Only The Young Tour

On Sunday night I went to Cardiff to see Concept support Only The Young on their 'Up Close and Personal' tour.  I was so excited to see them perform, especially as it was their first proper gig in Wales.  

We arrived in Cardiff ridiculously early as per, and after having food we decided to mooch around the shops to kill time.  One (crazy and very expensive) Primark haul later, we ended up having to rush over to the venue in order to make it in time for the doors to open haha.

Once we were let inside, we were greeted by lots of merchandise and I had a nice surprise to see Concept and Canary Swing personally selling their merch.  I bought one of Concept's new baseball tees (super comfy, may I add) and had a quick chat with Scott, Matt and Ben.  We then went to find a good spot.  I've never been to the Globe before but I really liked it as a venue as you had a clear view from wherever you stood, as it was very intimate.

The first support act was The Brooks, who opened with a Michael Jackson medley.  The twins were very good and got the crowd singing along to their cover of Four Five Seconds.  To finish their set they performed an original song called Cinderella.

Secondly were Canary Swing.  I absolutely love Canary Swing and became a fan after seeing them support Kingsland which feels like many moons ago now,  They are always so lively and get the crowd involved.  Whilst I'd grown accustomed to the old songs they used to perform, this time around they performed a few new originals, with Right Now being a personal favourite of mine.  You know that a song is good when you catch yourself singing along immediately despite not actually knowing the words!  They also did a great cover of Rita Ora's Poison before finishing the set with the classic Second Star to the Right.  I adore this song and it wouldn't be a Canary Swing show without it.

The last support act were the Basingstoke baes, Concept!  There aren't enough hours in the day in which I could fawn over them to you. They are genuinely some of the nicest people you could meet and they have talent in abundance.  They opened with an energetic performance of Uptown Funk which, with no question, was an enormous crowd pleaser.  Concept followed up with a cover of Nick Jonas' Jealous which was another hit with the audience.  I love it when they perform slower songs as it gives them the opportunity to fully show off their incredible voices - their original song Last Man Standing was a great example of this, gorgeous harmonies that complemented Ben's guitar skills. A big crowd favourite was their cover of Imagine Dragons' Radioactive - this is definitely my favourite cover from their set these days! I'd never heard the song before I first heard their cover but I fell in love with it.  They also make it their own with an insane rap by Karim and Matt.  They ended their set with another original called Young and Rebellious - and as the title suggests, it's all about having fun.  Every member of the crowd, young and young at heart were having the best time!  I could watch them perform all day - every time I've seen them, they step it up and improve even more than what you could think possible. I can't express how much of a joy it is to watch them!!! (end of fawning for now).

Last to perform was the headline act, Only The Young.  I've never seen them live before and only had their X Factor performances to compare to but they were full of fun and bounced onto the stage. They performed a lot of their XF songs, such as a medley of Jailhouse Rock/Twist'n'Shout, Blame it on the Boogie and Something About The Way You Look Tonight.  Amongst these were some great original songs, including my favourite Little White Lies.  Disaster stuck mid-set as Charlie fell ill but the remaining three did a great job of carrying on without him.  One of my favourite covers that they performed was Dancing in the Moonlight, which was a massive hit many years ago and a song that you forget about but as soon as you hear it again, your love for it is reignited haha. By the end, the trio were definitely missing Charlie's presence so invited Concept onto the stage to perform Shut Up and Dance with them - the atmosphere was electric! Everyone in the audience were singing and dancing along.  OTY ended their set with their debut single I Do which is incredibly catchy.

After the gig finished, we went outside to meet Concept.  They were incredibly lovely as per and we had quite long chats with all of the boys.  The typical Welsh weather was determined to ruin my selfies but hey ho, it was still a fantastic night and a pleasure to see them again as always.

first ever selfies with Nathan haha :)

Karim 

Matt

funny selfies with Ben

Scott

love this group pic!

Hwyl am y tro ✌️

(P.S I've started writing occasionally for CelebMix and wrote a review about this gig which you can read here - note it is a lot more unbiased that what you've just read, but I think it's acceptable to fawn over my faves on my own blog, right?!)