved listening to her voice. He didn’t have to know the story behind it. It’s just as well because in most operas you don’t understand the story, because this mother lost this son, he was taken away by someone else, or she stole another one, and then this son falls in love with this person but that’s his sister. You know, you really do not want to know the stories of operas, you just want to listen to them.

PS: Speaking about you, what are your favourite books and writers?

PF: It really depends on my mood at the time. Actually, I do quite like Stephen King, but not everything that he’s done. I mean, I like the general style of his writing, of his books. Operas, I have about 1,500 operas in mp3’s and on physical CD’s. And I will listen to one every day. It just really depends on the mood. Mainly things written by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. The storyline is almost always the same, except if it’s based on a historic fact. It’s always a love story, sometimes it ends happily and other times she dies of consumption or she dies of something else. As I say, generally, you don’t pay attention to the words. I ask so many people, when they listen to a song for the first time, do they listen to the music or do they listen to the words? The vast majority of people listen to the music first. It’s the same with opera. He had to be able to read music, although he might say he couldn’t because he did those piano exams. You have to read music. But I don’t think he was so interested to actually pick up a school. He would not sit at the piano and play something from notes. That he couldn’t do, he just would create it himself.

PS: Speaking about Stephen King, as you mentioned him, do you like his book “The Shining” and the film with Jack Nicholson?

PF: Very good. That one I like very much. I like “The Shining”. I thought the book adaptation was actually very, very good. Another one that I like of his was “Salem’s Lot”; there is a miniseries made of that which actually reflected the book very, very well. Because Stephen King is involved with the films of his books most of the time, they tend to be much better versions of the books than so many films. So many films are supposed to be based on a book than have all of the director’s own ideas and what it should be like and everything else. So, when you look at the film, you actually wonder if you’re looking at the right film.

PS: Must agree with this. As a close friend of Freddie, as a writer yourself and as a book lover, here’s a special question: With whom could you compare Freddie amongst fictional characters from books?

PF: [laughs] Oh brother! There isn’t one. [laughs] Not in anything I’ve read that Freddie could compare with. I mean, maybe, there’s a little bit of Freddie in so many different characters. For example, Sir John Falstaff. I don’t remember which Shakespeare play he’s in, but he’s in a couple of operas. And just that character, I can see a bit of Freddie in there. Anything passionate I can see Freddie in. Anything with a love story in it, because that’s what he was always looking for. Anyone specific, no, I don’t think that exists. So, a book would have to be written around him.

PS: The next topic is: What was Freddie’s excitement like right before going on stage? Was he mostly visibly excited or otherwise calm and deep inside himself before the show?

PF: Really, most of the time when I was there with him getting ready for the show, there was always a rule that everybody, all friends and family had to be out of the dressing room at least half an hour before the show. They would have to sit in the guest room, so the band could, sort of, concentrate. In Freddie’s mind, there was no reason to panic because the show was going to happen whether he panicked or not. He was actually quite calm going into a show. He would pump himself up but on his own. He would just move his arms around and jump a little bit. And it wasn’t the excitement, it was just to get the body moving because he knew what he’d appear on the stage. His body would not stop moving for an hour and a half, two hours. He had to basically warm the body up a bit. Vocally, he would do a little bit of vocal exercises, but not specific exercises, he would just hit notes to try and place his voice, so he had some idea of what he was going to do that night. But there was no visible excitement. I suppose, perhaps, there was more excitement in South America than any other show that I was at, because of the size of the audience and because it was a first. Any of the shows they did in South America were a first, they’d never been done before. There was a bit of excitement because he didn’t know what was going to happen. When he was touring the normal America, Europe, it was things he’d done before, so he knew what to expect.

PS: Speaking about backstage before the concert, we can actually see you walking with Freddie in Los Angeles, and there we can also see Michael Jackson. Do you remember this show and Michael backstage with Freddie?

PF: Again, there’s pictures of it. That was more after the show where Freddie went into the guest room. They actually started in the dressing room, because nobody was allowed in the dressing room half an hour before and half an hour after while they got changed. But once they had come down from the show, a few special guests would be allowed into the dressing room, but then the band would go into the green room where all the artists and guests were. I remember seeing Freddie talking with Michael. It was just interesting for me to see these two who were at the peak of their performances, although they were so different but they were so similar. I know it sounds stupid, but that’s what I felt.

PS: What is your favourite memory of you and Freddie visiting Michael?

PF: There’s too many, I suppose. For me, it’s playing video games with Michael Jackson, because he had this big room where he had the arcade versions of video games. He just picked one and called Freddie and me over, and we were playing. There was this old-fashioned tennis thing. An oblong screen and on each side, you had a pedal that you moved up and down to hit the ball. We were playing that. It was wonderful. It was actually in Encino, the house before Neverland, the house that his mother lives in now. But, I suppose, the thing that I took away with me from that day was purely the fact that Michael didn’t treat me any differently than how he treated Freddie. Whatever happened in his life, whatever the truth is, the way that man treated me will stay with me all of my life because, as I say, it was no different at all from how he treated Freddie.

PS: He was very open to you, right?

PF: Yes.

PS: Speaking about the opposite of the before stage time, what was Freddie like after the concert? What was his mood mostly like?

PF: Mostly, he was up. In the dressing room, immediately after the show, there would be shouting and screaming for anything that went wrong. They always wanted to give a perfect show, and when they couldn’t it was hard. They would really get it out of their system. But once that had been done, he was generally always in a good mood. He just couldn’t wait to get out. I understand why he was out every night, because you cannot go to bed after a show like that, you’re just so full of adrenaline it just wouldn’t work.

PS: It’s like the second wave coming?

PF: Yeah. All the adrenaline that appeared during the stage show had to go somewhere, it doesn’t drain off in five minutes. That’s why he was out until four or five in the morning.

PS: At what time did Freddie usually go to sleep?

PF: It depends on what we were doing. I would think that average time would be between three and four.

PS: Three and four in the morning, right?

PF: Yeah. Sometimes he might go at two, and if he was in the studio, sometimes he might go to bed at six.

PS: How many hours did he usually sleep?

PF: He was usually awake by nine o’clock, so he would normally sleep for six or seven hours.

PS: Did he have any kind of repeated night dreams that he, maybe, told you about?

PF: No, nothing like that. He never told me anything. He would say he had a good night or a bad night but wouldn’t really go into description of dreams.

PS: You mentioned many times that your favourite Freddie song is “My Melancholy Blues.” Could you please try to describe why it is your favourite song?

PF: Yeah, because it’s so very, very different, because as soon as you mention the name Queen you automatically think of big harmonies, multilayered guitars, just huge songs. And this was just the total opposite. It’s just got a piano, a bass, a bit of drums and a voice. It’s all so partly autobiographical of Freddie’s party. He used to have so many parties, but in the end the party’s over, he would find someone else. The party doesn’t have to be a party with drinks and all the rest of it, it could just be a good time he had with someone. It’s just the total opposite of your classic Queen song. It’s just so quiet, it’s so personal.

PS: Could you please quote your favourite line from the lyrics?

PF: I suppose it has to be the opening line. “Another party’s over and I’m left stone cold sober.” It’s just Freddie, it sums up Freddie.

PS: Was he really a bit sentimental and sad when the real parties were over?

PF: Sentimental, maybe, but not sad, because most parties that he had were usually a success, so he would be happy and sentimental. The thing is, if that one’s over, there can always be a next one. There’s no need to be sad.

PS: What is your very, very first memory and image of Freddie when you first met him?

PF: Oh, that’s easy, I know exactly. He’s not very tall, is he? He was 175 cm and I was 187 cm. I looked down at him. You look, everybody imagines Freddie to be a giant because of the videos, because of the way he is on stage. He just looks huge. So many videos are shot from just a little bit looking upwards which makes him look taller. It was great, just looking at him and thinking, “He’s not tall.” His personality, his aura certainly made up for that, because he could walk into a room and every head would turn. They could feel Freddie Mercury had walked into the room.

PS: The very first moment you saw him, did he walk into the room or did you walk into the room where he already was?

PF: I walked into the room because he was already there talking with some friends. This was after the Royal Ballet Gala. And then he, sort of, looked, he wasn’t talking and looking around, and I just went to him and I just had to tell him how wonderful I thought the whole evening was. It wasn’t like he was this massive great superstar who I was scared of, because I’d been dealing with stars for the last four years and people who he considered were real big stars. He often used to say how proud he was of the fact that he took me away from the opera house where real big stars performed.

PS: What was his response to your comments about his show? What was your first conversation like?

PF: It was strange because I expected it to be rock’n’roll, rough, the way he talked on stage, but he was polite, he was a gentleman. That was all totally unexpected, because you expect a rock’n’roll star just to have the words ready on the end of his tongue for this and that. And the only reason that he spoke with me, because normally he would not speak to a total stranger, was because his friends were around him. One of them could easily have taken him away if he wasn’t happy. That’s all he needed. But then we started talking and it was it. I mean, it was just a three- or four-minute conversation, not a lot. As I say, from the very start, I could not be over how polite he was.

PS: So it was enough for him to spend, like, four or five minutes with you to later contact you and ask you to work with him on tour?

PF: Yes. As I say, whatever happened in those four or five minutes obviously worked because of that phone call a week later. I can imagine, he would be talking with Paul Prenter because they were going out on tour and they didn’t have anybody looking after their costumes because Dane had walked out. I can imagine him, “Look, I was talking to someone, he does costumes at the opera house for the ballet. Why don’t we try and call him?” I can imagine how it was because I know him and what he was like.

PS: As you mentioned Paul Prenter, was there anything good in Freddie’s relationship with him? Do you remember any good moments with Paul Prenter?

PF: He kept Freddie happy for a lot of the time. He kept Freddie company. Freddie was never alone when he was around. Paul was always there. But he’s got that bad reputation and all the rest of it, which sort of he’s deserved. He did care about Freddie.

PS: Concluding our final part, Freddie Mercury would have been 75 years old this year, but if we imagine Freddie was born, let’s say, in 1986 and if he was only 35 years old today in the year 2021, in our modern times, what do you think he would be like today?

PF: That’s so hard to say because life is so different. At that age, he would have grown up with computers. If things still carried on like they have done, I don’t think he would be happy because people don’t buy albums anymore, they don’t buy CD’s, they don’t buy physical, everything is “download.” Part of the joy for him was designing the album covers. He hated working at home, he refused to work at home. But nowadays you have to work at home and then take your music into the studio to get it mixed. I don’t think he would be really comfortable in this time. Because there’s no music like Queen have done, that doesn’t exist anymore. There are no bands who do things like that anymore. Or the bands that do, they are all in their 70s. His music would go nowhere. I also personally believe we are all here where we’re supposed to be. I think, if Freddie had a real big choice, he would have been born fifty years earlier because he was that sort of Victorian, Edwardian gentleman. He was a real gentleman. And that sort of existence wasn’t around when Freddie would have been able to enjoy it. But then, how many rock stars do you know that have had at one point the largest private collection of antique Japanese woodblock prints? That just isn’t rock’n’roll, is it?

PS: And if he was 75 this year, in his 70s, what would he be like today?

PF: He would be miserable because he never ever wanted to be old. As you get older, you cannot physically do what you used to do. A 70-year-old cannot, in the very, very best of health, do what a 30-year-old can do. It’s just physically impossible. That deterioration would have upset him so much.

PS: If Freddie could talk to the new generation, our present teenagers and young people of today, what would his message to them have been?

PF: The thing I always got from him was that he cared for others just as much as he cared for himself. He did not put himself first, above anybody else. He just wanted to treat everybody nicely. That’s what he was like. And I think that’s what he would try and tell people nowadays because that doesn’t exist very much either anymore. Because this now is a world of “me, me, me.”

PS: So his message, in general, would be something like “You should take care of each other more”?

PF: Take care of each other, yeah.

PS: And if he could talk to exactly Queen fans, what would his message be today?

PF: “Well, just carry on and enjoy the music.” Because that’s something that all the Queens fans did. They loved the music. They’re the ones who are keeping it going now and creating new fans. So many students say to me, “My mother and father were huge Queen fans.” It’s going through the generations. Freddie has been gone thirty years, but people are still listening to his music as much now as they ever did.

PS: And we all hope that people will continue to listen to his music.

PF: No reason why not. We still listen to Rimsky-Korsakov, we still listen to Mozart. And they’re long gone.

PS: And he will be remembered for thirty, fifty and more years.

PF: I remember, this was a few years ago, when it was Mozart’s 250th birthday or something. And I did an interview and I said it would not surprise me at all that if in two hundred years people would still listening to Queen music, as they were still listening to Mozart. Because good music carries on.

PS: Let it be this way in years to come.

SPECIAL THANKS TO VALUREX FOR CONTRIBUTION AND ASSISTENCE

[shinfinitexo-genius]

The Best Night of My Life

It has already been a month since the concert in Vancouver and I can not believe that a month has pasted since then! This past month has been such a whirlwind that I can not believe that I did not get the chance to actually sit down and write out my thoughts and what happened during the trip! So my flight was at 7 in the morning of the 6th so I had to get up at 4:30(?) which was definitely not fun since I was basically running on 2-3 hours of sleep. (Note to future self: do not listen to Dad and book a flight in the morning of a concert, fly in the day before so you can actually get a proper night of rest!) So I get ready and get my carry on and luggage and head to the airport with my dad. Let’s just say that I definitely overpacked for a 2 day 1 night trip but you can never too over-prepared as this was the first time I was traveling anywhere by myself. So my luggage was definitely a struggle to close but it worked out in the end! After going through security safely with no issues, I head to my gate and wait to board my flight. Flashforward an hour and after boarding my flight, we still didn’t take off since we had to wait for the airport staff to defrost the airplane wings since it had snowed the night before (typical Canadian weather). So finally after the wings were defrosted, we finally took off to Vancouver and I managed to get an hour or so of sleep. 

As we landed in Vancouver and waited to get off, I had checked my messages and I had gotten a reply from someone in a FB group I had joined for people who were travelling or going to to the concert by themselves to meet with other solo concert goers. I saw her post the night before flying out and she had replied back to me! It was so perfect as she was arriving in Vancouver around the same time I had landed. She had posted in the group that her friend wouldn’t be done school till later that afternoon and she would be spending the day alone and was looking for someone to spend it with! It worked out so perfectly! I messaged her back and told her I had arrived in Vancouver and would take the sky train to Downtown Vancouver since that’s where she would arrive at and that’s where my hotel was. So I finally get off the plane and head over to the train station, get my train pass and head off to Downtown Vancouver to meet up with Mira! I arrive to the Waterfront Station and then finally meet Mira! She is so pretty and cute ;-; We were a bit awkward at first which is pretty normal since we were literal strangers, but we decided to head to my hotel to see if I could check in or at least store my luggage. My hotel was about 5-10 minutes away from the train station by walking so Mira and I walked over to my hotel. After we arrived and spoke with the front desk, I wasn’t able to check in since it was pretty early in the morning and check in wasn’t till the after, but I was able to store my luggage. After all that, Mira and I decided to go grab some breakfast and we looked up restaurants we could go to on Google Maps that was near my hotel and we headed up going to a cute cafe that has brunch and lunch options and it was so busy! It’s apparently a pretty famous cafe and there is always a waiting line! Mira and I started to talk a little more about ourselves and then we started talking about our biases and I found out that she is a Shawol which was honestly the best thing ever and we clicked so fast! It felt like we were had been friends forever since we are both Shawols! 

