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“Ready, Set, Go it’s time to run!” Sitting on the bus on my way home from school, I tapped my feet impatiently and turned my music up louder. If the bus continued at this speed I would miss my train! Having never been one to rush things; the feeling of impatience and anxiousness began to overwhelm me. I quite literally dashed into my house and changed into the outfit I had so carefully prepared the night before. Verity, the friend that I was bringing along, also hurried up at my panicky interjections every 10 seconds.

It was a relief to be finally on the train – although the feeling that I’d forgotten something was constantly playing on my mind. Rifling quickly through my bag, I checked that everything was in order; glowsticks, banners, deely boppers… and most importantly, our tickets!

It began to rain slightly as we got off the train at Angel. Pacing through crowds of commuters and tourists alike, we made our way to the ground floor of the shopping centre where the Carling Academy was. Queues were long, people looked bored and yet a dazed smile entertained their faces. Walking over to a security guard, I asked where the end of the queue was – there seemed to be no order here. He seemed relieved to find that I was English – an advantage that I later used to will that cameraman in our direction – and told me that the band would be arriving shortly, and so some fans were waiting for a glimpse of their car instead of queuing up.

“Clear the roads,” an almost incoherent crackle from a walkie-talkie sounded. Two big silver cars with blacked-out windows drove quickly into the underground car park; but not before I’d had a chance to scream my hardest and wave my banner!

Verity and I, now with two hours to kill, wandered along the queues and talked to some of the fans.

“Smile for the camera!” I took some interesting pictures and had a few stilted conversations with people from other countries. A fan from Poland that I talked to said that I was the first English Tokio Hotel fan that she had met there! I met Sandra and her friend, keen followers of my site, and had a quick chat.

Linda, a fan I know through the website, approached me and told me that she had been queuing since Friday (five days before) so that she could be at the front of the concert. Her ticket stating “Person no. 1” confirmed this!

The security guard that I had spoken to, some 45 minutes before, began to usher people into orderly queues. Quickly, I dragged Verity and myself into a line before we could be shoved to the back.

Excitement rang out in the queues as Tokio Hotel’s English management began to hand out lyrics and sheets telling us that a cameraman would be walking amongst the crowds and taking videos of us singing “Ready, Set, Go”, to be supplied as a bonus track on the single (released 20th August). Screams and off-tune melodies began to be uttered as the cameraman worked his way through the crowd.

“Would you like to be filmed for the Tokio Hotel single Ready, Set, Go?” he asked with a plastered-on smile. I felt sorry for this guy – true enough he was getting paid, but he had to trail through the crowds talking to fans from all over the world, many of whom could barely understand English, and try to convince everyone that this was the opportunity of a lifetime.

“Sure!” I giggled back and took a deep breath, preparing to sing my lungs out. Ruth, Tasha (UK fans that we were next to in the queue) Verity, and I waved the banner and began to chant,

“Ready, Set, Go, it’s time to run!”

We finished with a wave and a scream, and he wandered on to the next lot of people. He drifted back through the queue 30 minutes later, and I called out,

“Hey, we’re UK fans, do you want to film us?”

And so we began again, this time with a more determined air about us; we were really giving it our all. I do hope we got into the video clip!

Shoppers and groups of teenagers wandering through the shopping centre looked surprised – to say the least – at 800 odd people dressed slightly weirdly, hanging around outside the hall.

“What’s going on here? Must be something big,” I heard a man tell his friend. These people were no doubt expecting a famous English band to be playing here – the words “Tokio Hotel” would not mean a thing to them! Islington had probably never seen anything quite like this!

Doors opened quite promptly at 7pm, but the process of getting in was quite slow – only two people were allowed in at a time. Having been checked for bombs, glass bottles and other dangerous items (the pointed deely-boppers didn’t count even though I had probably poked several peoples eyes out with them) we walked inside the cool venue.

