(Quick warning: my camera is very old and definitely not up to taking decent photos under these circumstances, so bear with me.)
And then the Script came bursting onto the stage. Their appearance was prefaced by a long video montage which I can't remember clearly but we all commented felt a little like we were being inducted into a cult. While this may not seem like a good thing, we came to the unanimous decision that if there was a cult led by Danny O'Donoghue then you could sign us all up, there and then.
Their set was full of energy from start to finish and the band were clearly buoyed by the crowd's reaction. The highlight of the concert was probably their best-known song and second single 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved'; after a short piano intro, the crowd sang the entire first verse of the song back to the band before they broke into it properly. The response from the audience was incredible with clapping and whooping which, at the time, felt like it might never end. Danny, Mark (guitarist) and Glen (drummer) looked absolutely overwhelmed and ecstatic. Even though it was immediately followed by their latest single - a much darker song about the death of Danny's father, 'If You Could See Me Now' - the mood didn't seem to drop. As Mark said, it is difficult to know when is the best time to play such an emotional song - "our albums are usually sold with razorblades and wine" were his exact words.
I won't recount the entire concert as; a) that is likely to be dull, and b) might ruin the set for anyone who intends to see them on another date of the tour, but another personal highlight was the song 'Nothing', which Danny identified as being about drunk-dialling an ex, urging the crowd to do just that as he sang and even going so far as to take a phone from a girl near the front before proceeding to sing the entire song to her ex-boyfriend down the phone. He manfully continued even after he "hung up twice...I had to try and ring him back while singing to a stadium full of people!"
The encore was like a force of nature. Starting with a less famous but one of my favourite songs 'You Won't Feel A Thing', the lights came up to show Danny standing up on the seating not far from where we were on the ground. He sang the song whilst walking through the seated audience and then down to the front of the standing area, touching people's hands and totally unphased by the numerous girls crying and trying to grab hold of him.
They finished with 'Hall of Fame', the perfect choice to leave the crowd on a high. The performance, for some reason, involved Danny bounding around with what looked like the Olympic torch in his hand (unfortunately, he didn't stand still long enough for me to photograph it)...an interesting choice, but it certainly worked.
All in all, an amazing night. I love basically all of their songs, so in terms of the setlist they could never do anything wrong, particularly since they played a mixture of songs from across their three albums. The performance was endlessly energetic despite mentioning that they were hungover - this didn't stop a stagehand dishing out bottles of Corona to the band halfway through the gig. The crowd interaction was great; not too much, but both Danny and Mark showed themselves to be witty and charismatic as well as wonderful musicians and performers. I am so glad that we scraped ourselves some tickets together, despite all of the more accessible shows being sold out...the extra driving time was definitely worth it, and a massive thank you to Charlie and her car Polly for getting us there and back safely!