After about an hour or two, we finally finished our breakfast and then I asked Mira if she would be okay to do some travelling to Burnaby to visit the cup sleeve event that was organized for Mark! She was totally up for it so we made our way to the train station and headed to Burnaby! We just talked the entire ride to Burnaby and it was so amazing to just talk about our love for SHINee and how we got into Kpop. Once we finally arrive Burnaby, we head to the cafe for the cup sleeve event and the sleeves were so cute! I was able to get two which was the best thing! LOL Before actually getting the sleeves, the cafe was in the same mall that a Kpop store was in as well that I had been planning on going to so Mira and I went to the store first and decided to come back to the cafe afterwards. Can I just say that I was only going to the store to get a shatting star pin, but came out with 3 albums (Dongwoo’s, Hoya’s and Taemin’s solo albums LOOOL), two posters, the shatting star pin and a EXO and SHINee lanyard. I definitely spent over my budget HAHHAHAHA Mira also got a shatting star pin! After we bought out stuff, we headed to a bench in the mall and I opened the albums to see what photocards I got and AHHH the amount of fangirling I went through HAHA! After finally calming down, we headed back to the cafe to get the cup sleeves. Once we finished at the cafe, we decided to head back to downtown so I could check into my hotel room and start getting ready for the concert since it was about time for the merch stand to open AHHHHH! It was crazy how close to the concert we were getting. It was raining all da, but the rain was getting annoyed so we decided to go to another mall and get some cheap umbrellas to use LOL After, we trained back to downtown and I was able to check in and go to my hotel room and settle in. It was nice to relax for a bit and I was able to change and get ready for the concert. Mira and I soon after headed to the concert venue so we could get some freebies and meet up with her friend, who is a fellow EXO-L! We arrived at the venue and walked to a nearby Starbucks where a fan was giving away fan support banners for Baekhyun and Kai and we finally met with Inge! After talking for a bit, we headed to the venue to get some more freebies and then we actually headed back to my hotel so we could leave our freebies and most of our stuff so we would not have to carry everything during the concert! After having a photoshoot with our lightsticks, we headed back to the venue for the concert AHHH!!! It’s actually kinda funny how Mira and I started randomly telling each other how many hours left till the concert like Mira randomly said “THREE HOURS LEFT TILL THE DOORS OPEN” and I just completely freaked out and I would do the same and we would just completely freak out! It was the funniest thing HAHA! I was so nervous heading to the venue and my heart wouldn’t stop beating cause this concert was something I was waiting for since October and I was ready to cry tbh just thinking about how I was about to see some of the boys that I have loved for almost 8 years and who were a part of my ultimate bias groups. We finally get to the venue and line up to get in and I was actually able to get me and the girls in the VIP Line to get into the venue since I was a Rogers customers HAHAH so fancy~~~ BUT OMG WE FINALLY GOT INTO THE VENUE AND I WAS FREAKING OUT F R E A K I N G  O U T AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Mira and Inge had seats together and I had floor seats so I followed them to their section before heading to my seat AND OMG MY VIEW WAS SO AMAZING! And I was sitting next to two Japanese fans, a Shawol and EXO-L! They were both so sweet and the J-EXO-L gave me a candy ;~; I was so nervous waiting for the concert to start and I was trying to figure how I was gonna hold three lightsticks HAHAH I had my SHINee, EXO, and SuperM lightsticks and it was definitely a struggle carrying them in one hand and my phone in the other! BUT OMG THE CONCERT STARTED AND THE VCR STARTED AND THE AMOUNT I SCREAMED THAT NIGHT!!! HAHAHAA I definitely had a hoarse voice by the end of the night. But y’all, the boys are so much more beautiful in real life. Like. Their skin is so flawless and the boys are the sweetest ever! When the hyung line introduced themselves, you know that I SCREAMED MY HEAD OFF YELLING THEIR NAMES AND CHEERING FOR THEM!!!! I love them so much! The maknae line are the cutest and it was so amazing seeing my wayv and nct boys! They are such amazing performers!!!!!! Like O M G WHEN TAEMIN PERFORMED DANGER AND GOODBYE I SCREAMED I SCREAMED WHEN HE PUT HIS HAT ON! IT WAS SO AMAZING SEEING HIM PERFORM!!! I LOVE TAEMIN SO MUCH!! AND BAEKHYUN!!!! BETCHA AND UN VILLAGE!!!!!! LITERALLY ALBUM OF 2019!!!!! AND JONGIN!!!!!! CONFESSION GOT ME FEELING ALL SORTS OF THINGS AND JAIJDISDLKSDLSLD STILL PROCESSING THAT I SAW JONGIN ABS IN REAL LIFE! REAL. LIFE. AHHHH ALSO SEEING NO MANNERS!!! THAT TAEKAI WAS ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NIGHT AHHHHHHH BUT WHAT’S EVEN BETTER IS WHEN TAEMIN AND I LOCKED EYES! O M G I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE IT HAPPENED CAUSE I LITERALLY FROZE WHEN I REALIZED TAEMIN AND I LOCKED EYES LIKE- 💀💀💀 It was during With You when they were throwing their signed frisbees and Taemin looked towards my section and we briefly locked eyes and let me tell that all the air in my lungs was gone in a split second. My world literally froze when I tried to process the fact we had mad eye contact. I definitely lived my best life that night. When the boys were saying their ending ments, I was literally holding my lightsticks to my chest and literally whispering to myself “Don’t go” over and over again and I was on the verge on crying. It still hurts when I think of that moment of when the boys said their farewells after performing Jopping. Once the concert finished, I had to sit down to process everything and the Japanese fans were concerned about me and checked to make sure I was okay! LOL they were honestly the sweetest and when they realized that it was my first time ever seeing Taemin and KaiBaek in person they understood why I was so star struck! But it’s crazy to think about this night sometimes cause it still doesn’t feel real. Met up with Mira and Inge after the concert and we couldn’t process everything that had happened. We went back to my hotel so they could get their stuff and Inge and I decided to go to Gastown to take pictures where Taemin and Key had taken pictures. After saying bye to Mira (and I was so sad that I had to say bye to her after spending the entire day with her 🥺. Mira, I hope we can meet soon!) Inge and I head to Gastown and have a mini photoshoot LOL and soon after I said goodbye to Inge and head back to my hotel and stayed in my bed just rewatching my concert videos and just crying my heart out LOOOOL. And that was the end of one of most amazing days in my life thus far 😭😭 Thank you SuperM for coming to Vancouver and helping me cross off something off my bucket list - seeing some of the boys that I have loved for so long. My heart swells when I think of my boys 🥺❤️ My cute maknae line, thank you for making this concert one of the most amazing concerts of my life Lee Taemin, Byun Baekhyun and Kim Jongin I love you three so much and I can’t wait for the day I can see you again with your brothers. I waited 8 years to see you, I can wait a little longer to see you as SHINee and Exo and I hope to see you again as SuperM!

[yoongislilbutt]

hi do you have any advice for getting bts tickets?? and what do you consider the best seats?? sorry i've never tried for a concert (ever) before so im really clueless. im asking you bc i have your notifs on, i love your blog so much ♡♡ oh, which city will you go to?? i heard most europeans will try berlin & london so im thinking of barcelona. Have a nice day :)

hmmm i was in amsterdam and two days in london and the process was basically the same so the most important thing is to make few accounts for ticketmaster and use each one of them on different devices. like i made three accounts and use them on my phone pc and tablet and when two of them were still in line the other one got me tickets so it’s useful!! another thing is to never refresh when u wait in queue cause u will get kicked out so u have to wait even when it takes ages!! when u get out of the queue don’t pick seats on the map but just choose the option of the best available seat!!! this is the most important part cause u don’t want to waste any time and u want to buy it asap so just choose the best available one and just choose if u want a vip or not and that’s it don’t click and search on the map cause it’s a waste of time and it’s almost sure that if u click on the map u won’t get it. and get ur credit card info and all of that stuff ready and written before buying so u can put all that info fast!! and that’s bascially it like buying tickets is just pure luck .. i got all of my tickets just cause i got lucky and my friends got lucky so they bought like few tickets and sold them to me so maybe another good thing is to have friends that are also buying them cause there’s bigger chance that they will buy more and they can sell it to u !!!!!!!

[head-like-a-steel-trap]

COUNTERFEIT (February 2020)

So I went on a tour this February to follow one of my favourite bands, Counterfeit, across the UK. They were opening for a band called Palaye Royale which I didn’t know before. It all started in Manchester at the O2 Ritz on 19 Feb 2020. It was a rainy Wednesday and I decided to take an early train there. I met up with my friend Angelica, whom I knew from the previous tour in December, and her friend Federica. They are both Italian. We booked a hotel room together close to the venue. We met up there, got ready for the show and waited until it was time to go to the VIP Meet&Greet with the band. The weather was horrible, so we were freezing outside for a solid half an hour, during which we saw Jamie and his brother Sam smoking outside. Then we were let in and I got to talk to Craig, the tour manager, who’s a sweetheart and at the point my favourite “member” of the band. He gave us posters and then he brought the band in. We all set down on the floor and did a Q&A. I asked about the meaning of 11:44’s title. Apparently it’s just the time they wrote the song! Simple as that.

Then we took pictures with the band and Craig let us stay inside the venue. I bought myself a hoodie from the merch stand and we decided to stand close to the stage from that point on. We got a nice 4th row right in the middle of the stage. We waited a bit and then Charming Liars started playing. They weren’t too bad. Then finally Counterfeit came on and the whole crowd got excited, cause they really know how to put on a good show. They played Paralyzed, Getting Over It, Alive, Lack of Oxygen, The New Insane, 11:44 and It Gets Better. New Insane was absolutely mental and Jamie jumped into the crowd during 11:44 and somehow ended up in front of me, so we got to sing it together. The show ended and I decided to buy another VIP ticket on the spot for London. I only had a GA for that show. We decided to stay for a couple of songs of Palaye Royale, when we saw Tristan, the Counterfeit guitarist, on the balcony. We went up there and as we were on our way to him I noticed Roland, another guitarist, and Jimmy, the drummer, standing right next to us. We decided to play it cool, because they had their girlfriends with them. So we watched another song or two from the balcony not looking at them. I turned around and suddenly Jamie and Sam are right behind us talking to the other guys. Surreal. Once again, we didn’t approach as we didn’t want to disturb them. Soon after Jamie and Sam left and we decided to go too. Angelica wanted to go out for a smoke and lo and behold, Jamie and Sam are in the smoking area talking to three German fans. We joined the conversation and spent a while talking to them, which was super lovely. Then we went back to the hotel.

The second concert I went to was in London at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. It was Sam’s birthday. Angelica lives in London, New Malden so I spent three nights at her place. 2 out of the 3 nights Miriam, another Italian fan, also slept at Angelica’s and we all went to the show where we met again with Federica and the German fans. We got to the venue an hour before the M&G. They let us in and we saw Counterfeit sound checking Paralyzed. Then we went to this other room and as the band went in we all started singing Happy Birthday to Sam and they german fans brought him a cake. We did the Q&A again, but I didn’t ask anything this time. We went to Sam immediately after the Q&A to give him a present we bought him the day before in Camden Town - a silver guitar pick customized with his name on it and the number 26 - it was his 26th birthday. We took a picture and I asked for a funny face, but only Sam tried to do one. Jamie on the other hand smiled, which he never does in pictures. We call it his “Statue” face. They told us that we need to go outside of the venue again and join the normal queue. We managed to sneak in the O2 Priority lane, through a guy who brought us with him. They let us in at 7pm and we listened, once again, to the Charming Liars. Then Counterfeit came on and things got pretty rough. People were pushing so much. They did the same setlist as the night in Manchester. Jamie went into the crowd during 11:44 and I was really close, but not necessarily in front of him. When the show ended we hung around for a couple of Palaye Royale songs and went once again for a smoke hoping to meet the band outside. Angelica pointed out an older man standing about 30 meters away from us. It was Jamie and Sam’s dad. Soon after Sam appeared and hugged his dad and they both waited for Jamie who came out soon after. They all got into a car and we saw that their mum was inside and Sam’s girlfriend too. They all left, probably to go celebrate Sam’s birthday. We went back in for more songs and then decided to walk through central london before going back to Angelica’s.

The day before the last gig we got an email that the show in Birmingham was cancelled and so w naturally freaked out. After 4 hours of absolute mayhem, Counterfeit managed to secure another venue for themselves and they organized a free show for us, Counterfeit fans, at Mama Roux’s in Birmingham the next day. We were super excited, because we would get more songs. Basically a full setlist not just the shortened version as when they were just opening. We got to the venue in time and met Craig outside and talked to him for a bit. He then let us in, gave us free stickers and took us upstairs. I was hella nervous because I had and important question for the band. They came in, introduced themselves and I was the first one to raise a hand. “Hey, so in Manchester and London you talked about fear and anxiety a lot. How do you deal with it? Do you have any tips? Cause I’ve been struggling with it a lot recently.” and I expected just a short answer, what I got instead was a 10 minutes long answer from Jamie. He was looking at me the whole time and basically just talking to me about his experience and what he does to make it better. That made me super emotional and grateful. The Q&A’s are usually 20 minutes, so that means he spent literally half of it just talking to me. Then it was time to take the picture. I walked over to them and thanked them for answering my question in such a detail. I asked for a hug and they all hugged me, but especially Jamie - he squeezed me super tight. I stood in the middle and suddenly I hear Jamie’s voice “Do you want some chocolate?” which totally took me by surprise and I just looked at him and said:”uhhh, ok, I guess yeah. Thank you.” He turned around and reached for a box or chocolates, took one out and gave it to me. I said goodbye and went outside of the room. Sat on the stairs and started crying super hardcore. People were looking at me, but i didn’t care. We will get a refund for the cancelled Palaye Royale show, so we asked if we can give the money to Counterfeit. Craig told us that they weren’t taking donations but if we bought a shirt that the money would go to the band so I bought myself one. Talked to Craig and complimented him on his rings. He said that they are to remind him of his cat. Then we had to go out for a short while, but we were let back in very soon. I got the first row right in front of the mic, basically the best spot in the venue. There were only about 50 fans at the venue so it was super intimate. And i stood next to Leah, a girl which I met in Leeds on the last tour. Thee were 3 opening bands: Y!KES, The Uma and Lizzy Farrall. They were great. I took a selfie with Y!KEs’ drummer. He was super cute. Then finally Counterfeit went on stage. I was right in front of Jamie, literally 20 cm from him the whole show. We made long eye contact so many times and he was super happy during the show. They even did a twenty one pilots cover. They went into the crowd multiple times and played some old songs as well as the new ones from the unreleased record. The energy in the room was amazing. When the show finished, me and Leah hugged for a long time, crying and holding each other. Then I did the same with Angelica. We went outside and Jamie was there. He was talking to one of the german fans so we joined in and spoke to him for good 30 minutes. He said goodbye and went back into the venue, but he told us to wait, because the rest of the band would go see us too. Sam showed up shortly afterwards and we made jokes about how tall everyone in the band is and how short me and my friends were. I complimented him on his coat and he said he thrifted it for only £3. We said goodbye and waited a bit more. Saw Roland and Tristan loading the van with equipment and talked to Jimmy for a while, hugged him and went back to out hotel. I have so much respect and love for these boys. They are such nice, genuine and humble people. I miss them already, xx.

[asouthernprincessupnorth]

Sweetener Tour, 19 September 2019, Sheffield

Hi guys! You can guess from the title what this post is about: Ariana Grande’s Sweetener Tour! I went to her concert with a very dear friend, Nabil, and let me tell you that it was amazing.

So, we bought the tickets way back in December 2018, if I’m not mistaken. When I found out that Ariana was coming to the UK, I thought I just had to see her at least once. Me and Nabil looked at her schedule and when I found out she was coming to f-ing Sheffield, I just knew that there is no way I could possibly miss out on it. I mean, Sheffield, of all places!

I got up as early as I could on the day of the ticket sales and within a minute that the tickets were being sold, I couldn’t get any. I kept on refreshing the page until it showed I could get two tickets on the f-ing Gold Circle, which is basically the most expensive ticket category (but not as expensive as VIP-Meet & Greet). After hastily agreeing with Nabil, I clicked on the purchase. Yep, I bought a very, very expensive concert ticket.

Me and Nabil went to the venue as soon as queuing was allowed by the Arena and we spent at least three-and-a-half to four hours in the queue. Was it worth it? It was. We got into the Standing area but I just knew that our Gold Circle tickets should’ve gotten us closer to the stage so I basically ran to the edge of the Standing area, showed our Gold wristbands to the security guards, and got ourselves into the f-ing Gold Circle. I ran and managed to stand on the second-to-front row. Let me tell you this: it felt awesome. Me and Nabil got slightly separated because he went to buy us some water (which each cost f-ing £2.50) and when he returned, two girls and a mother already stood behind me. But it’s okay. He was still very close to me and we managed to chat a bit during the concert. Also, so many young girls (preteens and even a child barely five years old) going there with their mummies and daddies. Wow.

Social House and Ella Mai opened the concert. I honestly loved Social House! I’d never heard their music apart from their collaboration with Ariana on Boyfriend but they had such positive, great energy and were very engaging with the audience. I might’ve not known any of their songs but when they left the stage, I knew that they made me want to listen to their EP. Ella Mai had a very beautiful voice but, sadly, I felt she wasn’t very engaging. The stage was rather circular/oval-shaped, with the central void being filled with VIP audience and the outer parts of the circle surrounded by Gold Circle (yes, I’m terrible at describing visual stuff in English). However, Ella stayed only on the main stage with the musicians and did not go around on the circular part, which made things less engaging (at least in my opinion).

Warning: The part about Ariana is very much all over the place.

Now. Now. Ariana. The songstress herself. Good God. She opened with the intro raindrops (an angel cried), and the crowds just went mad, including yours truly. We basically screamed and sang along and I saw that the stage was still empty but the visuals were starting. Oh. The visuals were very much all about the sun and stars and moon. When she started raindrops, it looked as though there was an eclipse or something.

And then, she rose up from the ground with her dancers in a very, very familiar setting: God is a woman as seen on the MTV VMAs 2018. Spread across a dining table, as though it was a reinterpretation of The Last Supper. And she sang. She had a very beautiful, very clear voice. I noticed, however, that the mic might not have been super clear because whenever she said anything that wasn’t her song lyrics (like when she greeted the audience or said something about the song no tears left to cry several songs after God is a woman), I couldn’t really hear what she said. Either that or she wasn’t very good in her pronunciation (this is actually one of the quite valid critiques of her vocal/singing. Yes, I love and adore Ariana but I also agree that sometimes she doesn’t enunciate well).

