As soon as we stepped on stage, the whole show was a real rollercoaster ride of emotions. It was brilliant. We knew we had something to prove. People in the audience knew it too. We were so full of adrenaline, so supercharged that I think people could instantly feel it and from the first note, they were totally into it and already dancing and singing along, which to us, was the key to a successful gig. To have people connect with us and to sing along to our songs. We loved involving them the whole time. We hadn't been on stage in so long, and yet, we immediately felt so at ease. To the point that when we came to the end, we didn't even want to come off knowing we had to go back to the real world.
We first played "
Hurts like Heaven",
followed by "
Yellow
". When the song neared the end, Rob talked to the crowd as he kept playing,
"Well good evening everybody." he told them, "Thank you so much for being here tonight; that means the world to us. We came out here a bit scared, but to feel the vibe in this place tonight makes me feel like - you guys are great, and together we can do wonderful, wonderful things. We're gonna give everything we have, tonight, for you, and we hope you have a great time!" he strummed his guitar and added, "Now show me what you've got! Let me know you're out there! Show me what you've got!" he said, encouraging them to be louder and louder as we strummed the guitars and Damon loudly hit the drums.
'Turn it up, turn it up!" he said to us. The crowd went wild and we knew the gig was going to be absolutely awesome.
We then played three new songs live for the first time, "
Lost
", "
Talk
" and of course "
The Scientist
," which quickly became a big singalong. The audience left no choice to Rob but to stop singing because they were being so loud. He let out a giggle and had to really push his voice in the next chorus to sing over them. When the song ended, he said,
"Alright, seems like you really want to sing tonight, let's sing this one together." and we played the chorus again, letting them sing it as loud as they wanted to.
The album had only been out for a couple of months, and yet, they were singing the song as if we had been playing it for years. It felt like it was already a classic song. We smiled at each other, amazed at how much people already loved and connected to the song.
Nobody said it was easy
Oh, it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start
When the song ended, Jordan said into his mic, "Stop crying, Rach, we can see you!" I looked at him with a slight grin, knowing she would probably kill him for that later.
We then played
'Politik'
and as expected, Rob could not help but get back at Jordan. He stood behind him and acted in a flirty way as he sang the chorus "
Open up your eyes
" four times in a row. Jordan could not really do anything; so he just smiled and waited for Rob to move on as he tried to concentrate on playing as best as he could. Dylan and me watched them and looked knowingly at each other.
There were a few smiles and giggles from all of us but not enough for the public to actually notice what this was about. We had enough professional pride not to go too far and to not ruin the song for the fans.
We continued playing songs from her first two albums. The concert went on with "
Low, Clocks, Shiver, Trouble, In My Place
and
A Message.
" There was quite a lot of interaction between Rob and me during those songs. He would often look over at me or come over to me and wrap an arm around my shoulder as he sang, when he was not playing guitar himself.
After those songs, we went down the runway to a small cross stage at the end of it, on which we were to play a few more in an intimate set amongst the audience.
We were not quite ready to start playing the first acoustic song when Rob said,"Check this out, it's fucking good!" and began playing as few notes and singing the beginning of a new song called "
What If
"
He stopped and said,
"I'm joking, I should probably wait for the rest of the band....So we're gonna play a new song again. I'd like to say, we're quite proud of this song. It's personal, and inspired by recent changes in our lives. But if you don't like it, fuck it, just listen to the old stuff," they cheered so he said, "Here we go! This is "
What If
" hope you like it."
What if there was no lie
Nothing wrong, nothing right
What if there was no time
And no reason, or rhyme
What if you should decide
That you don't want me there by your side
That you don't want me there in your life
When the song ended, Rob spoke to the crowd again. He always enjoyed this, and so did they.
"So, this is something new we've been doing as a band. I know you think we only have sex, drink a lot and count money, but really, the truth is, we really just have a laugh and play music. And lately we've tried to learn new instruments. So Damon's learned the harmonica for this song. This is "
Don't Panic
!"
We played it acoustically, and when it finished, Rob spoke again. Being on the small stage in the middle of the crowd made it a lot easier to interact with the audience.
"We're gonna play "
Green Eyes"
, and we're gonna play it for Leighann on Instagram. But first if that's ok with you, I feel like we should introduce the whole band. We don't often... we never used to do it before, but maybe it would be nice to do that tonight!"
The audience got very loud as they cheered and clapped.
"Yeah, so let me introduce my awesome bandmates to you! So, first I'm Robbie. I used to be married to George Michael as most of you know. He was sweet but things didn't go so well!" he joked, as a way to say that he was gay.
"I'm one fifth of our band. I don't know why the media always seems to forget this but everyone is equally important in this band so I think it's time to start acknowledging the fact that there's five of us and not one or two of us. We've been gigging together for, I'd say ten years now, the five of us!" they screamed and he added jokingly, "Yeah, that long. And if you had to hang out with me and Jordan for that long, you'd realize how much of an achievement that is for the rest of these guys," he joked pointing at me and Dylan essentially.
"So you know, the plan was to become famous actors, or firemen, or doctors, or dentists, I don't remember, but none of us were really good enough. So we just said, 'Oh Fuck this, let's just make a band!' So that's what we did, you know, between crunching our abs and polishing our teeth, we've made songs!" he joked.
"Now to my left, first of all," he smiled wickedly turning to Jordan, " He's just the sexiest bass player you can ever dream of! He's like a cross between Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake, he's like Jordan Bieberlake! He's... I mean you'll never see his abs, but they're just delightful!" he said with a laugh.
Jordan feigned a bit of laughter. He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows a few times as he raised his t shirt a little.
"Oh there you go! Look at that!" Rob exclaimed. "See! Delightful! Yeah, he's just pure gorgeousness! Plus he's the best bass player I've ever met! There are better ones probably but he's my favourite! So he's crazy but amazing and he's a bit mad but he's sweet and generous and very kind. This is Jordan, our beautiful bass player!"
The audience clapped and cheered very loudly and I think Jordan was almost embarrassed.
"On the piano, we've got Dylan! So you may have noticed that we don't need Dylan on all of our songs. So, sometimes he just wanders off. He's like the ghost member of our band! He goes off stage, maybe has a cup of tea or goes and has sex with his many girlfriends, who knows? And then, he forgets to come back on when we do need him!" Dylan laughed and gave him the finger.
"Don't pretend that's never happened!" Rob laughed.
