Ellie Goulding's Delirium World Tour: A Tale of Party Petrol

Hello darkness my old friend

I have just recently returned from an incredible cross country journey to Newcastle ('Newcastle: The Incredible Journey' post to follow in due course) with my person B.  Although I'm sure Newcastle is a fine place to visit for no particular reason B and I were drawn to Newcastle for a very special occasion; the Delirium World Tour.  When my mother dearest asked me what I wanted for Christmas last year I knew exactly what I wanted... Ellie Goulding had released a new album and I was certain a tour announcement would follow promptly.  Not only did my mother manage to secure me 2 tickets to see Ellie but when she was only able to get seating tickets for Glasgow she recognized that seating tickets are reserved solely for the elderly, the very young, the lame and for those who were not fast enough to get standing tickets, and so she took her money elsewhere and purchased two standing tickets for Newcastle, Goodness Gracious she's amazing!

G, B and E

 Pre-Show

I wont go into much detail about the journey to Newcastle because this post is dedicated entirely to the ethereal angel princess that is Ellie Goulding.  So skip forward to Wednesday the 16th of March 2016 at 5pm.  Tensions were starting to grow a little as myself and B had still not quite perfected our concert looks and it was no longer an option to turn up to the Metro Radio Arena 4 hours early (in hindsight turning up anything more than an hour early would have been a little redundant) although I was doing a great job of Elsa-ing my feelings up #ConcealDontFeel.  I would like to point out that at this point I had British Summertime Festival flashbacks on a loop On My Mind (last summer my little sister prevented me from turning up 4 hours early, which totally wouldn't have been entirely redundant on this occasion, to see Taylor Swift in Hyde Park.  I thought I was going to miss Vance Joy (which I did, but oh well) and Ellie Goulding (Which I didn't thank god!).  

Ellie on the catwalk

B and I left the hostel entirely under dressed, warmed only with our excitement and our heartsong (Our heartsong is I Do What I Love by Ellie btdubs).  I thought I was going to have an aneurysm as B and I faced the classic conflict of getting a taxi despite the traffic vs walking despite not being certain of the directions, all the while I was becoming more and more aware of the time... Were we going to make it early enough to get good standing spots?  Were we going to have to claw our way to the front (#OnlyTheStrongWillPrevail) Was I going to cardiac arrest before we even got there due being emotionally overwhelmed?  Spoiler alert: we made it like 40 mins early and as we waited Outside for the doors of the arena to open (similar to the gates to heaven in my eyes) B and I began to speculate what Ellie was doing at that moment in time, Was she having a pre-show work out?  Was she having a pre-show freak out? was she preparing to invite B and I back stage?  I mean Anything Could Happen right?  I think I can speak for myself, B and  a girl standing on front of us that I will fondly remember as 'old smokey' due to the fact she lit up like 5 million times while we waited in the queue (I know what you're thinking and yes I can confirm that as The Platters would say, smoke did get in my eyes) It was all very exciting.  My blood had turned to ice and my goosebumps had gooebumps but then it was 6pm, the doors opened and we made our merry way into the arena.

Into the woods Metro Radio Arena.

B and I made a brief stop off at the whiz palace before joining the queue for the standing area and then suddenly I felt the weight of the responsibility we had for choosing our standing spots.  B and I concluded that we would place ourselves front row at the side of the mini stage near the end of the cat walk (This allowed us to get much closer to Ellie than front row of the main stage, this decision was also made in roughly 1 second as everyone quickly filed into the arena trying to claim the best spots... it was a lot of pressure but as Ellie would say: Don't Panic!  

No zoom needed

The first support act dawn the stage unannounced taking us all by surprise.  Their name was Lameeeeey Lany, their hair was attractively arranged was similar to a kitchen mop. Lany had their fun and honestly sang much better than I could have, however their music, to me, felt kind of generic and when he took it down a notch and sand a slow song all I could think was ugh We Cant Move To This #moodkiller.  John Newman was the next act, I had seen him before at the British Summertime Festival where he also sang before Ellie Goulding (my high school history teacher really was right when he said the past is always destined to repeat itself!).  Johnny boy came out and did a 10/10 job of pumping up the crowed, he sang all his hits #LoveMeAgain and walked through the crowed (I missed my opportunity to touch him as he passed because I was too busy trying to catch the moment on snapchat... 21st century probs.  However, B did manage to cop a feel and she can confirm that his arm felt like an arm, nothing more nothing less).  John Newman was good, he is hella talented and put on quite a show but I have to admit I was hit with a jot of excitement as his set concluded and he left the stage because this was it, it was Elleeee time!