Anyway. I had a very, very magical 90 minutes listening and watching Ariana’s performance. She was generally energetic, fun, and engaging. She was appreciative of her band and her backup dancers, whom I think she genuinely sees as her friends. Ariana’s vocals, though, are the star of the show. Of course, what else do you expect from her? Every time she hit a high note it made me feel like I was being choked because how did she do it???? And she killed it. I’m pretty sure at some point I heard a whistle note from her, though it wasn’t as flexible as Mariah Carey’s had been in her prime. This isn’t a bad thing, though. It’s great that Ariana can do whistle notes, doesn’t mean she has to do it in the most vocally-acrobatic style because God knows stretching it too far can affect your other vocal abilities.

I loved every part of it, of course, but I really loved her performance of NASA. I guess that’s because it’s my favourite song off thank u, next. To be honest, lots of the songs were kind of a blur to me but in a good way: I couldn’t remember exactly how she did it because I was just so happy with singing and screaming at the top of my lungs. I hope that’s a good sign, though. Anyway. NASA was such a great performance and I honestly remember not being able to properly record a video of it because my phone’s camera is absolute crap and Ariana’s position onstage wasn’t strategic to mine. Still, I was like, f it I’ll sing my lungs out because that is what I want to do. I screamed so loud when she sang: “I’mma need space, I’mma need space”.

And also needy. I loved, loved, loved that song. needy is such a mood and I know it was a song of vulnerability but damn, I sang and screamed. It felt like pouring my heart out. I guess that’s exactly why thank u, next is my favourite Ariana album: it speaks to me. And when she sang, I know that she was singing what my heart felt, too. And it’s an amazing feeling.

Of course, no Ariana show would be complete without some sexy choreography, like in Side to Side and Into You. I sang and screamed but... mostly it was a blur. Again. I feel like because those songs are, so sorry to say this, generic provocative songs, it did not make me feel super connected or anything. It was fun to sing them and dance to them but wasn’t the most wow this is amazing OMG feeling. I did, however, enjoy break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored. Her vocals in that are amazing, oddly enough for that kind of song.

I also fell so much in love with R.E.M. I later found out it was at first a Beyonce song but Ariana made it a very, very lovely song. It’s actually very much like a lullaby and it’s such a sweet, sweet love song that sways your heart.

This has gone way, way too long (just like the intro of in my head, which wasn’t sung at the concert but used during an interval). Now. The grande finale: thank u, next. I recorded the whole performance and it actually made me feel rather emotional. I can’t possibly imagine singing the names of my exes every night for a year of touring, one of whom died of drug overdose and the other you thought you were going to marry. But Ariana sang it well. And again, I felt very connected to how she sang it. It’s not about whether you have as many exes as she does or anything: it’s about connecting on the understanding that you could take a lesson from the people in your past. And she closed the show with dances of love and pride.

So. I loved every second of it. It was worth every penny that I spent on it (though I would’ve loved if she’d sung for an extra 30 minutes lolz). It’s definitely something that I’ll remember for as long as I live, and I’m just ever so grateful that of all the places, I chose Sheffield and so did she, both in 2018. She delivered a beautiful, fun, entertaining performance and it was such an amazing way to close my postgraduate studies (sort of). It’s incredibly strong of her to embrace her vulnerability and create something that connects with others.

[are-youreadyforit]

My Swiftie Story - it’s about time you all get to know me ❤

It started with Fearless for me. I got the deluxe album for Christmas and the rest is history. The End

Just kidding. I was 14 when I went to the Fearless Tour as my first concert in Sydney Australia. Mum bought us a ticket, and accidentally bought some kind of VIP package lol. It just meant we got pre-show canapes and a drink and early access to merch, and we had really great seats at side stage! I bought my first Taylor Swift merch; the Fearless T-shirt, brown wrist band and concert program.

I’m 16 now and I don’t know how but I got my learner’s licence. So when I was learning to drive with Mum, Fearless was in the car radio. Every time. Mum had her favourite songs and we’d sing along going for drives that had no purpose other than to get my learning hours up. We’d pick far away cafes to go to and have tea and scones hehe.

Speak Now came out later in the year that I went to the Fearless Tour. I was in year 9 at high school. I had my first boyfriend and liked trying to make Taylor’s songs relate to my relationship. But when we broke up (when he dumped me by text – yep @taylorswift I can relate), I remember posting a status of lyrics from Perfectly Good Heart 😂

I remember being so sad I couldn’t go to the Speak Now Tour because I also really liked Hot Chelle Rae and they were Taylor’s support for the Australian leg of the tour. I don’t remember now why I couldn’t go but I was sad haha

Then RED came out when I was in my second last year of high school. Mum loved the title track and would make me play it multiple times in a row, and I would always jokingly argue because I wanted to hear the whole album. 22 is still one of my anthems! And one of my biggest regrets is not making my own music video to it for my 22nd birthday 😂

The RED tour was right when I had booked my schoolies trip with my friends (in Australia this trip is a tradition for after graduating from high school). We were in Bilinga, Queensland Australia which is near(ish) Brisbane Australia. I was so desperate to go to the RED tour I hatched a plan to spend a day or two getting to Brisbane for the show and back and continuing my schoolies holiday after seeing Taylor. But mum wouldn’t let me because nobody wanted to come with me and she wouldn’t let me go by myself. I was 17 so kinda fair enough (especially being in another state) but also, god damn! This is the tour I’m MOST upset for missing; I love the RED album. Anyway, I’ve been to every tour since RED now so 🤷‍♀️.

When 1989 came out I listened to it in my car driving between mine and my boyfriend’s place basically every time I visited him. This boy became my man and we’re still together, going on 7 years in April next year! 😍❤

I actually WON my 1989 tour tickets from a local radio station!! I couldn’t afford the tickets and nobody understood that every Taylor concert is a new and wonderful experience, so they would say “you’ve already seen her before” 🤦‍♀️

I listened to the radio everywhere I drove (on my licence by myself now btw guys yay) and at home when I was studying. The competition was “Swiftie or 50”. One afternoon I rang like a million times and I GOT THROUGH. The competition was choosing between tickets to the 1989 World Tour or going in the draw for $50,000. And as I’m sure you fellow swifties can relate, I was not being convinced on anything other than the tickets. They played all these promo snippets of things you could do with the money but I was like “no I’m still going to take the tickets” HAHA. My heart rate was through the roof but I GOT THEM AND RAN AROUND THE HOUSE SCREAMING IN EXCITEMENT!! 😁😁 I took mum with me to the tour again since a love of Taylor and her music was something we continued to share. I bought a T-shirt and the concert program again. I wore and still wear this t-shirt to death! Lol

In 2017 I moved to Melbourne on my own to pursue a degree in osteopathy. I had roommates for the first time in my life and wasn’t sure what they would think of my love for Taylor. But thankfully they embrace it and one of them came along the ride that was Reputation era. Well the release of LWYMMD and everything leading up to the album. We lost our minds (well I did) at the mv for LWYMMD when we put it on the big tv in the lounge room haha. I took my cousin Lauren to the Reputation Stadium Tour tour with me. We saw Taylor in Melbourne and Lauren travelled down and we made a girls weekend out of it. This was the first concert I dressed up for and I freaking loved it. Although we got some looks and questions on the train to the city HAHA!

We had an absolutely amazing time together, memories neither of us will forget, probably my favourite tour so far!! It was also cool to see Charli XCX together again because we saw her in Sydney one time together. Oh and we we’re old enough to have a drink or two 😉🥂

That brings me to Lover, at 23 years old and having been with my boyfriend for nearly 7 years. He’s fully aware of my love for Taylor and her music. He was visiting (we are doing this relationship long distance whilst I study in Melbourne) when Me! came out. We were driving somewhere and I got the vid up on YT and listened and watched with my phone connected by Bluetooth to the car while he drive us around. Since then he’s been learning the Taylor songs quicker and messages me when he hears it a thousand times on the radio at work lol. YNTCD shook me in the best way possible, I love every bit of it! Lover (the song) came out and touched me immediately. I can truly relate to the love it conveys and it makes me feel so so nice, I think of my boyfriend all the time, and often when listening to Taylor songs hehe. Lover might even be my favourite track on the album because of these lovey feelings it gives me, and that’s saying something because I struggle to choose favourites. I really really love(r) all of Taylor’s songs!!

Okay if you’re still here, freaking well done and I appreciate you so much! Soz it’s a bit, okay a lot, long!! If you wanna help @taylorswift​ possibly see this that would be pretty amazing! 💕💕💕

Love, Tara

[fell-in-love-didnt-you]

Big Bang Fic: SnowBaz

The links to corresponding art:

http://thejanewestin.tumblr.com/post/183415594132/for-fell-in-love-didnt-you 

http://thejanewestin.tumblr.com/post/183397541987/for-a-yet-unposted-au-thank-you

Even though my original artist flaked on me, I had the wonderful experience of working with Jane Westin, and she saved this fic from a lot of disasters, misspellings, and Barcelona altogether. (Long story, no time for that now). I hope you enjoy it!

The bus lurched underneath Baz’s feet, and he hastily tried to grasp his hot tea before it spilled over him. However, the scolding liquid made its way out of the cup and onto his hand. Baz shouted a curse and went to run his hand under water before he realized they’re not hooked up to water anymore.

Great fucking start to the day.

The weather was horrible outside of London, and Baz wished they’d just decided to skip over this leg of the tour. He knows it’s horrible; hell, they originated in London! Baz was eternally grateful for the first pub manager that ever allowed them to take setup in the corner of the grimy room, and the band even sent him three tickets with backstage passes for free. Baz just wished that the pub had been six-hundred kilometers to the north.

The bus rolled again, and Baz caught himself on the counter.

“You gotta be a little less clumsy,” Dev called from his bunk. Baz turned to see the blue velvet curtain swing back to reveal the cocky bastard’s grin. “If you fall off the stage or some shit, you, and the band by extension, will turn into the Iggy Azalea of music.” 

Niall’s curtain rolled back next. “I thought Iggy Azalea was the Iggy Azalea of music.” Then the conversation warped into one of Dev saying Iggy Azalea is just another Jenner and Niall saying she was a goddess, and Baz really had had enough of tour talk.

He stalked back to the large bedroom. He slept in it because of his back, and Dev, Niall, and Agatha took up the bunks. Baz really would’ve thought Agatha would have feel more comfortable with a bedroom, but she had insisted it would be fine. It’s not like she wasn’t best friends with the both of them anyway.

Baz shut the door and jumped onto the bed. It was definitely not as good as the one in his flat, but the other guys didn’t have permanent places in London and fans were fucking crazy. If they even had an inkling of where his flat was, he’d have to basically move country.

Anyway, the bed was fine, and there were no windows in here, so the room was dark enough for sleep at any time of morning, afternoon, or night. It even had a little bathroom (possibly worse than the one outside the door) in the corner. This was definitely one of the best buses Baz has been on in a long time. The one in America just constantly smelled of takeout, though they could be to blame for that. The tour bus in the Netherlands was great comfort-wise, but it barely fit the four band members and the driver. They had to rent a second and third for management. Usually, it was just two ugly black buses following each other on the road, and in the Netherlands with their tiny roads and winding streets, it was not a good situation.

Being back in London should have made him happy. It was all familiar: stop-and-go traffic, car horns, and brightly lit streets with crappy Chinese takeout around every corner. Hell, even the smell was just as he remembered: gas with a hint of roadkill. However, the whole thing was making Baz’s stomach flip. People at the concert tonight would probably be people he’s grown up with. The one thing no one told him about being pretty well-known is how often you’d need to change your mobile number. Last week someone who picked on him at primary school hit him up for free tickets, and one blocked number later, Baz was feeling apprehensive about the whole thing.

Being home shouldn’t worry him. Baz’s dad was taking care of everything: the food deliveries to the truck, the insane amount of alcohol for the after-party, and the bouncer for that. London was going to be their biggest concert of the entire tour. A hometown concert with a free shirt at the door because that’s how much surplus money they’d made on those damn tickets.

Baz rolled over and placed his head into the pillow. Damn, this was going to be a long day.

…

“I just don’t understand why I’ve got to go with you,” Penny yelled from her room. Simon was crouched in front of the television, trying to figure out which cable he’d ripped out hooked up the telly to the box beneath it. “I mean,” she continued, “they make nice music and everything, and those tickets rock, but why doesn’t your dad take his weird girlfriend?”

“Ebb is not weird,” Simon retorted, placing a red wire with a circular end into a square hole. “She’s cool. And my dad and Ebb don’t enjoy that type of music. And the tickets were free!” Simon finally gave up on the damned box and slouched back into the sofa. “We can’t not use them!”

Penny exited her room with her work uniform on and a bag with her clothes for the concert over her shoulder. “I get that, but Micah doesn’t even like Wavering Wood. He says they make his ears hurt.”

Simon chuckled at that. Of course Micah didn’t like them. The most punk-rock he got was listening to the new Taylor Swift album or maybe some EDM chick who was famous online.

“He doesn’t have to come,” Simon supplied. Penny gave him a stare that basically said, ‘If I’m suffering, he is, too.’ Simon raised his hands in mock surrender and added, “Maybe he’ll enjoy himself. We’ll be backstage for the first part, and if he wants to stay there, he can. They have better seating there than in the front anyways.”

Penny smiled her uniquely Penny smile and pulled her fluffy hair back into a bun. It uncovered the record shop’s logo. Watford Magic. It was a weird little shop that sold, among other things, amethyst crystals, juul pods, tie-dyed shirts, and love spells.

“I’ll see you at seven outside the stadium,” she replied, opening the door and shouting a goodbye before it closed behind her. Simon genuinely hoped she would enjoy herself tonight.

…

Honestly, Baz would have boycotted his own band’s concert of he could have.

The set up and sound test had made him want to cut his own ears off. He was strictly prohibited from having a smoke break or having a drink to lighten his spirits before the show. Dev and Niall were beginning to ruin each other’s spirits with their antics, and Agatha just sat through the whole thing with a blank expression. The only thing that had gone right was the concession stands; Baz had bought something from at least ten of them.

Agatha came up and rested her hand on his shoulders about an hour before they had to go under the stadium and get ready. “Just think of this as one step closer to a six-month break.”

Six-month break? Yeah, right, Baz thought. It was never a break when you had to get everything in line to go global again. Six months of more practicing, more restringing his guitar, and more learning new songs to cover so they wouldn’t play the same set every night.

But he didn’t say that. Baz just said, “Yeah,” with a fake smile and a nod. Agatha got up to go back to tapping her symbols. Dev and Niall had calmed down and were now playing with their respective instruments: a keyboard and a bass. Maybe Baz really was just being a downer here. He knew it was the place and not his bandmates, but they were so easy to point blame at sometimes. He really had to work on that.

As Baz walked by the boys to pick up his acoustic and tune it, he heard Dev say, “There’s gonna be a major storm tonight. Hope it doesn’t blow out the hotel’s cable.”

Baz rolled his eyes and laughed silently.

…

Simon’s feet fucking ached. Converse were not a great option for standing in line waiting for VIP tickets to be checked. Honestly, he should have assumed security would be longer and more extensive here. Why wouldn’t it be? People getting too friendly with a celeb and then stalking them for the rest of their lives? It was more common than it should’ve been.

He and Penny stuck out like sore thumbs. Everyone surrounding them was covered head-to-toe in black leather and ink. Simon had been pointedly staring at a skull tattooed on the back of someone’s head for a long time until Penny had said it was rude, to which Simon replied, “He can’t see me; he doesn’t have eyes.”

Penny’s non-dyed hair was a dead giveaway that they didn’t belong. Micah was in a blazer and had his scarf wrapped tightly around his neck. Hell, he looked so nerdy that Simon felt the need to ask the quadratic formula. Simon’s acid-washed jeans and graphic-tee was the closest thing to Wavering Wood concert-goer any of them had reached.

The bouncer at the door looked them up and down and frowned. Yeah, they were out of place. The guy scanned the tickets that Simon had nearly destroyed in his pocket and instructed them to the left of the red rope, where no one else had been told to go. Every eyelinered and tattooed person on the right of the rope looked at them with a mix of shock and anger. Okay, so what? Maybe they had better tickets? Maybe their tickets weren’t available to the general public.

Simon pulled out his phone and read over what his dad had told him to say. Thank you and we’re so happy you’re here and blah, blah, blah… Geez, you let one band play in the back of your pub and suddenly they’re the Queen or something. Another bouncer greeted them, and they were let through another door. Man, it was really starting to feel like meeting the damn Queen.

As the door opened, Penny and Micah slid in front of Simon to meet the first few members. Penny had looked up all their names, and Simon was instructed to follow along, play nice, and then eat all the snacks from the corner while no one was looking. Okay, maybe Penny didn’t know about that last part, but it should’ve been assumed.

A girl with strikingly blonde hair dressed in a deep maroon dress stood from the couch. Two other boys followed. Simon recognized them as the drums, bass, and piano player for the band. Where was this main guy his dad wanted him to talk to?

“We’re very glad the tickets got through, but we were expecting a Mr. Snow?” the girl asked. What was her name? Penny had said it before. Abagail…Anna…Apple?

“Oh,” Penny said quickly, moving to the side to show Simon, “this is his son. He couldn’t make it tonight but wanted us to come and thank you for him.”

