Years & Years @ Birmingham Institute!!

So unless you've been living under a rock you've probably heard of 'Years & Years' by now. But incase you haven't they are an electronica trio from London consisting of singer/keyboardist Olly Alexander, bassist Mikey Goldsworthy and synth player Emre Turkmen. After coming top spot in Radio 1's sound of 2015 they've been everywhere at the moment and seem to be popping up on every festival bill for this summer. I've became a little bit obsessed with them so was gutted when I went to look for tickets and all the tour was sold out. Luckily for me I saw someone on Twitter with two for the birmingham date, the lovely human didn't want anything for them as he had tickets for another date and just didn't want them to go to waste. I really wanted to pay for the tickets but he wouldn't accept anything, so I was even happier to have tickets for free!! It's nice to know there are some genuinely nice people in this world who don't care about making a profit like the touts do.

So on the day of the gig Alice and I were both working so I met her from work and got the trian together. We went for some food and a couple of drinks before then headed over to the Institute, just in time. We were cutting it fine as usual so didn't see the support. There was another gig going on in the venue so it was in the downstairs room 'The Library', which was a nice smallish room with a balcony. We managed to get quite a good spot even though we were running a tad late. The band started with lasers beaming out into the room with a intro type song. Followed by 'Take Shelter' and 'Desire' probably two of the most well known tracks from the set. 

Singer Olly Alexander's vocals are so unique and pure and he sounded just as good live as on record. The wavers in the way he sings gave me goosebumps, especially in the slower songs such as 'Real' and a slowed down version of 'eyes shut' where he took to the keyboard. They played a few new songs that I hadn't heard and referred to the crowd as their Guinea pigs as they hadn't played some of them before. I was happy to be a guinea pig, all the tracks sounded fab and I'm certainly excited for their debut album to drop. 

They ended the set on their new single 'king' with the energetic crowd singing back every word. Olly's cute dance moves really added to their live set and they looked like they were really enjoying themselves. Their songs have such a summer vibe and I really can't wait to see them again dancing around in a field at festivals this summer. I expect big things from them and they've just announced a short summer tour, so definitely snap up tickets if they're playing near you or catch them over the summer at a festivial!

For the gig I wore my bitching and Junkfood bodysuit with my leather look lime skirt. I wore fishnets, my chunky kick push boots, vintage bag and layered chain and choker to accessorise. Earlier in the day I bought this amazing coat from work it was originally £100 but had gone right down in the sale and was now £38 but with my discount it only cost £22.80, how could I refuse. I'd had my eye on it for a while so was super happy to get it for this price and I think it works so well with the lime of the skirt. I will definitely be blogging the coat again (with better pictures) I didn't have much time to take outfit pictures so they're not the best and it was after the gig so it was dark and I do look a little disheveled (sorry)!

Bodysuit - Bitching and Junkfood via ebay 

Lime leather look skirt -River Island 

Kick push boots - La Moda 

Dogtooth Coat - Oasis

Fishnets - Primark 

Layered chain - Forever 21 

Choker - Primark

Vintage bag - Cow Vintage 

What I'm wearing.... Granny chic!!

A couple of weeks ago I got 3 absolute bargains from primark for only £10. A gorgeous gold floral printed skirt for only £3, some cute nude patent dolly shoes for only £6 and some burgundy/purple tights for only £1. As I lay them out for a picture I realised they actually went really well together so thought I'd do an outfit post with them.

It was quite a chilly day and I was going for casual so teamed it with another primark bargain I got a while back, this gorgeous blouse with embellishments to the front. I wore a vintage brooch to add a bit more detail to the blouse then covered up with this vintage beaded cardigan that my grandma gave me. I dug out my vintage cream patchwork bag to keep in with the neutral shades. Without even realising I've kind of dressed like a bit of a granny, but I like to think it's 'granny chic'. This skirt was so good for the price and could easily be dressed up with a more dressy top for the evening with some heels and bare legs. 

Skirt - Primark 

Shirt - Primark

Tights - Primark 

Dolly pumps - Primark

Vintage cardigan - Given to me by my Grandma

Vintage brooch - Charity shop

Vintage bag - Cow Vintage

Darlia Acoustic Session @ XFM Manchester!!

So last week I entered XFM's competition for an acoustic session with Darlia, then totally forgot about it. So I was surprised when I got an email at the start of the week saying I'd been one of the few chosen to go. I'd been to one of these sessions a few years back with kasabian which was great, as it's such a small set up. Maybe I am actually quite lucky even though I think I never win anything!

We went to the XFM Manchester studios just before the scheduled time as there was limited space in the building. There was only around 30 people in total, we were ushered through to a little room where Darlia were sat ready to play. Clint Boon gave a little introduction then the band started playing. They have a mini album 'Petals' out next week so played 3 tracks from that including new single 'I've never been to Ohio' and a cover of Chris Isaak's 'wicked game'. Nathan's grisly vocals were great and it was nice to hear the band on a softer level in an acoustic set up, and the new tunes sounded fab! After the session we got to have a little chat and a photo with the guys. They were playing the academy in manchester later on but unfortunately it had sold out before I got chance to get tickets so we couldn't go to that.

