GIG REVIEW: BLITZ KIDS/VERSES/HINDSIGHTS

Hey guys! I'm back with another gig review!

I'm really liking sharing my experiences at gigs with other people, interesting and exciting things always happen no matter what and this one was no different. 

I went to see one of my favourite bands second to last show EVER!

Unfortunately Blitz kids announced after 8 years they would be calling it a day. This would be a weird event for me as I have never had the chance to see Blitz Kids as one I didn't know anyone who liked them, and two it would always clash, but better late than never hey!

Usually before gigs I check out the support but this time I just never got round to it.
So the first band was hindsights and honestly the crowd was SHIT! Everyone was in the same boat not having a clue who they were but me and my friends were perfectly fine jamming to their songs, but the crowd as I said weren't as pleased.
Unfortunately I have no set list for these sorry! :(

Onto Verses, the crowd was much better for Verses, I admittedly only knew one song, but the atmosphere was a hell of a lot better. The songs were more catchy almost, the guys in the band got us involved, they were definitely a good choice for a support act. I would reccomend their song 'Live in the Sky' for sure a personal favourite!
And again I don't have an official setlist for these guys :(

Now for the focus of the night! For about 10 minutes the guys put on a video of the bands mishaps and funny moments throughout their career, this honestly got to quite a few of us including myself!
The guys' set was 17 songs long which was brilliant, nothing was cut short, nothing was rushed it was a super chilled night. A lot of chatting, drinking and swearing, but what else would you expect!
Matty wearing a Paul Hollywood mask was definitely a highlight!
Joe always got so upclose and personal with us leaning over holding on to us the night was ridiculously emotional!
The boys delivered above and beyond, and Jono didn't forget any of the songs haha!
I will miss the music and the banter of the Blitz Kids boys, luckily we still have solo/other projects by the guys to look forward to in the future.
But as the cliche saying goes, We'll never die!

Setlist:
Sometimes
Run for cover
Warrior
Sold my soul
Title fight
An ink blot in a blood clot
Story
You're dead to me
Strangers with memories
Keep swinging
Orion
Bye bye blackbird
Maybe we'll die, maybe we won't
On my own

All I want is everything
Perfect
Never Die

MAKEUP | LIPSTICKS FOR AUTUMN/WINTER

Now that the autumnal season is setting in my makeup trend usually changes and that occurs mainly in the lip department. So I'm going to show you my favourite lip colours ranging from nudes-darks for this season!

Staple nude:

In general I usually go for a brown/neutral toned lipstick since I am very pale.

So this lip colour works all year round, but I would choose this lip combo over any other nude for the colder months.

Lip liner: Rimmel -tiramisu (gives a coral undertone)

              Rimmel -spice (gives a brown undertone)

Lipstick: MAC - Viva Glam || (brown nude)

Pink:

I'm not usually a pink person but I do love to pair a pink lip with any eye look, I find it easy to wear and this subtle pink goes with the rusty oranges and Browns I like to use during the colder months. 

Liquid lipstick: Rimmel apocalips 101-Celestial 

Berry: 

This is my berry option for the colder months, it isn't too purple toned so doesn't make my teeth look abnormally yellow. Rebel is one of my favourite lipsticks, so I was obviously going to include it in this post.

Lip liner: Rimmel -black tulip

Lipstick: MAC - Rebel (deep, dark purple)

Bold red:

The red lip can be rocked in any month but once summer is over I usually reach for it most! I am very picky when it comes to red lipsticks which is why I only have the one. Nothing matte and nothing too creamy. This lipstick also has a shimmer too it so the lips look glossy without applying a lipgloss. 

Lip liner: Sephora (In the process of finding the name) 

Lipstick: MAC - Viva Glam Rihanna (frosty red)

These are my favourite lip colours for Autumn time, I rarely change the colours but during summer and spring I usually add a gloss, and swap the Reds for coral based colours. 

Even though Autumn is all about rusty orange tones/dark berry lips, but I can't seem to pull off berry tomes that well, or even have the guts to wear the colour outside especially when my hair always gets caught in the lipstick. I also love my nude lipsticks so they will never go away no matter what time of year it is! 

GIG REVIEW: MALLORY KNOX/SET IT OFF/THE XCERTS

Hey guys,

So I know I only posted my first gig review the other week but here I am again with a second.

This time I went to see my favourite band (possibly of all time) Mallory Knox.

This was my second time seeing Mallory, and this time the venue had upgraded from Academy 2 to The Ritz. I had never been to the ritz before this and heard mixed opinions, however it has now turned into one of my favourite venues!

