I signed up to the email list of Applause Store - they recruit audiences and contestants for various TV shows, and Mr wants to be in the audience of QI at some point. Last week I received an email from them about a new show they're recording called Bring The Noise - it's a comedy music type show. We decided to give it a go, because why not? So I signed up and got our eTickets to go along to the Friday night recording.
We arrive at the studios to find a rather large line of people waiting to be let in. As we had priority guest tickets, we were allowed to bypass this group and stand in our own smaller line, where we were given raffle tickets. We were told these were confirmation that we would get a seat (as they often over-book to make sure they have a full audience), but we noticed that they were giving people different coloured raffle tickets. We got pink ones. More on that later.
Eventually we were lead through the studio grounds to a large warehouse, where we were left to mingle and buy drinks/snacks until they were ready to call us in. Unfortunately something had gone wrong, so we weren't called in until an hour and a half after we were originally supposed to. This meant that the recording would start and end an hour and a half later than planned, so a fair few people had decided to leave. We chatted with the security guards for a while, drank some cider, and waited long enough to get bored, but finally we were given the all clear to enter the studio.
The stage was set up with seating on 3 sides, some on the ground level slightly lower than the stage, with the rest as grand-stands. Camera crew were everywhere, as were security and other staff. One camera woman, hanging from the ceiling with her aerial-view camera, was a spitting image of Julia Gillard, much to our amusement. We were called in by ticket colour - pink tickets first. We had noticed some time ago the type of people that were given those tickets, and our suspicions were somewhat confirmed - that apparently these were the 'you are relatively young and attractive and most likely to play along' tickets. We were lucky enough to be led right to the seating at the stage, next to the hosts! It was almost like being in the front row at the theatre, except that we were half-way along the circular stage, with the hosts sitting to our left.
The host of this show is Ricky Wilson, lead singer from the Kaiser Chiefs. His panellists are Nicole Scherzinger, from The Pussycat Dolls; Tinie Tempah; and comedians Joel Dommett and Katherine Ryan. The basic premise of the show is bringing celebrity guests on to do music-based games and some musical performances. Our special guests for this episode were recording artist Katy B, and John Bradley, who plays Sam Tarly on GoT. It was quite surreal to be so close to such famous people - Joel and Nicole were within 3m of us, and the other side of the stage was at most 10m.
Without giving away too much of the content of the show (it is supposedly airing on the 29th), the show involved the hosts and guests participating in comedy skits with a musical basis, as well as performing musical items. It was like being side-of-stage at a music festival combined with a comedy show. The hosts and guests were absolutely incredible in their performances! The comedy banter was part-scripted and part improvised on the spot, which lead to many genuine laughs from the audience as well as the hosts themselves. The musical performances were on point (even if a few words were forgotten/mixed up here and there - it was definitely not lip-synced!), and it was such an honour to see them live. A definite highlight for me was seeing Nicole Scherzinger - she has been a bit of an idol of mine for probably a decade now, so to see her live, and to see her as a person was particularly special. Sitting so close even meant we caught eyes a few times, and she winked at me once and had a quick chat about how insanely high her boots were! *cue fangirl moment*
Another highlight was seeing a new song performed live by Tinie Tempah and Katy B - a song that stuck in my head the entire weekend and is now one of my favourites. I honestly had never even heard of Katy B before the show, so I listed to more of her music afterwards and wish I'd heard it all a long time ago!
It was interesting to see a bit of the behind-the-scenes things going on. I haven't seen this side of things except at my own high school musical back in the day. The endless re-takes because something wasn't quite right (like a glass of orange juice being left in shot); the hair and make-up crews being on hand between every scene to remove sweat and reset hair (look out for one particular performance from Nicole and you'll see what I mean!); the complete exhaustion of the hosts and guests, who were just as tired as the rest of us at having to be so switched on so late in the evening, but still performing perfectly as needed.
In between shoots, we were kept entertained by an audience-host, who kept us informed of what was going on and tried to keep us energised and excited. It must have been a hard task - we didn't wrap up until after 11.30pm, and most people had been there since before 6pm, having come straight from work. He was very witty and got us laughing time and again, and instructed us on what we needed to do for each section of the show. He got us all involved in little challenges to keep us occupied when the breaks were a bit longer, and even got some of the men up on stage for a silly game (Mr was one of those chosen because I nominated him - sorry Mr!).
