Arriving at the Oxford Regal this evening, you see a lengthy queue of One Direction fans in a twisty line around the side of the venue, past a bus stop and a number of houses.
The light shower of rain, that had occurred about half an hour before the audience was allowed in to the venue, had not dampened the spirits of the 1000 strong crowd of girls (and some guys) as they waited to see the 5 guys that had made it to the final 3 in 2010’s X Factor.
As the queue started moving in to the Regal we made our way past people selling One Direction merchandise such as flags, posters and there even was a stall selling hoodys and mugs.
We entered the venue and got a wristband to say we are over 18 and could purchase alcohol, not that we did, and we made our way to where the fans we standing patiently waiting for their favourite boy band.
While the fans stood waiting, the man controlling the screens at the side of the stage, though it would be humourous to flash a picture of Harry, Louis, Zayn, Liam and Niall up for a split second, causing the crowd to scream. He did that various times throughout the night with different pictures of the guys, he did this while chuckling to himself, I think he got a kick out of it.
Out of the 5, yes, 5 support acts, (Zoe Kelly, Lattice Constant, Out of the Blue, Red Lights One and The Scarletz) the act that stood out most and really got the crowd on side were Out of the Blue.
Ben, James L, James K, Ollie, James, Nick B, Selali, Danny, Dave, Alexei, Nick F, George, Sam, Dom and Chris. Saying all those names is a mouthful, so as a collective their name is Out Of The Blue, they are Oxford’s premiere, all male a cappella group.
They really got the audience on side with their covers of such songs as, Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ mashed up with Justin Timberlake’s ‘Sexy Back’, Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’, Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggity’, Alexandra Burke’s ‘Bad Boys’, the Mack Rice hit ‘Mustang Sally’ and the Kings of Leon’s ‘Use Somebody’.
Out Of The Blue’s songs can be bought on their website - http://www.ootb.org.uk/
After a long 3 hour wait, One Direction finally came on stage to performed their set, which I was shocked to find out was only 20 minutes long, at the most. It really didn’t feel like a short set as they performed some of their favourite songs they performed on the X Factor.
The first song they sung was Coldplay’s ‘Viva La Vida’.
The crowd of screaming fans were singing along to the hit record and the gaggle of fans right in front of the stage was moving as they were desperate to get closer to the 5 heartthrobs.
As the guys finish the Coldplay hit, Harry removed his jacket and they went on to do a new song, ‘Forever Young’, which was to be their winner’s single.
Since the final of the X Factor from the minute One Direction were announced as 3rd place runners up, their version of Alphaville’s song, was leaked immediately on to You Tube and instantly became a fan favourite, many people said it was better than Matt Cardle’s winners single AND Rebecca Ferguson’s ‘Distant Dreamer’.
Due to the song being leaked on the Internet and it being a cover, almost the entire crowd was singing along, apart from the few who were at the very front being squashed. It was obvious that if this song was released, it would go straight to number 1; it just makes you feel uplifted and good.
After they sang what would have been their first number 1 single, the 5 reality stars sang ‘Chasing Cars’.
When performing the Snow Patrol hit, the 5 teens just stood there, flawlessly, seeming like they were putting real emotion into the song, every girl in the audience was stood there watching, wishing their favourite member was singing it just to them.
When they were done with Chasing Cars, they did something that would not normally happen at any other gig on any other day; they got the crowd to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Harry, as he had turned 17 the day before. The guys sang along as well and Harry looked a bit embarrassed but over came that when he started singing ‘Happy Birthday to me’.
Harry blew air kisses and gave massive thanks to the audience for their song to him and the guys went on to perform a crowd favourite, ‘Torn’.
This song was the first and last song they performed as a group on the X Factor. As soon as they announced that they were singing Torn, the crowd erupted, as it has become somewhat of an anthem in the One Direction fan base, ever since they performed it at Judges Houses.
The final song they entertained the crowd with was their cover of Rihanna’s ‘Only Girl in the World’. The audience roared when they heard this was the song they 5 guys were singing (with the obviously gender specific lyric changes) and when getting to the chorus the crowd turned in to a mini rave, with Harry, Louis, Niall, Liam and Zayn getting into the song and joining in on the mini rave from their places on the stage.
As their final song ended, One Direction left the stage and so ended the 20minutes of their set, which left quite a few fans miffed as they felt they needed to perform longer. I don’t think it was only the fact that their set was really short that got to the audience members, but also One Direction came on later than they should have, so the crowd was left waiting to see their idols, longer than they should have, a lot longer actually as the gig was rescheduled to this date due to the finalist’s going on a last minute trip to L.A.
The all round gig was good and although One Direction were on for a small amount of time, they really entertained the crowd and proved that they are going to go really far in the business that is show, they might even do better than Matt Cardle. We will just have to see what treats for our ears their debut single and album brings us.
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