The girl seemed to look Simon over with a more careful eye than the security guard did before she said, “Well, we’re glad the tickets reached someone.” She extended her right hand. “I’m Agatha.”

There it was, Simon thought as he shook her hand. The other boys introduced themselves. The one with dyed-orange hair said his name was Niall and the other with a pierced bottom lip said he was Dev.

Penny and Micah began to exchange casualties with them, and when food was offered, Simon made a beeline for that damn table. Crisps, cookies, Maltesers… the only thing that could have made it better was if there were scones like Ebb made with sour cherries and butter spread across the top, but this wasn’t a bed and breakfast. Simon knew that.

“Pardon me for asking,” Micah began, “but isn’t there a fourth member?”

“He’s ‘prepping’,” Dev said with large air quotes and a laugh. “Takes him, like, an hour before each show to actually show his damn face.”

“Oh, fuck off,” a voice sounded from a separate door in the room. Simon looked up from his phone then and saw this apparent fourth member he’d been looking for.

…

Baz didn’t know the guests were there yet. If he had, he wouldn’t have cursed out Dev in front of them. Just because he wasn’t a people-pleaser didn’t mean he had no manners. He was not raised in a barn, after all. He apologized immediately to the girl and her…boyfriend? He was really out of place here. This guy was as prim and proper as they got at a concert like this. Hell, the band was supposed to be the fanciest, and Baz had a black tee on with a few holes at the neck. This guy had a blazer, scarf, and button-up. At his own concert, Baz felt underdressed.

The girl was slightly more fitting. Her hair was tied back in a loose ponytail, and she had on black jeans and a nice shirt. Still royally out of place, but not as much as her date. Shit, the guy made him want to giggle.

And there was a third at the back. A third with golden hair and blue eyes and moles, and Baz liked him more than the last two exponentially. He felt his throat tighten along with maybe his jeans because this guy’s smile was so pretty and it was offered to him so willingly in greeting. In fact, Baz was staring at that smile so hard, he missed the guy’s name altogether.

“I’m sorry, what?” Baz asked in a way that sounded more harsh than necessary.

“Simon,” the boy said, extending his hand, “I’m Simon Snow.” Snow. Snow. SNOW. This was Mr. Snow’s son or something.

“Oh,” Baz replied, meeting the handshake. His ice-cold hands melted under Simon’s. He smiled at Simon not because of this but because that name just sounded straight out of a fantasy book. Simon Snow and the Great Adventures Through Hell or something maybe less depressing. Was that possible? He also looked like a guy from one of these novels. Only this was real life, and this hero was in front of him.

“My father told me to thank you for the tickets,” Simon finally said, and Baz’s hand ached at the loss of the warmth. “He couldn’t be here because of a prior engagement, so he sent us. This is Penny and Micah.” Simon indicated his friends, and Baz smiled and shook hands with them, too, though Simon’s hands felt warmer and better.

“Anything for the guy who gave us our start,” Niall said, popping a stray Malteser into his mouth. Baz nodded and sighed a little bit. His cheeks were heating up a little, and he pressed the palms of his hands onto them.

Their manager came in to tell them they had ten minutes to finish up, and Baz turned mostly to Simon to say, “We’ve reserved seats for you in front of the stage, or you could stay beside stage and watch.”

Simon looked at his friends, and they shrugged their shoulders. Simon then turned to reply. “We’ll stay beside stage and watch.” Then, when his friends couldn’t hear, Simon added, “Micah’s a little bit of a baby when it comes to noise.” Baz chuckled and placed his hand on Simon’s shoulder before he went to Agatha to get ready.

His night was beginning to get better.

…

Simon was flushed for the entirety of the concert. Every time he would look up, Baz would look over at him during the songs. It felt like his entire body was on fire. He couldn’t remember feeling like this in a long time.

Penny noticed, and when Micah went away to buy earplugs, she leaned over and shouted above the music, “So you gonna fuck or what?”

Simon choked on his tongue, and Penny laughed in response. Simon rubbed at his suddenly dry throat and tried to laugh, too, but he couldn’t say he didn’t like the idea.

It felt like the concert was over too fast. The band was coming back to the room where they had first met, and Penny, Simon, and Micah were all invited. Back. Agatha helped Dev open a champagne bottle, and Niall opted out for a Ribena instead.

And when the night finally seemed like it was over, Simon was a bit fuzzy on the edges. He was stumbling slightly over his feet, and just before he could go, he pulled Baz aside.

“I wanna see you again,” he said as he hastily drew his number on the back of Baz’s hand with his name above it. Simon giggled as he dotted his ‘i’ with a heart. Baz chuckled back.

…

Baz did want to see this boy again. Simon was leaning against the wall and laughing like writing his number was the funniest thing he’d ever done. His handwriting was shit, and Baz could hardly distinguish a four from a nine.

“I want to see you again,” Simon said again, but the giggle was gone. Baz could smell the liquor on his breath. It was lingering on his own, too. Agatha hadn’t spared a pence when she bought off the top shelf. A cup had alone had gotten him fuzzy.

Baz took hold of Simon’s hand firmer, and when Simon looked up from his bad penmanship, Baz leaned in and kissed him. They were both a little sauced, but the kiss felt like it sobered him up. It wasn’t fast or sloppy; Simon’s lips were soft against his chapped ones and warm where his were cold.

And then Simon opened his mouth and slipped his tongue in, and Baz pulled back. He was still holding onto Simon’s hand when he pulled him close and said, “Come to my room with me.”

And Simon nodded.

…

There was  an ache low in Baz’s lower back when he rolled over the next morning. He was exhausted from the previous night, and, honest to God, he tried to sleep in, but this whole tour thing had gotten him on the internal clock of an infant: wake at three a.m. and scream until someone comes to talk to you.

Baz expected a warm body to be dipping the mattress next to him, but as he reached out, his hand moved through the ghost of cold air next to him. He sat up then, hissing only afterwards because, holy shit, last night was great. He fumbled to turn the bedside lamp on, but when he did, Baz realized he was right: there was no one next to him. Instead, there looked to be a hastily written note that he could barely make out to say ‘thank you’ with a smiley face and a number.

That shouldn’t have made him as happy as it does. Simon Snow. It sounded like the name a superhero would have. To be honest, Simon looked like a superhero. Baz folded the note and put it in his pocket as he put on the shed clothes from last night. The room was a god-awful mess. The sheets were half-off the bed, his clothes and shoes were strewn about with no care, and if Baz didn’t get out of there soon, he was pretty sure a noise complaint would be filed.

It was good he didn’t unpack, though. They had an early flight to catch, and although it was Baz’s idea to get a hotel room, it really wasn’t that good of one. He needed to call an Uber and get back to his bus as soon as possible so they can do an early check-in at the airport and get to their pre-booked private room.

Baz winced down the hall to the elevator and dragged his suitcase behind him. All-in-all, this wasn’t a bad way to spend two days in the hometown he was dreading to be back in. The concert went off without a hitch, he got in a good lay, and now he could go on and have fonder memories of this place. Fonder memories of golden hair and absurdly blue eyes and freckled skin. How could a person have that many moles?

He needed to stop thinking about it before he blushed any harder in the elevator next to an elderly woman who smelled of cigarettes and bad perfume.

…

Maybe he should’ve stayed.

Simon shook his head as he wiped down a mug. He really hated when girls with bright red lipstick asked for ceramic. Didn’t they know that shit was hard to clean? Did they just not care? To be fair, it was giving him time away from the front where someone was asking for an insanely difficult drink with soy instead of whole and non-dairy foam instead of whipped cream and blah, blah, blah…

Maybe he was keen on wiping these mugs clean because Simon was desperately trying to think of anything but the shag he’d had last night. It had been his first good lay in a long time. Probably his first good lay ever considering the only other people he’d ever had sex with were his ex-girlfriend and a couple of randoms from grindr.

An incoming plane from the airport a block away caused Simon to jump. It was his least favorite part of the job. The mugs would shake on the walls and if the people at the tables weren’t regulars, they’d start freaking out and demanding to know if they were being attacked.

Today, it was three regulars at a table in the corner and a new girl with her headphones turned up so loudly that Simon could hear the ear-pounding music.

Once the plane passed, Simon could let his thoughts wander in silence once again. And, of course, his thoughts wandered to long, black hair and tanned skin and chipped fingernail polish. That was probably the weirdest thing for him to have noticed, but Simon can remember the smirk on his face after Baz had pressed his palm against Simon’s chest. Chipped fingernail polish had caught Simon more off-guard than having sex with a Rockstar had.

And he’d left his number like an idiot. Why had he expected a Rockstar to text him after a one-time lay? It was a dream, if anything, for someone like that to even want to even remotely want to contact him. Simon wanted to call him, but he’d left before the sun could even come up. The ‘walk of shame’ back to his and Penny’s apartment had been filled with smiles and a good high before Simon caught the low and sunk to his couch, his brain filled with worry and anxiety over the past few hours of activity.

But there was still that nagging voice in the back of Simon’s head that said, “Well, what if he does call?” And because Simon couldn’t stop his daydreams, he imagined seeing Baz again but this time not at a concert. He wanted to see Baz in everyday life. He wanted to keep talking to this mysterious man in the band. He wanted to know the reason behind some of the lyrics they sang and the life of a touring band and what Baz’s favorite food was and so much more.

Simon wanted so much more than he was ever going to get.

…

“Fucking hell!” Agatha yelled into the phone. Baz held his head up in his hand as he took a bite of a vending machine-granola bar. “No, Mrs. Pomfrey, there’s no plane until tomorrow morning.” There was a silence as Mrs. Pomfrey responded. Then Agatha said, “Well, I wanted to get back to Ireland so we could immediately start working on new stuff.”

Baz stopped listening. Was he supposed to be stressed? Yeah, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that he had another twenty-four hours left to be here. Another twenty-four hours to call back Simon Snow, the crazy superhero-named boy who looked like he’d hopped straight out of a YA fantasy movie.

So, what was Baz supposed to really do with the next 24 hours of his life? He couldn’t really send a message to this boy. It was a one-time deal. That’s how every hook-up was.

That background voice asked, “Then why did he leave his number, Baz?” And, sure, that was a valid point, but…

But what? There wasn’t anything else to say. He’d left his number. He wanted to talk. Or he at least wanted to go another round or something. Any interaction with Simon Snow would be worth it.

So, Baz pulled out that little sticky note from his pocket, typed the number into his cell phone, and sent a simple message. “Hey.”

Why was he so nervous? There was nothing to be nervous about.

It took a few minutes for the phone to buzz again.

“Hey. Who is this? Sorry, the number isn’t saved.”

God, Baz thought. Simon Snow was so posh when he texted. The thought had Baz biting his cheek to withhold a smile. “It’s Baz from last night. My flight got delayed. Wanna get coffee or something?”

The next reply took no time at all.

“Anything but coffee,” Simon responded. Baz couldn’t hold in his little chuckle. “I’m working at the little coffeeshop by the airport, so just meet me there at the end of my shift at ten?”

Baz’s cheeks were flushed. “And then what?” he asked.

The three little bubble dots stayed up for a few moments. “Then dinner at mine?”

And somehow that was better than just another lay.

…

Simon waited out in the rain under his umbrella, waiting to see Baz come up. He didn’t know what to expect. Was Baz gothic outside of his band? Simon certainly wasn’t expecting bright yellows or a tie-dye shirt or anything, but would his look be as dark and full of makeup as it had been the previous night? It was just as dark at ten in the night, but would it be different?

Well, a light grey shirt and joggers wasn’t too bad, right? Baz’s hair was a little mussed like it had been before, but there was no gel present, and he seemed more relaxed than before the show. He had large circles under his eyes, and his converse smacked the ground and created little splashes as he ran to the front of the store where Simon was waiting.

Under the umbrella, Simon was very aware of the thick silence that enveloped them. He could feel the blood rising to his cheeks and his heart beginning to speed up with anxiety.

Finally, Baz broke the silence. “So, dinner?”

Simon smiled and let out a little anxious laughter. “Yeah,” he replied. “It’s a long walk, so I ordered an Uber. Hope that’s okay.” Baz huffed a mixture between ‘yeah, I don’t give a shit’ and ‘sure, my feet hurt’. That was a relief. If Baz had decided to walk to the apartment, they’d have a nice ten miles to go. Running ten miles would maybe get them there at four in the morning.

The Uber ride was mostly silent. Simon didn’t know how to really act in this kind of situation. He’d only have a few hookups in his lifetime, and they’d never tried to connect with him afterwards. Was this really different from his other hook ups? Obviously, this aspect was. Had Baz really wanted to hang out again as much as Simon had wanted to? Was it obvious that he wanted this to happen again? Maybe longer than a two-night-stand?

The Uber was short. Traffic was usually terrible at night. Maybe God was on his side this time. A long car ride would only encourage awkwardness. This way, they could get back to the apartment where there was good food and clothes could either come off or stay on. No pressure.

However, Penny had gotten the late shift off. That might’ve been good news for Simon to have had a few hours ago. She had her head bent over a large pot full of boiling water and only gasped when she turned and saw the two of them by the doorway.

“I thought you had the late shift?” Simon asked.

“And I thought you had a bad track record with dating,” she replied, stepping away from the pot and coming to hug Baz. That was the part that shocked Simon. “Are you staying for dinner?” she asked.

“Only if that’s alright with you,” Baz answered. Simon noticed a blush high on Baz’s cheeks and could feel his own ears turn red.

Penny laughed and said, “That’s perfectly fine with me. I hope you like bad cooking!”

And bad cooking it was. The pasta burned to the bottom of the pan, and they ended up getting Indian takeaway from the place two blocks down from their apartment. Penny graciously offered to go get it, leaving Simon and Baz once again were left in silence.

Simon broke it this time. “Why did you decide to text?”

Baz quirked his eyebrows together and said, “My flight was delayed until the storm was over. It’s not like I had anything else to do.”

Simon sat down on the couch opposite Baz and said, “Well, yeah, but you didn’t have to spend it with me.” There was silence as Baz avoided his eyes and picked at a loose thread on the couch cushion. “So, why did you really decide to text me?”

Baz’s mouth did a little thing where it quirked to the side before he said, “Because I thought you were interesting last night at the concert.” He smiled again as he added, “And I really did haven nothing to do.”

“You could’ve practiced with your band,” Simon suggested.

“I was a bit fed up with them at the airport,” Baz replied. “Sharing a bus with them is sometimes too much, so just imagine being stuck with three frustrated people trying to practice a fine art.”

Simon snorted and said, “Rock-metal is not a fine art!”

“It so is!” Baz retorted, shoving Simon gently in the shoulder. There was a silence after that that was much more comfortable than the one before.

Penny got back with Indian takeaway just a few moments later, and they all sat in the living room stuffing their faces full of way too spicy food. There was easy conversation about the band and the tour and how much it took to design merch.

And when Penny said goodnight and finally retired to her bedroom at twelve-thirty, there really wasn’t a silence anymore. They continued the topic about which pop star was the rudest person (spoiler, it was Katy Perry) and who had been the nicest and who they’d met in the weirdest setting possible. The only celebrity Simon had ever seen was Emma Watson getting out of her car to go into the airport. It wasn’t really a very interesting story.

“I wish your flight wasn’t in a few hours,” Simon confessed. “I wish you were just another guy and not a superstar.”

“I am just some guy,” Baz insisted. “Only difference is I happen to be asked for photos in public places.”

Simon scoffed and shook his head. “I just meant that I wish you weren’t going.”

Baz nodded his head. And then he said, “Just come with me, then.”

Simon scoffed again. If hanging out with Baz meant he was going to be scoffing a lot, then he needed to invest in some cough drops now. “Yeah. Right. Like I could just get on a plane with a guy I met yesterday.”

“I’m serious,” Baz insisted, taking hold of Simon’s hand across the couch. “Come with me. You have a passport, right?” Simon nodded. “Then come. We’re going back to Ireland.”

Simon shook his head and tried to form a cohesive thought. Had he really just been invited to Ireland by a guy that had probably slept his way through Europe? Would Simon just be forgotten at the next stop on tour? Did he even really want to go?

Yes, obviously.

There wasn’t really time to think, though. Baz had apparently gotten nervous and decided that having sex was a good way to divert the conversation. Well, Simon would be damned if he didn’t at least go along with this.

…

Baz sulked in the car ride to the airport. He shouldn’t have even been sulking. Of course Simon Snow was not going to want to come to Ireland with a guy he’d just met.

When he’d gotten out of the cab and met up with everyone inside, they didn’t even bother to ask where he’d disappeared to or why he looked so pissed. There wasn’t any reason to. Baz was always pissy in the mornings, and even if it didn’t go away by the next few months, as long as they continued to work on music and plan the next press tour, then who would give a fuck?

Baz threw his shit down in the bin and began to unlace his shoes. There was a tap on his shoulders, and without looking up he snappily responded with, “Fuck off, Agatha. I’m not in the mood.”

“Geez,” said a voice that wasn’t Agatha’s or any of his bandmates. “I just wanted to know how much a plane to Ireland would cost.” Baz made contact with those shitty Converse and felt a smirk grow across his face.

He looked up and said, “A plane to Ireland with me is free on your part.”

