The OVO Hydro braces itself for screaming… LOTS of screaming!
OVO Hydro, Glasgow – 8th December 2022
It’s hard to believe that a decade has passed since The Vamps broke onto the music scene but here we are. The lads brought their World Tour to Glasgow with the promise of a huge show at a huge venue.
It’s an early door opening at the venue due to there being three acts and, one imagines, due to the vast majority of the crowd being young females on a school night!
PHOTO GALLERY – HENRY MOODIE – PHOTO CREDIT: JOHN BROWN
The venue holds 12,000 people and at kick-off, it must have been half full. The first act was Henry Moodie. The start of the set was Henry with his guitar as he serenaded the swarm of teenagers lining the catwalk. He is young and good-looking so his talents weren’t really an issue on such a night but, as it turned out, he was very talented.
Henry, by his own admission, doesn’t have a huge catalogue to choose from. The fact he was on the tour surprised him and he gave huge thanks to The Vamps for having him. He was hugely confident for one so young and inexperienced; so much so that he instigated a sing-off between the left and right sides of the arena whilst singing a Taylor Swift cover!
Next to perform were The Aces (formerly The Blue Aces) an American alternative pop band from Provo, Utah. The band has four members: guitarist Katie Henderson, bassist McKenna Petty, and sisters Alisa Ramirez (drums) and Cristal Ramirez (lead vocals and guitars).
Their first single as the Aces, “Stuck”, was released in 2016, eventually reaching #38 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in late 2017. The band’s second single, “Physical”, was released in 2017 in advance of their debut EP, I Don’t Like Being Honest. The band is signed to Red Bull Records. The band’s debut album, When My Heart Felt Volcanic, was released on April 6, 2018.
The Aces worked with six producers on the records, but Dan Gibson and Simon Oscroft were particularly influential, being involved in half of the material. We have covered the band in a separate review which you can view here
A short turnaround led to the opening strains from The Vamps. The band were behind a huge curtain with their silhouettes being cast by spotlights. As the intro music died the curtain fell to reveal the band and invoked the first massive scream of the night.
All, bar Tristan on drums, leapt downstairs from the drum riser and onto the main stage. There was already amazing energy in the room. Some bands take a while to get going but The Vamps were on it from the off. From there on the energy never dropped. There was a slower acoustic slot in the set where all band members (again except Tristan) came to the front of the long catwalk; even during this, the incessant screaming was off the scale.
The band had an exuberance that was catching as even some of the stewards had a wee dance in the aisles. Lead singer Brad Simpson commanded the stage and catwalk with dancing and jumping mixed with a few moments of interaction with the crowd. Those moments will live long in the minds of the lucky young fans who received his attention.
The show as a whole was well thought out and coordinated, the stage set was full bright and colourful. Huge screens covered the action for those at the back of the arena and the sound was crisp.
Mobile phones… probably half of the audience watched the show on the screen of their mobile phone. Even some of those lucky enough to have golden circle tickets recorded the show instead of taking it all in. That seems to be the way of it now… sad but true.
The Vamps are taking the show on a proper World Tour now, going to places that are traditionally missed out on a “World Tour”. That has to be applauded as the majority of countries usually miss out and this is definitely a show worth seeing.
The Vamps are a British pop band consisting of Brad Simpson, James Brittain-McVey, Connor Ball and Tristan Evans.[They formed in 2012 and signed to Mercury Records (now Virgin EMI Records) in the November of the same year.
In 2017, they had their first number 1 on the UK Albums Chart with “Night & Day (Night Edition)“. Their first two albums, Meet The Vamps and “Wake Up “are both certified Gold in the UK. The Vamps have also launched their own record label, Steady Records, and they are working in partnership with EMI/Universal. The first act signed was American band The Tide.
In 2018, guitarist McVey participated in the eighteenth series of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! and finished in fifth place. They have continuously toured worldwide since their debut in 2012, and they are the first band to headline London’s O2 Arena five years in a row.
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