Monday 30 June 2014

Drag Queens, Technicolour Coats and Dirty Dancing ✌️

On Saturday, I went to Swansea Pride with mum, Gabrielle and Bekah as Kingsland Road were one of the performers. I hadn't seen the girls for a while so it was so nice to catch up and see some of our favourite boys!



The fact that the gig was less than an hour away from me was a novel concept - I'm used to travelling 4-6 hours one way to see Kingsland so to have a 'doorstep' gig was a nice change! It was weird though, as I knew some people there and I didn't like that, I don't like fangirling in front of people I know in real life! (away from bands etc haha)

We got there early and to my surprise it was a really small venue, and wasn't particularly busy! We watched several acts whilst waiting for the boys to arrive, including an 'angel' with insane hair and huge wings, as well as at least half a dozen drag queens (some of which performed some epic songs that I haven't heard in years, such as Vanessa Amorosi's Absolutely Everybody - YouTube it!!)

The boys had tweeted to say when they were roughly arriving so we waited by the fence where the cars came in. The boys waved and went into one of the porta-cabins, and after hanging around a bit longer, Thomps emerged and came to see us!

He spent around 15 minutes chatting with us, he's a little shit at times but is undeniably my favourite person in the world! We had a lot of laughs and he took photos with all of us!

Thomps nailing the flamingo pose...

Me nailing Thomps' pose (well, trying to haha!) - I hate it when he does this pose and I always ask him for smiling selfies cos his smile is my fave but I thought I'd change it up a bit...

Connor, Josh and Matt also came out to see us. Connor was particularly hilarious, singing along to one of the stage performers that was singing Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat! I will always think of him whenever I hear that song now :)


Connor demanded that we changed the filter....
Selfies with Matt...


Piccies with Josh!


Finally it was time for them to perform, and boy was it worth the wait! (particularly after having to stand through an 8-song Lady Gaga impersonator, in which we spent more time laughing at the sign language lady who had no idea what she was doing lol!)

Kingsland performed Walk Away, Shoreline (plus a short acoustic version of End of Time whilst sound issues were dealt with), Burn and their debut single Dirty Dancer! It was the first time I'd heard Dirty Dancer live, and it sounds epic! Check out this video, courtesy of my mam @helz999

All in all, it was a strangely entertaining day, and was lovely to see some of my favourite boys and girls again!

The lyric video for Dirty Dancer is now on YouTube, check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMcnK01MrK8&sns=tw 
Dirty Dancer is also available to preorder on iTunes now! 79p and released on August 10th: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/dirty-dancer-radio-edit/id893584250?i=893584323


Hwyl am y tro ✌️

Sunday 22 June 2014

You are my sunshine ☀️

My second post of today is dedicated to a guy called Jay McGuiness. This post is 100% necessary as on Friday night, after nearly 4 years, he made my life by following me on Twitter!

I've been a Jay girl since late 2010. I've met him 8 times since then and he's been the most precious human being on every occasion! The first thing he ever said to me was "I think I'm in love with you" after giving him Avatar face paint - now if that doesn't make him the best choice of fave EVER, then I really don't know what does!



The only thing I struggled with was getting a follow on twitter. I've had several tweets over the years but never that elusive follow. I have literally tried everything - I've stayed up at ridiculous hours when I have work the next day, and it was during one of these late nighters that I came up with what eventually got me my follow!



The deal breaker in question was a poem about the times I'd met Jay and how much he meant to me. I used to write creatively when I was younger, and having read the finished poem it is evident why I stopped doing so!! However, considering it was written at 2am in despair, it was cringeworthy enough to make Jay spew all over my follow button :)) the poem can be read here >  http://tl.gd/n_1s2684k < (I apologise in advance for how tragic it is but in all honesty, every word said and spoken is true!)

My reaction? I tweeted him one last time before bed, then I went to sleep, only to be rudely awakened by mum 20 minutes later - "he's done it, he's followed you!!!!" In my half asleep state, I unlocked my phone without even looking at my notifications and just searched his name - seeing the "follows you" bar was the most amazing feeling in the world! Subsequently I burst into tears and bawled whilst saying "I can't believe it!" a million times over haha! I think my lack of screaming was down to pure relief that I'd finally been granted a follow from my sunshine!



I still check his twitter several times a day because it feels like a dream, I'm so so lucky.

The point of this post is to tell you all to never give up on something you want. I could have given up at least a hundred times over the years! To put my wait into perspective, my oldest friend Lizzy pointed out to me earlier that she's had a son (who is now 3 years old) in the time that I've waited for a follow from Jay, and I'd been trying before then too!!

Whatever the fangirl dream, have faith that one day you will get that follow or that you will meet your idol! I never thought it would happen, but now I have a follow from my favourite person in the world! I'm eternally grateful to that boy for forever being so special!

Hwyl am y tro ✌️

Capital Summertime Ball!

Helloooo, long time no blog! It's been a few chaotic weeks in work and I've also been putting my writing "skills" to good use elsewhere (more on that in the next post) so today I thought I'd "treat" you by giving you two blog posts, you lucky things ;) 

Firstly, yesterday was the day of Capital's Summertime Ball 2014!  STB (for short) is an annual gig held by Capital Radio in Wembley Stadium. Every year they bring you some of the hottest and most current acts around, for a gig lasting around 6 and a half hours.

This year was no exception, with over 20 amazing artists taking to the stage including Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding, Iggy Azalea, Rita Ora, Cheryl Cole, Clean Bandit, Duke Dumont, Little Mix and David Guetta!

Ellie Goulding smashing her hit 'Burn'


Little Mix looking fierce!

Having attended for the past two years with seated tickets, this year we decided to venture into the golden circle which was an epic yet painful experience! We queued for over 4 hours beforehand which was quite enjoyable as I got chatting to other fans outside, and eventually we managed around 7 rows from the front. The downsides were tall people blocking my view occasionally, oh and the most horrendous pain I was in by the end of the day!! I'm so glad I've done the standing once though, however I think I'll stick to my trusted seats next year!

There were several stand out moments for me yesterday. The Vamps were incredible as always, with a fab 4-song setlist.



I got to see 5 Seconds of Summer live for the first time, having been harassed by my twinny to listen to their music (I wanted to avoid getting involved with another band but here I am, hook line and sinker!). She Looks So Perfect is so anthemic and sounded amazing in the stadium!



Ed Sheeran was a pleasure to watch once again. He is fantastic live, and I will never forget the sight of 80,000 people swinging items of clothing around their heads during Sing, under Ed's instructions!



Pharrell was so good, the only thing that would have improved his set for me would have been the inclusion of She Wants to Move!




Queen Miley was just as batshit crazy as I expected! Dwarves, giant rubber ducks, chickens, her sister dressed as a cat, spitting water over the crowd and everything else in between, in her words it was FUCKING BANGERZ haha! 




Finally, my highlight of the whole day (and resurrection of my 2010 hardcore fangirl stage) was when Nathan Sykes joined Jessie J on stage for a flawless rendition of Calling All Hearts! Jessie's whole set was phenomenal, but I was most looking forward to this song after hearing rumours that Nathan would be joining her! Despite knowing it was likely to be him, I still fangirled like crazy when Jessie said his name! His outfit was questionable to some but I thought he looked good bless him! This is the second year in a row that he's stolen the show for me, following his epic comeback last year.  It was so surreal seeing him without the rest of The Wanted but I was so proud of him!



I'm already looking forward to seeing how Capital can top this ball next year, and I will most definitely be going! It's an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone!

Hwyl am y tro ✌️
(Second post coming later)