London again, with a little bit of The Killers.

On Thursday I made the trip to London once more. Arranged to met up with friends at Euston tube station behind the barriers... but then they didn't show up. Cue mass stress session of running around Euston tube station looking for them/wondering where they could've gone etc etc. After 10 minutes, I decided to say "screw you" to their lateness and made my own way to Gloucester Road. Coincidentally we met in the same tube carriage on the Piccadilly line on the way there.. freaky meet up #1. Chinatown for lunch ^___^ Hand-made dumplings. Bubble tea. BBQ pork buns! Yummy laaa. We'd decided to go to Comedy Store in the evening, so at this point had like 3 hours to kill. The next 3 hours involved splashing about in Trafalgar Square, buying Pimm's in cans, walking along South Bank, drinking Pimm's from cans, spending too much money, ICE CREAM, walking back to Leicester Square, playing on a beautiful piano with some keys which didn't work, chillllin'. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, made for happy times.

We got into The Comedy Store at 6.30pm, John Bishop was the MC, which was nice as I'd seen him on the Manchester leg of Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow.

Another one of the comedians, Stewart Francis was also there tonight, having also done the Manchester leg of the Roadshow. What was disappointing was that I'd already heard many of the jokes he'd used.. so obviously less funny for me at times. This was my second visit to The Comedy Store, and Steve Williams was on the line up again. And he used some of the jokes from last time.. again. Nonetheless, the line up was great, especially the ones closing the first and second parts of the evening. The open spots were also highly entertaining, I admire them for having the guts to get on stage in the first place! The show finished at around 10. My cheeks hurt so much. Finished off the day with some noodles and finding out Michael Jackson died. Can't say I am very opinionated on the matter, just another person dying, circle of life blahblah. Glad I'm not one of those people who bought a concert ticket! I think it's ridiculous that they are blaming London for his death. Ugh.

This next day. Was Hard Rock Calling. Stocked up on food, we trawled through Hyde Park to the arena. Reminded me of being at Reading again.. The forecast said thunder and heavy rain.. But throughout the whole day the sun was shining and it was sah-weet. We started off in the smaller Pepsi Max tent, and got right to the front for the first 4 bands. First was a band called Screaming Lights. Due to the late start up, they only played about 3 songs. They looked young, and are probably quite new to playing a big event like Hard Rock Calling, and so obviously it was in the singer's nature to throw a hissy fit when the keyboard sound went off in the middle of one of their songs, and throw the keyboard and stand across the stage.. After which he sang very angrily giving evils to the rear sound stage.. no idea if this was intended or not pfah... But yeah. I'm pretty glad they fucked off. Next up was Air Traffic. I'd say I'm quite a big fan. Though they played a lot of new songs, I enjoyed their set. Popular ones like "Shooting Star" and "Charlotte" had a great reception. plus he had a cool keyboard which was clear with fairy lights :D Silversun Picksups were up next. Never heard of them before but I really enjoyed watching this band. Good energy and songs. The guy's voice was quite feminine, which was surprising given his shaggy look. Metric was the last band we saw in the Pepsi Max tent. Apparantly they are pretty big in the American indie scene, so there were quite a few american fans in the crowd. It was nice hearing a female vocalist for a change, I think it suited the music really well. Lots of photos were taken, draining my camera battery.. which finally died during Metric. But I'm glad I got some good close ups of small bands instead of shitty photos of the big bands.

Next up was The Kooks on the main stage, who were pretty good. They had an hour long set, so it was enough to play all the favourites as well as some new ones. The music was so fitting for the mood and weather, it definitely psyched everyone up for the headliners.. "Naive and "Eddie's Gun" were my favourite songs they did. After they went off stage, there was a 45 minute wait for The Killers. The crowd was getting thicker (if possible) and more excited. Finally, the foursome came on and started their set with "Human". It was amazing, they sounded amazing, the crowd was amazing, and Mr Brandon Flowers looked amazing :) I think I nearly cried when "Mr. Brightside" started after he told the story of how the band and the song came to be. Truly a great day. And much better than the first time I saw them at Reading last year, though at that gig they played "Sam's Town (Abbey Road Version)" whichismymegafavourite.. The concert finished with "When You Were Young". It was incredible.

And then I had to make the horrible journey home:

• Walking through Hyde Park alone, when it's almost pitch black with a fear of the dark and not really knowing where I was going
• Constantly scared that someone is going to start chasing after me, so I had to power walk for 30 minutes back to Xin's and then to the tube station once more
• So tired on the train that I almost slept through the stop I was supposed to get off, only woken up by someone saying "Is this Hemel Hempstead?" on the train and me thinking.. FUCK.

However there were some good things like

• the fact I got to the train early so that I got a seat. 5 minutes before it was due to leave they shut the doors as there was too many people
• having a the number of a taxi company so I didn't have to wait in the huge queue for a taxi
• I'd just had a brilliant two days :)

PHOTOS FROM HARD ROCK CALLING