Gig Survey 2018

Top 5 shows of the year? 1. Taylor Swift/Camila Cabello, Wembley Stadium London, 22nd June 2. Jenny Lewis, Koko London, 14th August 3. Sigrid, Brixton Academy London, 12th November 4. Camila Cabello, Brixton Academy London, 12th June 5. Kylie Minogue, BT Cellnet Arena London, 27th September 6. Britney Spears/Pixie Lott/Ella Eyre, Brighton Pride, 4th August 7. Katy Perry/Hailee Steinfeld, BT Cellnet Arena London, 14th June 8. All Saints, Komedia Brighton, 26th September 9. Little Mix, Sussex County Cricket Ground Hove, 6th July 10. Britney Spears, BT Cellnet Arena London, 24th August *The above list should not reflect poorly on the quality of the latter gigs; in most years the lower ranking gigs would easily be top 3. Total number of shows? Eleven, the lowest since 2011 and 2012. First show of the year? Anavae upstairs at the Islington Garage (or whatever it’s called now - Thousand Island, I think). Last show of the year? Sigrid at Brixton Academy. Most surprising show? All Saints at a tiny 200 capacity venue in Brighton. Most disappointing? I genuinely can’t list any gigs as disappointing this year. Even Little Mix - where I attended off the back of a run of night shifts, so had slept for roughly 3 hours in the previous 24 - was fun, aided by the company and copious beers. Farthest travelled? Wembley Stadium in north London, 68 miles or 110 km from home. States attended shows in? Cheerful, grateful, euphoric, terrified, bored, knackered. Venue most visited? The O2/BT Cellnet Arena in East London. Considering my last visit there was for Taylor Swift on the Red Tour in 2014, we saw three gigs there this year, as well as a further three wrestling events - making up for lost time! Worst injury? Nothing! I survived my gigs unscathed. Most expensive ticket? £85 plus fees for the reputation tour. Worth every single penny. Band seen the most? Britney Spears, Camila Cabello, or MNEK (supporting at Pride, one song cameo during Haileeee Steinfeld’s set), all twice. Best new discovery? A lack of The Great Escape (unsigned festival in Brighton) plus a combination of well known or dreadful support acts meant that I was honestly unsure if I could put anything in this section, except Ella Eyre at Pride. Thankfully Sigrid’s pre-set playlist introduced me to Dagny and Bendik, both Norwegian singers. Bands seen this year that also broke up this year? None! Friends made at shows? I mostly went to gigs with Dana so didn’t really talk to anyone else. We did get talking to a Geordie girl in the merch queue at Wembley to whom I’m forever indebted, as she gave us the tea on when to head to the B-stages. Band members met? Becca and Jamie from Anavae, again, but they don’t count by this point. Apart from that, without spending three figure sums on a meet and greet, this is the closest I’ve got - discounting the brief second when Camila Cabello and Charli XCX ran past me at the same show. Best souvenir from a show? Writing this has made me realise I’ve not worn my Sigrid shirt yet. T-shirts from Kylie, Jenny Lewis, and Taylor Swift have all been added to the regular rotation. A Meg Myers t-shirt purchased on pledgemusic was a landmark in that it’s the first medium t-shirt I’ve purchased new in years - a contrast to the final line on my 2015 Gig Survey! One of my most frequently worn pieces of merch was not actually purchased at a show - indeed, I haven’t seen the band live in years - but early in the year I realised with the abundance of pop music gigs in the year ahead, I should wear a suitable t-shirt to them. Having worn various Rammstein t-shirts to previous gigs (Carly Rae Jepsen, Selena Gomez, probably Taylor Swift) I treated myself to a newer and louder shirt for the German industrial metal band, which got me a fair few odd glances (and several thumbs up!) throughout the year. Longest time in line? About an hour outside Brixton Academy for Camila, which felt longer due to the clearly excited young man several people ahead of us who would hyperactively repeat the chorus from Bella Thorne’s then new eponymous single (which sadly doesn’t appear to have troubled the charts over here). Besides that, we spent hours on the pleb barrier for Britney at Pride. Shows seen from the barricade [front row]? Britney at Pride from the pleb barrier (furthest forward without paying £££s on Super Sexy Extra Special Gold Circle tickets) and a few songs for Taylor Swift on the second B stage. We were also two rows from the front for All Saints, but there weren’t a lot of rows in total there. Most shows in one month? June had three, building up to the reputation tour at the end. Most shows in one week? Two, twice - Camila Cabello and Katy Perry/Hailee Steinfeld in three days in June, and All Saints & Kylie in successive days in September. Biggest crowd? Britney at Pride had a reported crowd of 57,000 but that’s topped by Taylor at Wembley - capacity for gigs ranges from 70,000 to 90,000 but even the lowest total tops Britney. Any drunk encounters? Apart from Anavae during my pre-marathon dry spell I had beers at every gig. Didn’t get drunk, although I realised towards the end of Camila’s support at Wembley that I was one beer away from getting the perfect buzz to be receptive to a tour for an album I was ambivalent about. Top 5 best 2018 concert moments: 1. Taylor Swift. Considering I was really not into reputation before the set, I tried to be as open-minded as possible. Hearing Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation as warm-up music really knocked me off kilter - six months of consuming WWE content had conditioned me to expect Ronda Rousey to walk out instead. Viewing the album through a professional wrestling lense made me think of it as a heel turn, with the fans kept involved enough to realise it’s all kayfabe - and it all clicked into place. A rip-roaring 90 minute set followed, with enough fire and theatricality to bring up positive comparisons to Rammstein, and I left the stadium a bigger fan than I even thought possible. 2. Jenny Lewis’s gig in London on my birthday was a damn near religious experience. Again. 3. Sigrid had such a command of the stage for a relatively new artist which, combined with a tremendously strong catalogue, should see her breakout and takeover in 2019. 4. Camila Cabello showed enough star power in her Brixton and Wembley sets to have me convinced of her star potential. Given her current mentor as well, a strong second album could push her into the upper echelon of female pop stars. 5. Hailee Steinfeld’s supporting set had one moment which suggested that her music career wasn’t just a part-time paper round. Midway through she introduced MNEK to sing current single Colour (a song I heard at three separate gigs this year, as he performed it at Pride and it was shown on the video screens before Little Mix a couple of times) but due to technical problems there were issues with his microphone. She handled it well, reacting self-deprecatingly while keeping the crowd in the loop. Top 3 worst 2018 concert moments: 1. Britney forgetting the name of the city she was playing in and asking her backup dancer where she was ought to be number one, but it was genuinely bloody funny to see! 2. Genuinely can’t think of anything else negative to put here. Let’s see off the year on a high then!