Right, I need to start at the beginning. I hated HSM. Like, HATED it. I'd seen about 20 minutes of it on TV and in that time, expelled about a year's worth of vomit down myself. My straight, semi-macho brother loves it. I despair.
So, it comes on at the Hammersmith Apollo. A friend of mine is in it. I get a free pair of tickets through work. I tell my friend I'm really looking forward to it, while praying to get struck down by a disease, or perhaps a car. Anyway, I do some prep with my brother as we buy loads of beer and get pizza from the kebabby and I force myself to watch both films with my bro and his girlfriend as they sing along. Shockingly, I warm to the idea, and my brother puts some songs on my ipod.
I'm going to change tense now.
I went along. It did strike me as odd that they didn't give the place a spruce up for a glitzy kids' show; the place looked almost derelict. The stage looked like a hole in the wall filled with bits of set and the sound was so bad, it was honestly like having someone phone you from a show on their mobile. My brother knew the production was crap but it didn't stop him and thousands of
actual children loving it. I felt grateful to my bro for the ipodding, as I was singing along with no trouble at all.
In the interval, I went round to SD to see my mate and had no trouble telling him how much I was enjoying it. He then proceeded to badmouth it, saying the cast couldn't act but the kids don't care etc.
Anyway, second half, fantastic. It was atmosphere more than anything... the cast were shocking (and shockingly old), Letitia Dean was ill so some old lady was doing her bit. This was made up for by Stingray from Neighbours being in it as some weird kid not in the films. I know it sounds a bit pervy, but with that many kids being that happy, it was really hard to resist it. I was screaming and singing with the best of them.
So to sum up, it was mainly an atmosphere thing. It was absolute S H I T but I really loved it.
Updated On: 9/5/08 at 09:13 AM
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