A truly delirious experience

Hey gurl hey

So as they prepared the stage for her excellency I was becoming more and more delirious, the excitement was so much; I wanted to scream, laugh, cry and punch everyone else in the arena in the face and then hug them all at the same time.   As the lights began to dim and the Intro (Delirium) echoed through the arena I looked around at my fellow concert attendees and felt this great enlightenment; we were all about to embark on a spiritual journey together, its not every day you can say that!  As if by magic Ellie appeared on stage and the journey was underway!  I decided almost instantly that Ellie had the best legs I had ever seen, they were like study tree trunks but in the most beautiful way,you just knew they could support her throughout each dance routine, thighs as solid as a diamond!  Initially I was Holding On For Life to the barrier refusing to lose my amazing spot but it became apparent early on that this crowd was far more civil than the one at Hyde Park in the summer, I had marked my territory at the barrier and everyone seemed to accept and respect that.

Ellie sang some songs, as was expected of her, and then she stopped to chat with the audience.  Now this was my 4th time seeing the spellbinding angel princess live and I can confirm that she has become far more confident over the years #bless #TheyGrowUpSoFast.  One of her first exchanges with the audience went a little something like this:

Ellie: "I have 2 bottles on front of me... one is labelled water and the other is labelled party petrol!  Which one shall I drink?
Adoring fans: "Party Petrol!!!!!"
Ellie: "Okay I was trying to work out the vibes in here tonight but now I know *drinks party petrol*"
Adoring fans: "DOWN IT!"
Ellie: "I am not going to down it!"
Adoring fans: *chanting* "Down it down it down it!"
Ellie: *Not even entertaining the idea of downing it* *starts singing next song*
(Newcastle's irresponsible attitude towards alcohol made me feel like I was back home in Scotland)

And in her eyes I saw the answers to all of life's questions (Aka Codes blue, I'm dead)
The moment I had been waiting for finally arrived!  Ellie walked her way down the catwalk and right into my heart.  Ellie was right on front of me.  We were breathing the same air.  The only thoughts I had while she was standing before me were I Don't Need Nobody but you; You are the most ethereal person my eyes have ever had the pleasure of gazing at; I cant stop staring at you; I love you soooo much I Need Your Love in return; if not your love then I will settle for a simple smile and then she turned around and looked me directly in the eyes and all of my thoughts were Lost And Found.  

Ellie: *looks at me and B*
Me: *Dislocates jaw trying to express all of my feelings through the biggest smile there ever            was* *stares* *shakes* *waves* *Forgets all words*
Beth: *stares* "I love you Ellie!"  "You are so beautiful" "Your songs are so good!"

Actual angel #reversezoom

It was such an amazing experience being front row, within touching distance of the stage, at a concert (especially a concert for a singer you admire so much!)  It all seemed a bit surreal to see someone in the flesh that you are used to seeing on the TV or internet.  I was also vaguely aware that she really was just a person like anyone else, however; I cannot emphasize enough how ethereal Ellie Goulding is, there is honestly just something very heavenly/angelic about her.  Plus, having a singer look you in the eyes, ever briefly, while they perform makes you feel like every song is Your Song and she is performing it just for you and nobody else.   Anyway, after the brief eye exchange we had my heart burst and I died (#codeblue) and then moments later my heart did Heal and I was back to maximum enjoyment.  

Every song performed was gold, there was nothing I could do but scream, sing and Keep On Dancing, I felt like I had party petrol running through my veins! (I wonder if Old Smokey was enjoying herself?).  All of that dancing must have Burned off at least half of the calories that I consumed before the concert, at least!  Ellie's vocals were on point, her dancing was on point (Ellie there is just Something In The Way You Move, it's mesmerizing), her accent was on point, everything was 10/10.  I Figure 8 had she been more confident she might have spent more time out on the catwalk or the mini stage but part of Ellie's charm is her shyness and I honestly couldn't fault any part of the concert!  A particularly special part of the show was getting to experience Ellie perform Army live right on front me with B (a pivotal member of out own little 3 woman army which comprises of myself, B and L).  

