four review

I think it goes without saying that I’m the world’s biggest One Direction fan (soz patsy). And I know FOUR was released about 40000000 light years ago in the big-one-direction-scheme of things but yanno I'm a busy kid; I go to college and have homework and have stuff to do so now I have some time I thought “let’s write about the best album to ever grace the planet”.

Here's the trackilst in full:

1. Steal My Girl
2. Ready to Run
3. Where Do Broken Hearts Go
4. 18
5. Girl Almighty
6. Fool's Gold
7. Night Changes
8. No Control
9. Fireproof
10. Spaces
11. Stockholm Syndrome
12.Clouds
Exclusive Bonus Tracks
13. Change Your Ticket
14. Illusion
15. Once in a Lifetime
16. Act My Age

1. STEAL MY GIRL
Well, I went to the BBC Music Awards in December last year (which I know I said before I was going to write about but I am soooooooo busy but I do have a list on my phone of things I'm going to get round to writing eventually I promise) and they performed SMG there and Harry was wearing some amazing trousers…

If you have forgotten a) wHY and b) they looked like this:

This is them performing Steal My Girl at the BBC Music Awards

This song is the headline (??) one off the album and by that I mean it’s the first single so it’s always like a party upbeat song- just the same with What Makes You Beautiful, Live While We’re Young and Best Song Ever. So it’s no real surprise that when this song was released I was dancing and fist punching the air like Harry all over my bedroom. I think that it’s just such a happy song and the fact that the video makes 0 sense and relates -30% to what the song is talking about makes the song even better. I really enjoyed Harry’s coat (and generally most things about Harry) in this video and Niall’s little rocking back and forth dance with those African dancers and the general feel that this track gives. It may not be the best song on the album but whenever it comes on you know that everyone instantly knows who it’s by and I mean that’s probably due to their relentless airplay (that even I get sick of I KNOW) but when you listen to the album and come back to this song it just makes you smile real big and it’s fab. I think it was Kati (YAAAS KATI J) who said that someone at the hospital radio she helps out at said “and that was One Direction with girls are possessions” when the track finished and when I laughed she looked at me like I’d grown a second head. People think all One Direction fans are a bit mental and will chop you up and put you in their broth if you say one bad word about Louis’ smoking habit and (even though I sometimes kinda want to do that when someone insults Harry) we’re not stupid. This bad stigma attached really pisses me off but that’s not to do with this track in particular. Overall SMG is a crackin tune.

Have (another) listen.

2. READY TO RUN
This track is a nice follow up to SMG and, lyrically, (even though not all of it makes complete sense) One Direction love a good metaphor and this songs first verse is not short of them. The chorus is a nice pick-me-up and I always get a real sense of feeling uplifted when I hear this song. The “escape from the city and follow the sun” line gives a kind of feeling that, if you want to do something, you really can do it. The drums before the chorus drops, I'm imagining, would be so powerful live and if you concentrate you can sort of imagine the boys running about on that massive stage performing this track. The reassurance that this track gives is something really important that I think the fanbase as a whole needed. It’s not even remotely cool to like One Direction outside your bedroom but the confirmation that songs like Ready to Run give people like me is something that you carry with you and make you hold your head up just that little bit higher and wear your “lol ur not harry styles” tshirt to college on photo day.

Feel that self-validation.

3. WHERE DO BROKEN HEARTS GO
DID EVERYONE SEE THEM PERFORM THIS WITH FUCKIN RONNIE WOOD OF THE ROLLING STONES BECAUSE HOOOOOOOOOOMYGOSHD

Harry’s clearly bursting with pride and disbelief and amazement that he's been able to perform side by side with such a legend and someone who’s an inspiration to him or at least someone he's a huge fan of. Also, that guitar solo … I may have been at my friends’ house and I may have been cuddled into the corner of their sofa and I may have been clutching my face and I may have been crying but hey, if you can’t get excited over something you love, then what can you get excited about?!

I just thought of one tumblr text post in particular and I'm going to put that in because what a corker

r u cryin bc i am

Lyrically, this is not a song I have an overwhelming amount of relation to but I can always get up and have a good hip-shake to it. The “tell me now tell me now” bit is a personal favourite and maybe that’s because it’s Harry’s solo or it’s because I can always see that sodding flamingo shirt when I hear it or maybe it’s because it’s just plain groovy (who says groovy in 2015??) but the song is mental live and the guitar solo is 400 out of 10. Overall a siiiiick party dance song for a fan.

Have a groove after you hit play.

