Happy Monday! If you follow me on Instagram you'll know that today is our dog Aurora's 1st Birthday (she's technically my sister's dog but we all live together so she's more a family dog). I got up pretty early, well early for me!, after not being able to get to sleep until ridiculous o'clock in the morning, so that I could watch Aurora opening the presents that my sister bought for her. It was worth being really tired for the rest of the day though to see her tearing open her presents and ripping up all of the wrapping paper! She was so excited, bless her! I got her a mini birthday cake made especially for dogs, and a squeaky-toy plushie of a cupcake, which she loved! Out of all of the lovely new treats and toys she got, she loved a two-pack of balls the most, and wouldn't leave them alone all day! She was also pretty frustrated that she couldn't hold both of them in her mouth at the same time, haha. I spent the rest of my day doing a little more towards decorating my new bedroom, and soon we can start painting and preparing to put up my new 'feature wall' wallpaper. I think I've finally settled on the one I want :) Whilst tidying my bedroom, I spotted my gig tickets from when I went to see Steps & Vengaboys almost two weeks ago now, and thought to myself why the heck have I not blogged about what an fabulous gig it was yet!? So that's what my post for Blogmas Day 18 is going to be about. I hope that you all enjoy reading! Also can you guys believe that in a week today it will be Christmas!? Omgosh yay!
So as my ticket says, I went to see Steps, with a special guest appearance from the Vengaboys, on Wednesday 6th December at the Echo Arena in Liverpool. I'd never been there before and it's always super scary for me going to new places, but it was a great venue and I was so happy with our seats. We were on the floor level but they'd covered the standing area with seats, which is another thing I've never experienced at a gig. I'm either in the stalls or standing, so it was interesting. I'm always worried that I will spend an entire gig looking at the back on someone's head because I'm only 5'2'', but luckily there were no super tall people in front of me at this gig! You go to some venues that don't have the big screens at either side of the stage, but I was delighted to find that this gig did! I would have hate to have missed the spectacular show that Steps put on for us!
The show was absolutely incredible, well the entire concert was! My wonderful friend treated me to a ticket for my 25th Birthday earlier this year and it was such an awesome present. I love the feeling of nostalgia I get whenever I listen to the cheesy pop hits of my childhood, and Steps and Vengaboys were two of the biggest pop & dance bands of the 90s! Everytime I hear specific songs by them, I picture my primary school discos: colourful lights projected onto the wooden floor of our school's hall (the ones that everyone would chase around because that is apparently a very entertaining thing to do, haha!), the sparkly sequined outfits that everyone would wear, the cheesy as hell DJ, & the room filled the snacks and sweets to buy plus those juice cartons that all the cool kids had to drink by biting a hole into the bottom VS using a straw! They were such a fun part of my life as a kid, and I definitely feel a mighty need to dance and singalong obnoxiously loud whenever I hear the popular songs of the time :)
Before I talk more about the gig, I wanted to mention some more about my time in Liverpool in general :) Please excuse this bad quality photograph, but we were in a very crowded area of Liverpool city centre and I took it super quickly! But OH MY GOODNESS, it's the Coca Cola Truck!! I had the iconic Holiday's are Coming song from the Christmas Coca Cola advert in my head for so many days after, haha! Both my friend & I had never seen the Coca Cola truck in person before so it was really wonderful and unexpected to turn a corner on our way to McDonalds to be greeted by this huge red truck! If all of the pretty, colourful, festive lights around the area weren't captivating enough, this sure was and if it hadn't have been so crowded, we would have stayed around to have a proper look. I found a Cath Kidston store, and I haven't been in one of these since I was at uni in Nottingham so that was fabulous, if only I wasn't saving up my money for everyone's Christmas gifts though!
The Echo Arena is situated right by the Docks and the Tate gallery, which I visited a few times with my digital photography course at college, and also a little when I was considering studying a degree at Liverpool John Moores uni. It's a really pretty area of the city, especially at night when it's surrounded by lots of twinkling lights, all reflecting off the water! If you're planning on going to a gig there, it's super handy that there's an Ibis Hotel pretty much across the road and the area is also close to the main shopping parts of the city :)
So anyway, back to the performances themselves. I know I've already said how amazing it was, but I'll just say it again for good measure hahaha it was a brilliant show! I was personally more excited for the Vengaboys, since they were my favourite of the two growing up, in fact the Vengaboys were one of my favourite bands when I was very young, next to Aqua of course who were just amazing and I still love them now! I listen to all of my most beloved Vengaboys songs still now, so I was very excited that I was finally getting to fulfil little Sarah's wish and see them live all those years later!
