The Vamps Wake Up Tour | Meet And Greet & Concert

On Saturday, 16th April 2016, I went to see The Vamps on the last night of their UK leg of the 2016 Wake Up tour at Manchester Arena.
I was lucky enough to have the VIP package, which included a signed lanyard, a meet and greet and photo experience with the boys, and the best seats at the concert.

At around half past 3 we were let into the arena and lead into a room down many flights of stairs to the meet and greet room. We were told the boys would be coming in an hour – the time went quite quick for me as I spent it with my friend Lily who was lovely to see again. At our meet and greet, there was double the amount of people as usual because the original Sunday night show had been cancelled, so the two nights were merged into one. I was worried this would mean we would get less time with the boys than the other nights of the tour – this probably was the case, but it wasn’t too bad.

The boys entered the room and everyone screamed. It was quite different to last years meet and greet – there was a lot more people in the room watching you, but when I was meeting the boys I blocked everyone out and it felt like it was just me and them.
When it was my turn, I went up and hugged them all – James first, because he was on the left. I said to him; “Hi, I’m Erin” and he replied “Hi, I’m James”, which made me laugh a lot afterwards. Next was Brad, who gives the best hugs ever. I then hugged Connor and Tristan who both said that it was nice to meet me.

I then went in the middle of the boys for the photo – I was between Brad and Connor which I was really pleased about because they are my favourites. I asked for a group hug for the first photo. Then my mum joined me, and while she came I told Brad that I had handed in a drawing of him – if we wanted to give something to the band, a box came around before the meet and greet started. I told him to look out for a red bag, which my drawing was in, and he said he would. I really hope he received my gift and likes it.

Then, for my second photo I held hands with Brad and Connor. It went really quick but it was amazing. I’ve done the meet and greet twice now and I’ve loved it both times, but I’m not sure I’ll do it again next time unless I got a lot more time with them.

We were back into the arena by quarter to 5 so I went to purchase my merch – I bought a programme and a t-shirt. We then waited around in the arena for an hour because although the VIP package included early entry, we couldn’t go to our seats until the doors opened at 6 so it was a bit pointless really. When we finally got in, the view from my seat was incredible – I was sat in block 115 row B.

The first support act, Hometown came on at about quarter past 7. I had seen them before supporting McBusted and I was actually quite impressed by them. Next up was Conor Maynard who was really good and really got the crowd going. He performed cover medleys and four original songs; Can’t Say No, Animal, Turn Around and R U Crazy. The final support act was The Tide, an American band signed to The Vamps label. I didn’t really enjoy their performance very much, especially because Conor Maynard was so good before them.

The Vamps came on at around 9pm, and started their setlist with Rest Your Love. The crowd went crazy, of course! Their stage had a really long runway, which Brad loved running up and down to touch the hands of many lucky fans. The set continued with Cheater, one of my personal favourites.

Because it was the last night of the tour there was many pranks throughout the show, including The Vamps’ mums and sisters surprising the boys on stage during Somebody To You, and all the support acts and Brad running on during Tristan’s drum solo wearing many neon glowing items.

One of my highlights of the show had to be the song Volcano – Tristan’s rapping was amazing! I also really enjoyed Windmills because that is my favourite song off the Wake Up album.

Wild Heart was another highlight of mine – Brad starts the song alone on his piano which was a really memorable moment. Can We Dance and the covers medley as always was really good too.

Before the penultimate song, Stolen Moments, Brad gave a lovely speech to thank everyone for getting them to where they are today. His family were right in front of me, and as I watched Brad give his speech, I could see his mums face; she was so proud and at the end she got a bit teary which made me start crying a bit too. I was so emotional during the performance of Stolen Moments, not only because it is quite an emotional, slow song, but I am so proud of what they have achieved.

They ended the concert Wake Up – the first single off their latest album. The concert was the best concert of The Vamps I’ve ever been to – I couldn’t stop smiling all the way through! I can’t wait to see them again for many more years to come.