Have you noticed that I recently changed my domain? It now officially feels like my own website, brogantatexo.co.uk yipeee! Last Thursday 13th February, Rich & I took a little trip to London to see Britain's Got Talent Auditions. I went a bit crazy on Instagram and Twitter with excitement, and lots of you have been asking me questions about the whole experience since. Therefore, I thought I'd share the whole day with you.
To get tickets for TV shows, I am signed up to a website called Applause Store. It's no secret, it's how you get to see shows like X Factor and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Plus, it's FREE! I've been receiving the newsletters for quite some time and always wanted to go. However, due to working on weekends and living two hours from London, it's never been easy. On Tuesday night, an email landed in my inbox to say that due to the storms, they'd had some cancellations and seats were available again. Once I opened the email, I noticed a matinee performance on both mine and Rich's day off! I applied, instantly received a confirmation, then booked a coach from Bournemouth straight to London Hammersmith, it was super easy.
We arrived at 10am outside the Hammersmith Apollo theatre, and although our tickets said to arrive at 12.15pm, we thought we'd be one step ahead, pack some food and just stand and wait. Our tickets were apparently 'priority' (even though I didn't pay any extra, still free) and so we were given a gold wrist band, new tickets with seat numbers and told to come back at 2pm. Confused, we went for a coffee and came back at 12, in case we could go inside or see the judges arrive. We stood one row behind the barrier, opposite the red carpet for two hours (I know, painful) as we didn't quite know what else to do. At least it was sunny for us though!
Amanda Holden arrived first at about 2.15pm, walked down the carpet for a few piccies and straight inside, followed shortly by Alesha Dixon at 2.35pm who did the same thing. David Walliams arrived about 2.45pm, but came over to our barrier for extra photos and a handshake, which was really nice. Last but not least, Mr Simon Cowell showed up just gone 3pm and like David, came over for photos and handshakes with us. It was a great experience and made me laugh when they asked Simon to get back in the car, so they could film him stepping out again.
We finally made our way inside and seated at about 3.30pm, much later than they planned. Our seats were absolutely fantastic, roughly 15 rows from the judges, in the middle, on an isle. We were pretty chuffed. It lasted just over 3 hours, and in between performances was a comedian/presenter called Roycey, who chatted to the audience and directed us when needed. He was absolutely hilarious and a true asset to the company and experience. Ant & Dec made a cheeky appearance too, filmed a few lines and asked the audience to stand up and clap at certain times.
All four judges then arrived together, walking straight down the isle we were sat in! Rich managed to high five almost all of them, whilst I attempted to take some photos. It then started quite quickly, and had security flashing a torch in peoples face who continued to try and take photos. We saw about 10-15 acts altogether, some were crap as you can imagine, but other was unbelievable. Simon's comments were classic, one act was so bad he said "I can't even be bothered to say no", whilst Amanda threw an orange peel at one too! The buzzer was SO much louder than I imagined, it made me jump every time! They've also introduced a new 'gold' buzzer, but you can find out more when you watch the show. We had to wait about 10 minutes in between each act, whilst the judges said hello to a few audience members and had their make-up reapplied.
We saw several dance acts which blew me away, and a little girl who sang gave me goose bumps. The best act by far, which I will try not to spoil for you, was a group who danced in the dark with lights on their body, it was unbelievable. After the judges said goodbye, they actually filmed this act again, moving the camera on to the judges desk to get some better angles. As we were seated on the ground floor near the front, I have NO idea if any of our reactions were filmed however, it may be quite likely! Overall, we had an amazing time. The whole experience was fascinating and highly entertaining. I'm just excited to see it on TV now, hopefully in April!
All four judges then arrived together, walking straight down the isle we were sat in! Rich managed to high five almost all of them, whilst I attempted to take some photos. It then started quite quickly, and had security flashing a torch in peoples face who continued to try and take photos. We saw about 10-15 acts altogether, some were crap as you can imagine, but other was unbelievable. Simon's comments were classic, one act was so bad he said "I can't even be bothered to say no", whilst Amanda threw an orange peel at one too! The buzzer was SO much louder than I imagined, it made me jump every time! They've also introduced a new 'gold' buzzer, but you can find out more when you watch the show. We had to wait about 10 minutes in between each act, whilst the judges said hello to a few audience members and had their make-up reapplied.
Have you ever been to see a TV show before?
