So, here’s what happened in Cardiff! I’m waiting for pictures of the show from my friend Ana (who has a great camera) and I’ll add them soon. In the meanwhile, check out our meet&greet picture and my story. It doesn’t contain any spoilers of the actual show.
On Monday 11th me and I friend Ana landed in London, where we came straight from Barcelona where we had been watching a Formula 1 grand prix. We took a train to Cardiff and walked to our hotel The Big Sleep hotel, which is located right next to the arena. At the hotel we met Dale from RachelStevens.com whom I’ve known for about a decade. We’ve worked together on numerous Rachel forums, projects and we’ve become great friends. It was so amazing to finally meet him and it felt so natural to talk to him, like we’d known forever. We chatted a lot about our expectations about the concert and how excited we were.
The day of the concert we went to pick up our tickets and after a little hassle (international stuff) got them. We both had a meet&greet ticket and I especially was so nervous! We entered the arena and got our laminated autograph signs and USB sticks, which are a shape of an S. The organiser was aware of who we were because of our (Rachel) websites and called us “Rachel’s friends”. We just nodded along, yes, that’s who we are :D There were about 20 people with the VIP pass and we were escorted upstairs to a room with the VIP background. The organiser told us about the procedure, like that we shouldn’t take too much time with the picture because otherwise the Q&A session will be shorter and that we are allowed to take our own pictures during the session.
When the band came in, my first thought was that they’re all so short! They looked amazing and very happy. I was the third one to go, together with Dale. I was so nervous! I walked towards them, said something like “Hi, I’m Saara” (I was supposed to say “Hi, I’m Saara from www.hannahspearritt.net, www.rachel-stevens.co.uk and www.sclub7.net” but I forgot!) I waved hi to Rachel, and Hannah immediately recognised me because we’ve met once before and she likes to visit my website so she pulled me next to her. She thanked me for coming and for everything I’ve done for the website and I think/hope I replied something, it’s all a bit of a blur :D We hugged and were still holding hands when the photograph was taken. Bradley also shook my hand and said something to me, I forgot what it was. It was so amazing and I was such an idiot :D After everyone’s picture was taken there was a Q&A session. The questions I remember included why did it take so long to reunite, are you going to be more stuff after the tour and tell us something we don’t know about you. After the Q&A Rachel came back to hug Dale and I for a second time, it was so nice of her! She’s so tiny and gorgeous!
I was literally shaking after the m&g because I was so excited! I don’t know why I was so nervous, they were all so nice and lovely. If I could do it again, I’d make sure I’d quickly shake hands with them all because now I feel like I accidentally ignored some of them because it was a bit rushed and I was so disorientated. After the VIP experience we had time to buy merchandise and hang around in the hall before the doors were opened. I bought the tour book which is amazing (scans coming up)! We also got to go inside before others.
My seat was in block 6, row G, which was right opposite the stage. Because it was higher up, the camera equipment was not blocking my view. I was sitting next to lovely people from the meet&greet, two mums with their sons. The mums asked me to say that I was next to two British pensioners who rocked and they totally did! Unfortunately Dale, Ana and I booked our tickets separately and we were also seated in different places. But we got pictures from different angles, which is great. After the support act there was a 30 minute break, time to get even more excited!
Then the lights went off for the concert to begin, it was so exciting! I hadn’t seen them live before because the first time round I was too young to travel to another country for a concert. I don’t wanna spoil much about the actual show, I’ll just say that it was absolutely amazing! The best night of my life. The Cardiff arena is not the biggest but the atmosphere was fantastic! Everyone was singing and dancing along. I couldn’t name my favourite part because I honestly enjoyed all of it. It was a special night because it was Lenny’s birthday and Jo&Bradley wished him a happy birthday. We also got him a card and gave it to Jo at the meet&greet. I really hope the show will be released as a DVD because I feel like I missed a lot, naturally I only have one pair of eyes and there are seven of them. To everyone who’s going, you’re in for an amazing show! To those who’ve already seen it, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!