As audience, it was our job to be as energetic and into the show as we could possibly be. Many took full advantage of this, calling out to their celebrity crushes and dancing like crazy at the right moments. Others, however, were clearly up past their bed time, and it made me sad to think they couldn't put in the energy required by the show. Not that I didn't struggle, by the end of the shooting I could barely walk back to our hotel, but I had so much fun putting on the show expected of me. If you happen to watch the show when it airs, if we were lucky enough to get into a shot here and there (most of the recording was happening from the camera above our heads, so apparently we were on the wrong side of the stage!) you'll probably see me being the perfect woo-girl and pulling out my best Tay-moves. I have no idea what anyone else around me was doing - I was too focused on what was happening on stage, and at one point didn't realise everyone else had sat down. Woops!
We clapped that night more than we have ever clapped before. It got to a point where the arm movements were so automatic we probably look like robots. Our hands were actually swollen by the end of it. But it was worth it. If it wasn't for the fact that the studio is so far away (2 hours by public transport), we would be back in a heartbeat!
Without giving away too much of the content of the show (it is supposedly airing on the 29th), the show involved the hosts and guests participating in comedy skits with a musical basis, as well as performing musical items. It was like being side-of-stage at a music festival combined with a comedy show. The hosts and guests were absolutely incredible in their performances! The comedy banter was part-scripted and part improvised on the spot, which lead to many genuine laughs from the audience as well as the hosts themselves. The musical performances were on point (even if a few words were forgotten/mixed up here and there - it was definitely not lip-synced!), and it was such an honour to see them live. A definite highlight for me was seeing Nicole Scherzinger - she has been a bit of an idol of mine for probably a decade now, so to see her live, and to see her as a person was particularly special. Sitting so close even meant we caught eyes a few times, and she winked at me once and had a quick chat about how insanely high her boots were! *cue fangirl moment*
Another highlight was seeing a new song performed live by Tinie Tempah and Katy B - a song that stuck in my head the entire weekend and is now one of my favourites. I honestly had never even heard of Katy B before the show, so I listed to more of her music afterwards and wish I'd heard it all a long time ago!
It was interesting to see a bit of the behind-the-scenes things going on. I haven't seen this side of things except at my own high school musical back in the day. The endless re-takes because something wasn't quite right (like a glass of orange juice being left in shot); the hair and make-up crews being on hand between every scene to remove sweat and reset hair (look out for one particular performance from Nicole and you'll see what I mean!); the complete exhaustion of the hosts and guests, who were just as tired as the rest of us at having to be so switched on so late in the evening, but still performing perfectly as needed.
In between shoots, we were kept entertained by an audience-host, who kept us informed of what was going on and tried to keep us energised and excited. It must have been a hard task - we didn't wrap up until after 11.30pm, and most people had been there since before 6pm, having come straight from work. He was very witty and got us laughing time and again, and instructed us on what we needed to do for each section of the show. He got us all involved in little challenges to keep us occupied when the breaks were a bit longer, and even got some of the men up on stage for a silly game (Mr was one of those chosen because I nominated him - sorry Mr!).
As audience, it was our job to be as energetic and into the show as we could possibly be. Many took full advantage of this, calling out to their celebrity crushes and dancing like crazy at the right moments. Others, however, were clearly up past their bed time, and it made me sad to think they couldn't put in the energy required by the show. Not that I didn't struggle, by the end of the shooting I could barely walk back to our hotel, but I had so much fun putting on the show expected of me. If you happen to watch the show when it airs, if we were lucky enough to get into a shot here and there (most of the recording was happening from the camera above our heads, so apparently we were on the wrong side of the stage!) you'll probably see me being the perfect woo-girl and pulling out my best Tay-moves. I have no idea what anyone else around me was doing - I was too focused on what was happening on stage, and at one point didn't realise everyone else had sat down. Woops!
We clapped that night more than we have ever clapped before. It got to a point where the arm movements were so automatic we probably look like robots. Our hands were actually swollen by the end of it. But it was worth it. If it wasn't for the fact that the studio is so far away (2 hours by public transport), we would be back in a heartbeat!
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