Sam Fender: My First Concert

My recreation of a Sam Fender album cover

Going to a concert is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Now, this might shock you considering I just turned 17, but the live music and the buzzing atmosphere are things that I had never experienced until seeing Sam Fender. Within this post, I discuss my thoughts on not only the concert I attended but my opinions on concerts as a whole!

This Sam Fender concert was initially booked for over a year ago. On the day, we drove down to Rochester station, eager to get on the train, but just as we were about to get out of the car he announced that he was ill so could not sing that evening. It was disappointing but what could we do? We just had to wait for it to be rescheduled. Due to the pandemic, the next dates were also cancelled but thankfully it did happen on the 25th September 2021.

The day of the concert was pretty busy. I went to BlueWater at 10 am for an eye test, then to Rochester at midday and then hopped on the train at 3.00 and headed for London. My anxiety levels were high on this day due to the pressure of Sixth Form becoming a tad overwhelming, but I calmed myself down on the train journey. Once we arrived in London, we went to the venue and took a selfie (as you can see in the image above) and we went to Nando’s for dinner. I will not bore you with the details of our food, just that it was delicious.

After eating, it was time to line up outside of the venue which was the O2 Academy in Brixton. We lined up for over an hour before finally getting inside. Then we headed straight to the concert floor. We still had a while to wait before Sam Fender appeared, two hours in fact, but it was great to see the grand size of the place. I also noticed that the floor was slanted, obviously to allow everyone to see the performance, but that made my legs burn even more after standing in the same position for over three hours.

As the time passed, the venue slowly began filling up, with more and more people forcing themselves towards the front. I knew the crowded nature of this would be stressful and as expected, I felt myself becoming agitated by those around me. By the time the support act came onto the stage, the entire place was packed, with people on every side of me. Unfortunately, most of them were drunk so their spatial awareness was extremely limited; I just focused my attention on the music. Both singers are very talented and that style of music was great to hear live but I can’t say that a standing concert is really for me.

When my cousin Jade bought me the tickets for my Birthday, I had not previously heard Sam Fender’s music. But once I was aware of him I downloaded his songs and learnt a few of them. My favourite is ‘Play God,' which I purchased a vinyl of at the concert and heard him play live, which has to be the highlight of the evening. So all in all, it was a great experience and a great first concert.

Currently, I have Lewis Capaldi and Adam Lambert with Queen concerts booked for next year. These are both in the O2, meaning they are seated, which will eliminate many of the stressful elements of the experience. But I have to say, attending a more hardcore event has got me excited to go to many more of them in the future.

My aim with this post was to simply document a great experience. For once, I have not offered any advice as Sixth Form has become as stressful as you can imagine, so I merely want to use this one post as something to distract myself. I recommend finding something, such as a blog, to alleviate any pressure you may be feeling.