This gig was a special one for me, meeting new people and meeting up with old friends. 

I always go to gigs with my best friend Jack so it was a given he was going to be there this time round. As well as Jack I was meeting my friend Chloe who I met at Sleeping With Sirens vs. Pierce The Veil  in April earlier this year. Chloe also had a ticket going spare so I met one of Jacks friends Deanna. 

We got to the ritz an hour before the doors opened and we got a brilliant spot inside even with going putting out bags downstairs. 

So we were situated in the front 10 rows of people in the middle we had a brilliant view. 

I would have called this a perfect place if the people in front of us weren't as annoying and irritating as they were. There must have been a group of 15 in front of us all drunk before it started and during the Xcerts this group were being so inconsiderate, keeping pushing each other for no reason into other people in the crowd me being one of them one of them ended up kicking me in shin and elbowing me In the face I got no apology at all they just looked and laughed. One of them also knocked my phone out of my hand when I was about to take a picture, luckily it didn't crack and other people around me stopped and helped me find it, which I was very grateful for. 

Anyway enough of that, the Xcerts were good, granted I only knew one song and it was exactly like the recording, the guys are seriously talented!

Setlist:

Live like this

I don't care

Kids on drugs

She

Slackerpop

Shaking in the water (personal favourite)

There is only you 

After the Xcerts me and Chloe split from Jack and deanna and moved forward and we met two girls Jasmine and Katie who were lovely! 

Then set it off came on and they were utterly incredible. Cody Carson has excellent stage presence getting everyone involved. Cody also jumped into the crowd and I got to see him face to face (fan girl moment!) Their set was brilliant! Perfectly planned out! 

Set it off had recently realised the Duality stories unplugged which included their brand new song Will Wild World. This song is absolutely stunning, and I got to witness it live and Cody's vocals really shined during this song! I am going to link the video at the end of this post and highly recommend checking it out! 

Setlist:

Forever stuck in our youth

The haunting

N.M.E

Wolf in sheep's clothing 

Bleak December

Wild wild world

Ancient history

Bad guy

Why worry

Now time for Mallory Knox. Their set up was simply stunning! Two MK symbols lit up in an outline almost channelling a The 1975 vibe! Also the beginning of their set was mesmerising. A white back drop with a projector screening the old fashioned film countdown, and the circle transforming into a moon for their single Shout at the Moon. I will post the video I took after this segment.

 Mallory were playing some "never heard live" songs from their second album. These songs were some of my favourites making the night extra special! Me and Chloe kept moving further and further forward throughout the night and I eventually got to 3rd/2nd row. There was a fantastic wall of death during death rattle which Mikey said himself was one of the best he's ever seen and it was amazing to watch!

The whole atmosphere was incredible, the sound was impeccable and the people were super rad! 

I really do recommend people listen to Mallory because they are so underrated but purely astounding!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIhMMQoclOc

Setlist:

Shout at the moon

Wake up

Getaway

Lonely hours

Hello

Dying to survive

Heart & desire

Ghost in the mirror

Glimmer

Beggars

When are we waking up?

Death rattle

Dare you

-Encore:

She took him to the lake

Oceans

Lighthouse

WILD WILD WORLD VIDEO:

This gig will be one to remember and has been the best I have ever been too!

GIG: STATE CHAMPS, SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER

On the 23rd of September I finally got round to seeing one of the best pop punk bands in the business!  I have mentioned these guys in a previous favourites post, the band are called STATE CHAMPS, and I can't recommend them highly enough! The doors opened at 6:30, there was an earlier curfew because of a Freshers event later on. 

If you don't know Sound Control there are 3 floors: the basement (500 capacity club/300 capacity live room), Ground floor bar (150 capacity) and a second floor bar (450 capacity live room). For this particular gig we were on the second floor and the merch was laid out downstairs. The venue isn't the prettiest place but I can't flaw it, the staff are all so lovely, easy to get to, however drinks are rather expensive but they are at any gig!

I went with 2 of my best mates and of course ended up meeting new people there, gigs really are one the best places to meet new people!

Onto the actual gig! The first support act was Britsh Pop punk band ROAM. I had listened to these guys previously and only gelled properly with one song 'Warning Sign', however once they started to play I got more and more into there style and enthusiasm! They were a great choice to get everyone warmed up!

