Live

Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber

Luke Hannaford 23/11/2009

It was my first time to actually set foot in London itself rather than fly over and just stopping by at Heathrow. I was so tired after travelling all the way from Newcastle to Kings Cross. Having not been much of a Taylor Swift fan I wasn't sure what to expect from the show. After finding out where I was staying and meeting up with an old friend and shooting some pool in Camden I headed off on the tube to Wembley Arena. After finally reaching my destination and walking to the arena I didn't realise how big it was going to be so I got quite a shock at the amount of people actually inside.

First up was Justin Bieber. I didn't have a clue who he was till on the day. He's a 15 year older boy from Canada who recently gained recognition via YouTube. I can see he will appeal to a lot of teenage girls. But he just isn't my cup of tea - his music is just too cheesy and during his set all the girls were shouting his name out while most of the guys were shouting out for Taylor Swift. I think he was pushing a little bit too hard to try and impress us all and somehow he ended up breaking his foot on the last song!
I think most of the guys were relieved when it was Taylor's turn to be on stage. Although everyone was just screaming as loud as each other shouting 'Taylor!' and 'We love you Taylor'. Then all of the sudden some gymnastic type cheerleader girls burst on to the stage and started doing flips and dancing around followed by Taylor Swift herself! With VIP's and photographers either side of the T shape catwalk the whole of the arena went manic. People in the front rows started running round the catwalk trying to get a photo of her with their digital cameras. To be quite honest with you, I can hardly remember which songs she played, at one moment when Taylor disappeared off stage to do another dress change the whole of the arena started shouting for Taylor and stamping their feet on the floor. Then Taylor came back out on stage only to be shocked in amazement by the shear amount of noise. This lasted which seemed like about 10 minutes or so. As Taylor just stood there with her hand over her mouth looking bedazzled. There were many intervals with short videos as they changed the stage around and had a costume change. In one of the videos Taylor was being interviewed and got asked a question about why she wrote songs about past boyfriends and why would any boy date her if she writes songs about them? Taylor replying with 'Well... They shouldn't do bad things'. The whole arena laughed and cheered. Obviously one of the most memorable songs was played Love Story with everyone joining in and singing along.

Halfway through, Taylor disappeared again. A few minutes later the spot light was aiming behind us - as we all turned around to see why; there was Taylor walking down the back of the audience! She walked through as she played songs and people were desperately trying to get closer to her. After playing a few songs in the middle of the arena she quickly raced off to the stage guarded by security. One of the next stage set ups was a castle with the band all dress up in Elizabethan costumes and Taylor in a really stunning dress. Taylor singing That's the Way I Love You as she had a male dance partner also dressed up to perform with. The night ended with her singing Should've Said No as she stood under a shower of water which was cleverly timed to display the word 'NO' in the water as it fell upon Taylor. I think that was the highlight for most people especially the guys that went. Personally, I'm not sure if the night was enjoyable for me or just the screaming young girls. But Taylor is an idol for most of the people that were there and she did seem better than I expected her to be.

Setlist:

You Belong With Me
Our Song
Tell Me Why
Teardrops On My Guitar
Fearless
Forever & Always
Hey Stephen
Fifteen
Tim McGraw
White Horse
Love Story
The Way I Loved You
You're Not Sorry
Picture To Burn
Should've Said No