Simon smiled down at him, and the little backpack over his shoulder which presumably held his essentials made Baz even happier. “I hear the weather this time of year is gross.”

“It’ll be better with you there,” Baz said as he stood without his shoes on. “Are you sure you wanna get on a plane with a guy you just met?”

Simon sighed and replied with, “Penny and the police are just a phone call away.”

And Baz laughed.  

[junhee-moved]

TBAA in Budapest~

(((that’s the only photo I took)))

So I guess I promised to make a post of my experience about the a.c.e concert  in Budapest. This is gonna be very~ long so I understand if you don’t wanna read it dfghjkl the rest is under the cut (though I’m not sure if it’ll show on mobile). Highlights, favourite moments, hi-touch, summary of the members will be at the second half of the post so scroll down if you’re only curious about those.

First of all thank you to my two friends who were with me and a huge uwu to @salty-hun whom I’ve been friends with for more than a year and finally we were able to meet :’)))) I love you Vivi!!

Well the organization from the hungarian side was kind of a mess, basically they had no idea about the top10 existing (me and my friends were all in the top10 + 1, like the top10 got two vip tickets for free). So we were waiting about two hours to get information of what we were supposed to do. It was still a mess but in the end we figured it out. The korean staff were angels tbh. Some fans also didn’t know how to behave but oh well (the security were so done with us lmao). But some foreigner fans were giving out photocards which was so sweet :’)))

We were let into the venue around 7pm and I was in a shock. Like, dude I’m in the first!!! row!!! + there were extended parts of the stage both on the left and right side and in the middle. And the extended part of the stage from the left was IN. FRONT. OF. ME. My body was aching by the time the concert started but oh boy it was worth it!

Also there was a door behind the stage which was opened and everyone was looking whether a member would appear. And then Sehyoon was there and waved to us and then the staff closed the door :’DDD

I’m not sure whether you’re curios about the performances but I’ll try to say a little about them. They started with a video then an intro, then cactus and callin’ and then they introduced themselves. Jun and Byeongkwan said hello in hungarian with an A+++ accent, I was surprised :o Then they talked a bit about Hungary (Jun said he’d wanted to visit Budapest since he was 16 and none of the members knew about it. And they were really amazed by the hungarian sky lmao and then they said the sight in front of their eyes - the fans were more beautiful. They cringed so hard).

Then we had a screaming contest. Byeongkwan was on the right, Sehyoon in the middle and Junhee on the left (on the extended stage, in front of me. I died). And these parts of the audience had to scream. The middle (Sehyoon) part was the loudest.

Ugh, I’m honestly not sure about the order of the performances asdfghj I’ll say whatever I remember (god this post is a mess already, I’m so sorry).

I think Donghun and Chan performed All of me next and holy shit!!! Their vocals!!! are amazing!!! I might be (probably) biased but I fell in love with Chan’s voice.

Then we had the Taeyang dance covers. They. didn’t. have. to. go. that. hard. They’re all soooo great dancers!! But again, I might be biased but Jun totally caught my eye. Like he has such a strong stage presence and his facial expressions ooooof.

Then the Flashlight cover!!!! I waited for this performance the most. The whole atmosphere of this performance was magical.

I’m lost, I don’t think this was the order of the performances. We’ve also had a short stage of Donghun, Byeongkwan and Chan singing small parts of 3 songs. Chan was singing Miracles of December. them. honey. vocals. holy. cow. I’m not sure about what the other two sang but man, they were awesome!

Also a short stage of Chan singing Dessert, Black and Blue and Take Me Higher! This boyyyy!!!!

Then there was Black and Blue by Jun and Sehyoon. Let me tell you. My soul left my body. I was so not prepared to see this right in front of my eyes.

Then Dessert ot5 version + a little fanservice uwu. They also blessed our eyes with Take Me Higher ot5 version.

There was a short break when they announced a few winners from vip and ga/balcony (the prizes were signed posters and polaroids). We’ve all had our numbers on our wristbands and each member selected 2 winners. My number was 17 (vip) and they said vip 77, 7, balcony 17, so they really liked the number 7 but not me :’DDDD 

I feel so lucky, Youngblood - both slapped us in the face. Again, their voices were so on point!!

Near the end ment - I have to talk about it in the ‘my fave parts’ of this post.

They’ve also performed See you again + Make it nasty + the zombie dance. I kinda went blind during these performances, the lights were very strong. But I’m pretty sure I watched the whole with my mouth open because - again, amazing, wonderful, superb, jaw-dropping!!

BTS covers, Bigbang covers - you should know that Park Junhee is anything but a good boy *cough*

Finally we had the group photo, 5tar and Take me higher as the encore. More about it in ‘my fave parts’.

HIGHLIGHTS, MY FAVE PARTS

the way Junhee said ‘szia’

Junhee choking on smoke

Junhee saying he was so looking forward to the tour because Budapest was in there

Chan missing his pocket while trying to put his hand in it and donghun laughing at him

them saying the audience is more beautiful then the sky

Chan being a super-duper-hyper-playful baby and the others loving him to bits

Sehyoon’s overdramatic reaction during the screaming contest

Seyhoon nunchaku-ing(??? lmfao how to say this) with his towel

Donghun coughing in the mic in the middle of singing and the others making fun of him

Donghun starting to sing Do you wanna build a snowman when Chan said he’s gonna sing a winter song

the fans turning on their flashlights during the performance

them pointing out fans who didn’t turn on their flashlights

BLACK. AND. BLUE.

ZOMBIE. DANCE.

flashing their abs during Make it nasty like there’s no tomorrow

Junhee’s twerking

Donghun being hype

Donghun high five-ing the crowd during Dessert

Chan’s sulking when Jun said there’s one missing part in Take me higher (aka Chan)

Junhee saying Chan is gonna leave the stage if we’re not energetic enough and Chan protesting

Donghun expecting fans to finish the lyrics of Take me higher then making a face when we didn’t know the lyrics

them telling us to dance if we feel like (insert hyungwon mantis-dance-like moves)

Chan telling the fans not to cry

A.C.E loving their maknae

Junhee being 90% of the time on the left side of the extended stage. in front. of. me.

Just them being constatóntly on the extended parts of the stage.

Junhee being an awesome speaker

Jun high five-ing me in the end of the encore

Donghun taking my banner. He gave it back in the end of 5tar and thanked me.

Sehyoon collecting banners.

Sehyoon taking my friend’s banner and not giving it back to her. rip.

Chan telling us to scream during the group photo but to make a pretty face

Chan telling us to scream during the panorama picture (I can’t explain this, it was funny)

me being barely visible in the group photo

my friends not being visible in the group photo rip

Byeongkwan’s dancing

the ment. Sehyoon talking about how he had to go to the hospital for the first time in a foreign country and how he had trouble communicating and accidentally ended up at the emergency. He told us that he was sent to another hospital where the doctor took him to a pharmacy and bought Sehyoon the medicine he needed. Yeah this was the time I started crying like a baby.

Byeongkwan telling us he wasn’t feeling too good and he will need some of Sehyoon’s medicine.

the translator buffering for a second and Byeongkwan making a what’s-going-on face

the surprise video from us. Jun and Chan got so emotional

Byeongkwan’s new name is BK. Donghun’s is DH. They were calling each other like that lol also Wow introduced himself as King Wow

Wowkwan.

them loving the banners

the whole 5tar and encore Take me higher performance. They were singing and dancing in front of us, waving, high five-ing and shit. Fanserbice on point.

them mentioning about the special project and filming the fans

them wanting to come back 

them being the most humble human beings ever

the translator was awesome

we could hear the members talking, the fans were very respectful

the fans were also respecting each other during the concert

ABOUT THE MEMBERS

Junhee - so charismatic!! like I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him. His stage presence is no joke! He was really having a fun time. He interacted a lot with the fans. He was rude af. A natural leader. His smile!!!!!! Dimples!!! His hands are indeed smol lol His hyserical laugh is amazing! So are his dimples (again). The concert proved me that black haired Jun is superior!

Donghun - his vocals holy heaven!! He was really energetic and smiley the whole time. His hair was so floofy! He also interacted a lot with the fans. He was kinda in his own world with Chan, like these two together were having fun lol I died a little when he took my banner and then said thank you. Bodyrolls.

Sehyoon - his dancing!! beautiful!! So is his smile! He wasn’t talking a lot, maybe because he wasn’t feeling too well or was just shy. But he was really adorable while communicating with the audience. He collected banners lmao he was so extra at times. Very humble. I loved his hair.

Byeongkwan - he wasn’t too much at the left side of the stage :( and he seemed kinda quiet and tired. I hope he gets well soon. But he’s an awesome performer! Very powerful. He and Sehyoon had fun while collecting and examining the banners. He was trying to include everyone when he was filming the crowd.

Chan - oh! my! god! The cutest person! Like he was having such a great time! He was just randomly dancing around all the time. Him and Donghun tho haha His voice is the most beautiful thing ever. His laugh! A literal sunshine! He got kinda emotional during the surprise video. All the members treasure him.

OT5 - their chemistry!!! They genuinely seemed like they were having the time of their lives. They were so silly and cute and funny, and they loved the audience! Honestly, I don’t think they’re THAT short. They’re average. They were rude at times too. I’ve heard a lot that they’re more beautiful irl but I wasn’t sure how that works but boy!!!! They are stunning!!! Their skin?? Drop your skincare routine pls!! Ethereal beings.

HI TOUCH

IT’S A BLUR!!! It was too short and the room was pretty dark too. Also they were seated so I couldn’t really tell how tall they are lol + I only had time to say a short thank you to all of them.

Chan was the first. He was so cheerful and loud, like I couldn’t even see him yet but I heard him shouting THANK YOU!! He was all smiley and cute and his hand was quite big and soft :’)))

Donghun was the second, he was also very smiley and sweet :’))

I’m not sure if Byeongkwan or Sehyoon was the next. I think it was Byeongkwan. He looked really tired :(

Sehyoon had that beautiful smile on his face. My heart? Melted.

Jun was the last, he looked super tired :((( Like he didn’t even look at us, he just seemed like he wanted to be done with the hi touch asap

Overall

I had an awesome time! I can’t believe I saw them live and they’re actually real people. It all feels like a dream. They’re very kind, humble people who love us so much! I love them too :’))))))) I laughed a lot and cried like a baby. No regrets (Jun said to do everything we want so we wouldn’t have any regrets later). Can’t wait to see them again. Oh yeah, my bias is indeed Jun (or Chan rip)

Okayyyy this is very long and messy and I’m embarassed to post it, I’m so so sorry :(((

[zelos-official-armrest]

Seoul Limited and Forever with Babyz (Madrid)

I’m about half a year late, but I just want to share a bit of my B.A.P concert experiences both in Seoul Limited and Forever With Babyz tour in Madrid. You know, if anyone’s interested…

First of all, how did I get to Seoul? I applied for a month-long summer university program and I got a smaller tuition fee thanks to my schools being partner universities. Still, it took me about 5 years to get enough funds. I’m not going to talk much about that in here, but it was the most amazing time of my life. I do advise everyone not to ONLY go there for running after a potential Korean boyfriend tho. The culture is so much more than kpop-related fantasies.

Ok, on to the actual topic- B.A.P. While in Seoul, I did want to see the TS building with my own two eyes (so I’d know where to go to throw the tomatoes, haha). Therefore, one evening me and my fellow coursemate/ friend went to look for it, but apparently that day B.A.P and TRCNG had a practice there as it came out. When we approached the building, Zelo was chatting with someone in front of the house, but seeing us coming scared him off and he fleed to the building. I felt so sorry for him, because it must be a common occurrence for them to not get privacy even there by the way he reacted. So, I got nervous because I really wanted to have a picture in front of the building, but I didn’t want to be causing any discomfort to them. Me and my friend decided to take a picture real quick and I kinda got my two half-blurry pictures in front of the building.

Here’s potato me making TS surrender to the Matoki power:

When we stood back a bit, I saw TRCNG entering the house and we decided to leave. While we were walking away, around the corner came Himchan who was, for some reason, followed (basically cornered) by a bunch of blonde chicks (stalkers I guess?). Since I was a bit too close, for some reason I thought it would be really impolite if I didn’t say anything so I bowed and let out „annyeonghaseyo“ (It’s really weird to type it out like that). He answered me with a nod and when he had entered TS, some Korean fans who were following set themselves to wait outside the doors. That was the last we saw them as we moved further away from the place…

Before going to the summer program and buying the plane tickets to Korea, I didn’t know B.A.P would have a concert. When it was announced, I praed for the dates to overlap with my stay. I was incredibly lucky, because B.A.P’s first Seoul Limited concert was on the last day of my stay. The day itself was super-hot (38+ degrees) and I had a lot of troubles from moving out the dorms with all of my luggage etc. In the morning I managed to go to the venue to buy some merch (got myself a matoki whistle and a t-shirt). In the afternoon, there were already fansites distributing free merch (got also 2 banners, but I lost my shiny Zelo banner at the concert T_T). 

The queueing was so different from European stops, where we camp in front of the venes. Here you had a number on a ticket and you just went and looked for your spot in the line and everything went smoothly. I actually had bought two tickets, because I was hoping for someone to go with me (and to get more people to appreciate B.A.P, lol). I did manage to get a friend from the program to come with me, so it was a success. The venue was really well ventilated and the sound system was great. B.A.P had a live band to back them up and they put on a great show as always. Too bad I couldn’t really understand much when they did their talking. In the crowd, there was a couple and B.A.P pointed at them and stated that „This is how you take your girlfriend out. You take her to a B.A.P concert !“, and they continued to chat for a bit. The best things from the concert- Coma rock version, Blind and small snipets from songs fans had selected as the ones they want to hear from B.A.P the most, watergun fight, new solos and tons of adlibs. Even though my ticket queue number was quite big, the stage was so well built that when idols came off from the main stage to those cat-walks, I had maybe only 2 rows of people in front of me making it the closest I’ve been at a concert. 

This is basically how I saw them went they came near:

But there is one thing I found different from previous concerts. I don’t know if it was because I was really nervous about my flights and everything that day, but the crowd in Europe felt more passionate. I guess it is just in the way we cheer. I mean, their fanchants and everything was on point, but somehow it felt more calm and collected that I was used to. Either way, I loved that I could be there with OT6 and that Jongup released his cute MV for Annoying as a memory of that day. Oh, oh, and I finally got on Himchan’s fancam J. Really blurry, but I know it’s me. Thank you Channie!

Moving on to my Madrid experience. At first, I didn’t really plan to go to another tour because I’d already seen them this year, but the fact that there were tickets with best perks I never really managed to get before still available started creeping on me. I had to decide whether to wait for the mess that was Berlin ticket sale or settle for the Madrid one. I decided to save myself from the excess stress and take the Madrid VVIP. I don’t regret going one bit even though the Youngbros organisation was freaking awful. As VVIP holders, we were promised more time at the high-touch than VIP but nothing like that happened. The signed poster was actually just printed on and they had ran out of black beanies before even half the VVIPs could pass the counter.

Just a small look at the merch etc: 

The worst thing was that they messed with B.A.P’s sound system so some time the microphones didn’t really work and the security guys didn’t pay any attention to people fainting in the crowd, which Daehyun and Zelo had to point out to them (Zelo tried to get their attention in Spanish, Daehyun wanted to stop the song to resolve the case) and Jongup threw his own water bottle to fans in need. The concert itself was really good (even though we still missed Bang and were chanting his name from time to time). I loved being able to hear Howler in it’s Spanish home and Zelo went wild with the butt-slaps and butt-wiggles. During Do What I Feel, he threw his towel to the crowd and guess who was the lucky one to catch it!  It still has his makeup on tho :D.

Haha, towel-kun has seen some things... At this point I knew. For 5 years, I didn’t manage to choose a bias in B.A.P. That was the day my bias chose me (lolololol)

The only kind of OK clips that I got from the concert was Youngjae’s acapella “I’m happy” and Jongup’s “Try my luck”, because I was trying to enjoy the concert too much which resulted in my hands being extra shaky. 

There was also a lottery where they chose a random number and a fan for every member got a small canvas bag with member’s drawing and autograph on it. And a hug. At some point, Youngjae managed to hurt his shoulder, I hope he is ok now. Them teaching us the fanchant for All the way up was pretty memorable since they almost booed Daehyun off the stage because he couldn’t contain himself and do the right thing. And Zelo just went like “OMG, it’s our song”. We also had a support project for Himchan where we held his banners and chanted his name.

My high-touch experience. While we were standing in a line, the organisers started to let B.A.P take their positions near the wall. To get there, B.A.P walked through a small bordered area which was right next to where some of us were queueing. I noticed Himchan and told him “annyeong” for which he raised his head, looked at me and just had the cutest smile ever on his face. I made Himchan smile, everyone! I don’t know if he noticed that this is the one person who never manages to greet him correctly (me in Warsaw, Seoul and now Madrid). He was also first in line at high-touch and he was still so extra smiley at me. 