4. 18
Jesus Christ its 23:51 and I'm only on track 4 god help me. That is actually pretty much how I feel the whole way through listening to this song. Harry opening it and singing “baby” and leading the chorus means that I'm now writing this from beyond the grave. I knew I was going to turn 18 not long after the album was released and when I saw the tracklist I was like yes party anthem for my birthday but you could probably not be more wrong. If you were in love from a young age (not even 18 in particular tbh) I think you’d love this song a lot more than I do but it in no way means that you can’t appreciate the angelic vocals on this track. The final chorus which is half acapella Louis really highlights his voice and does it justice considering he hasn’t got the strongest voice in the band (don’t hate me please). I like this track but yanno not one of my favourites, I think there’s better songs on the album.

Have a little cry, its okay.

5. GIRL ALMIGHTY
One thing this album is not short of is drastic mood swings. You couldn’t have 2 more contrasting songs next to each other on an album if you tried. Yet again there is an abundance of metaphors in the first verse (they really do love that) and amongst all the ambulances and balloons and saviours there's a pretty catchy song (with Harry’s ridiculously good vocals too). I really like that Niall has the first chorus because he has the right pitch to his voice for it. Louis is a little swallowed up in this track but hey, don’t rain on the parade that is this track. The crescendo at the end of the track is pretty good and very unlike anything One Direction has done before and I like it quite a lot! The only reason any of them would be getting down on their knees for me, would only be to scrape me off the floor.

“I hope you feel what I'm feeling tooooooooooooooooooo”

6. FOOL’S GOLD
I know this one is one of Patsy’s faves (iyaaaaa) but I wasn’t so hot on it at first (probably due to the way it starts with a load of metaphors and similes agaaaain) but you listen to the chorus and if you can relate to the lyrics it will make you cry. I'm crying right now as I type this. No shame. This song is probably in my top 5 from this album and I think lyrically they’ve really grown as a band from something as lame as dancing under the lights in a club and having their hearts stolen like sorry but at 17 to 19 years old I don’t think they were doing a lot of that?! Well not if they went to a college with a work load like mine … then again Louis was planning to resit his A2 year so who knows lol sorry Lou! Anyway, this song is really pretty and I don’t know how that works but if this song was a fabric it’d definitely be lace.

Get out yer hankies.

7. NIGHT CHANGES
Another music video plug (!!) It is now my life dream to go ice skating with Harry because if he’s gonna look at me like that when he ties up my boots I can die happy. I think the thing I like about this is that it’s still a slow romantic-y track but the drums help to make it less miserable and more uplifting. The lyrics definitely add to that “there’s nothing to be afraid of even when the night changes”. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a looking-out-the-window-longingly-on-a-long-car-journey track. The chorus tells me (personally) that things are going to change at this point in your life whether its moving college, going off to university or something closer to home, and that’s kind of inevitable but if you do it right, things won’t go wrong and you’ll be okay. It reaches the teen audience perfectly and I think because they're not even that much older than us themselves, their ability to turn this general feeling into lyrics is done so well on this track imparticular. Also I should probably mention that they’ve all in turn helped to write every song this album (apart from steal my girl because yanno that’s all publicity driven because it’s the first track off the new album) and that really comes through on this record.

Find your nearest window and have a stare out of it (or at Zayn with spaghetti on his head but still managing to look like a Versace model).

8. NO CONTROL
Someone really needs to have a word with One Direction about their tracklisting order because the swings still continue to give me a heart attack (haha punny) and the albums been out for almost 3 months now. From the title, you would probably expect this one to be upbeat and it is. Despite even more metaphors (now I'm writing about them I'm realising how many there actually are) Louis’ voice is carried perfectly in this chorus. I think, in the same way that Ready to Run achieves, this goes perfectly into the category of One Direction songs entitles “IDGAF WHAT YOU SAY JUDGE AWAY I LOVE THIS BAND” and to be perfectly honest you can never have enough of those. The constant guitar rippling throughout the back of this track is really good – I'm no music expert but I can pick up on these things because I have ears and stupid amount of love for this band. This one is going to be crazy good live and you can sort of tell because the vocals aren’t going to need to be perfect because the album version has quite a bit of synth on it so the boys will have more fun performing it live so it will just be better in general.

You can hit play and then grab your hairbrush just before the first verse starts.

9. FIREPROOF
I love this track so much. This was the first song I heard off FOUR (I think) and I think that it was good to release this one for free before the rest of the album as it captures and reflects the maturity of the whole of the fourth album pretty well. This track doesn’t really pick up or drop down and off the top of my head I can’t really think of another song by any artist that does that. I guess it’s your typical love song but there have been some great meme’s from the lyrics of this song.

