What do Rod Stewart, Coldplay, James Bay, The Maccabees, 5 Seconds of Summer have in common? I saw them without paying a penny.
The great thing about London is that despite so many TV channels with not much on, there are so many live TV shows being recorded, and many of them have a musical element to them. On top of that, it doesn't cost to go to them - you just have to get in the draw for tickets.
So far we've been lucky that we've been able to get tickets to two filmings of The Graham Norton Show, a filming of TFI Friday (before it sadly ends), and we were offered tickets to the UK version of Lip Sync Battle (we still have to watch that one on TV to see if it's going to be any good).
All these acts usually only perform one song at any given recording, so here are my quick reviews of what we've seen so far....
Rod Stewart (Graham Norton Show) - was sceptical before going in, but was pleasantly surprised how amazing he was live when he sang "Love Is". The Maccabees (TFI Friday) – had never actually heard of them before the show, but have since added a few of their songs to my playlist. 5 Seconds of Summer (TFI Friday) – made a few people jealous when we saw them. They were good but the audience was probably a bit too old for them. Plus they performed “Hey Everybody!”, which everyone thought was going to be Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like The Wolf”, disappointing some in the audience when they realised it wasn’t. Coldplay (TFI Friday) – I’ve never seen them live as their NZ gigs were always outside my budget. To get a mini-concert by them with a crowd of about 200 people was amazing, as they performed their new single for the first time as well as a mix of their classic songs. Definitely will consider shelling out to see them live again. James Bay (Graham Norton Show) – really energetic live and hearing “Best Fake Smile” live was so much better live than on the album.
I highly recommend if you're in London, or even if you know you're visiting, sign up to get tickets for a TV or radio recording (and sign up well ahead of time!!). There's a chance you may not get anything, but you may get to sit metres away from some of the biggest names in music.
p.s. Also, I highly recommend signing up for tickets to BBC Radio 4's The Now Show - absolutely hilarious and a great hour of comedy, including all the hilarious bits they have to cut out.