Lonsdale Boys Club @ O2 Academy Islington

After seeing a link on the Orange Rockcorps twitter page, I quickly entered a competition to win meet and greet tickets to the Lonsdale Boys Club’s upcoming London gig. As I didn’t rate my chances of winning particularly highly, I forgot that I had even entered until…

On Wednesday 8^th August, I took a look at my phone to see I had a missed call from an unknown number. I called my voicemail to hear a message from Ben at Orange Rockcorps asking for me to call him back, as my mind tried to consider what it could be about. I swiftly recalled entering the competition and was ecstatic to hear that I had won!

Just under a week later on Tuesday 14^th, my good friend Vickie and I travelled to the O2 Academy Islington for our exciting day ahead. For the two of us, this day had been a long time coming.

Earlier in the year when organising our school talent show, we had booked for the Lonsdale Boys Club to come to our school to judge the show and to perform. After so much support from the boys, we unfortunately had to cancel their appearance and we were absolutely gutted!

Prior to this, I also took part in a feature called ‘DIY DJ’ on Fearne Cotton’s Radio 1 show whereby I had to choose a song by an upcoming band to be played on air, where I chose ‘Light Me Up’ by the Lonsdale Boys Club. The boys sent me a lot of love over Twitter for this and we had spoken every now and then on the social networking site ahead of the Islington gig.

So our moment finally came and we headed into the venue just after 6:30pm to go backstage to meet the boys. We were joined by 4 other girls who had won meet and greet tickets via other websites, including Becky and Sophie who we coincidentally also knew from our school.

I was not surprised in the slightest to find out that frontman Charlie, bassist Topher and Loz on the keyboard were all lovely! We had around 20 minutes with the boys were we discussed the previous talent show arrangements and my appearance on Fearne Cotton’s show, as well as the looming show that we were all so hyped up for. The boys were also interested to find out that we were from Chelmsford, the location of this weekend’s V Festival, where the boys will be playing on Sunday on the Virgin Media Undercover Stage, with an agreement that we would each be looking out for each other.

After leaving the backstage meet and greet area, we made our way to the stage, where we had prime position at the front. In such an intimate venue, we could not have been any closer to the stage if we had tried, even being able to perch on the edge of the stage to give our legs a rest!

With two great warm-up acts, four-piece alternative rock group ‘Dance A La Plage’ and former number-one singer-songwriter Josh Kumra, we were well and truly warmed up for the headline act. Chants of ‘LBC, LBC’ welcomed Loz, Charlie and Topher to the stage, alongside screams and cheers from the passionate crowd of fans.

Playing their former singles ‘Sista Shake’ and ‘Light Me Up’, upcoming single ‘Ready To Go’, as well as fan favourite ‘Hooligans and Hulagirls’, the boys had the crowd dancing and jumping for the whole hour of their set. With an insight into some of the tracks on their upcoming album, it stands solid that this group, signed to Gary Barlow’s record label, have a very promising future!

I’d like to thank Charlie, Loz and Topher for such a fantastic evening and for being such genuinely lovely people when we met them. Huge thanks also go to Cath at Charm Factory and Ben at Orange Rockcorps for making the night possible!

Topher

Loz

Charlie & I

As the BRITs draw closer...

It has become tradition within the past few years for some of the country's biggest artists to come together to perform at the BRITs War Child gig at Shepherds Bush, and this year is no exception.

Coinciding with the BRIT Awards each year, these gigs help to raise awareness for War Child, a very special charity helping to raise money for children across the world who are affected by war. By providing medical care,  education, a safe place as well as helping to protect their human rights, War Child work day-in-day-out in countries such as Uganda, Afghanistan, Congo and Iraq. In the past three years, these gigs have raised over £500,000.

2009 saw The Killers and Coldplay join together to put together a spectacular show, made even more incredible with two special guest appearances from two of the biggest names in music - Bono and Gary Barlow. Barlow started off the encore, performing 'Back for Good' with Chris Martin, whilst Brandon Flowers and Bono soon joined in to perform the Killers classic 'All These Things That I've Done'. The iconic lyrics: 'I've got soul but I'm not a soldier', echoed around the room as 2,000 fans sang along at the exclusive and memorable event.

In order to establish the post-BRITs War Child concert as an annual event, the show continued in 2010, with Best British Group winners, Kasabian headlining. The group were joined by Calvin Harris, La Roux and even Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding.

With a new year came a new venue, as in 2011, War Child moved to the Indigo Arena at the O2, showing how the concert is developing to grow each year. This year's headliner was Mark Ronson, who brought along many other special guests including Temper Trap, Boy George, Katy B, Ms Dynamite, Wretch 32 and Kyle Falconer from The View.

2012 sees the War Child gig move back to the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire. With a slight change this year, the concert will take place on Sunday 19th February - two days before the BRITs Awards Ceremony. After a hugely successful 2011, as well as having the most BRIT nominations with a fantastic four, Ed Sheeran tops the bill. Ed described headlining the show as 'an absolute honour', and the singing sensation will be joined by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Dry The River.

Who will follow in the footsteps of Gary Barlow, Bono and Boy George making a guest appearance at the event?

Tickets, that went on general sale on Saturday 4th February, are some of the hottest tickets around and will be the most magnificent run-up to the awards show on Tuesday 21st February.

The EsseX Factor

Having already been to Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff (just to name a few), this week the X Factor auditions finally reach London. The auditions for the 8th series of the hit TV show will be held at the O2 Arena in North Greenwich, where hundreds of contestants will be joined by brand new judges Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos and Kelly Rowland, as well as Louis Walsh - the only judge who has taken part in all eight series.

In previous years, Essex has played a huge role in the final rounds of the X Factor, and we hope that this year will be no exception! In 2009, Olly Murs reached the final of the series, coming second to Joe McElderry. Murs' debut album has gone two times platinum, with his debut single 'Please Don't Let Me Go' reaching #1 in the Official Chart. Now currently on tour with previous X Factor finalists JLS, Olly has been one of the biggest success stories from the past seven years of the X Factor, and one of the biggest celebrities to have come out of Essex in recent years.

And of course, 2010 saw Essex take the X Factor crown when Halstead's Matt Cardle beat One Direction and Rebecca Ferguson to become the seventh winner of the TV show. His debut single 'When We Collide' was the Christmas #1, and his forthcoming debut album, due to be released in October, is bound to be a big hit.

With stars like Olly Murs, Matt Cardle, and of course 2009 runner-up Stacey Solomon, putting Essex on the map throughout the past years of the show, we have big hopes that this can continue in the 2011 series of the X Factor, due to start in August.

If you are going to the auditions at the O2 this week (Wednesday 6th July/Thursday 7th July/Friday 8th July), keep your eyes and ears peeled for the talent that Essex has to offer!