This week, I took a few days out of my hectic work schedule, to go down to the big smoke, and see Hangry & Angry perform in a dingy little box of a venue, called the Camden Underworld.
Travelling down with my good friend Pete (sswishbone from H!O) on National Express, was made somewhat easier by the cunning use of a Laptop to watch We Are Buono 2010 winter show, followed by C-ute's Cutie Circuit 2008 - 9gatsu 10ka wa c-ute no hi, followed by the Hello Project 'Huge Battle in Hawaii' TV programme, filmed way back when Kago Ai had recently joined in 2000, where they took Morning Musume, Coconuts Musume, Melon Kinen-bi, T&C Bomber and Heike Michiyo to Hawaii and ritually humiliated them! A good vid, well worth watching.
We dropped our stuff off in our hotel, and went off to meet up with as many people as possible (turned out to be only 2 others, lol, X5-2000 from Norway, and Cdevil4, but we eventually became 5, when we met up with Caradoc from H!O in the Trocadero.
It became time to go home shortly afterwards, but the next morning - after a fantastic fry-up breakfast at the local cafe (full of builders, of course) - the day of the gig, we headed straight off to the venue - to see if anyone had started queueing yet.
Lo and behold, even at 11am, there were 2 girls sitting on the steps, who we later spoke to, and found to be a decent bunch - and only 2 of a larger group (I think).
Anyway, we wandered round Camden for a bit, and went for a coffee in the same Starbucks as Rika had been photo'd in, the previous day, before going back to the venue, where more people had appeared (CDevil 4, Chronik & X5-2000 included) and being true northerners, me & sswishbone persuaded them all to give up queueing and get into the pub next door, where we downed a couple of pints before going off to meet up with KRV, MarkRAWR & GinaRAWR, along with associated others - who included the infamous Chibilolli and Shirow.
I got my lovely Autographed Koharu Kusumi poster off MarkRAWR (which will have pride of place on my bedroom wall, when I can get a frame) and an A4 pic of Umeda Erika from GinaRAWR, which will also need framing ASAP, before Pete went off with KRV to collect Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!, then we all set off for the concert (well, we may have stopped off for food on the way, in Tokyo)
The concert its self was the next location, and we got there, with plenty of time to spare, and crashed 1/2 the queue, meeting back up with all the people mentioned earlier, along with Madlandyman and his lovely wife, and we finally got into the gig.
Right, from this point on, for the next hour and a half, it was all a blur, I can't remember the playlist, I can't remember the temperature or anything else, except the fact that the gig was totally awesome.
Yossie and Rika (or should that be Hangry and Angry) we utterly divine - even better in the flesh than in any photo, and they really rocked the joint.
I spent a good 10% of the gig not in contact with the floor at all, as I got the urge to jump in the air as high as possible, as many times as I could, whenever one or another of the girls looked my way, while thrusting the correctly coloured glowsticks in the air as high as they would reach, while chanting 'hai hai hai', or 'hey hey hey', or even just shouting their name - it was like a fever overtook me, I just couldn't stop!!
As this was my first proper H!P (or loosely based) event, I don't think I was really prepared for the full impact of my Idols being so near, and the frenzy it would send me into. I guess this is what it is to be wota - and after this event I can say that I am at last at home!
The gig ended much to soon for me (mentally that is - I wanted to carry on being hyper, but I was physically exhausted by the end, and was glad of the chance to stop before I keeled over dead), and then the chanting of 'encoru' started - I think I was one of the ones to start it - or I like to think so, anyway - and they came back on, and did The Peace - and I was at it again!! Boing Boing Boing lol.
After the song, came the Q&A session, and the chance for some lucky bastards to get a 3-shot, or a signed poster. I'm not a lucky bastard, it seems.
Finally it was all over, and everyone headed to the pub, and there we chatted for another couple of hours, people from just about everywhere in the UK, and a few fans from Japan all met up for what should have been the real Eurowota 2010 meet!
The whole evening was a triumph, I made new friends, and met old ones, and had a bloody good time, and I really can't wait for the Morning Musume concert in Paris, and especially can't wait for my trip to Japan in october. The whole thing is going to be a revelation for me.
Anyway, the next morning, several of us met up again, and hit London for a spot of shopping at the Japan Centre, then we wandered to Tokyo Toys (again walking in the footsteps of Yossie & Rika), and then off to our seperate destinations, which meant Victoria Bus Station for me & Pete, and another long bus ride home (ending up being 7 hours, due to traffic problems) once again made easier by concerts, and PV's on my Laptop (thank Maasa the battery lasted all 7 hours on my Laptop!)
I expect my next update will be in a month, when I come back from Paris.
One last thing - S/mileage released their Major Debut Single this week, titled 夢見る15歳 - and I must say, it's bleedin' amazing.
These girls are going to go a long way!! They hit No5 on their first days sales, and sold out in many places, which sadly affected their 2nd days placement I expect, but for a first non-indie single, it has done well.
Thanks to GauBan2501 for the video of Hangry & Angry, and smileages for the PV of S/mileage - Yumemiru 15 Sai
4 months ago
