1, 2, 3 - let's go, bitch!

Well, this was quite something!

When work says "would you like to enter a lottery to get a ticket to go and see Taylor Swift?", you don't have to think about it for too long, do you? I didn't hear back within the expected time period, so I'd shrugged and moved on - but then my golden ticket came through unexpectedly! So ridiculously early yesterday afternoon, I found myself on the platform at St Albans chuckling at all the other people who were obviously Wembley bound - I suspect my jeans/teeshirt outfit (and grey hair) didn't advertise my destination quite as much as the amount of sequins on display elsewhere.

And so, after undertaking what felt like a particularly taxing episode of The Crystal Maze (at one point, one of the staff said "I'll just show you - because you'd never find it") to pick up my ticket and find my "royal box" seat (Prince William was very much not in evidence, but it was at least nicely padded), I settled in for a marathon exercise, not entirely sure what I was about to experience...

First up we had Maisie Peters - it was still a couple of hours before Taylor was due to appear, but the place was pretty much half full already. So this meant, somewhat surprisingly, that this was the second time I'd seen Maisie live in the company of tens of thousands of people and once again she was super perky, super likeable and she handled the big crowd well. She only had six songs to make her mark, but to be fair I suspect most of the audience knew her anyway - her closing number "You Lost The Breakup" is very Taylor-ish (and I really like it). She was, unsurprisingly, VERY happy to be there.

Next up, Paramore, who have, I believe, spent the entire summer with Taylor doing 45 minutes a night - which seems like an odd thing to do, but I suspect they've done well out of it because they occupy a slightly different niche of the market. They did a good job here covering a wide range of their material, also including a fine cover of "Burning Down The House" and finishing with a blistering version of "This Is Why" - lots of energy was on display and the, by now pretty full, crowd were well into it with expectations bubbling nicely...

...and then we had a countdown clock, which just ramped things up even more (and was, to be honest, considerably less annoying that everyone screaming every time a roadie appears on stage to apply some last-minute gaffer tape). And, from the minute she appeared on stage to when she left approximately 200 minutes later, Ms Swift treated us to an absolute spectacle of a show.

Unsurprisingly, the Eras tour leans strongly into the many different phases of her career (apparently there are ten different sections - there was more musical variety across the show than I was expecting) and there were an incredible number of costume and set changes to reflect this - a serious amount of work has gone into the show design. And execution obviously, the stage was massive and every inch of it was used repeatedly (which certainly felt fairer to the fans - particularly those seated behind the stage who were basically paying to watch a large TV at the other end of the stadium for large portions of the show). 

The stage was also a very, very large TV which was used very effectively - at one point Taylor dived "through" the stage and then "she" swam under it to appear at the other end, which worked really well. It also, obviously, had the obligatory blocks that rose up out of the stage - and at one point moved around in a way that reminded me of Elton John's piano. We had also all been given wristbands with LED lights in and the light show they gave was very impressively thought out - at one point they displayed rotating cubes across large sections of the audience, which is a bit of a step-up from the usual "all flash the same colour" routine. The acoustics were also considerably better than I was expecting for an arena show.

However, set and costumes are only going to get you so far if you don't have the star talent involved - how do you think Taylor did here? Well, she was OK I guess :-) Despite having listened to most of her albums, I've always been a bit mystified as to quite what she has that distinguishes here from many others and I'm pleased to say that, whilst not exactly clearing up the mystery, she didn't do anything to deepen it here. She has a much stronger voice than I was expecting, she's no slouch on guitar and piano and I guess her dancing ability is somewhat better than mine - she's also backed up by a strong band and set of dancers who very much add to it all. 

And they just belted out hit after hit after hit - I knew a lot more of them than I was expecting but I suspect that comes from having teenage daughters. For those of you that care about such things, the surprise songs she did were "Long Live"/"Change" on the guitar and "The Archer"/"You're on Your Own, Kid" on piano - with the latter two in particular going down very well (and I have videos of every moment of both because I was under STRICT instructions to do so - because "you'll only video the wrong thing otherwise").

Where the mystery isn't resolved (for me) is quite what inspires the levels of devotion displayed by her fans - but this also really elevates the show to the next level. It's not just a case of knowing all the words (and they do know ALL the words) but it's the recognition of songs from the first millisecond, the understanding of all the references (most of which passed me by) and the routines that have built up over the years. My daughters educated me on the "1, 2, 3 - let's go bitch!" chant in "Delicate" and the two minutes of screaming that would follow on from "champagne problems" so I nodded knowingly at these points, but there were still plenty of moments that left me completely nonplussed - and the Swifties just loved them all. Part of it is that she obviously loves and respects them, but things are just taken to a whole new level here - it's quite lovely, but also (from the outside) more than a bit strange.

All in all, this was a proper blockbuster of a show. No, it's not going to convert me into a hardcore Swiftie, although the 45 songs felt a lot less of a marathon than I was expecting them to be. And yes, I'm sorry (not sorry) to have take a seat from someone who would have appreciated the show more (but at least I turned up, unlike whoever was supposed to be sat next to me!). I'm really pleased I got to see it - so many, many thanks to work for giving me this opportunity.

All in all, as Taylor herself put it - "I can't believe you did this. On a Monday night!"