The Vamps // Concert Review

As you guys may know from my Instagram and my post ‘Concert Anxiety’, I went to watch The Vamps in concert for the third time at Manchester Arena last Saturday. This was possibly one of the best concerts that I’ve ever been too. And yes, I know that I say that about every concert I watch, but it’s true! They just keep getting better and better!

I got to Manchester around 3pm, even though the doors weren’t due to open until 6pm. This was because I went with my good friend Orchid (this is not her real name, I’ve given her a nickname for anonymity purposes) and we wanted to take part in some sort of ‘hotspot hunt’ by The Vamps. Basically there was multiple hotspots across the city and the more you collected, the more chances you had to win prizes. Of course we joined in, but my anxiety levels at this point were a little sketchy because I’m not very good in busy places. I needn’t have worried, because we had a great time walking around Manchester and it gave us a chance to get some sweet pictures from around the city.

We got to the Arena at 6pm, but we had to wait a while before we actually got inside, because of how many people were in front of us, but it just meant that we got to enjoy the sunshine for a little bit longer. Once we made it through the security, we did the usual mad rush for merchandise and food. We soon made our way to the seats, which turned out to be so ridiculously close to the stage that we could see the support acts and The Vamps on the side of the stage! About 5 minutes after we took our seats, the lights went down and the first of the four support acts began to take their place on the stage.

The first support act was a band called :PM, who are an Indie-Pop band from Yorkshire. I had never heard of them before so I was curious to what they would be like. After they played a couple of songs, I felt like I could really relate to them. I could especially relate to their song ‘Feel like a fool’ which is about loving someone who loves someone else. Some of you who have followed me for a while will know how disastrous I’ve been with love and so I really connected with this song. Overall, their music is really good with an almost ‘Arctic Monkeys’ vibe to it, and I highly recommend them.

The second support act was HRVY (pronounced Harvey). He is an English singer who came into the spotlight from YouTube. I had heard of HRVY before, but most of that was Orchid fangirling all the way to Manchester about how excited she was to see him on stage. Orchid also felt it was necessary to grip onto my arm and scream into my ear when HRVY came on stage, which to be honest is understandable. As for his music, it wasn’t exactly what I would usually listen to but I enjoyed what he played and it pumped me up for The Vamps.

The third support act was New Hope Club, who are a British Pop-Rock band. Now I had definitely heard of this band before because they had supported The Vamps at the last concert that I had attended and I absolutely loved their music! They are quite similar to The Vamps in their music style but unique in their songs, which are very catchy. I also find them quite easy listening, so I don’t have to be in a particular mood to listen to them. At the concert they sang some of their original songs and performed some covers. Overall, I really enjoyed their set and highly recommend them.

The final support act was Jacob Sartorius, who is a 15-year-old American singer. I must admit that I didn’t really understand who he was before the concert, and only really knew him as ‘a kid who got famous on the internet’. I didn’t particularly enjoy his performance at the concert, but this is basically because I’m not particularly into his type of music. However, I can understand why people like him and they probably enjoyed his set more than I did.

After the support acts finished there was a brief interval, during which music videos by The Vamps played in the background. Everyone in the Arena sang along to all of these songs and it was almost as if we didn’t need the actual band, because we all knew the words and were screaming them at the top of our lungs. This is going to sound weird, but it was in that moment where I felt like I knew everyone in that Arena, purely because we were all singing together and all had one thing in common; we loved The Vamps. Not long after the lights went out and the whole place erupted into screams of excitement. The next thing we knew, a spotlight was beaming onto the drum-set and Tristan was doing a drum solo. The best bit however has to be when the other three bands members rose upon the stage, all back to back.

This tour was for their ‘Night and Day’ album, which is split into two editions: The Night Edition, which was released last year, and the Day Edition, which is due to be released on the 13^th July this year. They played songs from the Night Edition, and some as yet unreleased songs from the Day Edition, which I really enjoyed and can’t wait to be released. They also played songs from their albums ‘Meet The Vamps’ and ‘Wake Up’ which was great because it meant that I knew the words to the majority of the songs that they played, so I didn’t just have to scream incoherent words instead.

About halfway through the concert, a surprise guest in the form of Conor Maynard appeared on stage and sang a remix of songs with The Vamps. This got a bit confusing because as I tried to sing along, the songs kept changing so I kept getting the words wrong, but it was still fun to try. Maggie Lindemann also came onstage to sing ‘Personal’ with Brad Simpson and also to sing her own song ‘Pretty Girl’ which I also really enjoyed, and it was like having a mini concert within this concert.

It was just after this when The Vamps did their #BeOnStageWithTheVamps section of their show. #BeOnStageWithTheVamps is a competition that they help on Twitter where concert-goers tweeted their seat number in the hope of being invited on stage during the concert. When the two winners were chosen, they went on stage to get hugs and a picture with the band, but the best part was that New Hope Club (one of the support acts) also went up on stage, but dressed up as three girls; Matilda, Brenda and Rosie.

Far sooner than I think any of us wanted, the concert had started to come to an end and The Vamps had begun their encore. Towards the end of their concert, the lead singer Brad gave a speech about what an honour it was to ‘return to our incredible city’ and seeing ‘a group of people with so much strength, and resilience, and love’ and dedicated their final song to us. It was ‘One Last Time’ by Ariana Grande.

This concert almost marked a year since the Manchester Attack and it was such an incredibly beautiful rendition of the song, as they played it on the piano and everyone lit up their phone lights. Many people were moved to tears, including myself, and it was something that I will remember and take with me forever.

To say that I loved this concert would be the understatement of the century. Every time that I have been to a Vamps concert, I always found myself to be incredibly uplifted for days after, and my mental health always seems to improve. This time was no different, as I had such a wonderful time with Orchid and made some amazing memories that will stay with me forever.

So this is my review of The Vamps concert that I attended on the 5th May. If you enjoyed it, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

See you guys soon,

An Anxious Gal