Live

Scouting For Girls, Sam Beeton, The Days

Luke Hannaford 14/11/2008

With gigs selling out all over the UK, Cardiff International Arena was no exception and there were queues backed up early on. There was a sigh of relief when we all started to go in. The young girls rushed to get to the front, so they could prepare for a closer view of Roy Stride. First up was one of the support bands, a solo artist named Sam Beeton. The crowd's response to Sam Beeton was a rather polite one. It wasn't until The Days started their set that the crowd started to get going.

As the crowd were eagerly awaiting for Scouting for Girls to come on, Queen's Don't Stop me Now played over the speakers. The arena darkened as the stage lit up with the opening theme tune of James Bond. With a countdown on the digital displays in the background, soon came Roy, Greg 'danger' Churchouse and Peter out on to the stage. The crowd in the arena were screaming loudly as the majority of the crowd were teenage fans. Roy told the crowd that this was their fifth time to play in Wales as their first venue was in Barfly to a crowd of no more than 30 people. Apparently this was their first time playing in an arena with over 7,000 people. With many of the songs to sing a long to such as Elvis Ain't Dead, a very capable audience from Cardiff and two giant projector screens either side, the atmosphere of the gig was immense. Roy and Greg were quite interactive with the crowd, encouraging them to sing along. But the crowd were already one step ahead, and were up on their feet dancing and singing to every one.

Michaela Strachan You Broke My Heart, was devoted to the TV presenter who Roy had a crush on when he was about 12 years old. A fitting song for the type of music that Scouting For Girls play, with Roy's piano skills certainly a highlight of the night together with the added hearts on the digital displays. Towards the end of the night, Roy said that they were playing their last song but as they left the stage the crowd started shouting 'We want Scouting For Girls!' and lo and behold Roy popped back onto the stage, his face lit up with joy as he was very pleased that they wanted them to perform more. Mind you, I'd be quite happy if I had all of those teenage girls shouting for me. Ending with a couple more sing-a-longs the crowd were quite satisfied with their performance as Roy jumped off into the pit to run along touching peoples hands at the front.