My review – Joe McElderry switching on Christmas lights in Blackpool.

So I get back from Paris about 10pm last Friday after 12 hours or so on a coach, sorted out my case and everything and was determined to get an early night. ........ I went to bed just after 1am and got up at 6am (ish) to make my way to Blackpool for the afternoon.
I had to catch one bus, 2 trains and a tube, (the things we do for that boy). On the tube an old man opposite me kept giving me dirty looks, I wondered if he could hear my music, when “If You Love Me” came on, he had enough, jumped up from his seat, banged down his newspaper and said, “Can you turn your music down a bit please”, so I did. I could hardly hear it by the end of the journey, but that didn’t stop him huffing and puffing and giving me looks, rude man!
Anyways, I got all the way to Blackpool without getting lost once, yay, (I think I am getting better with the practise lol). I met Jenni at the station and we went on search for our hotel.
We had both come a bit unprepared, we hadn’t bought a map or anything for the hotel. Jen pointed out I could get up the map on my iphone, so thats what I did, now to me the little purple line seem to tell me to go right from the station. We were walking along chatting, then we realised we hadn’t seen any of the streets that we should have past according to the map, I had been told the hotel was only a few minutes away. After Jen asked a few people who couldn’t really direct us, we jumped in a cab. Turns out we should have gone left to start with haha.
We got to the hotel and was greeted by an oldish man, he was really quite sweet, his rambling made me laugh though, he talked us through how to turn a key and turn on a tv.
Instead of dropping off our bags and leaving we sat on the bed and chatted for ages before realising that it was just gone 2pm, so we got our a*ses in gear and got made our way down to where the event was taking place and following the directions of the guy at the hotel.
When we got there quite a few people were already there and a guy was singing on stage, we found a place to stand and hoped it didn’t rain. Some of the acts on were actually quite good, one girl called Anya Simpson (I think), was really good I thought, she is only 11 and has auditioned for BGT, so we will see if she is going to be shown on the show.
After a bit I was getting really cold, I couldn’t feel my feet and the people with the prams in front of us were annoying me.
There was one act on consisting of little kids and one really cute boy, he appeared behind me a while after with his nan and she said to the person next to me, “Oh he thinks he is a star now, he went up to Joe McElderry and asked if he has servants now he is famous”, I didn’t hear what Joe’s reply was, but I can imagine him laughing at that.
After Wonderland, Louis and Kian’s new girlband, (who were actually quite good), the mayor of Blackpool and his wife hit the stage. By this stage everyone was a bit tired of waiting for Joe and inbetween each act people kept chanting “JOE”, but the chanting started while the mayor was still speaking, which you may think was slightly rude, until they asked him what he thought of Joe and he said he had no idea who he was. Well now that wasn’t the best thing to say infront of a crowd of Joe McElderry fans who are chanting his name while you are on stage, he then got booed. He started on going about how he has no time for regular tv as he is out and about on his mayor duties, no-one was interested of course and the chanting continued. One of the presenters then asked his wife if she knew who Joe McElderry was, she also got booed when she said she didn’t LOL!
After they left the stage, the presenters said the wait was over and introduced Joe to the stage. I actually expected them to mess about for another 20 minutes like they normally do at these events, it was about 4.30pm when Joe hit the stage.
Joe looked gorgeous as usual, I loved his coat. He started off with “Ambitions”, he had no dancers with him but was happily bobbing about the stage himself doing the leg shuffle dance and the march in Ambitions etc. I was trying to get a good view of him and film at the same time, but in front of me were two people with Joe banners. As lovely as it is to see “new” fans at these events showing Joe their support, it was quite annoying that the banners were blocking my view. At the end of Ambitions he changed it a bit, I think like what he did in Manchester where he sings “ambitions” at the end of the song.
Next up was “The Climb” as much as I would love Joe to sing new songs, it does always get everyone singing along, waving their arms etc. I promise you all of the singing in my video’s are not me, well some if it might be, but not all of it.
Then it was “Someone Wake Me Up” Joe definitely did say something like, “this is my next single and it has something to do with the new Narnia filum”, I can’t quite remember now, but I do remember thinking, ooooh SWMU is connected to Narnia too, I am not sure if you can hear in my video’s what he actually says, what with all the screaming. Joe sang all 3 songs brilliantly as usual, I especially love SMWU live though, it really does sound better then the record. I don’t know how Joe manages to sing so faultless all the time, but you really couldn’t fault him.
