ChartBlog Goes To Switch Live Part 1
If there is a better, more exciting sound than 4,000 voices screaming along to 'Ruby' by the Kaiser Chiefs, just because it's a song they know and they're really, really pleased to be where they are, even though the event itself hasn't really started yet, I've not heard it.
Greetings, ChartBloggerer! You join me in the main auditorium of London's Hammersmith Apollo, at the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Switch Live event. I've been here since 10am, but most of the people in the audience have been here for FAR longer than that. Some have even camped out overnight, so that they could be sure of getting right to the front when the bands came on.
Which definitely gave this whole thing the air of a siege, only a siege in which the invading army are going to do nothing more than deafen you and jump up and down if there is a TV camera nearby. That's my favourite kind of siege. And they've got banners and home-made T-shirts too, which is extra-cute.
Anyway they're safe and in the warm now, so you can hardly blame them for getting over-excited.
My mission today is to try and capture what it is like to wander aimlessly around at an event like this, looking for points of interest to report back on. In order to do this, I've had to train for weeks, honing my milling-about muscles and training my gossip snout to be able to recognise the difference between a famous person's collectable junk, and a roadie's snotty tissue.
So far, I have seen Fall Out Boy's bass guitar, but played by a roadie and not Pete Wentz. I have also seen Kelly Osbourne carrying a red stripy stick around with her. It's not quite a cane, not quite a walking stick, and could even be mistaken for a roll of wrapping paper. Nevertheless, she was twirling it around, and generally acting like she was about to use it to point at the headlines in a class presentation of some sort.
We'll all be doing it soon, you mark my words.*
I have also seen several people carriers with blacked-out windows, driving through the gates and off towards the stage door. I would be natural to assume that these contain some of the famous people who are actually appearing, but there's no real way of knowing. I have therefore decided to imagine that one of them had Madonna, David Blaine, my mum and Kermit The Frog in, and another contained the re-animated skeletons of the English Kings Edward II, Henry III, James I and Charles II.
Well it passes the time, dunnit.
Also, in a bizarre twist of fate, I've ended up playing the role of a bouncer for Switch presenter Tom Deacon. He's filming some introductory bits and bobs for next week's Switch on Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú2, and apparently my tiny, friendly and charming physique fitted the bill for a skit they were doing about a great big, grumpy bouncer. I would be offended by OMG I'M GONNA BE ON TELLY!
Right, my gossip snout is twitching. Time to rummage. Back soon...
Check out the Switch Live site...
* It was for limbo purposes. How did we not guess?
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