Bastille Presents "&" - Liverpool St George's Hall

BASTILLE - Presents "&" (Ampersand) Candlelight Sessions

Liverpool - St George's Hall

Sunday 13 October 2024

Last night I was super lucky to finally see Bastille in my home city!

Dan - lead singer of Bastille is releasing a solo album called "&" (Ampersand) at the end of this month (Friday 25 October) which Dan has done on his own while the rest of the band take a year out.

Last month he announced a really small and intimate run of live shows mainly in other European cities and the only UK was London which I didn't get tickets for. Then at the end of last month he announced he would be doing an intimidate 4 part series of candlelight sessions to celebrate the release of the album. Liverpool St George's Hall was the 3rd stop of the tour. 

It was super intimate and small. I wanted premium tickets which I had in my basket, put my card details and it said I had timed out and the tickets had sold out so I got the next best which was Zone A - tickets were expensive £52 but no extra fees on top. All 4 shows have sold out as he did Edinburgh and Newcastle before then Manchester Cathedral on Wednesday.

It's all seated but not allocated seating - first come first serve. Doors were 8:45pm and I got there an hour before doors. I was quite close to the front considering I only got there an hour before. It was freezing last night standing there so that wasn't particularly enjoyable. Doors opened at 8:50pm then we had to walk up the stairs to the room. As I was on my own (Holly is away in Lisbon and didn't bother trying to find anyone else to go with me) I think I had an advantage and was 2nd row on the end to the left side of the stage close to the exit. If I got premium tickets I would have got front row seats. The 4 seats next to me to the left had "reserved" on them and were empty. A couple were sitting in the 2 seats but then moved and no-one else filled them which was weird as it was a sold out show.

Beautiful venue - perfect for this candlelight set up

It started bang on 9:30pm

Definitely one of my favourite gigs - the 6th time I've seen Bastille. It was pretty much an acoustic set - Dan changing from guitar to piano and there being 2 other guitars and violin. Nothing fancy or big. The sound was so good in the setting. The only thing was the last song Blue Sky & The Painter Charlie's electric guitar sounded off and felt like it was ruining the song.

They played the 6 songs that have already been released from the album - 2 new ones and did Pompeii in the middle but super striped back version. The set list hasn't been uploaded but I'm pretty sure it's the same as the first night in Edinburgh. Dan was also on form and did a lot of talking in between songs - being super funny and awkward as always.

The gig only lasted an hour and as I was on my own and working from home today I thought I'd hang round to try and see Dan when he came out. Not that many people waited which was unusual but not complaining. Waited an hour in the cold for him to come out but they were in a rush to get straight to Manchester so he couldn't stop for photos and stuff even though there was only a handful of us. We got a group photo taken but it's not been posted. I was stood right next to Dan but someone was stood in front of me and I had to stand on my tip toes so probs can't even see me but Dan is super tall! 

Should have asked Charlie for a photo but he was super busy loading the equipment into his own personal van that he was driving himself!

The best "selfie" I'm going to get with Dan - I probably could have forced a selfie with him though

In the fuzzy live action of this photo he's waving as he's getting into the van

I got speaking to this really nice lady and her son last night and this random guy her son knew from other Bastille gig's and he made these little pins and gave me one which was super cute!

Can't wait to do it all over again on Wednesday night at Manchester Cathedral...! So Holly got tickets for Wednesday night when she lands back in Manchester from Lisbon at 5:45pm. Hopefully she doesn't get delayed of anything but I will defo be there again. Not the best seats in Zone D which is furthest away but it will still be amazing to just be there and experience it in a different setting. I've always wanted to try and go to more than 1 show in a run but never had the money or time to be able to do it. Which means come Thursday there will definitely be another blog post from Manchester but probably still no selfie with Dan as Holly won't want to wait an hour for him to come out since she's coming straight off a plane to this gig.

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Park Güell & Casa Batlló

Park Güell

On the 3rd day we went to Park Güell. A park that was designed by Antoni Gaudí - he also lived there. 

The park is up a mountain which we had to trek up to get there. It's not that high of a mountain but there is a funicular. We were booked for 11am and it was a overcast day until we were walking up hill and was sweating when we got there. We got the €14 tickets for the park and house museum.

It was really busy and you got a good panoramic view of the city - well I'd like to be even higher.

Wore the wrong trainers! Didn't realise the floor would be sandy

Gaudi's house where he lived with his dad and niece a year before he died.

There was a video you could watch that was really interesting that told you a lot about Gaudi

So hard to get a photo of this without people being crowded around it! There was a really annoying Asian guy who had a tripod trying to get a selfie. He was very trusting in his phone not being robbed.

Looks like Whoville in The Grinch

After going down the staircase we went to the museum

View from the museum windows

The park is big and we were there for around 2 hours but there isn't much to see. It's a World Heritage Site which is why it's chargeable but the park is free as it is park of a public park.

After we went for some food in the food market on Las Ramblas and seen another Gaudi building on the way and went to Casa Batllo which we had booked for 4:30pm

Casa Vicens Gaudí

Casa Batlló

There was a room that was dedicated to new and upcoming artists

Roof top terrace which had a bar

Before you leave you go into a room with a visual 360 immersive experience

Sunglasses on before leaving as it's a task to get them on

Our ticket cost €35 and we were in there for 45 minutes! You get an audio guide but again there's hardly anything to see. It's a giant house that Gaudi designed for the Batlló family but there's no furniture to show how the rooms were actually used. The design is nice but I feel like once you've seen 1 Gaudi you've seen it all and it was not worth the €35. I didn't even take that many photos inside as there was wasn't' really anything to take a photo of.

Casa Amatller Cafe

Palau de la Música Catalana

Gaudi has a very distinctive design which he did with pretty much all this work so if you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all. Park Guell is good but if you can get in for free then I'd recommend that. I don't think Casa Batllo is worth it and is nice enough to admire from outside as it's straight down the road from Las Ramblas. I definitely would not be going to pay to go inside them all - just look from the outside and google them! Save your money as they aren't cheap!

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