The Aftertastemath
The concert concluded with Love Me Like You Do with Ellie performing on the main stage, catwalk and mini stage.  As the song ended there were Explosions of confetti from the confetti cannons which were positioned right on front of myself and B.  It was like showering in unicorn tears as the golden confetti smothered me and as the show came to an end B and I danced through the golden confetti as it rained down from the heavens.  We walked part of the way home singing all of our fave Ellie hits and that could have been the end of it but the story doesn't end here.  B and I do what we love and we love what we do, we weren't ready to let go of the Goulding magic yet and so after spending every day since last Wednesday talking about how much we want to see her again B and I booked tickets to go down to London to do it all again (if that isn't Devotion then I don't know what is).  And so it will be that in less than a week we will be seeing Ellie again in London and I cannot wait!  Some would call us crazy, I would call us young and irresponsible with out money but most importantly fun.

A classic G collage

So Ellie How Long Will I Love You?  I am going to say at least for another 84 years because thats how long Rose loved Jack and then maybe in the Aftertastelife we can reunite on a boat and everyone will clap and we can take that over that boat, one shot of party petrol at a time, Delirium World Tour 2K16 style!  Until then, I'll just see you on Thursday.

The moral of the story is:
1- It is kind of hard to fit a whole concert set list into one blog post
2- Do what you love and love what you do

xoxo 
Queen G. 

Links to some short clips of the concert:
Love me like you do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LemzJfcsJyI
Army: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Qg1tw4vbc
Explosions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS5DeLmOSyQ

The Squad Take Islay Day 1

The squad

On Thursday July 17th I woke up at 6am and then proceeded to work a 12 hour shift at work, now usually after my 3rd 12 hour shift of the week I come home, grab a snack, eat it in bed and then go to sleep and sleep for a million years.  On this particular day I returned home from work, grabbed your passport and my hand my rucksack and then B and I jumped in the back seat of S's (a fun friend who was quickly upgraded to a member of Edinburgh's more exclusive friendship group) car.  B and I both chose to sit in the back of the car because neither of us were feeling brave enough to battle with the constant intimidation that S radiates quite yet.  We journeyed to the far off kingdom of almost Glasgow to L's house and then after some very tense board game playing we retired to bed for the night next 4ish hours.  at 04.45 B's alarm sounded and she raised like a phoenix from the ashes to get ready for the great journey that lay ahead of us.  I was so relieved that I didn't have to get up yet and so I went back to sleep feeling #blessed.  At 04.53 my alarm sounded and I got up feeling far more refreshed than I had 8 minutes previous.  We had to leave L's house at 05.15 to start our journey and so at

#IWillGoDownWithThisShip

05.30 we were finally ready to go, 15 minutes late classic us.  We made a quick petrol and snack stop and I bought 2 multi packets of crisps, Irn Bru, a fun duck wrap and then panic bought belvita bars (#regrets).  I had been given full control of the music for the trip which was both exciting and terrifying since great power comes with great responsibility.  We started with some Leighton Meester to soothe us gently into the day, and let me tell you this: that song really builds.  By the end of Blue Afternoon we were all excited and ready to partay.  We were finally on our way, spirits high and music deafeningly loud. 

Thar not one whale blows

During the 3 hour drive to the ferry docks we learned many things such as that Loch Lomand is far larger than any of us had first imagined, that I am a far better DJ than any of them had first imagined and that S is actually far less intimidating that we had first imagined.  We were the first people to arrive for the Ferry, L and S went into the ticket office to collect the tickets and B (bladder bursting due to the fact she had chugged like 6 Pepsi Maxes during the drive) and I (bladder bursting because I hadn't peed in 3 hours and I'm only human) went to the rest room.  During the 30 minute wait for the Ferry to arrive I yelled "THARRR SHE BLOWWWWWS!!" more times than anyone had hoped for, by the 30th yell I think the saying had grown on everyone and they had learned to love it.  

Eventually after we had done our waiting, 12 years of it, in Azkaban it was Ferry Ho! thar she legit blows and it was time to board.  Driving onto the ferry was kind of terrifying due to the fact that S couldn't 100% guarantee she would manage to drive over the ramp and that there was a slight possibility we were all going to end up at the bottom of the ocean - sleeping with the fishes if you will.   Spoiler Alert: we made it.  We were going on a trip in our favourite ocean ship!  I sat by the window eyes pealed with keen anticipation for whales.  Along with attempted whale watching we spent the boat journey playing card games and charades.  At 10.30 L accused B of rigging the cards for snap so that she would