Tokio Hotel posters advertising the single were up on the walls, the bar was serving drinks, music was playing in the concert hall, and the atmosphere was amazing. Even though we were about 200th in line, Verity and I still managed to be about 5 people away from the front of the stage. The venue was great, as it meant that although it was squashed and hot, everyone was able to see the stage without being too far back.

“What’s that coming over the hill, is it a monster, is it a monster?” Various tracks were playing as we waited eagerly for the band to come on stage. Having had a coke to cool me down, the caffeine boost suddenly got me going – and I started dancing madly, and singing to all of the songs I knew.

At around 8.50pm Tom Kaulitz skipped onstage accompanied by his guitar, twin brother Bill and bass guitarist Georg. Gustav, I presume, must have sidled in from behind the drum kit! The crowd erupted, the screams were deafening, the faint-hearted must have feared for their lives.

Lights, Camera, Action! Tokio Hotel sprang immediately into what they did best. “Ready, Set, Go” was played first, and all the tracks flowed non-stop, with a few spoken words from Bill in between.

“Hello and welcome to our first concert in London!” The crowd screamed as Bill smiled back. “It doesn’t matter that we are not all English, as long as we have a good time!” Bill set everyone’s heart a-fluttering as he consolidated all the European fans that had travelled so far.

Admittedly, I could not hear the rest of what Bill was saying, and the words of the songs were not all that clear – that didn’t matter too much, seeing as I knew most of them – but I put it down to the screaming fans and dodgy microphones.

“Raise your hands together!” Hmmm. What is this new song? I focused my ears on the guitar lines and recognized the song as “Wo sind Eure Haende”. I doubt that anyone in the crowd actually knew the words to this song; and as Bill urged the crowd to sing along in English, all that was distinguishable was,

“Ja, ja, Schon Klar, Heute sind wir hier, Die Welt bleibt vor der Tuer!”

The song began to close and Bill waved a megaphone at the crowd.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to guess what this song is!” he chuckled. Bill allowed the fans to sing “Scream” as he danced and jumped around on stage. Boy, were those moves good! I guess some fans must have walked home with severely damaged toes, as my enthusiastic feet did not always meet with the floor! However, in my defence, being quite short, I had every right to jump around like a loon!

The band walked off stage after about 40 minutes of the concert.

“Not even a goodbye”, I was highly disgusted; the boys had seemed quite charming and chatty the last time I had met with them.

“We want Tokio-Tel” the many and varied European accents chanted in the crowd. I joined in and together we raised the roof.

Bill, Tom and Georg skipped back onstage two minutes later – Gustav I presume, must have again sidled in behind the drum kit! Accompanied by acoustic guitars, Bill sang “Rescue Me” and, though I may have been imagining it, his eye might just have caught our banner, which read, “Rette Uns”.

The night finally drew to a close as Tokio Hotel waved goodbye to all of the screaming fans. Bill threw the towel round his neck into the audience (which I’m told was still being fought over 40 minutes later) and Tom, Georg and Gustav threw their water and drinking bottles into the crowd. I’m happy to say that I got soaked!

Verity and I weaved our way in and out of the crowd, trying to find the door. Speechless for a few minutes, we didn’t say anything, but made our way down the stairs. The posters that had so nicely decorated the walls earlier had been torn off by eager fans, and litter was strewn all over the floor.

The train station logo, lit up by a lamppost, drew our eye and we hurried towards it and made our way home. Still speechless, but incredibly happy, I put on my earphones and once again began to tap out a rhythm,

“Ready, Set, Go, it’s time to run!” I was interrupted from my day-dream by two men on the train, curious as to our ‘interesting’ outfits. Oh yeah, I had forgotten that I was still wearing those deely boppers, had the banner draped around my shoulders and was wearing a t-shirt saying “Ich liebe TH, fur immer!”

It had been such an amazing night. My heart was still pounding from the excitement and exertion, and my voice had still not recovered from all the screaming and singing I had done. I hoped this was the first of many successful Tokio Hotel concerts to come.

I arrived home at around 11pm, said goodbye to Verity and hummed to myself, “Ready Set, Go, it’s time to run!”

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