The presenters had a quick chat with Joe, they asked him the normal questions about this year’s XF *yawn*, but again Joe mentioned something about SWMU being linked to Narnia and that he had recorded TAPFU also for Narnia. After the chat, Joe went off stage.
It was now time to switch on the Christmas lights and many acts came back on stage, lastly followed by Joe, who stood at the front to flick the switch. I think Joe started the countdown, but when the lights went up, I failed to really see them, the tree had pretty lights on them, but that was about it. Fake snow then dropped from somewhere and it really got in the way, it also had a funny smell. I think they dropped a bit too much of the stuff. Joe was still on the stage while they played a Christmas song and he was clapping and singing along, I recorded that too for some reason. After the song finished Joe went off stage.
Everyone disappeared quite quickly after the show finished. Me and Jen hung around for a bit and were talking to LiverpoolJoeFan and her mum and saw Joanne, Yorkshirelass (from DS), Lesley and Sharon before they made their way home.
We hadn’t really eaten that day, so we found a cafe/restaurant near by and went in there with Helen and her mum.
After the meal, me and Jen decided to have a lookie around Blackpool, may as well go and see the sea while we are here said Jen, even though it was dark. It was only early still, about 7pm and we didn’t want to go back to the hotel room.
Alot of the roads were closed due to the bad weather the night before, so we couldn’t really walk down the pier, it also looked quite dead. We wanted to find a bar something, so we could sit down and have a nice quiet drink and chat about Jojo, but they were all really packed and full of drunk men, which was slightly shocking as it was still early. It then started raining and after strolling around getting very wet we decided to give up and go back to the hotel.
By the time we got there we looked like drowned rats, we made a cup of tea and watched X Factor, which I thought was crap.
I said we should have an early night at 11pm, and we were still talking at 1am hehe.
We woke up and went down for breakfast, which was really good value for money considering our room was pretty cheap.
Me and Jenni were the last people there and the guy at the hotel asked if we got down to the lights switch on, we said yes, he then asked if Joe sang a song for us, we replied yes, I said he sang 3 songs, he asked if he was good and we said very good, he said oh thats good then and went off. We then looked at each other slightly confused, I knew we hadn’t mentioned Joe the day before, so I asked Jen if she had mentioned we were coming to see Joe on the phone or something, which Jen said she didn’t. The way he said it seemed like he knew we were coming to see Joe, also It’s unusual for someone who isn’t a fan to just say Joe, rather then Joe McElderry or Joe from the X Factor, closet fan perhaps. Or maybe we just have Joe McElderry fan tattooed on our heads.
After breakfast we went back up to the room, packed our stuff and sat their chatting. The guy popped his head round the door at 11.30am and told us we were meant to have left the room at 10am, woops to much talking lol.
So we quickly rushed out of the hotel and sat in a cafe for quite a while nursing a coffee and milkshake, before making our way to the train station.
My train back to London was packed and I was in the quiet zone, but I put on my ipod anyways. I got home about 7pm I think and started to upload my video’s on youtube.

In conclusion – it was another brilliant weekend seeing Joe and meeting other Joe fans. Joe got a brilliant reception at the switch on, I saw a few people with Joe banners and Joe written on their face etc, it’s nice to see fans that you haven’t seen before their supporting Joe. It was quite a crowd by the time Joe was on, and there were alot of people waiting through-out the day to see him. Helen’s mum saw Joe do the soundcheck earlier in the day and said many people shopping in town stopped to watch Joe’s soundcheck.

Looking forward to next weekend, it’s going to be a busy one! Hopefully I get to say hi to anyone going to the events next week, and I am staying on a houseboat which I am rather excited about, I will not repeat the questions I asked about who drives the boat and how long it takes to get to the destination here though as last time I got laughed at haha. I think the next review will be a very long one combining all three events over the weekend.


Joe McElderry Blackpool Lights Someone Wake Me Up

- Someone Wake Me Up


Joe McElderry Blackpool lights Ambitions

- Ambitions


Joe McElderry Blackpool Lights The Climb

- The Climb


Blackpool Lights RockFm chat to Joe McElderry

- RockFm chat to Joe.


Joe McElderry switching on Blackpool Xmas lights

- Turning on the lights

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