"NOT SO FIREPROOF NOW HUH"

And the classic that is this meme that perfectly describes that overwhelming wave of emotion that makes you want to smile so big and cry all at the same time which I think fans need quiiiiiiite often.

Hear the jokes in context.

10. SPACES
This song confuses me a bit. I'm not 200% sure of the meaning of this song that I can relate to, but I quite like it because it makes me head bang slowly like I'm mentally derranged during the chorus. Maybe it’s about having a rough patch in a relationship but caring enough to try and work through it (?) I think that’s taking it a bit at face value though. The best thing about this song is easily the vocals. The acapella beginning of the last chorus with the drums which lead into the drop into the chorus and Harry singing “who’s gonna be the first to say goodbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye” in his gravelly tone makes me want to listen to that line alone on repeat.

You could gravel your own drive with the vocals in this track.

11. STOCKHOLM SYNDROME
Oh my gosh I thought I’d never get to this track. Even aside from the “it’s more about a nympho” line (x), this song is by far my favourite on the album. It’s the perfect balance between upbeat and serious and its pace is excellent to walk to college/town/home to. I like that it’s kind of about being pretty fucked up but kind of enjoying it (?) kind of like what it’s like to like this band. Musically, this is my favourite record they’ve ever made. Also when I found out that Harry was the one who wrote the song, it affirmed its place as my favourite song. I don’t normally like a fade-out but I will make an exception for this track. The way bits of the song also fade in and out of the chorus (“woah”) and also in the gaps in the verses (“woah oh oh oh oh oh”) is something new that I've, again, not really heard before. There is a load of great Liam adlibs on this track too which adds to the track. Despite how much I adore this track, I'm not too sure how it will go down live?! Will they play it up with fireworks and lights and a cool screen animation, or keep it simpler like make it a transition song to move from one area of the stage to another? Who knows. This band has repeatedly thrown me curveballs on this album which keeps me, as a listener, on my toes which I reeeeeeally love.

Start designing your light show or screen animation with this playing in the background.

12. CLOUDS
The opening of this song transitions so perfectly from the end of Stockholm Syndrome it makes you forget about the rollercoaster of transitions that is the first half of this album. Almost. From the start you know this is going to be a song that will keep you on your feet throughout and the lights show and arena feel is going to be ridiculous live. I think it’s a track you can put on even at 1am (I am currently exhibit A) and still have a solo party. The only thing about this song is that it makes you so pumped, you can’t sit still and just have to get up and express you excitement through an aggressive shoulder dance with some kicking about and jumping. And that annoys people around you at college, trust me. The thing that makes this track so successful is the way it starts off with that insane guitar playing (which you do hear later again in the chorus) and then takes you so far down, when the chorus hits it’s like being at the top of that Stealth rollercoaster at Thorpe Park. (I imagine I'm too scared to go on it … I will never enjoy the rollercoaster that is life. Soz Zayn.)

Go annoy some people trying to do work around you and play this one out loud. And very loud.

UE 13. CHANGE YOUR TICKET
If you were smart enough to buy the deluxe edition of the album then this is the bonus end of the album you get. If you were stupid then this is where the fun ends for you I'm afraid. The opening of this song is so like Girls by The 1975 I'm not sure how I feel. I know they were going to work together but The 1975 were too busy touring about 75834075093581 shows last year so couldn’t fit in some time to write and produce with One Direction. But if they gave them anything, it’s all gone into this track for sure. I think the best way to describe this track is as the pop-ier version of Girls to be honest. The guitar is so similar. I'm pretty sure I can hear some spaceship sound effects too. Harry singing on top of the last chorus over Liam in his voice is the twisting of the knife on this record. His vocals are quieter but so much more pronounced and it’s actually making me tear up a little at how much his voice has changed since 2010 and the days of the snood and Jack Wills Barbour jackets. Lyrically, this song sounds like its talking about an extended one night stand and to be honest I haven’t actually been able to get past that in my short-sighted ways. It doesn’t really bother so much because my mind travels to the cool video for Girls that The 1975 shot which I think embodies this song quite well.

Put on you ripped black skinny jeans and have a listen.

UE 14. ILLUSION
The opening of this song is wicked. I find myself hanging out the car window screaming “TELL ME YOU BELIEVE IN LOVE” and then after the chorus you're brought back up to that feeling into something that sounds like what raspberry ripple ice cream tastes like. There are nice backing vocals mixed in with the main vocals and a steady drum beat and some other stuff going on which is successful. And then to top it all off Niall is telling you that you can tie him up in chains and throw away the key which, cmon, is pretty good. It probably is an illusion though…

Grab yer bike chain.

