2016 IN CONCERTS.

I've always loved taking photos at gigs. I used to sneak my DSLR into venues - sometimes even with my giant zoom lens - and never once got caught. One time I was fifth row at the Radio 1 Teen Awards and ended up with some great photos of One Direction and Taylor Swift. It seems funny now, because multiple times this year venue staff during bag-check have told me that my little Olympus E-PL7 isn't allowed because it has a detachable lens and that deems it 'professional'. (What does that even mean, anyway?) Nonetheless, because I am me, and am remarkably persuasive when I want to be, on every one of these occasions I managed to convince each staff member to let me bring the camera in regardless (mostly I exasperate them and they just give up, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do). With that, allow me to present to you some of my favourite photos from the various gigs I attended this year (fifteen in total, but only nine of them feature in this post), taken with the aforementioned ~forbidden camera~.

YOU WERE DANCING TO YOUR FAVOURITE SONG.

Summary: a much longer post than really necessary about seeing The Maine in concert and getting to meet (4/5 of) them after the show. Also, hi, welcome to my first post of 2016.

A few weeks ago I got an email from Eurostar saying there was a sale on for travel up until the end of January. Within ten minutes I’d used my Christmas money to book a train and had planned a weekend trip to England at the end of the month. I’d been pretty sad about the fact that I couldn’t go and see The Maine while they were touring the UK but with this trip booked it meant I could finally go and see them live. I was PUMPED.