the 1975 (part 2) at alexandra palace

2 weeks ago yesterday (it was Wednesday the 1^st of October) I went with my little sister to see The 1975 for the second time at Alexandra Palace.  The show was amazing and, as I've never been in a standing crowd like Alexandra Palace before, it was really cool to experience live music in that way for the first time!

I skipped a day at college just to get a good place in the queue but, boy was it worth it! We were about 10 people from the barrier and, despite the elbows and phones blocking my view at times, I had a great position in the crowd.

I should probably also mention that the views of London from Alexandra Palace are amazing and you can see all the iconic skyscrapers and, after the gig, seeing London lit up like that was breath taking really.

There were some arguments between groups of fans in the queue at the beginning and a bit further back which resulted in some pathetic notes being passed down the line throughout the day. In my opinion it’s really sad to see things like that because we’re all here to support this band; and to think of life without influential music that means so much to all of us there, is awful- so as we all have that in common surely we should be celebrating that not arguing amongst us? I hate to say it but some of the girls sitting near us were shouting really mean things to some better-known fans at the front of the queue and it was so annoying and I just didn’t want to be involved.

A bit later John Waugh walked past and waved at everyone and everyone cheered back which was nice and it was also good to see that he wasn’t being bombarded with fans trying to get a picture or something trivial. Just seeing these people in real life is enough really.

Around 6 o’clock everyone in the queue was standing waiting in anticipation to go inside (it was also getting a bit cold out even though I had my new The 1975 hoodie – also £40 for a hoodie is ridiculous may I just point out even though I still bought it lol okay). The pushing and shoving in the queue was crazy I was literally chest to chest with one of the security guards ~uncomfortable~ but then we went straight in as we didn’t have bags to be checked. Like you're gonna bomb your favourite artist yh sure okay.

Y.O.U were cool coming on dressed in all white and giving out demo CDs before the show. I have never heard them before so I was pretty pleased that the words were relatively easy to pick up and the tunes of their songs were catchy. Now I also looooove Circa Waves so when they were announced as support I was super excited and they didn’t disappoint! Also one of my friends is a fan so I tried calling her but she's useless and didn’t answer (I hope you see this Tori you're useless ly) but all of their music is so good for head-bobbing and shoulder dancing and shouting the bridge, how can you not love Circa Waves?! It was the first time I’d seen them perform and Stuck In My Teeth was so good live it was awesome!

I'm not going to recite the set list because it’s pretty much the same as the set list for their gig at the Royal Albert Hall.  But they came on and I was literally sweating (probably from the support acts and not to mention the other 6999 people in the hall) and the crowd erupted. That feeling when they first come is not something that anyone can describe or you can really understand until you see an artist you love in real life standing infront of you.

All of their songs are super loveable and an absolute delight to listen to, but fallingforyou gets me every single time. They played that opening note and I was an absolute goner. Lyrically, that song is so powerful and so well-crafted to create great imagery in your mind I can’t get enough of that song and I stop to listen to it in full every time. I can’t even begin to explain how much that songs means to me and what memories I have connoted with that record – if I tried to explain it wouldn’t express half of what I'm trying to say.

I can’t remember which song it was during, but at one point Matty attempted to crowd surf and the whole crowd surged forward out of nowhere and I got literally crushed and a girl near me fell over (which was quite funny but she went as white as a ghost). It was kind of scary to have like 6500 people pushing against you I was this close to waving a little white flag and getting pulled out or something stupid. Oh yeah! That happened to a girl before they even came on- I guess she couldn’t deal with being right at the front of all those people, she seemed quite young anyway.

When I’d just about recovered from that, they played Robbers. Now 2 major things happened during this song and I have to talk about both. You know when you're listening to a song, like properly listening to it, and it hits you like a brick wall your interpretational meaning behind the record and your heart just about stops. And you know how that can happen to you whether it’s the first time you listen to that song or the fiftieth time you listen to that song – well this was like the 50,000^th time I've heard Robbers and a personal interpretation just hit me and I cried my little eyes out. I shoved my sister infront of me so she could properly see and seeing how happy that made her, made me cry more and everyone around me was like “why is this kid crying puddles” but wow I’ll probably never forget that moment. It’s kind of stuck on my heart like one of those new super strong post-it’s from that advert plus a couple hundred staples and 4 tubes of superglue and I’ll carry that with me forever and for that I am so grateful to the band.

Also, during Robbers, one of the boys from the barrier (I think his name is Tom) got called up onto the stage and to see how hard he hugged Matty was adorable. It’s like everyone in the hall could relate to him and what he was kind of telling/showing Matty so it’s like he represented the other 7000 people in that hall; it was amazing and so touching.

So after they finished Robbers they went straight into Chocolate but I was still having a breakdown and then combined with how much of a good time I was having I was just pretty much a massive mess. They closed so well, they always do.

After the gig I went to the merchandise stall and bought the Sex EP tshirt for my little sister and, because it was such a special moment for me, I bought the Robbers single tshirt even though I wasn't that crazy about the design. I wore both the tshirt and the hoodie to college the next day and had to pretend I was still ill from skipping the day before- for the record, my economics teacher saw straight through me and my brand new merch.