To sum up the high-touch experience, this is basically it:

B.A.P with their beautiful hands vs Me coming from a jungle

And then this 1 second you had to admire all the beauty

I mean, there were so many things I wanted to say (just one sentence to each member), but I couldn’t do anything because it was too fast. I tried to tell them stuff in English or Korean, but they tried to tell me stuff in Spanish and in English and it was honestly such a mess. It was so funny. Then right after we had the group photo so I fastened my steps and got next to Zelo. After everything I just had to go to him. I could tell he did something over my head while taking the picture since he was touching it, but I had no actual idea what. The picture turned out better than I expected. I am not really good friends with cameras, specially when I don’t even know, where the cameraman is or when the picture is exactly taken. Got the cutest photo ever and I will now officially present my short ass as “Zelo’s armrest” since this is what he used me as.

Tbh, I had to photoshop my face on the picture a bit, because the camera reflected on me so bad that I looked like a Christmas tree in a Colgate commercial. Literally.

Anyways, after the short time for pictures, I could pass by all of them again and thanked them, especially Zelo, when I turned around. I love them all so much and I had soft hours for days after we got to know that Zelo shouldn’t have even been on the tour but he insisted to come. Made it all 10 times more memorable and important.

I wish I could also go to Yongguk’s tour. I don’t know if it’s possible, because I have already emptied my bank account for them. So I guess we’ll see what happens. I hope he receives a lot of love and support anyways.

That’s it, folks!

[10minsofalltoowell]

Okay so story time: This is from when I attended her red tour concerts, the red tour holds a lot of precious memories to me. So my mom originally had gotten tickets to see her concert for one night at the Amway center in Orlando but then she surprised me the next day with an early birthday present saying she had scored VIP floor seats to the second show in Orlando! I was so excited! So we were unable to sell the first tickets we bought and ended up going to both of the shows Day one was in nosebleed seats and then day two was the VIP. On the second day we arrived at the venue and went through security and they escorted us to kind of like a pre party before the show started where they basically just raffled off her merch! After the party everybody started to get escorted to their seats and our security guard kept on leading us closer and closer and CLOSER to the stage and this point I was already crying because I have never gotten that close before and I couldn’t believe that I was actually getting the chance to see her that close... so the security guard smiled at us as we took our seats which was second row from the stage. After we had gotten settled in our seats we made friends with some other people who told us they might leave so we could take there seats which were even closer to her! So after a while my mom and I were just talking and all of a sudden we heard screaming coming from the back of the floor section and so we were just kind of looking around cause Taylor hadn’t came on at this point, and so we kept looking and mama swift was walking around the floor area saying hi to people. Me being me I was to shy to go up and before I did it was sadly to late because the security guards were pulling her away from the crowd, but after that Taylor came on and I almost caught the hat that she threw out into the crowd every show, and I almost got to touch her hand, but seeing her that up close was so magical to me everything about that night was so magical and I wish I could go back to it everyday, then as another birthday present, my dad who lives in VA ended up getting me tickets to her show in DC to go see with him!🤧💜

@taylorswift @taylornation

[himenation]

MONSTA X 2ND WORLDTOUR IN AMSTERDAM (LIVE REPORT) - AFAS 20.06.2018

This is a long live report containing things how I even became a fan, to the AMAAAAAZING (not) queue, setlist, live, m&g and random moments. All fan cams and fanpics are uploaded on my twitter which I linked in this post too!

I went to Monsta X’s 2nd Worldtour in Amsterdam this month! I started to get to know Monsta X during their Beautiful promotions and when I heard they would come to Europe the first time (in 2017), I was doubting whether I should go or not. I knew like 10 songs and another fan could go instead of me. It was not close anyway, so I decided to take part in the campaign for Amsterdam. For people who don’t know MMT. MMT is a fan dedicated promoter, in which you can request an artist to come to your city and if you have enough ‘makes’ (so points) they’ll talk with the artist. 

Anyways, I took part in the campaign in august 2017. Uni was about to start and I kinda forgot about the lives for a while. Until it was around the DRAMARAMA period (and their first win omg!), I followed them again; so after their MBC performance, I got a text message from MMT that they’re starting to talk to MONSTA X. At this point I would give this presale code to somebody else, but I didn't know when the actual concert was supposed to be so I waited. So while I was waiting for their JEALOUSY comeback, I started to watch their shows because I was bored and I LITERALLY FELL INTO THE FANDOM (and not just the music). I loved these guys so much? They were so precious and funny. I really wanted to see them live and regretted not going to the Beautiful Tour. So for their Jealousy comeback, I even bought The Connect; I texted every time they had a show and streamed their MVs so they could win another win (and they did!) (I've only done this for BTS before). So just around the time of the MV release, they announced they would be coming to AMSTERDAM. I was so happy. Flash forward to the ticket sale: I went to uni early, had a computer; laptop and my phone ready and immediately bought 2x VIP tickets!!

After counting down the days to the concert, I was finally here. I couldn't wait to hear Destroyer and Lost In the Dream live (My fav songs of the new album). Fans were allowed to queue from 11, but no-one seemed to listen to it :’) Every standing type had to get a wristband (VIP included). So I was kinda late and arrived at 12 , but my wristband number was 139. I quickly had sushi with my sister at ICHI-e and went to Starbucks (and a grocery store) to get some food and drinks for the queue. Just when we were about to leave the restaurant, I got a message from MMT that they messed up the wristband numbers for VIP and it was now FCFS (First Come first Serve). It was also the hottest day of the week, yippie :’)

Queue The queue was one big mess... Fans were incredibly rude and mean and staff didn’t do anything about it either. Girls were screaming at the security and talking very rudely, fans saying to each other ‘shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down’ (this is an actual phrase someone was screaming behind me). The venue staff gave us WATER IN A BUCKET and it wasn't until a monsta x staff came and gave everyone bottles. I also met two very sweet fansites! They gave out free stuff and were overall very sweet! They talked a lot to us and were next to us in the queue. We also met two friends who wanted to go to their friends, but since people were rude; my sis stopped them and they were next to us. Even though we were strangers, me and my sis shared our food and drinks with them. During the queue certain people started to push fans and we told them to stop and they started to fight with us??? and basically telling us ‘are you blind’ :)) (also they thought the fansites were Korean so they were all nice to them but shitty to other people, but the fansites turned out to be Chinese so these rude koreaboos were really boo boo the fools) at around 18:00 we were allowed to go inside but everyone started pushing each other so we were really stuck and could barely breathe. Once we were inside we had to wait another 2 hours and I was so tired, but wow I was 4th row!  Live I also made a big thread of Monsta X on my twitter. Fancams Fanpics Okay first of all, this group has no visual hole. THEY ARE ALL SO VISUALS I COULDNT BELIEVE MY EYES. Honestly they're so beautiful irl??????? Although I knew they were all handsome, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw IM, Kihyun, Shownu and Hyungwon DAMN. 

The live was amazing, they kept playing DRAMARAMA, SHINE FOREVER and STUCK in the venue and we were so hyped! Once the live started; they all came in Swaroski Suits (they looked so expensive) singing Jealousy. The fan chants (at least in the VIP) were A M A Z I N G.  AAHHH I finally saw monsta x im sobbing. They then played Be Quiet (it’s one of my fav older songs) ;; and BEAUTIFUL IN SWAROSKI SUITS GUYSSSSSS. They didn't do the jacket dance since, yeah the jackets were pretty expensive HAHAHAH. Too bad.. They then had a long MC and started with Gravity and Tropical night (still wearing the suits). After changing their clothes (some kind of harness?)  they sung Crazy In love (finally a full version) and All In. The crowd really loved All In!!!!!!!! Then we had 20 minutes of solo stuff; the solo of Wonho, Minhyuk and Kihyun were my absolute favourite! It was so cute. The other solo’s were really good too!! The crowd died at Hyungwons and IMs solo though.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAH AFTER SOLO they sung From Zero (Seven member version) and oh my god Wonho looked so beautiful??? This song is so cute?? I can't remember much of Because of You im sorry ;; White love was really emotional, they didn't expect the banner project (1000days with monbebe) at all and really loved it. Rollercoaster was so cute live as well, they all pretended to sit in a rollercoaster lol. After they went off stage, the destroyer MV played AND I SCREAMED SO LOUD I WAS NOT READY, NO ONE WAS READY NO ONE! LITERALLY IM DEAD. But they bloody sung LOST IN THE DREAM and I was really lost in the dream, wow....... The vocals..... wow.. Im........................... it was so beautiful live. Guys, ive heard Kihyuns iconic high note (well a lot of people shouted OOOOFFFF BUT I STILL HEARD ONE OF MY FAV SONG I! CANT! BELIEVE!). Also very random to mention but Jooheon is one hell of a good performer, he was not even nervous and the stage was HIS BITCH, his rap and his stage aura are so mind-blowing.

I always joked they should play lost in the dream and destroyer after each other to let the fans die but they really did IT! The choreo of Destroyer was so good and fitted the song. In the beginning Wonho waved and gave a finger heart though... I was never a fan of Shine Forever, but It was so nice and also doing the fan chants! Rush is a song I used to skip but ooof, it was also very nice to hear. Monsta X really enjoyed singing Special too AND YESSSSSSSS FINALLYYYYYYY TRESPASS THE WHOLE CROWD WAS SO LIT WE ALL RAPPED ALONG AND IT WAS HONESTLY ONE OF THE BEST PERFORMANCES SO FAR IDGJKDSGS. They all positioned to the Dramarama pose and yes they did Dramarama!!!! but now the concert was about to end too :( Monsta X said they love Falling, Ive heard people say they love performing Falling and yes they REALLY LOVE FALLING. My heart was so full of uwu when I saw them performing falling, I love these babies so much :’). We showed them the banners during If Only again and Wonho, Minhyuk and Kihyun were really emotional and it was so sad to see this ending :( But I was about to meet these guys as well AAAAAAHHH. I dont know if it was Minhyuk or IM but one of them took of Wonho’s shirt lol and he threw it in a crowd. Before that they also took a group pic ;; tbh I wished they did Stuck and Hero as well, but overall I really loved the setlist so much.

Meet and greet Order: Wonho - Shownu - Kihyun - Minhyuk - Hyungwon - Jooheon - IM Usually when fans meet artist, fans are the ones talking to the artist but now Monsta X was rather talking to the fans, they were so sweet and they all had the most genuine and sweetest smile ever. The M&G was unfortunately very fast and I could only say  Wonho: I think he was still very sad and looked like he cried too but his hands are so soft ;; I thanked him and he nodded and gave a thumbs up lol Shownu: I knew it was his birthday in London so I told him a happy belated birthday ;; and he said thank you as well! Kihyun: ok, I may have said I love you instead of thank you AHHGHGHHGHAHAHG and yeah that was kihyuns reaction too he laughed and said thank you lol Minhyuk: He said thank you very much!! NO THANK YOUUU (while smiling so sweet) Hyungwon: Somehow he was very giggly but we both said thank you to each other!! Jooheon: We both said thank you to each other aaaaaahh IM: Since I barely had time (after hyungwon) I just told him thank you and he said the same ;; We then got a poster from the tour and the show was unforunately over :(( MMT announced a week before the concert there would be no merch so I didn't have a lightstick either so it was nice having a poster as a reminder (and the fans we got from the fansites ofc). Setlist (duration 2,5hours) 1. Jealousy 2. Be Quiet 3. Beautiful -- 4. Gravity 5. Tropical Night -- 6. Crazy in Love 7. All in -- 8. Wonho, Minhyuk, Kihyun - Neol Hada 9. Jooheon, Shownu - Versace on the Floor 10. Hyungwon, IM - Fake Love (Drake) 11. Hyungwon, IM - How long // another IM solo (not sure) -- 12. From Zero 13. Because of you 14. White Love 15. Rollercoaster -- 16. Lost in the dream -- 17. Destroyer 18. Shine forever -- 19. Rush 20. Special 21. Trespass -- 22. Dramarama *ENCORE* 23. Falling -- 24. If Only *Group pic*

Random moments -  They talked a lot of Dutch such as ‘I am...’, ‘I love you’, ‘I miss you’, ‘Fries with Mayo’. IM also wanted to say Sexy but he didn’t say Sexy and Jooheon said to erase our minds LMAO KSJKD he was so embarassed - In the beginning when Kihyun was talking about Hyungwon, Hyungwon looked at him and he kinda slapped away his face (Kihyun to Hyungwon) - Just before Crazy in Love, the group was devided into two to talk with fans (one group was changing their clothes) and Jooheon was doing a weird movement with his hand and was saying AY AY AY and the fans said it too, but then the other group came (Kihyun, Shownu, Hyungwon and Minhyuk) and they all looked honestly so confused and Kihyun was like ‘AY go change your clothes now’ and then Kihyun and Hyungwon were showing off their dance moves lol - Also during the live I started as the fourth row, but people behind me kept pushing and I was suddenly 2nd row and there is a higher place for the first row so my knees kept going on that and it hurted so much lmao - Shownu, IM and Jooheon went to Beyonce the day before and talked about how amazing it was (lmao fanboying on their own concert KAJDKSFJFS) and they also said we will make it possible for them to perform there one day ;;A;; - The day of the Amsterdam concert would be 1000 days with Monbebe we would show during If Only, but since London got cut off we weren't sure whether we would hear If Only and decided to do it during White Love. - Wonho, Minhyuk and Kihyun got teary at If Only - Their reactions to White love were so sweet :((  - Our group hyped up every member whenever they were close to us. Hyungwon, Kihyun and Wonho noticed us a lot lol. Hyungwon waved at us too ;; - During FALLING Kihyun was drinking water and then he came to our side and you could see in his face he was about to do something and when the beat dropped he threw WATER ON US and I got so wet :((((( the fan next to me, her fan was all wet lmao.  - I got a lot of confetti in my face :’)  

[chaos-and-recover]

all the asks. all of them.

I KNEW IT.

1: name 11 bands you listen to regularly

1. AFI2. Brian Fallon3. Anberlin4. The Gaslight Anthem5. Lucky Boys Confusion6. Jimmy Eat World7. July Talk8. The Rocket Summer9. 36 Crazyfists10. The Used11. Glen Hansard

2: is there a band with only one song you like?

Right now I have that stupid Sofi Tukker song from the iPhone X (red) commercial stuck in my head so that one. It’s catchy as fuck but I’m SO OVER the song of theirs from the original iPhone X commercial. So. That one I guess?

3: what is a very unpopular band you’re into? tell a little bit about them

Plain White T’s. Listen to me, I know they are not good and I know if we never heard Hey There Delilah live again we would all die happy but they are my boys, they have been my boys for 16 years, and I will always stand by them. They have never been anything less than great to me over those 16 years and I would take a bullet for each of them.

4: name a great band you recently discovered

I wanna say Creeper, whom I love, but there are also two bands who’ve been around a while I’m finally realizing how great they are/were - The Arkells and the Tragically Hip.

5: which rare recording of any band would you like to possess?

The Stranger Ways 7″ by Anberlin. It’s the ONLY THING I need to have a 100% complete Anberlin discography and it was only released as a bonus item for people who bought VIP on the Australian leg of their final tour and it HAUNTS ME. I fucking... need it. There’s been one for sale on discogs for a while but it’s like $200 and I cannot but eventually I’m gonna cave.

6: is there an artist whose solo career you prefer over their work with their band(s)?

I... can’t think of one? I love Glen Hansard solo more than I have ever been able to get into The Frames but The Swell Season is just... still... so good.

7: which is you favourite side project by any band member?

I probably have to be basic as hell and just say Blaqk Audio.

8: which song do you think should everybody listen to at least once in their lives?

Mourning Ritual - Bad Moon Rising (with my mans Peter Dreimanis of July Talk singing lead. It’s such a good cover. I love it so much.)

9: explain why your favourite song is your favourite song

I actually don’t know if I have just one favourite song but I guess Falling Slowly qualifies and I just... think it’s gorgeous? I just really love the line “You have suffered enough and warred with yourself, it’s time that you won.”

10: any bands you got into after seeing them live?

Milk Teeth would be the most recent, but also that’s how I got into Plain White T’s and it was from seeing them that I got into Lucky Boys Confusion and The Rocket Summer, so.

11: any bands your friends got you into?

I actually have a wildly different musical taste than most of my friends but I blame @sinceubeenjon for the 5SOS thing. Also 1D a little. And I got into Creeper because of a friend.

12: a band which is the only band from their genre you like?

clipping. is probably the only hip hop act I’m really into.

13: an unpopular opinion on which is your favourite song by any band?

The 1D fandom on this hellsite for some reason cannot appreciate the fact that Diana was the best song they ever had and I will not stand for it.

14: _th favourite song by your _th favourite band?

THESE NEED MORE SPECIFIC NUMBERS NICOLE. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER THIS.

15: _th favourite album by your _th favourite band?

SAME.

16: favourite album artwork?

I still think the simplicity of Worship & Tribute by Glassjaw is brilliant.

17: favourite booklet design?

Anorexia & Nervosa by Showbread. Technically two different albums but similar in design and I just love having the story there to go with the music.

18: favourite concept album?

...Anorexia & Nervosa again. Criminally underrated. Y’all broke their brains not appreciating them lmao.

19: which bands would you like to see live one day?

I think I’ve actually seen pretty much everyone I’ve ever really wanted to?

