One of the great advantages of living in Birmingham, is the vast amount of venues there are in the city, all hosting great artists, and boy have I started making the most of this fact!
When myself and Emma booked to see Theme Park at HMV on 21st March, it never really crossed my mind that I be able to meet the band to, as after all I was going purely to see them perform and enjoy their music with my friend. However on the day of the gig I emailed the head of music at Scratch and asked if they had any contacts, and a few emails down the line, that morning I had a confirmed interview for the afternoon.
We got to the venue nice and early, and Oscar from the band invited us to sit with him and the support bands while we wait for the other members of the band to turn up, it was surreal. They all offered us food and drink and we were sat down, chilling and joking with the bands, knowing that in a couple of hours we would be watching them all on stage.
Once the boys were ready Marcus and Oscar followed myself and Emma to a smaller room with a comfy leather sofa, where we started chatting about the Birmingham night life and drinking games (nothing serious just general student chit chat) while the boys drunk a beer before the show. However this little chat got cut short when Security came and moved us, so we resulted to continuing the interview in a hallway, which we were then again moved rather rudely this time, which got us all laughing, where we had to continue the last part of the interview in yet another hallway.
However these disruptions just made us all more relax, as it was like friends just chatting and walking round the venue, rather than a formal interview. Which is what I enjoy, I even told the guys that I was going to be asking casual jokey questions, rather than serious ones, which the boys agreed they much preferred.
After lots of disruptions and laughs about grumpy security we said our goodbyes and looked forward to seeing the band perform. In what was a very small room in HMV (The Temple Room) the support started to play, including the magnificent London Grammar, who were “Greg James’ Record of The Week” that week, so they definitely got the crowd excited for Theme Park.
There set was a short 45 minute set, full of songs from their new album, and their old E.P, which proved very popular with the older fans, especially when their final song, which I believe to be their best; Two Hours played, this completed the gig with everyone dancing and singing, portraying how fun Theme Park’s music and the band itself are!