I had never been to a concert before, so I was incredibly excited about it. It was the 6th of April 2001 and I remember every detail vividly.

There was a long passage leading to the main hall, I was sure it would have seemed longer if there were fewer people surrounding me.  The doors on our right hand side were huge and had two people in luminous yellow jackets standing at either side.  As we walked in we had a little more room to move about.  We went to the back, and sat down on the hard, uncomfortable plastic chairs.  

For me Charlotte and Becky, it was the first time we had ever been to a concert, so we had no idea what to expect.  We waited for about twenty minutes until the support band came on stage.  They greeted the audience and told us that they were called Ten Benson.  Each member of the band wore a fish-net top and a green baseball cap.  We had already begun to walk down the stairs and into the main crowd by the time they started playing.  The noise was so powerful it began to make my ears tingle.  As we got closer and closer to the front, we could see the band a little more clearly.  They were such an energetic band; their act consisted of climbing on top of amplifiers and jumping off, whilst still playing their instruments incredibly well.  The drum beat was very powerful and so we were all compelled to dance.  When the vocalist began to sing on the second song it was clear that he was a very heavy smoker, but his voice was so intoxicating, I couldn’t do anything but listen to him.  At the end of each song there was a huge sound of clapping and cheering for the band, but it wasn’t until they started to leave the stage that the sound became like thunder.  They had played amazingly well and I’m sure that anyone who didn’t have their album already would own it within the next week.

When the band had left the stage and the lights came on slowly, people began to drift back towards the seats.  Becka, Charlotte and I, decided to do the opposite.  As people were leaving the front we moved forward.  We eventually managed to squeeze our way right up to the front.  Various people were coming onto the stage, swapping leads about, tuning the lead and bass guitars, and trying to make the stage a little tidier.

 After about fifteen minutes the crowd started to force their way back to the front again.  I was being squeezed against the metal railings that were keeping the crowd from getting onto the stage.  Security guards stood in front of the railings, I felt envious of the amount of space they had.  It seemed so strange that thousands of people were all packed into a space like sardines and less than two feet away from them stood security guards who had all the space they liked.  The main band appeared and the crowed roared once again.  They were called The Darkness and I had only heard one track they had ever made, but I loved it from the first time I heard it.  They talked to the crowd for a few minutes, saying how great it was to be back in Wales and what a great crowd we were.  They started playing and the pain I was feeling as my ribs got crushed was reduced as I was distracted by the creativity of the band.  They were outstandingly good.  The drummer looked like he had just escaped from a mental institution.   He let out all his energy onto the drums, with his head moving up and down frantically and arms everywhere, he was so talented.  The lead guitarist/vocalist wore a cat suit with zebra print on it and a huge hole from the waist line up to the shoulders so that his torso was on full display.  He had shoulder length dark hair, and as he was playing his hair was flying about so freely.  His fingers moved up and down the guitar with such elegance and ease, and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy every aspect of the performance.  The bassist, on the other hand wasn’t moving much, he looked very serious and was concentrating on his instrument.  He played very well, and the bass line was very clear, which was unusual.  I was having the time of my life, and I didn’t think the night could get any better, until they played the one song I’d heard by them the week before.  It was called ‘Love on the Rocks with No Ice’, and it was played so much better live, than when I had heard it on the television.  The crowd loved them, there were people on other people’s shoulders, singing with the band and people were crowd surfing over our heads.  The enthusiasm from the crowd was so powerful that it seemed to give me more energy, so I danced and danced for the rest of the set.  When the band played their final piece the crowd all shouted for more, nobody wanted the night to end.  Eventually the band came back on to the stage and told us we could have one more song.  They played what was going to be their next single.  It was great, but when the song ended, I knew it was the end of the night.  The lights in the hall came on and the atmosphere was diminished.

As we wandered out of the hall with the rest of the crowd, I felt overwhelmed with happiness.  Ben tried to talk to me but I couldn’t hear him, I’m not sure if it was that the noise from the concert had slightly damaged my ears or whether it was the fact that so many people were talking around us.  As we got into the main reception area where t-shirts and posters were being sold frantically, my friends and I began to talk about the concert.  Everyone had thoroughly enjoyed the night; the only thing that had gone wrong was that Becka had lost her jacket in the crowd.  We all put our money together and bought her a long sleeved top to keep her a little warmer on the walk home.  We walked outside, said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.  As predicted, the cold wind crept behind me, Becka and Ben, reminding us of its presence every now and again, until we finally reached the warmth of our own homes.