pay for concerts? bah

so yet again (in the space of 3 weeks) I managed to get some more free concert tickets. I'm starting to think that I have some special music powers when it comes to this...

however, this story is a bit more lengthy. I will do my best.

one of Chloe's friends, who works at Universal Records, called her on Thursday and said that if you were a person in the know, O2 was giving out free tickets to the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, but only to O2 customers. To gain free entry you had to go to an O2 shop and find a random looking guy outside who was giving out the tickets and persuade him that you were a long-time O2 customer who was very worthy of free concert tickets. Chloe went and got two for her and her friend, and then I went and got two more and took a friend from down the road.

We got to the festival around 6pm, but since we were really going to see Hot Chip, that was fine for us since they were just going on. We danced, drank, smuggled in cigarettes and had a merry time (especially once the rain stopped). Later on the same main stage Mark Ronson and Jay-Z played. Ronson was ok, but his show was more about what big names made 'surprise appearances' (like Lily Allen). Whereas, Jay-Z's show was amazing, the crowd loved him and sang along to everything, and was actually a lot more tame than the Radiohead crowd, which I thought was interesting.





Overall, free music and fun times is pretty great!

street style: glastonbury

large music concerts like glastonbury always amaze me. I've never been (mainly because the line-ups aren't always good and the prices are high), but I love to see what people wear to these festivals. What I love most about glastonbury is that is always rains and gets very muddy, so rubber boots become a necessary accessory, and you can see them appear in different forms in all the photos below :)


Stevie (Vintage dress, Topshop sweater, Highland boots, Louis Vuitton bag)


Chloe (Zara jacket, Uniqlo dress, vintage scarf and shorts, Dunlop boots, Linda Farrow Luxe sunglasses)


DJ Annie Mac (Barbour jacket, Insight tee, Levi's jeans, Tretorn boots)


Kelly Osbourne (Luella coat, Topshop dress, Gio Goi glasses)


Joe Lean from Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong (Vintage hat and jacket, Filippa K shirt, April 77 trousers, Paul Smith boots)

source: style.com

i'll take a quiet life

back in London. great weekend.

It took us 4 hours to get to Manchester from London, complete with moody conductors and train changes, but luckily we were whisked from the station and taken home where the smells of a grand home-cooked meal were already emanating.

Saturday night we went with SJ's Mom to see the new Narnia film, which I really enjoyed. Seeing it reminded me of reading to books when I was younger (and shyer) and imagining the possible fantasy world that I could live in. I was lucky enough to grow up in a magical landscape for a young girl with a wild imagination, and I would often pretend that the ruins of our barn were of an old civilization and that fauns and talking animals would emerge from our woods.

Sunday morning we woke up earlier to go off on a walk with SJ's Dad and girlfriend Martine. We ended up in Styal, a former cotton mill site surrounded by beautiful countryside.

vegetable garden in Styal

old cotton mill with water wheel

After a pub lunch (and praying for the rain to end) we went to see Radiohead at the LCCC! The weather finally cleared and the crowd was massive and really into everything.

Best songs: 2+2=5 and No Surprises for sure.
Best Radioheader: Thom Yorke (you can tell that he makes music he loves)
Best guest band: Bat For Lashes
Best non-music moment: SJ kicking a guy in the ribs after he tried to steal our "brolly" :)

Thom Yorke

Thom Yorke

Bat For Lashes (her clothes rocked as well, I want a sheer jacket)

A taste of the crowd

Now I'm back in London after a smooth train ride and catching up with everything. More updates later :)

P.S. Happy Canada Day

if you love me...

So through some weird twist of fate I managed to snag two tickets for the free Coldplay concert here last night and it was amazing! I didn't get tickets for it the first time around, but then some more became available and I snatched two!

The best part was that it wasn't a huge venue (they had it at Carling Academy in Brixton), so not only was it free, but it was also much smaller than their usual shows, and it was my first time seeing them live. Full capacity is about 5,000 people, whereas the capacity at Wembley (where they will have their paying concert in the winter) is 90,000. Big difference. The sound was great, the audience was great, and their new songs were great too (regardless of what other reviewers have said). I took lots of pictures and video, but not so much that I missed what was going on. Chris Martin danced around the stage like a kid with OCD, the lighting was simple, and he talked to the audience a lot, mainly joking about no one asking for refunds and the high cost of the tickets.






Set List:
Life in Technicolour
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
Viva La Vida
Chinese Sleep Chant
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
42
Square One
Trouble
Lost!
Strawberry Swing
Yellow
Death Will Never Conquer
Encore: Fix You, Lovers In Japan

All I have to say is, thank you Coldplay for a great (free) night out with you :)