"And this is the colour that represents very intense emotions on both the positive and the negative sides. It represents love and hate. It represents infatuation and jealousy. It represents curiosity and danger. And so if I have to pick one colour. One colour that represents all of the fleeting, incredible, terrible, sad, beautiful, tragic emotions that we go through when we fall in and out of love. London, if I have to pick that one colour to represent all of those things, I think the colour that I would pick, would be bright, burning RED. "
- Taylor Swift
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| The RED tour stage. |
When she announced her UK tour via a short youtube video, I could literally jump over the moon for joy. However, that ecstatic emotion quickly turned into disappointment when I couldn't get any tickets online due to my own carelessness.
Just when I had decided to give up, the sold-out Red Bonus Package was suddenly made available. Due to the price, I decided only to buy the tickets after much hesitation, which turned out to be a bad choice as it resulted in our seats to be pushed two rows back. However, looking at the bright side, I could finally realize one of my dreams since high school! =)
Honestly, it was the only thing (other than the obvious) that kept me motivated for the entire study break. The moment when I first heard her song Teardrops On My Guitar, I instantly fell in love with it. After listening to the rest of her debut album, I knew I would love her if she kept producing music like this. In fact, I could still remember vividly when I told my high school friends how amazing she was, but absolutely no one, no one had ever heard of her or her songs.
After what seemed like an eternity, the long-awaited day had finally arrived. Once we reached London, we went to Dinings for lunch. We arrived much earlier than our reservation time but luckily the waiters were kind enough to let us in. It was my first Japanese lunch over here in the UK and the food was absolutely tasty and satisfying.
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| Soft Shell Crab!!! |
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| The Wagyu Tataki Ponzu. =P |
After lunch, we went straight to O2 Arena to visit the British Music Experience, which housed a special Taylor Swift exhibition section. Later on, we lined up to collect our merchandise, which included a lovely blanket! As we took photos and walked around the arena, we couldn't help but noticed a lot of enthusiastic fans who came to the venue all dressed up as Taylor Swift completed with big fan signs.
Once it was time for us to enter the stadium, we were guided to our seats by a kind helper. Initially, we assumed that we were in the 16th row but to our pleasant surprise, our seats were actually in the seventh row and it was literally just a few steps away from the main stage. Some of the fans had already burst into tears even before the show began and there were two kids who could hardly contain their excitement and kept jumping up and down like nobody was watching. =)
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| Uniform from The Fearless Tour that I had no luck to attend. |
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| All four of her albums. =) |
The Vamps opened the show on time and sang for about half an hour before Taylor Swift took to the stage. Needless to say, endless screams exploded from every corner of the arena immediately when she first appeared from behind the curtain. She started with one of my favourite songs on the album, State of Grace, before welcoming and introducing us to her Red Tour.
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And I've loved in shades of wrong
We learnt to live with the pain
Mosaic broken hearts. |
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We had this big wide city all to ourselves
We block the noise with the sound of "I Need You". |
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| Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead end street. |
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Walking the streets with you and your worn-out jeans
I can't help thinking this is how it ought to be. |
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| Let me tell you now, you're the lucky one. =) |
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Someday I'll be living in a big old city
and all you're ever gonna be is mean. |
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You put your eyes on me
In this moment now capture it, remember it. |
After Fearless, she got onto a tiny stage that began to rise up while she performed my favourite song of all time Sparks Fly and it was definitely the highlight of the whole night. Before I knew it, the most unexpected thing happened next: the stage stopped right in front of me, and slowly descended down from the air. It felt surreal like a dream and that was the moment when I was grateful that I did not manage to get the fifth row or else the stage would have come down right on top of me and I would have missed this incredible moment!
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Drop everything now,
Meet me in the pouring rain.
Kiss me on the sidewalk
Take away the pain. |
"You have been so much fun, that the band and I actually started to call you Fundon, " she said before surprising us with the unannounced appearance of Ed Sheeran. She could totally be the only one in this world who could pull off such a lame joke successfully. Much to my surprise, Ed's entrance and the moving lyrics of Lego House made tears all well up in my eyes. It was no doubt the best night ever in my life up until now.
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And it's dark in a cold December
But I've got you to keep me warm. |
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| Flew me to places I'd never been. |
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| You tell me 'bout your past, thinking your future was me. |
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This love is difficult but it's real
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess. |
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And I'd be smart to walk away
But you're a quicksand. |
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| We're never ever ever getting back together!! |
CH's biggest fear that everybody in the arena would sing along with Taylor Swift came true in the end as expected. The whole night was indeed a warm and touching massive sing-along session because almost everybody knew every word to every song by heart. We did have the time of our lives and enjoyed ourselves tremendously. It was my very first concert in the UK and I still could not believe that I was really that lucky to be able to experience such beautiful moments.
The night ended perfectly with fans singing Sparks Fly in the tube all the way until we reached ZH's house. It was definitely one of the most awesome nights that I would remember for a long time to come. =)
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| The RED Tour. |
