Nottingham
Royal Concert Hall. There was this guy called Ben Montague supporting The
Lighthouse Family. From the first few notes I knew he was onto something. It's
so rare to be so bowled over instantly. You know that feeling, when a song just
flows right through you, to your core, and you just want to burst with the love
you have for it? Well that was what Ben did to me. He's got this song called
Haunted, I fell in love with it even more than the other songs.
June 2012.
I never
forgot about Ben. Haunted and the other songs on the overcome CD that I’d bought on
whim that night in 2011 remained in my iTunes recently played. Ben played a tiny
acoustic show in the rescue rooms in Nottingham. I fell in love with the new songs; I'm especially
obsessed with ‘hummingbird’.
July 2012.
It was an
amazing moment so see the singer I’d supported 18 months ago finally on the
music channels. It was the moment I thought Ben is onto great things. ‘We love
like stars’ <3 .="." o:p="o:p">
August
2012.
I Bought
another hard fall. :D
I even
managed to win a lyric competition on twitter and get a follow off Ben on
twitter. Squee. :D
Is it
January yet? I’m in need of some ‘Tales of flying and falling’ ;)
It was one day in feb 2002 I turned on the tv and it changed my life. On Top of The Pops that evening was this guy I’d never heard of at number 1. Enrique Iglesias. ‘Hero’ was such a song. So much emotion, as a bit of a screwed up 15 year old that song spoke directly to me. I needed a hero in my life. The song made me cry that night.
The song stayed at number one the next week and I listened to it again. That same performance on the show. And the week after. And the week after that. I was sold.
We didn’t have much money and I didn’t have access to a radio of my own so TOTP was my bible. Enrique became pretty big in the UK quite quickly and I searched the music channels for his songs. I found his programme on VH1 with a back catalogue of his songs. ‘Bailamos’, ‘rhythm divine’, ‘could I have this kiss forever’, and this other song that made me fall in love with Enrique even more ‘Be with you’. It had that same magic formula that Hero did.
After that I searched everywhere for everything Enrique, I found a poster in my local shop (much excited in a tiny village in Ireland), I found the hero single on cd. I’d found this new video for a song called ‘escape’ on the music channels constantly being played and I fell in love with it. By the time escape (the album) was released in October I had saved enough and bought it. I never looked back. I spent many nights alone in my bedroom that covered in posters like a 16 year old does, with my bubble fish lamp, listening to that album, writing in my diary about how much I loved a boy who never loved me back. Tragic I know. I played it so much the white colouring on the CD started to chip away.
“You make me strong
You make me weak
You lift me off my feet
You give me hope
When all my dreams
Seem like they're out of reach
If the world came crashing down over me
I know that my life is complete”
I especially loved the cover of ‘only you’ that was on a video for the one of the singles. That performance was fearless, I remember sitting in the sun in Ireland listening to that cover that summer. I was absolutely gutted when my mum wouldn’t let me go see his concert in Belfast as I was too young. Looking back she was right but I remember wanting it so bad.
I stuck with Enrique for the year until the release of his next album ‘7’ in nov 2003. In the mean time I begged mum for my pocket money, I bought his first English language cd with ‘be with you’ on, and then I begged to go buy his Spanish language CD’s from amazon US. I don’t speak a single word of Spanish but the songs were good. Enamorado Por Primera Vez, Si Tu Te Vas, Cosas del Amor & Esperanza we my favourites. Then I discovered a relatively new Spanish cd called quizas. It took ages to arrive from America, but to this day love it. Practically every song I love. You can hear the emotion in his voice, especially the title track about his dad. And there is something so damn sexy about rolling those ‘R’s’. I used practically all my printer ink printing the lyrics translations from dial up and sticking them on my wall too LOL.
Although 7 it had moments of genius, the change in direction wasn’t something I stuck with. It was never gonna be the magic that I held for escape. I drifted from him, until in 2007 when for whatever reason one day I thought of him and found him on myspace, I still held a little torch for him. I found his new single ‘do you know?’ and fell in love. It was a comeback. It was a few months after the album release I remembered I was meant to order it and I did and I never looked back. ‘Insomniac’ is his best English language album since ‘escape’.
Tired of being sorry, somebody’s me, little girl. All amazing songs. I have a real love for ‘on top of you’, I love cheeky Enrique. I think the minute it clicked was when I watched him perform ‘somebody’s me’ on the lottery show. I was about 21, but I was totally lost. I just wanted someone to love me. Hell, I’m 26 and still do.
“Somebody wants you
Somebody needs you
Somebody dreams about you every single night
Somebody can't breathe without you, it's lonely
Somebody hopes that one day you will see
That somebody's me”
That song was my life right there. And I suck by Enrique again. I missed the next tour in 2007 but watched it live in Belfast online and finally I went to see him play on his birthday at the MEN in Manchester in 2009. It was magic. But there was this strange atmosphere in the room, it was all women of all ages, mostly middle aged, screaming, and this vibe that they weren't listening but just wanting to kill each other to get to him. I was quite far back on the floor but I was in total awe. Even when two women decided to have a flown blown row over me in the seat between them :/ I wont ever forget how it felt to stand and sing happy birthday to him.
I bought the Spanish greatest hits CD ‘1 – exitos’ and the English greatest hits, then his new album Euphoria. Once again though I didn’t like the direction that euphoria took. Heartbeat was a typically brilliant Enrique song, the rest of the album I didn’t really take to. Dirty dancer is fun. I LOVE ayer.
One dark night in 2010, whilst looking at the track differences been the UK euphoria and the US version, I came across an old US bonus track from insomniac. ‘baby hold on’. It just happened to be a hard time in my life. It’s hard for me to listen to now, I played it to death them. :’(
“she bought a ticket to nowhere
And she told me that she's sick of this life
She's forgotten how her smile used to feel
I know it's not easy, but
Baby, baby; hold on
I wish that you could see
Oh, how beautiful you are to me”
I went to see him again twice more in 2011. LG arena Birmingham and Nottingham. The LG arena was incredible, I had a good seat but I still ran to the front just before he came on. No one moved us. wahoo. I was so close. I couldn’t believe it. I left buzzing, this was the concert I dreamed off. dreams do come true. And that incredibly sick little girl molly that he had on stage with him who has since sadly passed away. My arms KILLED me recording this video of molly but I was determined to share it when I got home so hopefully it would reach her family. I don’t know if it ever did. But I hope it did.
Then I went to Nottingham and Enrique seemed to be really feeling it but the audience didn’t seem to be. He’s a strange artist like that, I can’t pin point it. Was a great show though. I wish I could meet him, I just don't have the $700 to do so at a concert VIP package. That makes me sad.
I haven’t loved the singles since Euphoria: Tonight, I like how it feels or naked. I kept in touch though on his newsletter, twitter and facebook. MTV has this week been playing him a lot lately, his MTV live show, his back catalogue and his 2011 VH1 behind the music. I fell in love all over again.
I’ve just played his new song ‘finally found you’ and I like it. It reminded me why I loved Enrique in the first place. His voice is velvet, he is as sexy as hell, and he had the power to take me somewhere else, somewhere where the sun shines, the darkness doesn’t exist and I forget everything for the 4 minutes of the song. I will always have a corner of my heart for him.
“In this crazy world of choices I've only got a few Either you're coming with me, or I'm coming with you”