They didn't look like they'd aged at all, and they were just as full of life as I remember them! They preformed my absolute favourite song of theirs, 'Boom Boom Boom Boom!' and also some of my other best songs: We're going to Ibiza, Kiss (When The Sun Don't Shine) and Uncle John From Jamaica. I spent most of their part of the gig singing and dancing and thus I didn't get any photographs to show you. I was pretty sad that they were only a support act, but I was very happy to see them nonetheless. We also got to hear some songs from another performer called Max Restaino and he was really good. Me and my friend thought he would make a fabulous contender for the Eurovision Song Contest! #MaxRestainoForESC
I have to admit that I was a little not apprehensive, but I don't know how to describe how I felt, about what I'd think of Steps' performance! I loved quite a few of their songs when I was young, especially 5,6,7,8! but they weren't one of my favourites compared to other pop bands of the time like S Club 7 were. However I was blown away by how amazing of a show that they put on. The staging was incredible, with so many different lighting effects and backgrounds, all with matching themes and costumes. They changed their outfits so many times and it almost felt like there was a whole new look for each and every song!
When they first came out on stage, their entrance display was so so cool! For a second it was like we were at another concert, the whole thing had a very alternative vibe, like we were at a rock gig. There were dancers walking into the front audience and onto the stage dressed in floor-length crimson velvet cloaks looking very Harry Potter-esque. Some of them were carrying fire on sticks, and there was a cloud of misty smoke filling up the stage too! The screens were showing us images of beautiful old cathedrals, and then suddenly, the five Steps band members came out of the bottom of the stage dressed in the same crimson cloaks, which were soon pulled off to reveal fabulous bright red outfits underneath. It was all very grand and I certainly wasn't expecting anything as awesome as what we saw!
Again, Steps still looked as fantastic as they did back in the 90's and their voices were just as great! They were the best performers, very entertaining and comical :) There were so many colours and it was just one party honestly. Everyone in the seats around us was dancing and singing along, and the atmosphere was incredible. They preformed some of their newer songs from their 2017 album 'Tears on the Dancefloor: Crying at the Disco'. They of course sang lots of their greatest hits, such as 'Summer of Love', 'Tragedy', 'Scared of The Dark', '5,6,7,8', 'One For Sorrow', 'Better The Devil You Know', 'Deeper Shade of Blue', 'Heartbeat', 'Chain Reaction' and 'Stomp'.
My favourite songs of the night were Summer of Love and Tragedy, and my other favourites due to how fun and fabulous the stage effects and/or the performances themselves were had to be 5, 6, 7, 8 and Better Than Devil You Know. I just wish that I'd had more space to dance along to 5, 6, 7, 8 because I was so ready to attempt to line dance like a cowboy! Dancing along to One For Sorrow's chorus was great fun too! Let's just say my body and feet especially were very achy for days after this gig! I didn't want it to end though!
And, I'm now going to spam you all with more of the photographs I took on my phone during the show!
I was so over the moon that they did Tragedy as their last song of the night. They did that things that performers like to do where they disappear off the stage after saying their goodbyes and make you cheer and scream for ONE MORE SONG! It's always good fun though! I wasn't sure if they were going to sing it and I was a little sad because it was one of my all-time favourites. Their staging transformed into a giant triple-tied cake and they came out in wedding dresses and suits, and it was epic! I almost forgot to mention that during the show they displayed a huge 'Love Wins' sign in rainbow colours and I was so happy to be a fan of theirs so much more in that moment :') I would 10/10 go back to a Steps and/or Vengaboys gig if I ever get the chance. I hope that I do, and I can't recommend it enough for all you 80's and 90's babies, plus even for new fans alike. It was one of the best concerts that I've been to.
I hope that you've all enjoyed reading today's post and that I didn't ramble on too much, haha! I'd love to hear about which bands you loved as a child? And also what your favourite songs from Steps or Vengaboys was/is? Have a great week everyone!
Thankyou for reading!
♥
Have you been to any gigs this year?
& What was your favourite song that they preformed?
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