Setlist:

Warning sign

Over your head

Foresight

Nothing in return

Cabin fever

You never said

519

Safeguard

Head rush 

The next support act was KNUCKLE PUCK! I love these guys so I was super stoked to finally get to see them especially with my mate who got me into them! Their personalities certainly show up on stage and are great crowd warmers, luckily most people at the gig already knew who they were so circle pits were nessecary and a lot of crowd surfing! The setlist was interesting they only played 3 songs off the new album, I was hoping there would be a couple more but don't get me wrong the old stuff is just as good!

Setlist:

Disdain

But why would you care?

Oak street

Gold rush

True contrite

No good

Pretense

And the grand finale! The boys! STATE CHAMPS!! Like I said before these guys could never disappoint and they certainly didn't that night! Derek's vocals were outstanding, there was nothing I could fault! I wished their set was a little bit longer but unfortunately it had to be quick because of Freshers 😡. Everyone was fully pumped up for the set it was such a positive upbeat atmosphere, no one looked out of place, everyone was shouting the words and getting involved! It was an incredible atmosphere along with the drinking chants! For sure I am going to see these guys again when they next come round with the new album! 

Setlist:

All you are is history

Remedy

Secrets

Prepare to be noticed

Deadly conversation

Simple existence

Easy enough

Nothing's wrong

Hard to please

Losing myself

Elevated

Unfortunately I didn't get to meet anyone afterwards because of the curfew but I did grab some rad merch!

I got the standard ROAM black orange and pink hoodie 

The KNUCKLE PUCK rain hoodie 

The STATE CHAMPS secrets tshirt

And my favourite thing of all, a laminated pass to give me access to the new album a week before it's been properly released! Only 1000 of these passes were made and I managed to get one! I am so so so looking forward to this new album I know it is going to be my jam for the foreseeable future! 

I do highly recommend you all checking out each of the bands I've mentioned, and I'll be back next week with another gig review! You'll have to wait and see who it is! 

Cya later! 

FIRST DAY BACK AT COLLEGE: MAKEUP AND OUTFIT

Hey guys!

I started A2 today and the day didn't last very long but I do now have my new timetable which is slightly better than last year but I still need to get used to it.

I always wear a full face of makeup for college, and I know some people will say it's too much but it makes me feel more confident within myself.

So I thought I'd write a post about the makeup I had on at college today and the outfit I wore.

So starting with the makeup:

(Warning this will be slightly in depth) 

I started off moisturising my face with Simple Cleansing Lotion. I then went in with a mix of Soap & Glory's Hocus Pocus (very similar to the Loreal lumi magique primer) and my Mac Studio Fix, I blended this in with a  Zoeva silk finish brush. I then concealed my spots and dark circles with the Collection lasting perfection concealer. Straight a way I powdered my face with Soap & Glory One heck of a blot powder. 

I wasn't so happy with my brows today I think I just wasn't having a good day. 

I went in with my Soap & Glory archery shaping pen, and on top with MACS eyeshadow in Embark to darken up the tail end of my eyebrows. Over the top I used my Maybelline brow drama in transparent to set them in place.

                           

Onto the eyes 

I used my Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette to start with. I went in with the colour White chocolate on a large fluffy brush and washed this all over my lid. And with the fluffy end of the brush from the naked 2 palette I used semi sweet and dusted this into the crease quite messily. Then I took my Urban Decay smoky palette and the same naked 2 brush and used the shade Whiskey and put this into my crease in a more controlled manner to deepen up the colour. On the rest of my lid I took the Real techniques shading brush and MACS Amber lights eyeshadow, this is my all time favourite eyeshadow because the orange tone really brings out the blue-ness of my eyes. On the Lower lash line I took the brush out of the smoky palette and the pencil brush end and first used Whiskey from the same palette and then Dirtysweet and blended this towards the inner corner of my eye. I lined my bottom water line with Rimmels kajal eye liner pencil in sable brown, and my top water line with the Maybelline Big Eyes eye liner in black.

Now for the eyeliner, I over-exaggerate my eyeliner because it suits my face shape better, so I use my Soap & Glory Supercat for this. I curled my eyelashes and then applied a lot of coats of the Benefit Roller lash mascara to the top lashes and the Maybelline big eyes mascara to the bottom lashes. I use two mascaras because I smile and laugh a lot, the mascara on my lower lashes usually transfers onto my cheeks, and the Maybelline mascara dries really quickly so it never transfers! 