20: which was the longest concert you ever attended?

I mean, aside from festivals, I did see Eric Church play for like three and a half hours straight. That was a time.

21: a musician whose music you enjoy but whom you dislike as a person or vice versa?

Music I enjoy but dislike as a person - I mean 3/5 Backstreet Boys are on thin fucking ice, so...

Person I like whose music I don’t - Ariana Grande kinda sounds like she’s good people but god am I ever not the target audience for her.

22: list 10 favourite songs by your top 10 bands (each)

LORD.

AFI:-Narrative of Soul Against Soul-Days Of The Phoenix-Veronica Sawyer Smokes-Paper Airplanes (Makeshift Wings)-Still A Stranger-Malleus Maleficarum-17 Crimes-Of Greetings & Goodbyes-The Interview-A Deep Slow Panic

Anberlin:-The Unwinding Cable Car-Atonement-A Day Late-Autobahn-Naive Orleans-Younglife-Losing It All-There Is No Mathematics To Love And Loss-To The Wolves-City Electric

Jimmy Eat World:-Dizzy-Firefight-Big Casino-Work-Kill-Drugs Or Me-The Middle-If You Don’t Don’t-A Praise Chorus-For Me This Is Heaven

The Gaslight Anthem:-Blue Dahlia-Mulholland Drive-The 59 Sound-Great Expectations-Here’s Lookin’ A You Kid-45-Boxer-Rollin’ and Tumblin’-We Came To Dance-Handwritten

The Rocket Summer:-Movie Stars & Supermodels-White Fireworks-FL, CA-Brat Pack-200,000-Skies So Blue-The Rescuing Type-Cross My Heart-You Are, You Are-Never Knew

MxPx:-I’m Ok, You’re Ok-My Life Story-Responsibility-Southbound-Middlename-Teenage Politics-Punk Rawk Show-Chick Magnet-Yuri Wakes Up Screaming-Move To Bremerton

36 Crazyfists:-Slit Wrist Theory-At The End Of August-Song For The Fisherman-11.24.11-I’ll Go Until My Heart Stops-The Heart And The Shape-We Gave It Hell-Rest Inside The Flames-Bloodwork-Time & Trauma

Lucky Boys Confusion:-Burn A Little Brighter-Stormchasers-Hey Driver-Mr. Wilmington-Fred Astaire-Do You Miss Me (Killians)-Commitment-Breaking Rules-I Slept With The Devil-Medicine & Gasoline

Plain White T’s:-Radios In Heaven-Stop-Breakdown-I-88-What If?-Please Don’t Do This-Take Me Away-Revenge-Penny (Perfect For You)-Shine

July Talk:-Johnny + Mary-Lola + Joseph-Strange Habit-Having You Around-Summer Dress-Headsick-Push + Pull-Beck + Call-Picturing Love-Guns + Ammunition

23: favourite singer (only for voice?) and favourite drummer/guitarist/bassist (only for playing their instrument)

Singer - Davey Havok, Peter Dreimanis or Adam LambertBassist - Alex Katunis (formerly of Incubus and bassist on all my favourite Incubus songs)Guitarist - Ian Docherty (July Talk)Drummer - Travis Barker, or my soft bird boy Danny Miles from July Talk who is so good and so pure.

24: favourite songwriter/lyric writer

Brian Fallon, Glen Hansard, Davey Havok

25: somebody you absolutely adore as both a musician and a person

Bryce Avary, aka The Rocket Summer, who is the light of my life and a literal ray of sunshine, whose music is so, so uplifting even when it gets a little dark and who has never not been a joy to be around. He’s so kind and so genuine and I love him so, so much.

[shroudwayman]

149. What's the last adventure you went on?

[MUN/PLAYER/BLOGGER/TRASH OVERSEER TIME] 

OKAY so my last adventure was a Valentine’s Day gift for @nathanielgraves​ (you, you asker) and I, and thus I am ABSOLUTELY GONNA GUSH ABOUT IT. It’s pretty long and swirly, so I dropped everything below the cut but there’s also a TL;DR at the bottom for those who wanna cut to the good stuff. ♥

On Feb 13th, [Nate/Certo] and I went to a metal concert, because who doesn’t like metal concerts for lovey holidays?? We’d had to reschedule Gin Mills for it, and Certo even took an extra day off work with their PTO to enjoy the weekend. I’d bought these tickets back in November, basically as a ‘Something fun to look forward to just for us’ cause I’d gotten injured and subsequently got let go from work because I couldn’t… do my job anymore. A well-earned pick-me-up!

So, the reason this was so huge for me in particular is I’ve never been to a metal concert before. And additionally, short of a couple of tiny bands in smaller venues and coffee shops, I had never been to a larger scale concert before in my liiiife. 

The band we went to go see was Sabaton, and when Certo first introduced me to them a couple years ago now, it was with a live, Swedish semi-official recording of ‘Carolus Rex.’ So I was already familiar with their live sound, and of course Carolux Rex turned into a power anthem for me for awhile, and I fell in love. 

Sabaton, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is a Swedish power metal band based out of Falun, Sweden. Power metal is… if you took all of the musical power of melodic and symphonic metal, combined with lyrics you can still understand, in a gruff throaty tone, with historically relevant lyrics, and a broad fucking grin. 

With them being from overseas, being able to go to their North American tour was a big deal for me. I pitched for a VIP table early in case I was still injured when the date came around (I was, I’ll get to that) and we set aside extra funds to be able to afford Seattle-priced food and tour swag. (I then forgot my bank card at home when Certo went to retrieve the car from the overpriced parking garage, and my pre-paid card did not have enough for more than one piece of swag CURSES UPON MY LUCK.) 

We left early from home, had a totally great sunny drive up to Seattle, with plenty of time to find parking nearby for my hobbly ass, and still even made it with some to spare before the doors pre-opened to those for early entry dining. We met a group from Canada in line who had been going to Sabaton’s shows for almost 5 years, and had seen them something like 13 times. So, us as newbies to this show, we absolutely littered them with questions and they told us behind the scenes bits and shared pictures and stories from previous concerts and meet & greets. Sweetest set of parents and their son. I could tell a whole bunch of stories about them alone, but for sake of length, I’ll skip it. Suffice to say, the self appointed Drunk Tour Mom was two drinks in when she declared that even with the table we had reserved, if I could manage through it, I should absolutely try to be at the stage bar for a front-row experience of Sabaton for my first time. I was wary of this, seeing as I’ve got some mobility, but ultimately I’m still pretty crippled on my cane. 

Of course, I was a beer and halfway through a Tennessee mule Certo and I were sharing when I decided this suggestion was a great idea, knee injury be damned! I’d stand as long as I could, suffer the press of the crowd, and do my best to not let my knee affect my concert experience. (I did avoid the mosh pit and crowd surfing this go-round, but lemme tell you if I wasn’t injured…) 

The security guy we had on the other side of the railing was the start to my brilliant experience, tbh. Not only did he sneak me a couple sour gummy bears from his pocket, but he also let us see the night’s schedule on his phone so we knew who was going on when, and gave Certo and I a pair of free earplugs, which normally they’d sell at a venue for $5-10 each. Like this dude was awesome. 

The first two bands I’ll admit I hadn’t heard of before, so I was both wary but excited to see them. Cyhra opened the show, who turned out to have a small set, but have a brilliant sound and be really great. Then Kreator came on. Kreator, who was definitely not what I was expecting (and may not have listened to them on my own,) puts on a HELL of a show after 38 years of being around and had amazing energy on stage! Admittedly, their stage lights were blinding and my eyes hurt after, but I think that’s my only real complaint. I managed to stay at the bar through both setups, Cyhra and Kreator’s sets, and at the end of Kreator’s set I realized my knee was numb and that I absolutely needed to sit and get off it.  

Retreating through the crowd after securing our spot on the rail with one of our new Canadian friends (who were standing with us, because Drunk Tour Mom absolutely wanted to see me experience my first Sabaton concert) I limped through the thick crowd to our table. We had 15, maybe 20 minutes for me to sit before they went on. Metal crowds, by the way? Some of the sweetest people ever. Most moved right out of our way as we scooted through, and those who didn’t immediately made a hole for us after I raised my cane. We got to the table, I ordered a hard cider and massaged the hell out of my leg for the 18 minutes before we felt the mood in the theatre change. Something had happened, and then I realized one of Sabaton’s songs was on the interlude music overhead. This, apparently, was the prelude to the actual intro song, but those with experience in the theatre knew it and I slammed my cider, got up and hobbled my ass right back to the bar. (I relinquished part of my bar experience to let another couple and a tiny person between us and our Canadian friends, they were thrilled.)

Sabaton? Sabaton. Was. AMAZING. The energy, the sound, the experience of them live was literally something I could not have made up with my experiences at the time. Any expectations I’d had were totally blown out of the water. I got to make cheers and interact with the guitarist we were in front of ON STAGE. We got to sing along at the top of our lungs and pump our fists and JUMP. Okay, I admittedly may have been hopping on one leg for most of it but it was close enough. 

They played three of my favourites, INCLUDING a couple of old songs which, you guessed it, included CAROLUS REX. I was absolutely floored. While it would’ve been a complete dream come true for them to have done it in Swedish, they did the English version BUT THAT WAS TOTALLY FINE BECAUSE THEY DID THE SONG ANYWAY AND HADN’T IN SOME TIME ON TOUR. They also performed Swedish Pagans and Resist & Bite, and of their discography, those songs are my absolute top three. (I should mention, Resist & Bite also pairs well with Panzer Battalion & Ghost Division, and they PERFORMED THOSE, TOO. It was like a fucking smorgasbord of my go-to Sabaton songs throughout their albums and they did most of them.)

Throughout the concert, the guitarists tossed picks during the performance which I missed. I couldn’t jump well, and even at almost six feet tall, most of the swag was aimed at the middle of the bar or well into the crowd. So while I was absolutely not going to begrudge not getting stage gifts, I of course was going to try my damnedest! After their set, and they had done the final song and the bow given, the last of the stage swag was thrown. Picks, drumsticks, drum covers, copies of the set list, the whole nine yards. And as luck would have it, the guitarist I’d stood in front of all night (Chris,) sang along with, smiled and cheered at and sang along with, tossed a pick AT me. Right the hell at me. I caught it. I could’ve fainted right then, but GODS I held fast and clung to it with what I can only imagine was the most ridiculously excited smile ever. 

After the crowd milled away and retreated from the venue, Certo ran to go retrieve the car from the parking garage at a very close 11:45. This was important because the garage we’d chosen closed at midnight and implemented a $40 fee after to pick up vehicles. Because it was a concert night, and Sabaton didn’t even go on til after 10, we were prepared to pay it… but really didn’t want to.  I grabbed a shirt  from the tour items booth (a NA tour shirt, even though I really wanted a Carolus Rex tour t-shirt they’d rebooted but had to skip due to realizing I’d left my bank card in my other wallet at home, 90 miles away. I thanked the lady who’d stayed open so I could skip the crowd with my cane, grabbed my shirt, and retreated outside to wait for Certo and the car. 

This, of course, is when I realized it was cold as fuck and raining. Now… I have… Okay tires. One’s got a partial leak, but it’s slow and I’ve got a pump, and they definitely could use some more tread, but it’s served me well so far and it’s on my list of Things to get done once I’m employable again. As we drove home, the roads were freshly rained on after dry weather and covered in fucking hydroplaning nightmares. Then it began to snow through the rain as we trailed further south. Since my car accident due to icy conditions a few years ago, I have lingering high non-functioning anxiety when it comes to severe weather patterns, but Certo is an absolute CHAMPION and got us home safely, powering through the hydroplaning with no small amount of reassuring to me. (While I failed to act totally cool to reassure them, and played games on their phone to distract my nervous whining.) 

Needless to say, from start to finish, it’s been a hell of an adventure, but one that was absolutely worth it. We’d even made it in the corner of their End of Concert picture they take on stage, which was an unexpected joy. To top off what was already possibly one of the best nights I’ve had in awhile, (nay, perhaps my life!)  is after I made a comment on the band’s Facebook page about my first time and how excellent the show was? The page replied back. I don’t care that it could be a social media admin and that the odds it was one of the band was small. I was head over heels over the MOON about it, and it was by far an unreal adventure I’ll never forget.  

A snapshot of what I referenced above: 

(The tiny red circle is where we are, small but important to the experience!)

(The guitar pick thrown by ChrisRörland, one of Sabaton’s guitarist.) 

TL;DR: First metal concert to see Sabaton, catching a guitarist’s pick after standing at the front of the stage all night with a knee injury, hydroplaning sleet on the way home with nearly bald tires, and having the band’s social media page reply to my post directly.  ♥

[jiminelli]

#MONSTAXinBerlin Experience

hey everybody. some of you might know that MONSTA X recently finished their European tour in Moscow and previously visited Berlin and Paris. I was lucky enough to visit their show in Berlin and even get a group picture ticket. Sadly, this trip was not as fun as it was supposed to be. The concert was amazing and the boys were incredible but everything before and after the concert was a disaster. I know it sounds lame but it’s still kind of hard to talk about it so it took me several days to finish this post, therefore please excuse any grammatical errors. Here I am now, to tell you everything that happened:

Sasaeng fans 1.0

Let’s start with the sasaeng fans. There were different… let’s call them events, happening with sasaeng fans at the concert in Berlin. My friends and I arrived in Berlin on Thursday, the concert was on Friday. We arrived around 12pm and went into our hotels. After checking in, three of us wanted to see if we can find the arena easily with the city map, you know, so we wouldn’t struggle the next day. So we went to the arena, which was like 8 minutes away from our hotel by walk and let me tell you, we almost had a stroke or something. One of my friends had arrived a day earlier as she was staying for her vacation there as well and had messaged us at 7am on Thursday while we were still in the train on our way that people were already lining up in front of the arena. We didn’t take it serious and told her to stay calm; who would have thought those people were actually staying there 37 hours before the concert was supposed to even start? So when we arrived at the arena at 1pm, about 100 people were already chilling there. 

Now, this didn’t start on its own. There was one specific girl who ruined this experience for all of us and I swear if I would have seen her that day, I probably would have slapped her or something. I’m not pro-violence but jesus, this girl is the devil in person. Apparently she wasn’t even German but Italian and she got herself some Portuguese and German supporters, all underage and wannabe hoes or some crazy sh*t like that. So, usually at K-Pop concerts over here in Europe, there are people (fans) who organize the merchandise and like fan events and everything, so drama and chaos would be avoided. They also do the numbering, which is usually combined with checkup times, so you don’t have to stay in front of the arena the whole day. But this girl thought, she could just start a numbering on her own and started giving out numbers at like 11am on Thursday (remember, the concert was Friday), giving herself and her followers, the first few numbers. By doing this, a mass panic broke out and hundreds of people rushed in front of the arena to line up and get a good spot for the concert. 

Organisation

One of my friends had booked a hotel right in front of the arena, so when she saw all the people starting to line up and handing out numbers, she rushed down and called us, basically screaming at us to move and get a number. Our group of friends was divided into three smaller groups though, everybody chilling somewhere else. At this point, none of us moved because that friend is usually one to break into panic mode without any reason, so all of us kept chilling until like 6pm. The promoter of the concert had arrived and “officially confirmed” the numbering and added this: everybody who had a number until 6pm was allowed to go home until 2am. Then they’d have to come back in front of the arena and line up again to keep the numbers, until 10am where the official wristband distribution was supposed to be held. Anybody who did not have a number until 6pm would have to stay in front of the arena the whole night until 10am to keep their spot in line. Two of our three groups managed to rush to the arena and get themselves numbers but my group was in the middle of Berlin having dinner/lunch. The reason why I say “officially confirmed” is because that - excuse my language - asshole appeared for like one second, laughed at all the kids waiting in front of the arena and thought “okay lol that’s funny, let’s just keep doing that, without giving them shelter and any form of security” and left again as people started complaining. As an adult and as the responsible person of this whole event, you can’t just let teenagers sleep in the open in front of a building. It was storming, we had an actual thunderstorm happening from like 1am until 4am, soaking everybody who stayed in front of the arena from head to toe and leaving them like a block of ice. They did not provide any form of medical help to keep them warm or from dehydrating, nor did they let them get inside of the arena or even under the roof so none of the kids would get wet. Another thing is that many of the people sleeping on the streets were underage. I don’t know how it is in other countries but in Germany, if you’re underage you can only stay outside until midnight. If you’re under 16 it’s 10pm as far as I know. But that didn’t bother neither security, nor the promoter. 

My friends, who got numbers around 6pm, went back to the arena at 2am and stayed there the whole night. I don’t want to sound dramatic but they’re honestly traumatized from that experience. It wasn’t just a little rain that came down that night. We had severe storm warnings for that night. Me and two other friends who did not get a number ignored the promoter and did not stay the whole evening and night, like boi who the f do you think we are?? All of my friends were 18+ so it was our own decision what we’d do. My other two friends and I decided to show up around 5am to at least get a decent spot in line. When we showed up, I was honestly in complete shock. My friends looked horrible and the security didn’t even care how they felt. Not even about the small children in line. Many had left during the night because it just got too much. A lot even felt so bad that they started selling their tickets. Honestly guys, I don’t know how to put it into words so that you can even get a little glimpse of how horrible it was. We tried to lift those up who had been waiting since 2am and took care of each other. the security had said that we cannot leave the line until 10am but all of us made a deal that we would be able to leave the line if we just told each other where we’d be going like to the bathroom or to change into dry clothes and things like that. 

