I talk a lot of shit when I'm drinking, baby

 

The lovely Mrs Reed and our eldest disappeared off to New York for the weekend (as you do), leaving me and the youngest at somewhat of a loose end.  By chance, free tickets to see The Vamps popped up with work so I asked her if she fancied it - not expecting too much enthusiasm, but she was keen so I thought "what's the worst that can happen?".  What I saw surprisingly little enthusiasm for was the news that we'd been moved into a suite - I was way more excited about this than she was.  

Either way, Isobel & I toddled off to The O2 on a Sunday night, queued for ages to purchase a wildly expensive teeshirt (35 quid - and one look at the rest of the audience told you they sold a LOT of them) and headed off to find our seats.  At which point the excitement kicked in - "Are we REALLY in here?!?".  That's more like it, my girl!

But, before we get to the main act, we have two support acts to enjoy/experience/endure.  First up - Henry Moodie who is one of those famous Tickety Tokkers and barely out of nappies.  Well, we know he's at least 18 because he tells us he wrote one of his songs when he turned 18 - and it must have taken him ages to decide on the title.  Yes, it was "18".  Sorry, it's harsh of me to mock the good-looking, confident, oh-so-serious young man with a nice voice who can play guitar and keyboards when he's OBVIOUSLY got nothing going for him.  He'd never played such a large crowd before but he took to it like a natural and playing a Taylor Swift cover ("Blank Space") endeared him to them even more, and he did a good job of it.  After the obligatory selfies and videos for his channels, he closed out with "You Were There For Me" which is his one song - and a pretty fine song it is too.

The next support act were The Aces - an all-female four piece who were much more my sort of thing, but not the audience's though.  The ladies hadn't come to watch other ladies, I'm afraid.  They rocked out well though - being quite HAIM-like with some fine guitar work and some fine Angus Young style strutting.  But, as Isobel pointed out, "she's quite annoying, isn't she?" to which I had no argument, I'm afraid - more singing and less talking required, methinks.

But off they went off after their allotted four songs, the lights came up and, whilst the stage was transformed, various modern popular music songs were played to keep the crowd entertained.  And John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" - which was a surprisingly popular choice.  Then the lights went down and things got real...

All in all, it was an unusual experience for me because, at most of the gigs I go to, people cheer and they clap - but they do not, as they say, lose their shit.  But, at a Vamps gig, it appears that losing your shit from start to end is almost compulsory - all of which made me very happy we were in the suite or I'd have had to bloody stand up all night.  At my age!

But, do you know what?  I really enjoyed it - people were there to have a good time and The Vamps considered it their responsibility to make sure that happened and all of the evidence suggested it very much did - Brad, James, Connor and Tristan (you see, I'm a true fan now) put on quite the show!

I can't claim to have recognised all the songs but I knew more than I was expecting to - "Wild Heart", "Can We Dance", "Married In Vegas", "Cecilia" and "Somebody To You", all of which went down incredibly well.  I'm also gonna call out "Wake Up" which I didn't previously know but it was a great track - all in all, it was a very well designed playlist with the right levels of calming it down and geeing it up at the appropriate points.

Something else that surprised me was how good they were - I have to apologise to Connor for his bass playing being less obvious than the others, but I'd have noticed if he'd not being doing a good job.  Tristan on drums is slightly more obvious, so I'd have definitely noticed if he'd not been keeping up - I did feel a bit sorry for him stuck behind them though because there was a lot of stage real estate on offer (he did go for a little walk at the end!).  And James is a very fine guitarist indeed - there were some impressive solos on offer throughout the show.

But the band's ace in the hole is Brad - the man knows how to work a crowd and no mistake.  Yes, it was a 10 year anniversary tour crowd so they were very much onside from the get-go but he didn't take them for granted in the slightest and said some absolutely lovely things about how they'd be nothing without their fans and how it's been a pleasure to grow up together.  Yes, everyone says such things but it's all in the delivery and he hit all the right notes and the crowd loved it.  Fortunately, his singing also hit all the right notes - saying nice things is only going to get you so far after all.

Because, as they said several times, 10 years is a very long time for a band such as this to last - and doubly so to still be filling out arenas.  But, on the evidence of both the music and the overall experience provided, I don't think they'll be hanging up their instruments just yet - and there are plenty of people out there who don't want them to.  Highlights for me were "Can We Dance" and the absolutely mad version of "Somebody To You" which closed the night out.  

Leaving the place, I said to Isobel "I wouldn't have paid for the tickets, but they were really good" to which she replied "You'd pay for them now though, wouldn't you?".  And I don't think I'm going to have the choice because she had such a great time that she'll be watching out for the next time they're on tour.