Back to the face I took the Naked Basics 2 Palette and the shade Primal on a Zoeva cream cheek brush and used this as an ashy contour shade, and went over this with the Body Shop Honey Bronzer in the shade 02 using a Lottie London blusher brush. I added Illamasqua's blush in Tremble to the apples of my cheeks using a duo fibre No7 blusher brush, and added The Balms Mary Lou-Manizer to the tops of my cheekbones, tip of the nose, brow bone, inner corners of my eyes, Cupid's bow and the chin using the zoeva luxe highlight brush.

Finally the lips! I used a mixture of two Rimmel lip liners: tiramisu and east end snob and went over the top with the Rimmel Kate nude collection lipstick in the shade 45, and over the top with the No7 high shine gloss stick which unfortunately I don't know the name of since it has rubbed off!

This is the finished makeup look ( have a silly pouting picture since it's the only one that turned out ok!)

My outfit!

I do love grunge/alternative fashion, but I do alternate and wear more "feminine" clothes every now and again, I do love a good compromise. 

Today I went for full alternative!

T-shirt: Fred Perry (brothers old t-shirt)

Blue flannel: New look 

Jeans: New look jeggings- I ripped them myself

Adidas Superstars -I got these particular ones from Foot Locker.

Scrunchie: American Apparel 

Purse: Kath Kidston (limited edition collection from 2014)

My hair by the way is completely natural, this amount of volume and curl is all natural! I hadn't used any products today. 

My bag 

I bought this bag from an online independent clothing company called Friendnfoe about 3 years ago and it has lasted me quite well since I use it everywhere I go! My badges are all from Afflecks Palace except one which is from when I went on the Eurostar to Brussels earlier this year! 

That's all for this post, I hope you enjoyed reading. Next time I do a post like this I'll make sure to get some more decent photos!

SHORT FILMS ON YOUTUBE

YouTube is home to so many different creators and is mainly inhabited by vloggers doing typical challenges and tag videos, but don't get me wrong I do like some of these videos they do have that comedic element to them, but if you're looking for something more substantial you had to go further a field, but not so much nowadays. A couple of years ago I discovered a guy called Berite Gilbert and I don't know how long he has been doing this but he has changed his whole channel and dedicated it to his own short films. His channel varies from videos that are 3 minutes long to much longer and substantial (hate to use the word again but it fits right) films around 30 minutes long.

Recently I got back into watching his films and a week ago he uploaded a 35 minute long short film titled Blue Sushi.

 I didn't watch the trailer for this because I wanted to be surprised and I really was!

The film explores the transgender community and how society reacts to this change. Granted this theme is slightly controversial but watching this film you discover other opinions outside of your own. It is eye opening. 

Of course Bertie didn't do this by himself he had his cast, his costume designers, hair and makeup team etc. This film isn't just credited under Bertie's name, Sammy Paul (ICOEPRproductions) teamed up with Bertie to create a masterpiece in essence. 

I do recommend taking the time out to watch Blue Sushi, the exploration of today's problems and disagreements make the film so relatable that it's hard to just cast it away. 

The link to Blue Sushi is below!

https://youtu.be/HHSDxH0X4T4

So it's not just Bertie on the short film scene there is also Benjamin cook who came to YouTube fame through his Becoming YouTube series. But recently he uploaded his first short film called The Imp of The Perverse. This is nowhere near as long as Blue sushi it spans 14 minutes of your time, but again explores a theme that quite a lot of people understand. That thought, of the monster in your mind that allows you to even think about doing something out of the ordinary for example jumping off a building just to see what it's like.

 This is in the actual short film so I kind of just spoiled it for you, sorry. 

The tag line to this film is "a short film about a monster that may, or may not, be trapped in a wardrobe" which sounds quite light hearted and the acting is also light hearted and comedic, but when you think about it the theme is quite important and requires a level of intelligence to completely understand it. 

Ben Cook has explored this theme so very well it works brilliantly and again it's not all down to him, Ben wrote, directed and edited the short film, but his cast were absolutely brilliant. Dan stokes (danimaticz) has that intelligence, and a very strong voice which takes over the film and really puts the message across without using such big words that no one understands. Supported by jake shiels (jakedapegg) and myles wheeler (itsamemyleo) who add the comedy to the film, the balance between the drama and sarcasm is excellent.

But that's my opinion you should see it for yourself and hope that Ben makes another short film soon!

Again the link is below!

https://youtu.be/3OC1EPWvBoc

Comedy duo Jack & Dean (Jack Howard, Dean Dobbs) make comedy sketches of around 8 minutes long, but recently they got funding from the American producer, director and actor Ron Howard. Howard has been funding some short films recently on the YouTube platform, I think but don't quote me on it but Howard also had a part in Benjamin cooks film I mentioned previously. Anyway Jack and Dean have been on the YouTube scene for quite some time now and earlier this year they released Ghost Fighting Corporation.

