When I heard that one of my oldest Jrock obsessions was going to be performing in the UK, less than a month after my 16th birthday, I almost felt as though it was fate. Normally, asking to go to a Japanese concert in London was met by laughing from my mum (KyaryPamyuPamyu's London concert last year for example) but this time, I had an excuse to go, yay~
So, a short time after Christmas, I invested money into the tickets, hotel room and train tickets, and started planning my outfit for the gig. Soon, I discovered another girl in my year was a MIYAVI fan and wanted to go to the concert, but had nobody to go with, so she ended up being dragged into coming with me and my mum (I may be 16 but my mum doesn't trust me in a hotel alone xD )
Finally, the day of the concert arrived, and I got ready to leave for London fully dressed in Sweet Lolita attire, something which I haven't come to regret thus far despite some interesting comments I received.
My Sweet Lolita co-ord for travelling up to London and spending the day walking around~~~~~ I'm a digital loli xD
Me and mum were up at 5am, with enough time to fully make sure our suitcases were packed, we had everything we needed ticket-wise, and we looked okay for a day of travelling through England's capital. We met Martyna (the girl joining us) in town at 10:45 and got the bus to Swindon, which got interesting reactions due to my outfit choice. In Swindon, we caught the train to Reading Station where we had to change for Clapham Junction. Once we reached Clapham Junction, we had to change again for Shepherd's Bush. Finally, we arrived in London and made our way to the hotel.
We left our belongings and had a minor freak out (mum had left her credit card in the cash machine in town before leaving for Swindon) but we managed to cancel the card and sort everything out. We then left the hotel and headed for Europe's largest shopping centre, 'Westfield Shopping Centre' where there was a lot of expensive designer stores and food courts. We did some shopping and went to Nando's (for those of you not in the UK, Nando's is a chicken restaurant that has become very popular over here recently and I'm not too sure why) it was my first time eating in Nando's and to be honest it was nice but it hardly blew my mind.
Me and Martyna in Nando's - I'm the one on the right obviously~ (ignore my face, me and photos don't go so well together)
After Nando's, we went back to the hotel to start getting ready for the concert... Martyna didn't have a change of clothes for the concert, but I had a whole Gothic Lolita co-ord to change into~
Trying on my co-ord at home before the concert~~~~~~
With my mummy~~ (Again, excuse the face, I was actually mid-laugh in this photo xD )
Then it was FINALLY time for the concert! By this point I was super nervous about it because it was my first concert in years and I was a bit scared of what people would think of my outfit. But when we got to the queue (which was so huge it went down the next street from the venue and then round a corner) we found that pretty much everyone was dressed in a Japanese street style, some were Fairy-kei, some Decora, a lot were Visial-kei or Gyaru, and there were also Cosplayers... sadly I was the only Lolita ahaha~ Ah well, it's good to be different~
Then, we got into the venue~
Suddenly, a wild MIYAVI appears!
I got some really good video footage (with pretty good sound for phone recordings) but my photos weren't as good xD
Photo-spam~!
Over all, it was such an amazing experience to see someone I admire so much perform live in my country, and his English was so great, I felt it really strengthened the performance, rather than having a translator talking over him the entire time he was speaking. MIYAVI is a true performer, he played his entire set live, with his amazing drummer, and sang every song with so much passion. It's reassuring to see after my blog post a while ago questioning MIYAVI's recent changes in musical styles, that he's still just as passionate in his music and his recent album seems to have gone back to his original sounds along with his newer work~
I won't be posting the videos to my blog, but once I've compiled the footage into one video, it will be uploaded to my YouTube channel. I haven't been able to do it recently due to problems with my laptop, but I'll be able to do it as soon as we get back to school and I can use the computers in my Media class~ Please look forward to it!
My highlight of the entire concert was the live performance of one of MIYAVI's newer songs, 'Cry Like This', as it was so passionate and included so much crowd participation. Everyone knew the lyrics and were singing along, and waving their arms in sync like a wave, it was beautiful. You could tell MIYAVI really appreciated it that everyone was singing and getting so involved, he didn't stop smiling through the entire show~
I sincerely enjoyed my time in London, and can't wait to go back soon for London MCM Expo in May~!
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