"Did you enjoy the gig?"

If you didn't already know, I went to see Frank Turner again on Sunday. (Twice in a fortnight; crikey!)

AND OH MY GOD THERE AREN'T ENOUGH WORDS TO DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED.

I'll go in order...

Firstly, we got there super early and were about ten people back in the queue. HELL YES. That meant that we got right to the front when we went in. We were about five feet away from the stage. GAH.

We got to see Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun again. They're incredible. They're definitely my new favourite band. They're so so so good. They're real music. None of this crappy chart stuff. Go listen to these guys; they're the real deal. Needless to say, there was a lot of squealing on mine and Dana's part. We bloody love them. Wish that the gig on their solo tour wasn't at an 18+ venue though. (I think that they should let me in anyway; it's only two days before my birthday...) BUT ANYWAY. JL&tSS were brilliant, AGAIN. I wished that they didn't have to leave the stage. Me and Dana were sad. Oh so very sad.

Tim Barry came on afterwards. He's great too. He's quite an angsty man. I like an angsty singer. Me and Dana sang along to the words that we knew from before, and also counted the number of times that Tim said "y'all". It reached 11. "Y'all" sounds so great in his American accent. We also spied Frank sat on the steps at the side of the stage having a sneaky listen. Tim then told us about how he rides trains back home; just freely hops from one to another. I'd love to do that one day. Not know where you're going to end up; just enjoying the ride. I bet it's a real eye-opener.

SO. After Tim was finished, the tension started mounting. FRANK WAS UP NEXT.

Me and Dana squealed when he came on stage. And clapped. And wooed. It was totally different to the gig in Nottingham.

The next however long it was (Hour? Two hours? I don't know, my head was too full of awesomeness to keep track of the time) was incredible. I've never felt more alive than when I was singing along and jumping up and down and screaming and clapping. The atmosphere was incredible. I felt like I was a whole new person, and that nothing else mattered to me in the world but Frank and his music. That feeling will never leave me.

THEN. When it was over (BOO ;_;) we were awkwardly trying to find the way out (almost began to queue for the Cloakroom, whoops), we spied Jim Lockey & the Solemn Sun hanging around by the merch stall and all of a sudden we were like "GUYS, SHOULD WE GET A PICTURE WITH THEM?!?!". So we did. Mine turned out a bit blurry, and as Dana later pointed out, Bass Player Phil was poking his finger in Drum Player Simon's ear. It's bloody fabulous. I could have cried at the pure hilarity. Mia's photo came out less blurry, and there was no finger-pokage in this one. Both photos are equally as brilliant. So thanks Jim, Chris, Phil, Simon and Roadie (we think that your name is Ryan?).

After photos with JL&tSS, we went outside and we were like "AHHHHAAHAHA THAT WAS SO GOOD OH MY GOD AND WE GOT A PICTURE WITH JIM LOCKEY AGH" and then we saw a crowd of people waiting outside some door. It suddenly hit us; they might be waiting for Frank. AND THEY WERE. So we did too.

And then so many indescribable things happened; I'm still questioning whether or not it actually all did happen. I'm still in shock, even now. It just hasn't sunk in yet.

I HAD MY PICTURE TAKEN WITH FRANK TURNER. AND HE SIGNED MY TICKET WITH MY NAME AND THEN HIS SIGNATURE. AND HE HUGGED ME.

I think that my life is now complete. Frank Turner hugged me. All further arguments shall be deemed null and void.

I still can't believe that it actually happened. Even the pictures don't seem to be enough proof to me; it could be some horrendously constructed plot to Photoshop my dream into reality. That would be awful.

But anyway. I should probably refer to the title of this post. "Did you enjoy the gig?", Frank Turner asked me, as he was signing my ticket. I, being in such a state of shock that I thought that my lungs were going give out, panicked of course. In my head I was instantaneously creating all of these elaborate responses, but all I could manage to say was "Uhhhuhhmmm, yes?! It was amazing!" very quietly. Smooth. Meet your idol and you come out with a lame-ass answer like that. But Frank didn't seem to mind. He must be used to this sort of occurrence. So, I asked for a photo, and he was like "Yes, of course!", so I had my photo with him, and then he smiled and hugged me. FRANK TURNER HUGGED ME. I really can't get over this fact.

After we'd all had photos and got signatures and things, we all said thank you and had to go back to the car to go home. I say "go" very loosely; there was a lot of squealing and running and several exclamations of "OH MY GOD!" going on. I'm pretty sure that Frank heard us and laughed. Oh well; he'll probably remember us forever now.

On the way home, me and Dana were like AHSDKSHFJSHDLFJAHDKFJSH and there was much "OH MY GOD DANA" and "OH MY GOD HAYLEY" to be heard. Mia was joining in too. Rosie hardly said a word the whole way home. Shock affects people in different ways, guys.

So that was what happened on Sunday.

Now, when I explain to people and they look at me nonchalantly I'm like "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND". Because they genuinely don't. Frank is my favourite person in the whole world; he's brilliant, inspirational and an all-round fantastic musician. And after meeting him, I know that he's so nice and kind too. Although I really don't think that he realises just how great he is. I don't think that he expects squealing fangirls. I don't that think he realises how much he and his music mean to people like me. I would definitely not be who or where I am today if I hadn't had this man in my life. He's helped me through so much. I know that that sounds far too sentimental to be written down, but it's the complete and honest truth.

So enough of the soppy for now. I also would like to disclose that fact that one day, I WILL get a tattoo of Frank's logo, and I WILL get some of his lyrics tattooed. The only problem is, as me and Dana discovered in Psychology on Monday afternoon whilst listening to Frank, THERE ARE FAR TOO MANY BLOODY FANTASTICALLY BRILLIANT LYRICS. Seriously, there is at least one line that sticks out to you in EVERY SINGLE SONG. So this might be a lot harder than was originally anticipated. ARGH. I think that if Frank wasn't a singer, he should have become a poet. His lyrics are a million times better poetry than some of the drivel that I've read.

So, I think that I've just about got everything off my chest. It feels even more incredible seeing all of this written down. I'm literally beaming whilst typing this. THIS IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU FRANK. Thank you for being such an amazing individual.