Vampire Weekend

Hamilton in Cardiff

I’ve had a jam-packed weekend away with the family. Starting off with Hamilton at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.

The show was impressive and I thought the cast was as good as the recording I’d seen on Disney plus. I think the standout scene for me is when Angelica replays the wedding scene in her head, it makes great use of the rotating stage.

The whole show is an amazing spectacle but it’s quite a slog with the long running time and detailed lyrics.

Vampire Weekend in Manchester

The next day we headed to Manchester to see Vampire Weekend at the O2 Apollo. They have been one of my favourite bands for a long time and they’ve become of a firm fave of our family too.

We all love the Father of the Bride album, so I decided that I’d take us all next time they toured.

We decided to go to Manchester because of the weekend date and more relaxed rules about taking kids.

I love Manchester, having been here a few times for work over the years. We even got the tram past my the WeWork office that Swirrl used to work in.

We were hoping to walk around the Christmas markets but it was raining so we (I) decided to go to the Northern Monk bar for some IPA and burgers. Luckily there was plenty of space so we could dry off and warm up too. From here we headed to the gig.

The band played a great selection of songs from all 5 albums (they have so many good songs) and ended with a request section where they played covers requested by the audience. This included Common People by Pulp, Last Nite by The Strokes, Lovefool by The Cardigans and HOT TO GO! by Chappell Roan (for the gen Zs).

The crowd were really up for it by this point and the atmosphere was great. But I thought it was a shame they didn’t take any requests for Mancunian bands (despite repeated calls for oasis).

I was a bit nervous about taking the kids to a proper gig to be honest, even though they have done festivals before (they are aged between 8 and 13). But they absolutely loved it, even if they were flagging by the end of the mammoth 2 plus hours set.

I think your first gig is a pretty special moment so I’m hoping we’ve made some good memories.