#FerryWankers

win, B had not rigged the cards.  At 10.45 I had still not seen a whale.  At 11.00 I decided i would make my 11.11 wish to see a whale.  At 11.11 I wished to see a whale. We also spent this time discussing what havoc we were going to inflict on Islay because The four of us always come home from nights out with some kind of crazy story and without a fun/outrageous story we aren't satisfied with how the night went. 15 minutes before arriving in Islay we decided to ascend the staircase to B deck aka deck 6 and we spent our final moments on the boat outside on the highest deck recreating scenes from Titanic, looking out for the whales and continuing the "THAR SHE BLOWS, WHALE HO!" chant.   Finally we were approaching Islay and it was time to return to the car, the thing is that B deck was far more slippy than you'd first imagine and so upon descending the stairs back to the car L fell not ones but twice and I couldn't contain my laughter... and then mid laugh I slipped, fell and hit the cold hard ground.  Now nobody on the ferry could contain their laughter and I felt like a fool.  I tried to keep my head held high and I told myself to conceal don't feel. 

We had no idea where we were going once we got off of the ferry. The initial 'lets just drive around and see what happens it will be so fun' mood wore off quicker than you would first expect when an hour later the four of us were lost in Islay with no signal and no idea how to get to J's house.  Our mainland brains were evidently ignorant to ways of island life and we had just assumed that Islay would be so small that we would

L recreating the great fall
of July 2015

just coincidentally end up at J's house if we drove long enough, this obviously was not the case.  We ended up in a small village and it was clear that everyone else in this village knew each other, this was made clear when we walked into a small cafe and everyone customer stopped eating to stare at us, open mouthed, cutlery dropping to the ground, young children pointing and the odd person taking a picture of the fresh new mainland meat.  I was sure we were going to die in that town, I felt like I was in one of those horror movies and I was certain that it was the case that once you visit the island you never leave the island.  Immediately I missed the busy rush of the city where nobody knows anyone, nobody wants to know anyone, nobody has time for anyone, and the only communication you have with strangers is mumbling profanities at them when they bump into you on the streets.  We found an empty hotel restaurant and we sat timidly at the table, on edge the whole time.  We ordered a chicken burger (minus veggie B who had some soup) and B, L and I ordered a vodka cranberry or vodka lemonade (fun fact, L received a glass of flat lemonade and this almost pushed her over the edge right into tear town).  At lunch we also made a deal with eachother, we were city girls through and through and if any of us showed too much of a taking to Islay life they were going to be asked to leave the friend group - in fact they wouldn't be allowed back onto the ferry with the rest of us.  Just to be extra precocious we decided that every time one of us aid something really nice about Islay or showed any indication that they wanted to be a farmer we would punch them (this was put into action several times over the weekend because Islay was very beautiful and it was hard not to comment on it and yes if S, B or L read this post they do have full permission to punch me, lightly, because of that last comment).

Pano

2 hours after arriving on Islay we finally made it J's house.  It was raining - some would call it a perfect storm.  Luckily we were privileged enough to earn ourselves a nice warm bed for a much needed afternoon nap.  After the most wonderful sleep ever, we rose like phoenixes once again and headed down to the kitchen for some baked potatoes.  B (not so stealthily) fed one of J's dogs food off of her plate and my plate while I (not so stealthily) filmed her) and then after dinner we  proceeded to accompany J to decorate the hall for the party which was taking place the next night - #friendgoals.  After a fleeting period of helpfulness L, B and I began to practice our dance moves and Bar Mitzvah lifts in the hall while J, S, B and M (B and M are J's friends who had just arrived...) continued to be productive.  We then returned to J's abode and had a quick whiskey tasting before retiring to bed for the night.  Before drifting off to sleep we lay together, four in a bed, recapping our day, sharing anxieties about sleeping in the marquee the next night during a perfect storm (#Marqueewindhorrorstories) and just generally keeping B awake as she tried desperately to sleep.  

I'M AN ADULT!!
#ONTHEGROUNDDD

I'm trying to conceal my disappointment about the whales

What would happen the next day?  Would we meet Hansel the horse?  What would happen at the party?  Would we get to see the beach?  Would we do something stupid at the party and get banished from Islay forever?  Would we ever be allowed to leave Islay or were we officially lifers?

All of this and more will be answered in part 2 which is coming at some point or another although I'm only human and I have to work since my job pays and this does not (there's not much justice in the world)

The moral of the story is never base your life happiness on the amount of whales you spot on a ferry trip to Islay because you'll only be left feeling empty and dispirited.

Until next time,
xoxo
Queen G