'Catching fire like kerosene, literally' - 5 Seconds Of Summer | Wembley Arena 2015
It's been approximately 24hrs since I was lying upside down on my sofa slowly updating my Instagram feed with my 5SOS weekend. Of course I has to assure my aesthetic was maintained with every post, like all 'pro' instagrammers.
Yesterday, after three days in London I arrived home, exhausted, un-injured but feeling rather proud and suffering with major PCD or PTD (Post Tour Depression) On Sunday, the 14th of June, I saw 5 Seconds Of Summer headline London's Wembley Arena, as part of the European & UK leg of their 'Rock Out With Your Socks Out World Tour' The band sold out three consecutive nights at the iconic venue and I'd managed to nab tickets to both Saturday and Sunday shows. The previous weekend I had travelled across the country to Birmingham catching 5SOS twice at The Barclaycard Arena (I planned on blogging about that weekend, but I guess it just didn't happen) Yet again, 5 Seconds Of Summer have given me two memorable breaks from the boring, slow moving norm my life currently is.I always jump at the chance to leave the flat countryside plains of Suffolk and swap it for cityscape. Its for that fact alone, I'd been looking forward to these weekends for an entire year! Fortunately, in that time I saw 5SOS perform on numerous occasions so it wasn't that long coming to hear their sweet, sweet music live again...
- Capital FM's Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium.
- Headline The Roundhouse in Camden as part of iTunes Festival
- I went to BBCR1 Teen Awards which the lads were due to perform at, (Even being 2 years above maximum age of attendance) but wee Ashton's appendix burst so they couldn't make it, I had to endure being in a building full of preadolescent girls screaming for the whole night while also knowing I wasn't seeing 5SOS. Ugh. (Can't be helped, Ashton's health is important)
- BBCR1's Big Weekend in Norwich only 2 weeks before B'ham dates
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| 5SOS headlining Wembley Arena Sunday 14th June 2015 |
Saturday 13th June
The weekend began with a straight forward trip on the train, a new, updated Greater Anglia train WITH PLUGS SOCKETS! Amazing. Shannon and I have dreamt of the day. Our train pulled up at Liverpool St. at about 1.20pm and from there we jumped on a tube to Wembley Park. Hey Violet were just about to begin their mini acoustic set outside the SSE Arena. We were surprised by the amount of fans that were already ready and waiting for them. The band only played about 2 or 3 songs before everyone was on their feet and queueing to meet them. It was a strange thing to witness. We decided today wasn't the day to try meet them, so went on the hunt for our hotel... now this will be the first bit of tour advice...
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Check the hotel location before its booked as although it may say 'Wembley' in the name, there's a chance it's actually in Ealing.
Finding this out we booked our first ever Uber taxi, not being Londoners we didn't understand what we'd signed our life's off to. Turns out they're a pretty decent invention, if you're in the city I encourage you to get them if tubes aren't an option. However, we spent £26+ between the two of us on Ubers in under 24hrs, so... cool. The hotel was just off a dual carriageway, THE greatest place to have a hotel, is it not? We kind of scurried up the front steps planning on hiding in our room from this slightly threatening environment. They told us the air con was broken but supplied a fan to every room, I think we could of had five fans in our room and it still would have been roasting that night. Not only was the heat almost tropical, we were in a predicament with our window, the noise seeped through it no matter how slightly we cracked it open, cars were racing the entire night. WAH. After sharing a crappy pizza we got ready for the concert.
Wembley was a pretty big deal for the both of us. Over the years we've seen our favourite bands take that stage - Mcfly being my main calling to visit EVERY year and Shannon seeing Busted way back when she was merely 9 years old. The amount of ancient live footage I've caught of the greats like Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden and The Beach Boys there is crazy, and DVD's of 21st century rockers Paramore and You Me At Six absolutely captivating the crowd. Never did we think after the lads first UK tour in 2,000 cap. venues would the second tour be to crowds around 6x bigger. Never. But they did it, holy crap they did it.
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| Shibby pre-gig selfie hour. #Fisheye #Swaggie |
Right, back to the night, our seats were in block N7 about 6 rows from the back. Woo! The show was awesome, the lack of space between us and the next person or the row in front was not. We couldn't move, shake or jump like we did in Birmingham and I had cider stained tights thanks to the girl next to me, close proximity's are not the one. We tried our best to 'Rock Out With Our Socks Out' right up until of course the moment every fan dreads to think about - Flaming Michael C. I was so pumped to see 5SOS have pyro, It was literally 30 seconds until the end of She Looks So Perfect, before the band were due to leave stage for the encore. I remember covering my mouth in shock when I realised. Spontaneously Shannon and I checked Twitter, every tweet on my timeline was worried cries about Michael. Luke, Calum & Ashton left the stage as usual but the break was a lot longer than expected, we saw the first aiders running to the side of stage. Fans started chanting '5SOS! 5SOS! 5SOS!' We were like what are you all doing? Have you not seen or checked Twitter! Suddenly the house lights flicked on and Ash appeared on stage to inform us of what's going down. It's the worst thing that's happened at an event I've attended! Honestly felt my heart break for Michael, it seemed like it was truly his gig! He was shining with stage presence up until that point, such a shame. So the night ended with many girls leaving in tears, full of confusion, confetti cannon-less and we had no plans to celebrate any time soon.
