On Sunday the 23rd of February I went to see one of my absolute favourite bands 5 Seconds Of Summer with one of my best friends and it was honestly one of the best nights of my entire life.
Unfortunately
I didn't take my digital camera with me and I didn't want to take my
DSLR to a gig because, let's face it, that's just silly, so I had to
take all of my photos and videos on my iPhone. We got up super early on
the Sunday morning (6:30 to be precise) and were on the earliest train
we could catch by 8:45am. You'd have thought we'd be shattered but we
were actually far too excited and hyped up to be thinking about
sleeping. I hadn't even had breakfast because, as usual, I'd taken about
100 years to get ready so once we arrived in Glasgow the first thing we
did was grab a Starbucks then headed to WHSmith to stack up on treats
we could eat throughout the day to keep us going. The weather really
wasn't great which sucked and neither of us really knew how to get to
the venue so we ended up following a group of girls who looked like they
were also going to the gig. Luckily we were right and we eventually
came into sight of the venue, at which point we also saw the tour bus
and had a complete breakdown in the middle of the street right in
Glasgow's city centre - smooth. We eventually managed to get ourselves
into the queue which was already a fair size. The venue was giving out
plastic ponchos since the rain was a disgusting drizzle and the wind was getting stronger by the minute. They were very kind staff, the nicest staff I've ever come across at a gig, apart from one very rude woman who was at the front of the queue directing people around the corner to where the queue lead up the hill.
We sat and ate for a while then decided we were too cold to sit still for any longer in the crappy weather. There was a small cafe on the corner of the street called Bagel Mania. We asked the people behind us to keep our space and if they'd like anything from the place. We took an order for one tea and headed down. I swear I've never been so thankful to be warmed up by a steaming hot cup of tea! After that we got chatting to the girls behind us and made pretty good friends with them. It was really lovely to have some other people to talk to who were clearly interested in the same band - duh - and find out who their favourite members were etc. That's one of my favourite things about music and concerts, you can meet so many people through having a mutual love for a band or artist.
The day wore on and it didn't matter that the weather was getting worse because the excitement was building with every passing hour. My friend and I were both hoping to meet different people we knew from Twitter which was really cool and exciting. Although we were getting sort of fed up waiting as time was passing so slowly, we knew it'd all be worth it. We thought it'd be a good idea to stretch our legs so we took a trip to Tesco and went to the bathroom where we stayed under the hand driers for quite some time to warm ourselves up. Since our feet were wet we sat up on the sinks and put our feet under the driers too. However, it made little difference unfortunately but of course every little helps.
I noticed a lot of people leaving and coming back to the queue with McDonald's and when you see one of those, let's be honest, you instantly want one, so imagine seeing about five all at once. What would you do?! I, like any normal person, dragged my friend to the nearest McDonald's and got myself a delightful little Happy Meal. That was later followed by a Subway as I'm a fatty at heart.
Sometime between all of these trips I met one of my lovely friends from Twitter who is also called Hannah. She was so nice to speak to and it was great to finally meet her as we've been friends for a really long time. We had a couple of hugs, chatted for a bit and couldn't resist taking a selfie! Then sometime after that my friend's friend from Twitter and her friend - I know, that's a lot of friends - turned up and she was really cute and nice, as was her friend.
By now the queue was starting to move down now and we were all standing up and waiting. Eventually the time came for doors to open and oh my god we were all so excited! Once we'd rounded the corner and were getting our tickets checked, I could barely contain myself. We were finally inside and we headed to the lockers before joining the crowd. We were really lucky to be right in the middle of our row which was exactly where I wanted to be since it would be directly in front of Luke (insert winking emoji). The most disappointing thing was when everybody was in and the room started to get overcrowded people in the back of the crowd began to push forward and everyone was far too squashed. There was an insane amount of complaining and I'm sad to say it only got worse when the support act came on.
The support was called Mike Dignam and he was really good and a very talented artist. I thought he looked a little bit like Alex from All Time Low, haha. It was quite difficult to enjoy his set though as the crowd was awful and so many people were getting taken over the barrier because they'd fainted or were going to faint. When his set was over there was a lot of shouting and arguing among people in the crowd, people were continuously getting taken out over the barrier and agitation levels were high.
But then the time came for 5 Seconds of Summer to come on stage and when they did I can promise you I have never screamed so hard and loud as I did then. I couldn't comprehend it that they were REAL! It was insane. I completely forgot about the terribleness of the crowd and I was totally overcome with emotion. I couldn't cry full on because I was screaming too much and I would've had to sit down, but I was half sobbing. I was so so so happy. I made eye contact with Luke for like a whole minute and then twice more during the set. I was singing my heart out and screaming and was having the best time of my life. I made eye contact with Michael too, eeeeee!! They played some brand new songs that no one had heard before and that was so cool because we were the first ever to hear them since it was the first date on the tour. They played Good Girls Are Bad Girls which is one of my all time favourite songs of theirs. It was so emotional when the eventually came to the end of the set and finished with Try Hard.
After the gig I queued up for merch and purchased a red and white baseball style T-shirt and a pack of photos that the band had signed. Then we collected our stuff and went outside to wait for them to come out. It took over an hour for them to come out and all the while the excitement kept building. We spoke to one of the security people and she told us that 32 people had been taken over the barrier because they needed to be which was absolutely shocking, although it was believable. I mean, what do you expect to happen when you cram a bunch of very hormonal teenage girls into a small space?
Finally they came out and as we watched them walk down the stairs slowly I gripped my friend's arm so tightly and squealed. As soon as he came out Michael came straight over to us, grinning like he was genuinely happy to see us. I had my phone out and he saw and was like, "Hey! Do you wanna take a picture with me?" and I was like "yes please!" so we took a cute selfie and then he took one with my friend. I gave him my ticket and he said "Do you want me to sign it?" and I said I did. I asked him if I could have a hug and he was like "Yeah, of course!" and oh my god ahhh it was just so surreal.
I cried on the way home and I was in quite a daze the next day. It felt like a dream - a really, really, really good dream. I honestly had one of the best nights of my life there and I am incredibly grateful that I was able to go to. 5 Seconds of Summer mean so damn much to me and I'm so thankful for them and it was amazing to finally see them and meet one of them.
Thanks for reading!