I wore a burnt orange pvc skirt I got in the sale at primark for only £3, bargain, teamed with a multicoloured jumper I got from a Charity shop. I wore spider web fishnet tights with my Nextranes. My tassel backpack is actually in the outfit pictures but I did take another bag in the end which is from cow vintage, so that's why it's different in the picture at the studio. It was fun to get to go this especially as there was only a few people there, I might start entering more things as my luck seems to be changing!!

Pvc skirt - Primark

Jumper - Charity shop 

Jeffrey Campbell nextranes - Office

Spider web fishnets - Topshop

Chokers - Primark

Tassel backpack - Primark

All Time Low/You Me At Six @ Manchester Arena!!

So at Leeds festival last year I remember going to the toilet and seeing a poster emblazoned on the wall for an All Time Low/You Me At Six co-headline tour, I was like 'say whhatt this is the first ive heard'. I'm usually quick on the mark with my gigs and hadn't heard anything about it, but it seemed this was a festival poster exclusive and You Me At Six announced it on stage at Leeds that day. I was so happy as they are one my favourite bands and although I'm not as big as a fan of All Time Low they are a band I really like, so this tour would be epic, and well worth the price of a ticket.

My friends and I always have so many grand plans for gigs but sometimes we cant always afford them when they go on sale. There were a couple of dates nearby so we thought we could afford to risk it and try get tickets nearer the time. As the event got closer we started scouring the Internet for tickets every day and I managed to get one for the manchester date for £30 slightly less than face value, so an abosukte bargain. A couple of days later my friends got theirs so we were officially going. It was my first gig of the year so I was really excited, I hate the time between the autumn/winter and spring/summer tours. I always like to know when my next gig fix is going to be.

I booked the weekend off work and headed up the Friday, I met the girls at the station and we headed to get some food and snacks. The weather was pretty grim so we decided to head straight to the hotel and slowly get ready. It's a good job we did, as we seemed to have all the time in the world yet by the time we was ready to go and ordered a taxi we were cutting it very fine.

'Walk the moon' were supporting but we didn't see them (shocker) but I did hear they were very good. As we arrived All Time Low were just starting so we hurried down to the standing area grabbed a drink and got a good space near the front. The setlist was really good with crowd pleasers 'Lost in stereo', 'Stella' and 'damned if I do ya (damned if I don't)' kicking off the first half of the set. By this point the crowd were in full swing jumping around and singing all the lyrics back. Lead singer Alex interacted with the crowd quite a bit throughout the set and at one point was shooting tshirts out of a tshirt gun into the crowd. They drew the set to a close with new single 'something's gotta give', 'the reckless and the brave' and 'dear Maria, count me in'. We really enjoyed the set and were definitely a little bit tipsy by this point and excited for You Me At Six.

Lead singer Josh from You Me At Six had broke his ankle recently but he didn't let that stop him, which I think is really good as some bands would just cancel the tour. He still put so much energy into the set and didn't let it effect the performance at all. Again the band started the first half of the set with some firm favourites storming on to the stage with 'room to breathe' followed by 'Stay with me' and 'Loverboy'. 

Halfway through the set was 'underdog' there's always a massive singalong and a great atmosphere when they do that song. Towards the end of the set they slowed things down with two of my faves 'crash' and 'fireworks'. I love Josh's voice on these slower songs and it's always a nice moment when the whole crowd have got their phone lights/lighters up swaying side to side. 

They went off stage then came back for an encore of 'Bite My tongue', 'fresh start fever' ending on 'lived a lie' with lots of gold glitter blasting out of confettis at the end, I love a good confetti cannon. Their set is a tad hazy (too much juice) but it was fab as always, I do get sad they cant do all the songs I want but I guess thats what happens as bands do more albums, they can't play for about 6 hours unfortunately. I have booked tickets for slamdunk in May though so I'm already excited to see them again headlining that!

I was a absolute idiot and dropped my phone at the end of the gig and completey smashed my phone screen, it's never happend to me before so the Friday the 13th curse really did get me. After the gig we went for some drinks and onto a club but I really couldn't tell you much more, we were very merry indeed! 

I know I'm useless at taking pictures when I go to events so I actually prepared for once as I knew what outfit I was going to wear. I took some photos at home so I could share my outfit with you. I did wear my extensions for the night out and a different bag as I didn't want to ruin my lovely fur clutch but other than that it's the same. I got this fab jumpsuit a few weeks ago by Loving Youth from their concession in Topshop and it was an absolute steal in the sale at only £7! It's velvet with wide legs, a halterneck and its backless. I blinged it up with some layered gold chains and wore some chunky cleated sandals. Ive got my mint green fur clutch in these images and tied that in with my fab new turquoise blazer from oasis that I am absolutely in love with, I adore this colour and basically my whole current uniform is this colour!

Velvet jumpsuit - Loving Youth @ Topshopk

Layered necklaces - Forever 21

Cleated sandals - New Look

Fur clutch bag - Topshop

Ponte jacket/blazer - Oasis

We had such a good night (apart form my phone smashing) it was nice to catch up with the girls and get back into gigs. I need to get even more planned. I am going to see 'Years & Years' next week which I am super excited for, so keep an eye out for a post all about that soon!!