Well once I started to hear the line up for Capitals 'Jingle Bell Ball' for the O2 ticket hungry fiend that I am, I made a very poor error of judgment I must admit! But hear me out, when they first starting releasing the artists on the bill and they were bragging about the Sugababes (not a huge fan) but I have seen them at Hammersmith and a few years later at the Royal Albert Hall, both times they were great. THEN when they came to the O2 on New Year's Eve...er hello, what went wrong? I had work colleagues & friends coming up to me afterwards saying things like “please tell me they sounded better live than they did on TV”. No afraid not, they really did sound that bad, trust me there was no TV trickery involved. BUT Take That were fab and that’s who everyone was really there to see! Running on those treadmills n all, now how cool was that for a bunch of old fellas.
Anyway back to the 'Xmas Tree Ball Ball' as I kept calling it, so they started to beef the line up with a bit of Boyzone yeah and? Pussycat Dolls, eye candy but hardly killer tunes...The Script now we are heading in the right direction. Lemar, Fame Academy (where's that show now and how many talented artists has it produced) oh I know just Lemar and he didn't even win it, says it all. The Saturdays, got some catchy little songs, then an absolute show stopper: Will Young; bore off. I really thought fine I could live without this. Then every minute of every day on the radio, as a hardened Capital listener...they just wore me down. Panic set in so I immediately text a friend, surely they would have some spare tickets they wouldn't mind pushing in my general direction...even if it meant missing out on moonlighting as a ticket tout via the secondary market picking up 'slow on the uptake' plonkers like me?! I'm sure I will be in a position to repay them in some way some other day.
Excellent job done, I’m safe to carry on listening without living in fear of not going to the must see event of the year! So the line up started to get interesting, Scouting For Girls, Alphabeat etc! Exciting, it was fun listening waiting for the announcements. A few that I wasn't so worried about Craig David, Anastacia, Enrique Iglesias, surely they are from days gone past? Gabriella Cilmi, who, ok so she has one hit and does the song on an advert, soooo! Oh and not forgetting the Jame's... Morrison/Blunt nice, but is nice boring? Finally the major star that she is Riiiiiiiiiihanna! How that voice over in combination with that chilling music puts the fear of god in to you. You find yourself holding your breath before remembering with a sigh of relief that you're actually going it's all ok to breath out...then as smug as I am I start looking round in the traffic to see if anyone is passing out as they listen cause they haven't got tickets to go, ha ha ha.
So we get there, very front of the lower tier right at the back of the arena, what a pukka little view. Finally made my mind up that if you are going to the O2 no matter what (and I've sat in a variety of positions now) the basic golden rule is 'ANY' seat in the lower tier is better than 'ANY' seat in the upper tier. To clarify, even if that upper tier seat is in ROW A in a block right next to the stage, understood, good now that’s off my chest we can move on.
Sugababes were back to their good selves and reinstated my faith after NYE. The Script, Danny O'Donaghue how fit is he. They were excellent, I'm sure he said their equipment was held or lost or something at the airport, that clearly hadn’t affected them. Lemar, really good too. Scouting For Girls, knew they would be good seen them on TV a few times recently, although he didn't go too mad build it all up, then run round like a nutter (I like that bit most) Gabriella KillMe, sorry Cilmi is it. Awful and I wasn't the only one, the arena virtually emptied while she was on, it was so embarrassing. Pussycat Dolls clearly over their disappointment of The Saturdays getting their dressing room and put in a polished performance. James Morrison's Broken Strings was great with Keisha chipping in on the vocals (what a stroke of luck that was) I imagine he probably didn't know who to choose and spun a bottle or something (yeah right) phew luckily it landed on her ;-) Alphabeat, up beat, superb. Mr or so serious Will Old, I mean Young, Boyzone then Craig David...now what a surprise he was. Wasn't expecting a lot but he was really really good. Anastacia, kind of wondered what she was doing there, wasn't she performing at party in the park (so 4years ago) but hey can that woman rock or what, she was great. By far and away the best performer of the night, can't believe I am saying this BUT Enrique Iglesias. He was amazing, suppose I didn't really know what to expect from him but he really works the crowd well, just brilliant. The most gripping thing I've ever seen on stage was his rendition of Hero. Well words couldn't do it justice, everyone was fixated, it makes the hairs on my arms stand up now watching it back, intense. James blunt, bla bla bla and now I was really looking forward to seeing the Saturdays, I give them youngsters the benefit of the doubt. Lets just say there must of been a technical hitch and none of those ear piece things were working. The grand finale, Rihanna. OK she's a top star and did a fantastic set (maybe 5 songs compared to everyone else’s 2 or 3) but I had seen her in concert recently so the magic of the anticipation was lost on me. That said, I love her, her music, her boyfriend, her style, her her her and her.