 This short film is quite cliche and predictable but that doesn't decrease it's popularity amongst viewers. Jack and Dean write and co-produced the films and sketches they make but also star in them. Their individual personalities come across very similar in all sketches they produce which shows continuity. Jacks sarcasm and deans innocence come together perfectly as the lamest ghost fighting partnership and along with the intelligent Sophie Wu their partnership will be sure to catch every ghost they see.

https://youtu.be/RZW6p2SfRqA

The last creator I would like to mention is a personal favourite of mine, and she is paving her path for the women in the film industry. Hazel Hayes is an incredibly talented producer, writer, actress, singer and wine drinker (watch her tipsy talk series you'll know what I mean) from Ireland. Her accent warms the soul and her vlogs and pms (pretentious monthly scrapbook) series are very enjoyable. However it is clear to see her passion is film making. And she made her first short film called Super brainy zombies over a year ago and it includes some pretty familiar faces from the YouTube platform. Hazel wrote, produced, directed and starred in the film and she does so brilliantly. Since her first film she has made a horror film Dementia which I'm genuinely scared to watch after a minute in! And septem. Septem is possibly the cleverest concept displayed in a film. I will not spoil the film one bit but it is one of the best short films I've ever watched the directing is brilliant, acting excellent and script is perfect! Again hazel called the help of good friend Sammy Paul to help write and direct Septem, but they are a match made in filmmaking heaven!

Hazel is about to release another short film titled Weapon and I am very excited to see how this falls into place with a very talented cast and the drive from hazel it's bound to be brilliant!

Watch septem below!

https://youtu.be/4NY-VaemQ7Y

This was a bit of a random post, but I love to open up discussions on any topics I seem interested in.

So I'd like to know what you think of short films being uploaded to the YouTube platform, and how do you think short films will progress in the future. Do you think the creators will expand? Do you think film creators will be more or less successful than other youtubers?

Let me know! 

IS SPOTIFY PREMIUM WORTH IT?

Hey guys so I have a very different post for you today, and as you can tell from the title this post is about Spotify.

I heard of spotify through a friend about 3 years ago and I logged in through my Facebook account purely for listening to music whilst doing my homework. But now that I have a definite taste and I am so much more serious about music, I store everything here.

For 3 full years I have used Spotify free service, this never was much of a problem until recently. Obviously with the free service you have to put up with adverts and you can't listen to music without an Internet connection. This never used to bother me because I had my iPod touch which more music from iTunes on there, but I filled up my iPod recently and instead of buying a new iPod I bought an iPad with more storage to have more music. This idea was perfectly substantial until my iPad failed to connect to my iTunes account therefore not allowing me to transfer any of my music across. So i only have Spotify free now. 

Now you'd think I'd just pay for premium £10 a month isn't too bad but I am a college student and yes I do have a job but that money is for everything, my travel costs for college and essentials I need, food and drink etc. so paying for premium is always something I've put off. 

On the other hand I upgraded my phone a year ago and got a better contract and I have 2GB of data but Spotify uses a heck of a lot of my data so again is quite inconvenient. But for the time being I have been using my data for Spotify on my phone - side note the phone version of Spotify doesn't let you choose a song you can only press shuffle and are allowed 7 skips for the whole day. 

But last week I saw an article about Spotify changing their free policy and making things a lot worse. Once the system is put in place that's if the company goes through with it you will be even more limited to what you can do. Only being allowed to save a few songs from albums and this is on top of annoying adverts and nothing available offline. Is having the free version just pointless? 

So in light of this article I caved and got the Spotify premium trial. So for a month I have Spotify premium for free and so far it is an absolute god send! I had a 6 hour car journey to Scotland this weekend and I abused premium to the max and it didn't drain my battery either!

My trial ends mid September and I'm still trying whether to carry on Premium.

Luckily one of my close friends told me about the UniDays app and it offers a 50% discount for Spotofy Premium for a year. All you have to do is tell them where you go to university/college and give them your college email address and confirm. Then you get Premium for £4.99 a month which I think is worth it! 

That's my plan of action so if any students are thinking about getting premium be sure to check out UniDays first (Disclaimer:this is not sponsored). 

I would like to know your thoughts on spotify's new policy ideas and wether you think Spotiy is overpriced considering how many people that use the service?

Let me know!