UE 15. ONCE IN A LIFETIME
I sometimes forget this track is even on the album until it comes on but I don’t think that’s because it’s a rubbish song. It’s a really nice acoustic song that shows off their vocals which have reeeeeally changed since 2010 when the band were first about and it’s great. It comes across as a song that has some kind of emotional baggage of regret attached to it and, because the album really is coming from the boys, its filled with that personal aspect which makes the music all the more genuine and that’s something that come across in the entire album.

Be warned there are more metaphors, but they're the best ones on the album.

UE 16. ACT MY AGE
If you’ve heard this track you're probably already smiling. This song is overflowing with teenager and fun and it’s definitely a party song, but it discusses getting old ungracefully and how, even though life is proper serious (like all the time) there are moments where you look back on some of the things you’ve done and realised that you have come far even if it has only been four years. The break between the chorus and the bridge is making me dance even from this chair and I think that from the stage, the boys will take it as a moment to run around on the huge stage before they break out into some “oooooooooh”’s and some finger clicking whilst walking in a box during the bridge. The whistling is just added fun too. The acapella chorus right at the end makes you have another lolling out the car window moment “I WOOOOOOOOONT ACT MY AGE no i WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONT ACT MY AGE”. By this point, we’ve reached album four and there are still “na na na”’s in their music and I know there's some fans who don’t like it but I think it’s a feature that here to stay – and I like it. This song closes the album so perfectly you’d think the first half was organised by a completely different band.

Get out on your roof or open your bedroom window and have a shout.

FOUR is probably my joint favourite album tied with Midnight Memories because there are some great tunes on that album even if it is a bit more mainstream than FOUR. Even proper critics (not just mediocre teenage writers like me) have said that One Direction have evolved in this album and it’s refreshing to see something positive in the news about this band rather than NME slating them and nominating Harry as villain of the year again (yawn) which is quite frankly getting old whilst he's out there living life, wearing YSL everyday, giving pizza to homeless people and being a walking ball of sunshine while them crappy journo’s sit behind their screen day after day being miserable.

Also for Christmas just gone, I got the FOUR vinyl (alas not the ultimate edition because that doesn't actually exist). I cannot even begin to describe how good the vinyl makes so me of the songs and vocals sound. For songs like No Control it doesn’t really do anything for it but there are songs you would expect to sound great on vinyl and they do like Fool’s Gold and Fireproof. Suprisingly, tracks like Girl Almighty and Ready to Run sound great on vinyl and that sort of scratchy feel that comes with any vinyl really gives these tracks a little sumthin sumthin.

For me, FOUR reflects a new dimension of this band and it’s something that is welcomed with great response as I grow older. I'm not sure if it’s something 15 year old me would like, but that’s okay because music is supposed to evolve and change and who wants to listen to 4 versions of the same album anyway? Now its 1:50am and I need to go to sleep probably thinking of how the night will have changed (nudge nudge) by the time I'm up again and posting this in the morning.

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.

the 1975 at royal albert hall

On Sunday the 6^th of April I was at the Royal Albert Hall to see The 1975. I am a  h u g e  The 1975 fan and they put on an absolutely amazing show.

I hadn't seen The 1975 in concert before, but I can definitely say that they did not disappoint. They put on a killer show which had the entire audience of nearly 6000 people on their feet for the whole night (apart from during Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You when Matty asked everyone to sit down; but I’ll get to that later).

This is the first glimpse I caught of the venue. I’ve never been to the Royal Albert Hall venue before and it is a beautiful building. I’m a bit of an architecture fan and was stunned by the detail on the exterior of the building.

The inside is just as nice, you can tell it’s Victorian from the name and the so-big-you-can't-miss-it statue outside the front of the building.

After excitedly finding my seat and being given the seat closer to the stage by my friend (whether she knew it or not) I had about 15 minutes to take in the interior of the venue and it’s absolutely amazing.

