Ouch, My Ears are Bleeding!!!

On Thursday the 2nd of December I went to see an amazing concert by two of my favourite bands Hadouken and Pendulum. It was at the NIA in Birmingham and was the loudest concert I have ever been too. It started with Hadouken the support act who really got the crowd going and had most of the fans moshing and going totally mental.

Then during the long wait between Hadouken and Pendulum loads of people were passing out because it was so hot in there. But when they finally came on they entered to genesis and then absolutely slaughtered salt in the wounds the bass was so loud it was vibrating everyones drinks, the stand, even my hair by the end of the first song i could barely hear a thing. Next on the setlist was The vulture, Showdown and an absolutely amazing remix of The Prodigy's Voodoo people. Following that came a brilliant performance of one of their latest hits Witchcraft During this i saw at least 10 or 12 people having to be carried out because they had either fainted or been knocked out in the mosh pits. Later on came The Island Parts 1 & 2 these were performed absolutely brilliantly and they managed to make it sound like it was all one song as it transformed from drum and base to heavy dub-step. 2 songs later and pendulum were at it with possibly the best song of the night with one of their classic tunes tarantula this was absolutely amazing and i didnt think they would be able to top it but i think they did with an amazing performance of blood sugar and when they came on for an encore they started with crush and then an absolutely spectacular performance of watercolour to finish.

Overall I believe this is one of the best performances i have ever been to and is most certainly the loudest The lighting was amazing, the bass was booming and the fans were moshing what else does one need at a concert like this???? I know, a lot of tissue to mop up the blood from his broken eardrums.

Casino Royale Variety Performance

Today we had the privilege of watching an amazing performance in the Gordon Vallins Studio called Casino Royale. There was alot of dancing, singing ,Mr Bean and WAGBO!!! It was very sexy particularly the female dancers. ;)
The best act was 'Abba' (not the swedish ones) who performed Money, Money, Money and had amazing harmonies (and great looking girls). The audience were not really any good but there was only about 10 of us. There was a ton of sexual innuendos and the gay lion tamers were hilarious and overall this is one of the best amateur performances i have seen. :)
There was a group called lost in the illusion their performance was absolutely spectacular and i was 'lost in the illusion' they had 2 faces on either side of their heads so you couldn't tell which side was the right side.

Final Piece: Culture Show

YAY!!

LINKIN PARK :)

On the 9th of November I viewed a wonderful gig by MTV's 'Best live act' Linkin park. The gig was at the LG arena in Birmingham. The support act were called Does it offend you, yeah and they played a sort of dance'y, Rocky type music with not very much singing at all they didn't really create much of an atmosphere and they didn't really 'warm up the crowd' but i thought there type of music had a good beat and was good to listen to.

During the break between the support and the headline acts the anticipation grew and the wait seemed more like 20 hours not 20 minutes but when the lights finally went down the atmosphere completely changed everyone screamed as Joseph Hahn (the 'DJ') came on and began to play The Requiem (from their recently released A Thousand Suns album) This was not the best choice IMO as the next song they played (Wretches And Kings) did not really 'fit in' but the rest of the gig was amazing and they delivered a very professional performance the highlight of the evening was not the 5 quid hotdog but Mike Shinoda's quality freestyling to Bleed it out and also Mike playing Iridescent on the piano was 

absolutely epic!

Overall I believe the whole performance reinforced the fact that they are the worlds greatest live act.

Tour Of Stratford: Big Red Bus and Shakespeare's Birthplace

Big Red Bus - On this tour we had to listen to a person speaking about the sights which we were seeing in the town and facts like when it was founded and things like that. I believe it was good because of the amount of information, but it was to concentrated and i didn't take it all in. It could of been better if it was a bit more spread out.

Shakespeare's Birthplace - During this we looked around the house where William Shakespeare was born and raised. This was very good because the guides who told you about what the rooms were for, were wearing the clothes that people in Shakespeare's time would have worn. This grabbed your attention and made you listen to what they had to say. In Shakespeare's garden There was a performance with two actors one was very drunk and his wife was pretty much just shouting at him a lot. I didn't really understand because it was very random and we were given no warning about this performance.

The Culture Show: Arctic Monkeys

Mise en Scene: During the introduction when Lauren Laverne was walking down the street they show all of the surroundings and it is shot in a very rural area with what i can only assume was the Arctic Monkeys Lorry parked at the side of the road i believe they did this to show their presence in the nearby buildings. Later on in the video they show the set of which they perform there song on and the Cameras and other equipment i believe they did this to show all of the work that goes on 'behind the scenes'.   

Sound: Relatively the only sound throughout was the music of the Arctic Monkeys and i believe they did this because it gives the viewer an insight into the kind of music they play.  

Lighting: During the Arctic Monkeys performance the lighting varied from being near pitch black to being almost fully lit up during the verses the lights were almost being switched on and off to the beat of the song, changing colour and position also. 

Camera Work: During the intro there was a lot of mid shots showing the crowd, the band members and when Lauren was walking down the street. During the interview there was a number of close ups on the two band members Alex Turner and Matt Helders there was also mid shots with both of them sat together. They obviously did this to show who was speaking and i also think they did the shots of them sat together to show how close they are as friend's. 

Editing: The cutting speed was fast throughout but during the intro there was some screen burns i believe they did this because the tempo of the music they play is quite fast and they show that by doing this.

The Audition Collective

Today we 'enjoyed' the experience of watching some second year diploma students performing a collection of auditions in my opinion they obviously hadnt had alot of practice because they did not know their lines and many of them were not very confident in front of an audience the crowd in this case our Creative and media group were relatively involved, clapping and laughing at some of the acts but overall i thought the performance was very unprofessional and poor especially for second years.