A blast from the past - McBusted crash Ipswich

If anybody fancied a blast from their childhood (presuming you’re around my age), you should most definitely have gone to the concert Chris and I attended yesterday. Ipswich’s Chantry Park played host to AEG Live, which was a day made up of performances from Diversity, Scouting for girls, Five, Backstreet Boys, and McBusted!

Diversity were brilliant. I had forgotten how incredibly agile they all are. Since quitting dance as a hobby, back when I was 12, I have never really thought much of it. What I found especially surprising, was that they were performing at a music concert. They made it all worthwhile though, dancing to a live drummer and guitarist!

Next up was Scouting for girls. The first and last time I saw them was in October 2009 at the Girlguiding Big Gig, alongside the likes of Pixie Lott, Tinchy Stryder, and The Saturdays. At the time, they were my favourite band and, this weekend, they certainly lived up to my high expectations. For anybody who doesn’t know, the indie-rock band is made up of three childhood friends that formed the group in 2005. The great thing about Scouting for girls is that everyone knows their music. As with many modern bands, much of there music sounds the same (sorry lads), but that doesn’t stop them from surprising the audience every time! On Sunday, they carried out a fantastic rendition of 'Live and Let Die' which I absolutely loved as the song is from one of those music eras which I really enjoy. Of their own songs, they played the ‘classics’ including: ‘This Ain’t a Love Song’, ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’, and the slightly controversial ‘Posh Girls’. I always find myself on the fence with this last song due to the lyrics basically reporting the sex lives of girls from rich backgrounds, and it’s a bit weird to hear girls aged 12+ hollering them word for word; nevertheless, the way I see it there is a lot worse in the world and it’s all intended as a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun.

Five was far from what I expected, however. After splitting up 12 years ago, they have decided to try their hand at fame again. I have a few friends who happen to be fans of Five, with their joker boy attitudes and their typical boy-band style, and they are not alone. However, they seemed to pass me by when I was younger, and after Sunday’s performance I am amazed at how successful they were back in the day. It was Abz Love’s 35th birthday, and he had obviously intended on celebrating in stereotypical popstar style, as he was either completely high or very good at pretending! With my little experience of Five, I have nothing to compare Sunday’s performance to, however I was embarrassed by their behaviour (mostly Abz) because of their age. Several of them are parents now, and the prude in me strongly believes that they should be setting a good example to their children. Besides this, their choreography remained very out-dated and, if I’m honest, they hardly seemed on the ball with it all, almost dancing in slow motion with several actions which resembled a poorly recital of the Hokey-Cokey!
Regardless of my critical attitude towards them, I was also pleasantly surprised by how many of those nineties hits I knew – especially considering I would have only been four years old when they first started out! Everyone in the audience was loving the classics such as ‘Everybody Get Up’ and ‘If Ya Gettin’ Down’, slam-dunking their funk in the huge crowd! Perhaps they do stand another chance at being a famous group, but only time will tell.

Thinking about bands which started when I was young, I think the biggest surprise of the day for me were the Backstreet Boys. I’m a cynic, as you may have guessed, when it comes to music (everyone has opinions, right?), and I had my own ideas of what they would be like. I had never really given them much credit as musicians, assuming that they would be miming along to backing tracks and that would be it. That wasn’t the case in the slightest, however, as they were singing in harmonies and even playing their own instruments! The ‘boys’ said that they knew they wouldn’t be able to  “shake what our mummas gave us” forever, so wanted to make sure they had enough talent to keep an audience as they get older. Apparently their newest album is going to contain some acoustic tunes which, after this weekend, I am actually really looking forward to hearing!

Of course, the band we were all there to see, were McBusted! They have been defined by some as a ‘supergroup’ and, much as I think that term is somewhat over the top, I can’t help agreeing that they are brilliant! They lived up to their name, jumping around with more energy than I can dream of having (and I’m younger! How depressing…), and generally having fun. I love this approach, as despite the occasional crude song, the group were not promoting drugs and were just having a laugh with the audience. It may be because those audience members who have been watching Tom’s Youtube videos feel that there is a stronger bond with the band than with any other band, but I know I couldn’t help tearing up slightly when I was reminded of that famous wedding speech...

The video was pretty crucial to this particular concert, but I’m not going to say much more about it in case you’re off to Hyde Park this weekend. If are heading over there this weekend, haven’t previously seen it, and you have 15 minutes spare I would highly recommend you watch it!

If there is one thing I would do next time, it is save up and pay extra for special tickets, as the only thing which put a major dampener on the day was having a slight ‘argument’ with a group of women who pushed in front. Yes, as the women commented, you do expect behaviour like that. When you’ve been standing in the same place (no food/drink/loo breaks at all…) for 8 hours straight to ensure you don’t lose your space, however, you shouldn’t have to expect people old enough to be your mother (sorry mum!) pushing in. More to the point, when asked not to (I’m short. They weren’t.), they shouted at us. Seriously?! Clearly when manners were being distributed across humanity, a select few were missed… Needless to say, I do understand this takes place everywhere and believe that if I had had the money to purchase the ‘golden circle’ tickets, this may not have happened. I have so much more ranting I could do about this but I won’t, because I shan’t force any more on you, dear reader.

I didn’t manage to get any photographs, unfortunately, but many people did! If you want to have a look at some of the more professional pictures, then head over to Town 102 as they have a few brilliant ones! You may notice a couple of groups which I’ve not listed in this post, and that is because the weekend had different acts on each day.
There is so much more for me to post about over the next month or so, and things that probably should have been uploaded before this one, but it’s getting there! Expect a gradual increase in posts after my 6 month break from blogging, as I am hoping to get back into it, so keep your eyes open if you are interested in my ramblings at all!