Sometimes life gifts you with unique opportunities, like a
ticket to see The Vamps at The O2 the morning of the concert. Well, why not? I’d
seen the band a number of times before, but admittedly always ‘by accident’, in
that I’d be going to see a different artist and they had been the opening act
or special guest, or part of a festival line up. Finally, I had the opportunity
to see the band as headliners, so off I went.
One thing I can certainly say, being someone who has spent
far more money than I’d care to admit on concert tickets, is that you certainly
got value for money with this gig with not one, but three opening acts, plus
the headliners themselves. This was practically a mini festival! First of these
was boyband :PM, who reminded me somewhat of Oasis with their talk singing
style in which their Yorkshire accents could clearly be heard.
They played three rather rocky songs – Grown Ups, Feel Like A Fool, and Driving Me Crazy which I imagined to be the perfect anthems for
some of the angstier teens in the audience. I’ve never been in a band, but I
can imagine the thrill of getting to play somewhere spectacular like The O2,
and so one thing that really shone through for me with this band was their
genuine happiness at being there to play for us.
Next up was HRVY, and my goodness, the screams as he came on
stage! Admittedly, I could soon see why with his near perfect vocals on a cover
of Ed Sheeran’s Perfect. Man, that
boy can sing. It turned out he could dance too, and whilst I’m pretty sure some
of the songs were lipsynced too (which I don’t have much of a problem with,
provided the artist puts on a good show and has proven that they can actually
sing – dancing is tough work!), the performance was very enjoyable to watch.
He mentioned that one of his tracks, Personal, had just hit 1 billion views on YouTube, a pretty impressive
feat for someone relatively new to the music scene, but it was clear why with
the catchy lyrics on this and new track Hasta
Luego. The Spanish influence of the latter picked up on the popular trend
we see in songs like Camila Cabello’s Havana
or Justin Bieber’s Despacito, so
no doubt will get stuck in your head the moment you listen to it. If the stars
align, HRVY is going to be big. Justin Bieber, and indeed The Vamps, you’d
better watch out!
He was followed by New Hope Club, a British three piece that
brought home the fact that the tour organisers had done a good job of
highlighting homegrown talent, as three of the four acts on the bill were
British. I enjoyed their set – they have catchy (albeit repetitive) pop songs
that are easy to sing along to, as the crowd happily did; and capture, as young
popstars do, the experiences of teenagers and young people today, and no doubt
what they listen to. The set was only five songs – Fixed, the ‘Grease’ inspired Tiger
Feet, and three new songs Let Me Down
Slow, Crazy and Why Oh Why, but
it left us all wanting more. Again, another act I see going far.
The next act was the first that I had heard of, and if the
screams for HRVY were loud, those for Jacob Sartorius were equally, if not even
more, loud. Again, I think he prioritised the performance over the singing as
there seemed to be instances of lipsyncing on the more dance-heavy songs
(although I cannot say for certain), but we did get to hear him sing on songs
like his cover of Lauv’s Like Me Better.
His original songs were certainly for the millennial age
with tracks like Hit Me Back, Hang Me Out
To Dry and Hit Or Miss about people
not replying to your texts or how short the summer holidays are. However, the
boy is only 15 and I’m not sure lyrics I would have written at that age would
have been much better… Regardless, he got the crowd engaged and hyped up, as
any good opening act should do!
We then moved onto the main act, and the screaming
continued. Admittedly, I’m more used to more reserved concerts but it was clear
that the audience could not wait to see the band, and the energy in the arena
was high. As the drums beat for the countdown, I took in the cool staging with
a huge screen at the back in front of a marginally slanted stage on which the
drum kit sat, and then three microphones on the flat section of the stage. The
boys rose from the floor of the stage, and the arena erupted.
We jumped straight into the bands catchy pop anthems like Can’t Get Enough, Last Night and Shades On. With
three studio albums already out and another one soon on the way, they certainly
had enough songs to choose from. It was clear the ‘oldies but goodies’ were
some of the favourites, as their debut single Can We Dance got the whole arena jumping, a trend which continued
for most of the night.
It was nice to just have the four band members onstage
without an extra backing band, and this gave them the opportunity to really
show of their musical skills, slowing this down for a more acoustic version of Middle Of The Night and bringing things
up a notch for new track Just My Type. It
transpired that they were filming a concert DVD of the night, and so we were
treated to a few special guests including Maggie Lindemann for Personal who lead singer Brad invited to
the stage for a little ‘dancey-dance’ as he said. We had a quick interlude as
Maggie sang her very catchy hit Pretty
Girl before the band took a moment to remind everyone of the recent four
year anniversary of their debut album.
Indeed, from the opening/guest act I’d seen a number of
times, it was nice to see The Vamps had made it to headline tours at The O2,
and I enjoyed reminiscing about hearing songs like Wild Heart which they’d played all those years ago and played again
at this gig. Their newer music is equally catchy if not a bit more mature like Hair Too Long which had a huge image of
Brad in a tuxedo projected on the screen as he sang.
Another special guest came onstage to rapturous applause –
Conor Maynard – who fans no doubt recognised from YouTube and covers with The
Vamps themselves. Together, they sang a mashup of songs to the tune of Ed
Sheeran’s ranging from No Scrubs,
Rockabye and Cheap Thrills.
As Brad ran off stage for a quick rest, guitarist James and
bassist Connor made their way to the front to play a song chosen by an earlier
poll which turned out to be their ballad Risk
It All. This was a great moment as concert goers raised their phone lights
to the sky, a scene I’m sure made for a great moment in the DVD footage.
Brad returned to the stage to take a moment to hug some
contest winners, although they didn’t stay too long and we moved on to some
more throwback tracks like Somebody To
You and Cecilia to finish up the
night. I took my attention away from the stage for a moment to revel in how
much other concert goers were enjoying themselves. All around me, people were
dancing (even in the steep seats!) and down in the pit, a huge group of people
had started a conga line. Music doesn’t really get much better than that.
We finished with a three song encore of Wake Up, Same To You and All Night, all of which were accompanied
by impressive pyrotechnics. It had been a great night, and even though here The
Vamps were playing The O2, something in the back of my mind said that they were
still underrated in some respects. Their music is equally catchy as those by
the likes of One Direction and yet they certainly haven’t achieved the same
success. Let’s hope that they’ll continue to shoot for the stars, produce great
music, and who knows, maybe become a global phenomenon.
I hope you enjoyed
today’s review! Make sure to stay up to date with all of my concert reviews and
interviews by following me on Twitter @CiarasCountry. Are you a Vamps fan?
Which of their songs is your favourite, and was there one you would have loved
for them to have played on tour? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for
reading!
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