During the first 5hours that we waited, so many rumors spread that I can’t even recite them all. It was a mess. Such a mess that even fights between VVIPs and VIPs broke out. VVIP was the highest ticket category which officially included a Hi Touch OR Group Photo and front row. VIP was the normal standing ticket behind VVIP. Naturally, everybody thought that VVIP would be let in first and then VIP but security kept changing plans. First they said, we would be let in together, then they said it’s going to be 50 VVIP and then 50 VIP, always switching. We went crazy, honestly. VVIP started arguing that it wasn’t fair because we paid much more money for our tickets and on the websites where tickets were sold, they promised you front row tickets but if VIP is let in at the same time, there is no way for all VVIP to be in front row. VIP argued back that it was only fair because they had also been waiting there the whole night and deserved front row tickets (gurl, should have just spent the money and bought some then but whatever). For the following 5 hourse they kept changing plans, misinformed us over and over again until at 10am MyMusicTaste posted a statement and said that VVIP will be let in first, followed by VIP and then seated tickets.

Now, at 10am we were supposed to get our wristbands but guess what? We didn’t. We had to wait until 11:30 to get the wristbands and they told us to be back at 3pm otherwise we’d lose our number in line. So all of us went back to our hotels, tired and exhausted as hell and the first thing all of us did was sleep. At 3pm we were back at the arena and the security had managed to organize everything a little better and divided the lines into sections so it would be easier to have an overview, which was great. But then when we lined up again and it was again past 3pm, we asked a security guard when they would do the check-up, so we could go have lunch or something - none of the securities knew about a check-up. They had again spread false information and everyone had turned up for nothing. We were honestly about to lose it. From there on, everything went by okay, it started raining around 5 or 6pm again but me and my friends had super sexy plastic ponchos to keep us at least kind of save from the rain.

Let’s jump forward to the concert: The concert itself was lit af like no lie, it was one of the best concerts I’ve been on. (If you want to hear more about the concert itself, leave a message in my inbox otherwise this is only going to be even longer) But again, the security. They didn’t let us film and literally attacked us with their flashlights so we would put our phones away. For me personally, it wasn’t really such a big of a deal because my phone is shitty anyway and the pictures never turn out great but some people wanted to at least take one video or picture as a piece of memory, you know. One security guard even ran up to people and did this hand movement to them after blinding them with his flashlight:

It was scary af like dude we get it, we’re not allowed to film BUT CAN YOU NOT THREATEN OUR LIVES FFS???? 

Another thing that was really inhuman, was water distribution. Now, I don’t know who to blame for this because I have no idea of these people were also security or just staff from the arena but this was one of the most inhuman acts I’ve ever witnessed during concerts. Normally, security has a bunch of water bottles lying at their sides to distribute them during the concert, especially if they see that some are having trouble with their circulation. Not during this concert. They freaking sold the water for - grab onto your chairs - 4,50EURO. For each tiny bottle of water which maybe held 300ml, they wanted 4,50€. I thank God that the Monbebes around me were some of the sweetest people ever because some would actually buy a bottle of water and share it with everyone around them. So many people got dragged out during the concert because security would not give them water. The boys were worried like crazy, especially in the end when girls fainted in front of their eyes as they were conversing with us. Security should be there to keep the artist AND the fans safe, not treat the fans like garbage.

Which brings me to the last point of security treating us like sh*t and leading to sasaeng fans 2.0. Most of my friends (and I) had chosen the group photo ticket instead of Hi Touch. We had already heard rumors earlier that we would be 20 fans on one picture, instead of maximum 10 like they usually do. We didn’t think much of it because many things that had been said before were also just false information so no second thought was spared. As the concert finished, security again failed to organized us properly into two different sections: Hi Touch and Group Photo. It took them forever. When Hi Touch finished, it was our turn to take the pictures and security created four lines for 20 people each, so that it would be easier for them to let people in. My friends and I were 10 people in total and we hoped that if we went in last, we’d get a picture with only us on it. It was a chaos again, so we went in some time in the middle and security wanted us to go in with another group that were already 12 people. We were like “hell no, we ain’t gonna be 22 fans plus 7 members on one damn picture” so we talked to the only nice security guard there and he let us wait, so we could go in as the first ones for the next picture. Which leads me to the next disaster:

Sasaeng Fans 2.0

Before I explained what happened, I want all of you to know that in no way I’m saying that fansites are crazy, stalking psychos that don’t know how to behave. This is just my experience with two explicit fansites and maybe they’re not even usually like this but this whole chaos just made them lose their shit, I have no idea.

Anyway, so my friend walked around the corner behind the wall where the boys were standing and the first thing she does is start running, jump and throw her jumper across the room so it would not be on the picture with her. Now you have to imagine a tall, very skinny girl, running like a giraffe, not even glancing at anyone but Wonho and awkwardly throwing her jumper at a security guard - all seven started laughing and security lost their shit. I went in second, trying to bow and say 안녕하세요 to every single member while all security guards yelled at us to keep walking to the end of the line. I stopped in front of Shownu and Wonho who were the two last ones but these two fansites sprinted their way over to us and boxed me out of the way so that I stumbled to the side to Kihyun who was standing next to Shownu. He opened his arms for me, as if inviting me to stand next to him and as I moved closer, security screamed at us again to sit down in front of the guys. We weren’t even allowed to stand next to them. So I knelt down in front of Kihyun and one of the fansites apparently was a Kihyun fansite because lord help me, I’ve never seen look at someone like this. Never. And I never want to see this expression ever again, I feel like it might haunt me in my dreams. Kihyun even moved away from them and he looked so frightened, it was heartbreaking. This is not how you treat another person, idols are just as human as us. I was sitting on my knees and then another security guard screamed that we were squishing the boys and that we should move forward - which I want to mention, was so unnecessary because the boys just followed us to the front and leaned into us anyway. Honestly, I felt actually kind of humiliated because I had to scoot forward like a little kid while Kihyun was standing right behind me. My friends had it even worse, apparently they weren’t fast enough for security and they got pushed, making several of them fall over and onto each other. Minhyuk and Changkyun even stretched their hands out for them, trying to help them up and keep them in place, like c’mon security?? Just give us 2 more seconds and we would move. The boys were so worried that we were harmed and the security just kept screaming at us. One girl moved so she was sitting next to Wonho but that was also not okay according to security so they threatened to kick her out if she didn’t move to the front, making us all go even quieter. There are no words to express how frightened we all were in that moment. The only thing that I clearly remember from the actual second of taking the picture is Kihyun leaning over me as if making sure, I was okay. It lasted maybe three seconds and then security ran up to us, grabbed us and made ups stand up again, shoving us out. While being pushed out, I wanted to at least thank someone from the boys and the only one that I had some kind of chance to look in the eyes was Wonho because he was the last one in line. Honestly, I will never forget his worried expression when I thanked him. He looked at me as if to makes sure I was fine and his eyes were actually full of hurt. Like guys, I’m not kidding. They all care so much for their fans and that’s the only thing that helped me not to cry over this traumatizing event. Because we could feel and see that the boys did not want this for us. They wanted to interact with us, they wanted to talk with us and help us. They tried and from what my other friends told me who had Hi Touch, they actually managed to push some of the bodyguards off the fans. 

One girl who is going to be on the same group picture as me, took a voice recording of our picture and you can hear the chaos. You can even hear my 감사합니다 at Wonho lol. The recording only lasts 57 seconds and that’s exactly how long it took them to traumatize us and kick us out again. I don’t think I have anything left to say, except that Paris seemed to have a very similar experience and I really hope that nobody will ever have to go through that again. My legs and some parts of my arms are still bruised and as hard as I try, the anxious feeling thinking about the group photo experience is not going away. 

If you have any questions regarding the concert itself or anything mentioned in this post, feel free to leave me a message in my inbox. I’m sorry this post is so long but I tried to explain everything that happened so that those of you who made it through the post, get a better impression.  

I hope all of you still have a nice day/night and keep or start supporting our boys MONSTA X ♥

[storytellerxxxx]

ONE OK ROCK NYC 2 DAYS EXPERIENCE

Here’s me avoiding all responsibilities and totally ignoring that it’s almost been 2 months :D

As (many?) of you may know I went to both NYC shows, general admission for the first day and VIP for the second day!! I was going to do a write up in the following days after but I was still pretty overwhelmed then and have pushed it back till now, whoops. Warning, long post ahead as I gotta fit 2 days in somehow HAHA

So keep reading if you wanna know how I kissed Toru’s cheek, ran into them and got selfie + sign with Toru :D

All photos are mine/taken by me.

Since it was middle of summer this time, I could actually wait out in line and not die of freezing like back in January so I arrived at the venue around 9:20. Surprise, there was already a short line (that totally didn’t change much for the next few hours tbh lol) VIP and general admission lines were separated much later in the day like a few hours before opening time so everyone was just chilling till then. 

This was a banner someone had made and everyone in the line in the morning had signed! It was gigantic and pretty fucking cool, they gave it to them during M&G. 

Around 10-11 their bright orange bus arrived in the front of the venue but none of the members came with it. Around noon Ryota was the first to make his appearance and walked in alone. I went to get lunch and during the time I was gone, Ryota and Michelle walked past the line :)) At some point after that a camera crew came out to record the line, they had us all stand up and they filmed everyone cheering lol Ryota walked in again later with Toru at around 3 and Taka did as well soon after I think (I missed the record button on my phone for Taka, good job me). By then the line for VIP and general admission had been split. I was at the very front of the GA line. I’ll complain talk about the line splitting and staff when I get to day 2. But anyway, camera man followed them inside. Michelle and Jamil walked in a bit after them with giant bags of food I think, Michelle is so beautiful :’) 

So yeah, then we got in and I got a spot in what I guess was like the third row between Taka and Toru. Palisades was the first opener, I didn’t listen to any of their stuff beforehand bc I wanted to experience them live first and let me just say, I totally fell in love with them. They played songs off their self titled album that was released earlier this year along with an Unsteady by X Ambassadors cover (which was amazing and I really want a studio version). Fun fact, Brandon (the second vocalist and bass player) held onto my friend’s hand for a moment during that :’) The lighting for their set was really dark so barely any nice pics :(( 

Here’s Lou, the lead vocalist! Super nice and chill guy btw

After Palisades was Set It Off...not much to say about them from me tbh I don’t really like them but their song Hypnotized is fun and catchy. Cody (I think that’s the singer’s name?) went into the crowd and disappeared at the end, I got to touch his hand from all the shoving.

AND THEN, what everyone had been waiting for, ONE OK ROCK! I won’t say much about the songs as I really don’t have as much to say as the January show bc this isn’t the first time hearing them live. I remember pointing out that Taka did seem to struggle a bit with I was King but he was on point for that this time. I had hoped that they’d have Listen and owt on the setlist but sadly they didn’t. 

Toru was on fire. His arms are so nice. 

So beautiful.

After Chester’s passing, I had already imagined oor doing some sort of tribute for him and they met my expectations that day with the One More Light cover. It was a moment that can’t be described easily, the first performance they did of it. There was sense that everyone was either holding their breath or singing along softly, paying full attention to Taka’s raw voice.

One More Light replaced Hard to Love and led into Take What You Want, which had (around) a minute of silence. Toru looked quite emotional at the beginning, I remember the people around me asking if he was crying (which he wasn’t). I wish I could say it was totally quiet but it wasn’t someone yelled the next few lines of the song like 3 times even though everyone was shushing him ://

The Osaka bros rocked it out together for a moment during a song that I totally forgot, oops. (hello pics from my phone and someone else’s hand right in front of me LOL) Again, was not on Ryota’s side of the stage and didn’t see him much being how short I am :’)) same with Tomo, but he was rocking it back there.

For the encore, Taka actually came down to Toru’s side to crowd surf, and I ended up touching his arm/shoulder LOL so. much. pushing. Everyone wanted a piece of Taka haha

No picture at the end this time but when they were waving goodbye and stuff, Tomo was the last one to leave the stage and he knocked into Toru’s mic stand, knocking off all the remaining picks...Security gave them out but I was too far away cries

After the show, we met Palisades by their merch! Was still so hyped from the concert and probably a mess but everyone was so nice. Told them we would be seeing them again tomorrow and they were excited. Lou called me sweetie HAHA Brandon is adorable

What is this?, you may ask. Well, it’s Toru’s feet LOL 

So long story short, our group was still outside then and everyone else had left already. We were about to walk past the doors of the venue when Ryota and Michelle just came out. I was so shocked, I did some small wave and like quietly squeaked out Ryota I think. His hair was in a ponytail! Not was it only him, Toru, Tomoya and Jeff came out right after them. They told us they were going to get food and we didn’t stop them for pics or signs, just waved and said hi. And that’s how we ran into oor minus Taka, amazing.

DAY 2

Got there at around 10-11 bc I was dead from the day before. Same deal with waiting in line and stuff but none of oor walked by that day. Lou (of Palisades) did walk by the line at like noon or something and then walked back past us again bc he went the wrong way, that was hilarious.

Soo I had VIP second day and when they split the lines, the person let the VIP from the front of the line move to the VIP section (which was like around the corner) BUT they cut us off and then had the VIP from the back of the line go. It was so bullshit, thankfully most of my group had made it into the first cut. The asshole guy also yelled at everyone basically that they need to stop complaining bc “everyone will get the equal time and treatment.” He told this to those, like us, who had been waiting hella early that were now next to people who had just joined the line. They also had two security scanners but the guy only used one on the other side of our group + the other really early group. 

(pic from day one, on day two we were on the outer side but the guy only used the right side. smh)

VIP was the same as always, show ID, get laminate. The laminates were a lot nicer this time :)

Went in and lined up for M&G, we were like the second group in the line lol Jeff explained how it would work, did a demo in which he had us pretend he was about a foot shorter to be Taka and had us cheer as he walked in, I think I was more laughing than cheering at that LOL but apparently we were ahead of schedule so they started really soon after that, like oor just randomly walked in right after. 

Meet and greet experience, many thanks to my friend for recording my turn for me :’) 

Hugged Ryota and said hi, moved onto Taka, hugged him and then we just kinda held each other’s arms and then he held my hand bc I spontaneously decided to thank them for the Chester tribute and that it was beautiful and that I would have seen them the next week in NJ. Yeah. 

I did not notice at the time but Toru was intensely staring me down the whole time, amazing.

Then I hugged Toru and Tomo, I did not bump my head against Tomo’s shoulder like last time :)) Tomo is so happy and smiley, he’s so precious.

I went back to the middle for the pic and I said “Toru?” and he looked down (hello I am smol) and I asked if I could give him a kiss on his cheek (This was Anna (@shajichan)’s idea okay) and there was like an awkward second of just us staring at each other before he was like “sure.” He bent his knees so that I could reach him :’)) I was still on the tips of my toes :’)) 

Ryota was off in his own world the whole time so idk what he was thinking when he saw us tbh LOL and Taka’s hand had actually been around my waist from the moment I went back to the middle :’))) Being that close to Toru was an experience. 

ANYWAY, I bought merch while we were waiting after the M&G. The merch for Ambitions is so...lol but I had to get something at least

The signed album from VIP as well. Not included in pic is the wristband bc I forgot I was still wearing it, smart me.

Since we were basically at the front of the VIP, I got a spot on barricade right in front of Toru. Let me just say this spot was magical or something bc I was not pushed once, had room to step back if I wanted to and I was cold. Magical I say.

Show was like the same except 250x better bc I was front row this time. There’s vids of like Toru being rude throughout the whole show on my ig if you want to see what went down. 

Maybe it was being so close and being able to see them so much clearer but I was way more emotional during One More Light than on the first day. I’m pretty sure Julen has pics of me trying to cover my face with my phone during it :)) The silence in TWYW was completely silent this time, it was so perfect. Taka was also doing some mic tricks during MLF, like throwing it up and catching it, twirling it..etc really nice to see that again after so long since his wired mic tricks :((

Taka came out with a beer for the encore, surprising everyone I think LOL no crowd surfing this time sadly. 

We went to Palisades merch table again afterwards, actually buying stuff this time. I got their album and shirt and gave their merch guy a $10 tip LOL

Album was signed later outside by Lou and Brandon!! We were waiting for them bc they had to clear the venue so we couldn’t take pics or have time to talk to them inside. While waiting outside, we met Palisades photographer/Brandon’s friend, Geremy, who was only doing photography for Palisades but oor was so amazing that he borrowed an AAA pass to shoot them the whole time :D

So sweet.

Ryota and Michelle actually came out and walked right behind me when I was talking to Geremy and my friends... but I caught Toru when he came out! Totally missed Taka even though he was like right next to me as well at some point

My signed phone case :’)

And that’s about it for the two days. Writing these reports are fun lol I am broke but those 2 days were fucking awesome and I hanged out with the best people, really want to do it again soon :D