Darren Hayes: Wembley Review: Listen To Your Heart

When I first found out Darren was special guest for Roxette my immediate reaction was to say ‘I’m gutted I can’t make it’. I thought it was a Wednesday. Turns out it was a Tuesday. Hilary twisted my arm and I cancelled my overtime, worked a half day and raced down to London.

I sat on the train, hot chocolate in hand, secret codes and battleships on the ipod, trashy magazine in front of me, and I watched the most magical sunset from the train window. I felt so blessed in that moment to have the opportunities I have to see Darren and spend it with some of my best friends. I love you girls.














I met up with Anna and we waited for Hils to arrive. Thank you McDonalds for keeping us warm for hours LOL. We ordered some food and I bumped into some Roxette fans in the queue. They asked I was going to see Roxette too. I joked that I didn’t look like a football fan ;).

We arrived at the arena with 15 minutes to spare and grabbed our seats.

Myself, Anna and Hils:







Set list:
1. Black out the sun
2. To The Moon and Back
3. Insatiable
4. Bloodstained heart
5. Affirmation
6. Truly Madly Deeply
7. Siren’s Call


It wasn’t long before Darren was on. A lot of people had already taken their seats which was a fantastic turn out for Darren. So pleased.


1. Black out the sun
The minute the song started, we stood up. You can’t sit through a Darren Hayes set. It was so surreal to hear Darren’s voice from the back of an arena. Black out the sun sounded HUGE. Darren’s vocal was brilliant on this song.











2. To The Moon and Back
To the moon and back always sounds great live. We couldn’t really see Darren very well but we could hear him and he was sounding amazing.














3. Insatiable
I loved all the lights, the stage lit up pink and there was a red spotlight shining on Darren from across the arena. It was so pretty. So much love in that arena.

















4. Bloodstained heart
Darren said that this would be his next single from his album secret codes and battleships and it would be out early next year.

I won’t ever forget when we heard the opening notes to this song. Hilary, anna and me, jumping up and down and screaming like fangirls. My heartbeat was racing. I wasn’t sure if Darren would include this one in the set but I am so glad he did.

Darren thanked Roxette for having them, he said that he thought ‘listen to your heart’ was one of the best pop songs ever written.



5. Affirmation
This song always makes me so happy. I’ve always been a bit gutted that I never got to see Savage Garden live. It suddenly dawned on me that this was the closest I’ve got to that moment, Darren Hayes in an arena. It was magical. There was huge blue spotlight that went across the arena and shone on Darren. So surreal.














6. Truly Madly Deeply
Darren said that he used to be in a band called Savage Garden and this next song was where it all began for them. I thought he meant I Want You but when the opening notes of Truly Madly Deeply started and the audience in the arena screamed. I got a little bit emotional. I was so proud of Darren in that moment. 12,000 people in the arena knew that song and reacted to it. It was a magical moment. I loved seeing so many cameras in the air in the floor seats, mostly likely Roxette fans that had been won over. I loved the line or two Darren sang of listen to your heart at the very end. “Listen to your heart, when he's calling for you”


























7. Siren’s Call
I think we all thought that Truly Madly Deeply was the final song, I’d expected the set to be 6 songs. Darren said to give their regards to Roxette and they had one more song to do. My immediate reaction was to think it would be Talk Talk Talk.. When the opening notes of Siren’s call started I screamed. My heartbeat was racing again. I’ve always had a massive connection to this song, now 12,000 other people could too. And from the very back of the arena, Darren wouldn’t have seen my purple heart but he definitely sent out that call and we sent it back to him. It was a beautiful moment. Thank you so much Darren for singing this song and making it so special.














After the show.


Hilary and I had to leave after Darren to catch our last trains’ home. I made us stop to take a picture of the poster that had the timings on:






We tried to get the security man to let us out from the smoking area that we had found ourselves in and he was confused as to why we were leaving early. We very quickly explained that the special guest was why we came, that Darren Hayes was amazing, and then legged it around the venue. Only for another confused security man to stop us. He got a quicker explanation and we headed for the underground (with me trying to talk pictures of Wembley and tweet the set list LOL).














I waved goodbye to Hilary at Euston and then headed to kings cross. Only I could get lost on the 1/2 mile walk between stations. I got to St Pancras ridiculously early, marvelled at the lego Christmas tree and then had to wait ages for my train. I was freezing my ass off with another hot chocolate, as you do for Darren Hayes ;).











I was just about to get on the train when I thought I would have a quick look at my pictures and videos. Bloodstained heart didn’t save. I was GUTTED. I quickly googled if you could recover it and there was suggestion you could. I listened to secret codes on the way back, got home at 2am and set about recovering my video. Took me more than an hour to recover it but I managed to. So happy.

I got into bed at almost 4am, I shut my eyes and all I thought was ‘I was at Wembley tonight’. It was so surreal to have seen Darren play Wembley arena, in London, and then go to bed in Nottingham. I still can’t quite believe it happened and we were there.

Epic. Emotional. Amazing.
as always.