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| 5SOS headlining Wembley Arena Saturday 13th June 2015 |
Sunday 14th June
Everyone was apprehensive about the final night at Wembley. Would Michael do it? Would they perform as a trio? No one knew if there would even be a show until Ashton's trusty tweet at midday.
Me and my friends actually cheered in the hotel room, our moods completely flipped. THIRD NIGHT AT WEMBLEY HOLLA! Although me and Shannon liked the idea of sleeping more than another concert at this time in the day. Haha. In our hot hotel room we managed to get less than 5 hours sleep, (around 2am-7am) it was awful, however we did what we do best and complained about it and moved to another hotel for our second night, which is where we started to feel pumped for the evening. Hey Violet once again were doing an acoustic set so we decided to go along and meet them.
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| Shannon, Me, Georgia & Aimee with Hey Violet 14.06.15 |
It took a while but when we got to the front of the queue the bands crew absolutely buzzed for my Bad Brains top. The guy said "Never thought I'd see a fan wearing Bad Brains at a 5SOS concert" and they were all like omg! (Before the judgement, I know who they are and they are mega cool band.) Then one of the girls in HV said they liked my case as its the BTTF number plate, it all happened in split seconds I didn't know who to answer first, I kinda just wanted to run away from all the attention. After I gathered my thoughts we left the Pod Squad and returned to our new hotel to get changed.
Pod Squad: the group of cool gals who were also in the standing pod at B'ham.
Drinks, laughter and glitter were shared with Lucy & Danielle and we walked back to the arena. No uber taxi's for us this time! So there we were standing in front of Wembley arena hoping tonight we're to see a full set and confetti.
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| Slightly merry and excited pre-sunday-gig |
Our seats were in the third row in block N2, purchased only a few days previous from AXS, so not too shabby at all, perfect view. One of the best things about seeing 5SOS is the pre-show play list, of course Movies, Teenage Dirtbag & Anthem Pt.2 were played (me, Shannon & Georgia did some A* air drums/bass/guitar) but this time there was a twist which we sussed immediately, certain songs started to play all around a theme of fire. Oh the irony. At least they were seeing a funny side to Michael's trauma. The lights went down and the VT started rolling. Screams filled the arena. Ashton exploded onto the stage with a bang of his toms and bass then the rest of the band joined him playing End Up Here. The whole show was epic. I have this thing that they don't interact with the crowd much, they've definitely developed their stage presence and everything but there's still a gap with fan connection. Admittedly, I'm comparing them to Mcfly, and how much Danny & Tom can literally pin point you - singly you- in the crowd and hold your gaze, toy with you or pull a face, 5SOS aren't quite there yet but there's plenty of years to go. They did keep coming up to the podiums on the sides and singing, I felt like there was way to much eye contact for my liking to be honest. aha. That is probably contradicting what I just said but it was a different, they don't partially know who to look at?! Anyway, the set list definitely flowed well, and their transitions are perfect. Permanent Vacation sounds great, slightly similar to a Sum 41 song but who really cares. It's a bit of a teenage anthem too, I feel it. I was pleasantly surprised by Michael's vocals, he sounds great and puts so much into it! That goes to all songs and members, they've come a long way since I first saw them in 2013. I have to admit my favourite on tour was Wrapped Around Your Finger for the above reason and allow me to just highlight a certain note made by Luke 3/4 of the way through... take a listen...
I love that they bring someone on stage for the Rejects solo, I'm still a lil heartbroken it was never me. *sad face* I'm pleased to say I witnessed Zakk Cervini kill it, and Michael get sassy because he was out of the band for a minute back in Birmingham...
Click through to see the sass >> Sassy Michael Clifford (Birmingham 6.6.15)<<
Following that I also saw the famous 'Pizza' live last weekend, when John Feldmann took to the drums and Ashton took front of stage, think that was one of the best moments of the weekend. Pod Squad went nuts, it's crazy that everyone is so in love with a song that lasts a total of 38 seconds. haha. Sunday, Michael managed to not set his hair alight in SLSP frankly as there was no pyro, so congrats to him, he made it to the encore. I got to see some confetti, my true love at concerts and 5 Seconds Of Summer rocked Wembley three nights in a row and I'm extremely proud to be a part of it.
Next time, the O2...
No, that's a joke, please don't headline the O2.
I hope there's more intimate tours to come, 5 nights at Brixton will be fine.
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| 5SOS headlining Wembley Arena 14th June 2015 |
If you've read all this, wow. u iz cray and very dedicated, thank u.
Libz iz owt xox
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