The combination of the lights, the ceiling, the plush red seats (which not only had pull up seats like in cinema’s, but also swivelled left and right too), the layers of balcony’s and my closeness to the main stage, set the scene for an magical night. Looking around, I spotted several people running about excitedly wearing The 1975 tshirts and carrying what appeared to be merch, so I decided I wanted to be in on this and overly enthusiastically ran up the steps to one of the door people (I don’t know what their proper title is!!). I asked if I could get merch before the show began and was directed to door 6. I was currently at door 11 so was basically running around the corridors of the venue to get to door 6 and the merch stand. After dragging my friend along with me, we found the stand and I pushed my way to the front of the crowd and bought a tshirt and 2 posters. After being convinced it was too much to buy another tshirt, we returned to our seats and as I walked through those corridors clutching the posters and black tshirt far too tightly to my chest like it was my child, I have never felt happier. Even if the door lady did give me a weird look when I grinned so big you could see my teeth as I re-entered the main room.

After Marika Hackman finished her support act, there was a small break before The 1975 came on stage. As the notorious 5 rectangles in the background started to light up, you could feel the energy in the air that something massive was about to happen.

They walked onto the stage one at a time. First Ross, then Adam, George and then finally Matty as the place exploded into a frenzy of screams and cheers. Even from the too-cool-to-care 20-something year old boys standing next to me who smelt of smoke and vodka and cokes were shouting and screaming for the main man.

They didn’t open with an annoying speech about how grateful they were for being able to perform at such a prestigious venue, they just dove straight into their self-titled song The 1975 (the opener of disc 1 on their album) and then an amazing rendition of one of their biggest hits The City.

Followed by Milk and then M.O.N.E.Y. they played a few songs back to back before Matty announcing to the crowd: “to all the people who said this band wouldn’t work, welcome to fucking the royal albert hall”. The place erupted and screamed even harder if it was possible to She Way Out.

After a few songs, Matty must’ve been interacting with some members of the front row as I argued furiously with my phone to stop pissing about at such an important event as he went on to announce to these lucky people “what do you mean fucking Chocolate we’ve been on 20 minutes?!” A definite highlight.

I should probably mention that (despite my phone being on 28% battery and just generally being a pain in the ass) I took several videos and pictures, but the videos will not make any cut of this post as they all contain my awful singing/screaming, but most of the pictures featured are my own.

They played several of their album songs and some from their selection of EPs. Heads.Cars.Bending was even better than I could’ve ever possible imagined or describe to you. There’s just something about seeing your favourite artist live that you can’t put into words.

About halfway through the gig, they played the opening of my favourite The 1975 song; fallingforyou. I turned to my friend and desperately cried “THIS IS MY FAVOURITE SONG!” and as she consoled my shaking shoulder by wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me close, Matty proceeded to announce that it was also his favourite song. At this point the ambulance arrived and I was taken away. Well that was probably the level of medical attention I should’ve received, I was absolutely beside myself. I pretty much cried the whole way throughout the song whilst trying to film it to re-enjoy later on (I watch at least once a day) and scream some of my favourite lines and try not to collapse on the floor.

To add to the atmosphere; Ross, George and Matty all left the stage to give Adam his moment. He played an indescribable version of Hnscc on his own, and for a song without lyrics I felt a very strong connection with.

After the boys returned to the stage they played several other hit songs from the album, including Is There Somebody Who Can Watch You. It was absolutely stunning. I think it is pretty much legally obliged that everyone see this so im going to drop a link here.

He asked everyone to take a seat and remain silent throughout the song which some people struggled with but it was nice to hear a solid “I love you too” to a devoted fan. The performance was magical and a real privilege to watch. The raw emotion in this song and also in Me was a feast for fans lapping up the wonder that Matty has become to many devoted fans.

I'm going to put in loads of photos here because why not

The gig unfortunately had to end at some point but what a way to close. They took a few minutes to take photographs which have been posted all over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc and I caught my own.

As the lights went down and I took my last glance at the boys I felt exhausted from all the blood in my head from headbanging and aching in my spine from my hair flips but totally ecstatic to have seen one of my favourite bands live.

The evening didn’t end there for me. I waited longingly for a good 40 minutes after the gig right next to the stage door to try and meet my heroes after the show.

It was kind of nice in a weird way to be squashed right next to complete strangers but also fellow fans who were still buzzing from the show. That is literally the door they would’ve come out of in the picture (!!) But as we approached 11:50 I really did have to leave otherwise I would’ve missed my train and been stranded in Liverpool Street Station until the next train home. After several mishaps with half awakely, not really focused tube changes from getting on the wrong line twice, me and my friend stumbled into the station, past a late-night café and onto the 00:02 train back to Colchester.

I have never been so happy to see a share bag size of Walker’s cheese and onion crisps before in my life. We trudged into the Colchester train station at around 01:45 in the morning and after dropping my friend home I slumped into bed at 02:30 ish ready to have no sleep before going into college for my economics revision session at 9am the next day.