It was the final night of the Gossip’s UK tour on Saturday 15th, at the Brighton Dome; they’re one of my favourite bands and it was my first time seeing Beth, Brace and Hannah live!

I arrived at the Dome just before 6pm, half expecting there to be a bit of a queue, in fact there were only 5 other people waiting there at the time. Doors opened at 7, and I went straight to the front row before it could start filling up… I wanted to be as close to Beth as possible. I know she’s gay but that doesn’t stop me thinking she’s hot.

While I was standing at the front waiting for the Gossip to come on stage, I got talking to the 2 girls standing next to me, Jayne and Helen – a very nice lesbian couple from Essex. I was telling Jayne that I was excited about seeing Gossip for the first time, and disappointed that my girlfriend couldn’t be there with me, since she’s a big fan too.

The gig itself was fantastic! They started off playing Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain, and the band came out on stage during the famous bass-line. They kicked off with a new song, and soon after played my favourite song from the album (after Standing In The Way Of Control of course) Yr Mangled Heart, which got the audience jumping around more than they had been already! They played most of the album from what I can remember, plus a cover or two thrown in for good measure. I’d need to see the set list to be sure. Beth kept apologising for the state of her voice, it was the last date of the tour, and she was finding it hard in places to hit all of the high notes like she usually does. Beth thoroughly deserves a rest! If you’ve ever seen the Gossip live, or a video of them, you’d know just how much she puts into every performance.

Unfortunately the stage was quite high off the ground, and there was nothing to climb up on, so Beth didn’t get down and walk along the front of the crowd like she’s well known to do, although she did manage to get down from the stage and headed into the audience during Standing In The Way Of Control, but it was right over the other side of the crowd from me… which was quite disappointing. Maybe next time, eh?

I recorded quite a bit of the gig on my mobile phone (including a bit of one of the support acts – nobra), a little too much to stick it on YouTube without cutting huge chunks out of it or splitting it in two. I had to upload it to Soapbox instead, since they don’t limit you on time, just file-size.

You can see the video below, and I have to apologise now for the idiot singing along with Beth, that was me. I didn’t realise quite how loud my voice would come out on the recording, and I’m sure I got quite a few of the words wrong… oh well!

After the gig, the set lists were being handed out to members of the audience and I managed to grab one of them, and feeling generous I decided to give it to Jayne, one of the girls I’d been talking to.

She was delighted as I could see that her hand was also outstretched trying to grab one of them, but I got it first. She handed it back to me briefly and said “let’s take a picture of you holding it so you can show your girlfriend” which I thought was very thoughtful of her. I didn’t actually get to see the front of the set list, I had handed it to Jayne without looking at it at all, and when I held it up I had it facing away the whole time. I find that mildly amusing, since I was the one who managed to snag it first and I never got to see it! I got a few hugs out of it though!

It was an amazing night. I really cannot wait for Beth and the others to come back to the UK so I can go see them again!!