Only 118 dB!

First gig of the year!

And it's my second visit to one of my favourite Disney channel graduates, Mr Joshua Bassett - it might not surprise you to hear that I wasn't attending this show on my own, being accompanied by a very excited youngest daughter, who's had to wait a long time for this because it's been moved from its original September date . 

It was also my second visit to a fine venue, the Kentish Town O2 Forum - which, being on a direct trainline from St Albans  is very conveniently located for me. Unless, of course, there happen to be engineering works occurring which meant we had to travel into London and back out again - fortunately we realised this in time to prevent any disasters. However, it did mean we rocked up slightly later than we planned to (approximately 40 minutes after the doors opened) but we were still met by a queue snaking well away from the doors - apparently people had been queuing outside for hours (and it was really rather chilly, so he certainly inspires a level of devotion). We made it inside soon enough though and were fortunate enough to find some relatively short people to stand behind just in time for the support act to arrive on stage.

Last time we saw Joshua he was supported by young female YouTubers, but this time he went for a young male America's Got Talent graduate - Thomas Day. And, boy oh boy, does Thomas really wish he could have been in One Direction - white tee, jeans, floppy hair and an awful lot of running about on stage, desperately waving at the young ladies. In his defence though, the young ladies are more than happy to be waved at - say what you like about kids but they're much more engaged with support acts than older audiences with the venue being full and an awful lot of singing along occurring. 

And in Thomas's defence, he's got a decent enough voice and some bearable songs - I'd actually go as far as saying I liked "Not My Job Any More". Also, amusingly for one so desperate for attention, he actually seemed pleasingly flustered by it all - but I reckon he could learn to live with it! Overall, he had a job to do and he did it competently - Isobel declared herself to be satisfied, so all was good!

During the wait for Joshua to appear, random tracks were played for our amusement and it was interesting to see which ones went down best. Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club" was the second most popular, resulting in a decent chorus sing-along but, like last time, One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" drove the crowd INSANE, with everyone seeming to know all the words and screaming them out. It's weird how a song from 2011 by a band who disbanded in 2016 can result in people going so mad that people were just videoing the crowd reaction!

All of which whipped the crowd up into a suitably fevered state for the arrival of Joshua - and he was pretty pleased to see us as well (particularly me, I reckon).The gig that followed was remarkably similar to last time, with the addition of songs from his new album. Due to my repeated and prolonged exposure to his music, I recognised (and to be fair, enjoyed) a fair few of them - "Secret", "Lie Lie Lie", "Different" (complete with crowd walkabout), "All In Due Time", "Smoke Slow", "Just To Feel Something" and "She Said, He Said, She Said" (appearing at the back of the crowd this time) are all pretty decent songs. He also did a very passable cover of Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" which I was somewhat surprised the entire crowd seemed to know the words to and discussing it with Isobel she was also surprised that she knew the words to it - the only reason we could come up with was the Lily Allen cover.

Most of the audience knew all the words to every song and were very happy to join in - and Joshua loved the participation. He interacts very well with his audience, being very open about the struggles he's had in his life and his fans love him all the more for it. He also had a girl up on stage (who'd allegedly come all the way from Australia) to teach him a dance routine for "Circles" and then they got to do it together whilst he was singing - it's fair to say he did a better job of it than I'd have managed! He's also surprisingly decent on the guitar and piano - some people just make you sick. One more thing on audience involvement is that I’d like to call out the woman behind me who knew all the words - it’s a shame that she never got anywhere close to hitting the correct note, but you can't have it all I guess.

Overall, the evening was a case of giving the people what they wanted - and Joshua certainly achieved that. It's not the usual sort of gig for me, but I find I like to chuckle at the hysterical element, whilst also appreciating that it's good that people have something in their lives that they can get REALLY excited about in a completely harmless way (even if I don't quite understand it). It also definitely helps that Joshua is talented and comes across as a nice guy, willing to accept and share the mistakes he's made without being overly preachy about it - but most importantly, Isobel had a good time and went home very happy (and as an added bonus, we were very lucky with train and Tube connections, so got home pretty quickly!)