That's the Jingle Bell Ball

London Bucket List: See Olly Murs Live

In his song Thinking of Me Olly Murs asks, 'Winter time in London, are you making plans?'.

Who is Olly Murs you ask? Well shame on you. Olly Murs was a runner up on UK X Factor and has apparently become England's (and my) sweetheart. He also happens to be the reason I forked out over 100 quid to go to the Jingle Bell Ball at the O2 last weekend. See, I have found a kindred spirit in my friend Cat who also loves Olly, so we promised each other we would see him live before I leave the UK. It turned out the only gig he was doing in London in that time frame was at the huge Christmas party, the Jingle Bell Ball.  

To clarify, JBB isn't actually a ball, it's more like a one stage festival that goes over two days. We were thrilled to discover that sharing the stage with Olly would be Katy Perry and Ellie Goulding along with an assortment of British artists like Tinie Tempah, Rizzle Kicks, Union J, Naughty Boy, Disclosure and James Arthur. On first glance I only vaguely recognised the names on the lineup, but it turned out I knew songs by everyone who played. In fact, quite a few of the songs have been the backing track to my time in London, or at least my time on London dance floors.

The atmosphere at the O2 was amazing. If I wasn't already feeling festive, this was the place to get an injection of Christmas cheer. The audience were all given tiny lights that you attached onto your fingers so that when the house lights went down it looked like thousands of tiny stars were floating in the stadium. At one point in the show they held a giant karaoke session with the entire audience by putting the lyrics to All I Want For Christmas Is You on the big screen and towards the end of the event they even made it snow. A number of balloons filled with white confetti and iTunes vouchers were burst over the audience, it's just a shame Cat and I were a tiny bit too far up to reap the rewards.

First to take the stage was mine and Cat's future husband (there's a religion that allows that, right?) Olly Murs. Cheeky as anything, the notorious troublemaker paraded around the stage pulling off some awesome moves and singing some of my favourite songs. He even changed the words of his own love ballad Put Your Hand on my Heart to "put you hand on my ass", which admittedly isn't quite as poetic. Regardless, I was transported straight back to when I first moved to London and I used to listen to Olly on my walk to Liverpool Street station to get to work. He was even the soundtrack on my train trip to Cambridge before my interview at the University.

Following Olly was another X Factor contestant, James Arthur who sings the song Impossible. I absolutely love that song and it too has the ability to transport me to another time and place. On my first night in the UK I was up in Yorkshire and struggling to keep my eyes open from the jet lag. My head was bobbling around like a buoy in the ocean as I sat in the back of a friend's car, but I can still remember that that song was playing on the radio. It's one of those songs that you can't sing along to without really belting it, as the Year 5s from work last school year proved. It was coming up to the summer holidays and I was left with them for the whole day, by myself, for the first time. I was merely given the instructions that they could do 'something fun' which I knew really meant finish off some drawings they had started. However, we all got bored of that pretty quickly so instead I decided we would have class karaoke. The rules were the kids could only choose a song if they were able to act or draw the title. The most memorable was definitely Impossible; one of the kids stood in front of the class and told them that he could fly. Eventually one of the other children responded that what he was saying was impossible. Bingo! So the song got played, year 5 belted it out and I got some raised eyebrows from other staff members. Oops. Needless to say, when James Arthur sang it at JBB I got really into it, it was just a shame he didn't. I've never seen someone so miserable on a stage in my life. Not to worry, I had enough enthusiasm and embarrassing hand gestures for the both of us.

Another song that reminded me of the kids was Ellie Goulding's Burn. This time it was the current Year 5 class who I had been teaching for an afternoon. They had been reasonably well behaved while they worked to the sultry tunes of Ed Sheeran, so I decided to try something a teacher at home used to do. She would let one child who had behaved well choose a song and the kids would have the length of that song to pack up. Because they wanted to hear the music they were often quite quiet. So, I allowed a girl to choose a song and she picked Burn. What I hadn't factored in was that these were not the private school kids from Brighton, they were spirited Londoners from Hackney who apparently become possessed when they hear a base line. Although the song begins quite gently, it certainly builds to the climax of the chorus where the dance beat kicks in. It was at that precise moment that my classroom turned to a chaotic nightclub for 10 year olds. Oops again. As it happened the kids had some pretty interesting moves, much like Ellie Goulding herself, who bounced around the stage flinging her gorgeous blond hair around like a mad woman. What was really surprising though was how well spoken she was. Considering she had such a big attitude while performing, she had the tiniest voice when she addressed the audience, spoken in perfect Queen's English with impeccable manners. I guess looks can be deceiving.

I have a few new favourite British acts thanks to Jingle Bell Ball, one of which is Rizzle Kicks. I had absolutely no idea who the hip hop duo were before last weekend and now I'm totally hooked. They had so much energy and their songs were so catchy you couldn't help but get up and dance. They even have their own dance to accompany their song Mamma do the Hump, which I now play every morning to motivate me to get out of bed and brave the bleak English weather. It involves leaning back, wriggling your hips and moving your fists around in small circular motions. Google it, it's addictive. My other new fave is Union J. Move over One Direction because a new boy band (also from X Factor) is in town. I already had a soft spot for Union J after discovering their song Carry You which I played on repeat for about a week. However, thanks to their performance at JBB my love has grown and I'd definitely consider myself a J-Cat. This could be because they captured my heart by singing a medley of Christmas songs, or because their Britpop sound is incredibly catchy or simply because I found out that one of them, Josh, is really cute. So cute in fact, I went to see the Union J concert this week and came ever so close to meeting the boys, thanks to my friend whose job is to market the Union J dolls. Sadly it wasn't to be, but my hopes are still high that he'll be under the tree on December 25th. I've been pretty well behaved this year...mostly.

Amongst the 9 acts at JBB there are always going to be the big boys. On our night there was the obvious headline act, Katy Perry, who brought all her Christmas cheer with dancing elves, falling snow flakes and even fireworks, but perhaps more surprising was Tinie Tempah, who the crowd absolutely loved. It was pretty amazing to see the whole of the O2 on their feet, hands in the air waving their fairy lights around. It turns out Cat and I knew Tinie Tempah well, we just didn't realise it because his name gets tacked on with better known artists such as Swedish House Mafia, Calvin Harris and Labrinth. While it was a little disconcerting to see so many 14 year olds singing along to Drinking from the Bottle, Tinie Tempah was the undeniable crowd favourite.

I personally loved Katy Perry, who was the perfect ending to my trip down memory lane through music. With so many reminders of why I love London it was good to have some tunes that reminded me of home. For my 21st birthday I went to see Katy in Melbourne with my best friend and her first album was always playing in my car when I cruised by the beach. Today marks one month until I fly back home, and with so many doubts in my mind it's good to have a little reminder of what and who are waiting for me on the other end. But to answer Olly's question, yes I do have some amazing plans ahead for my London Winter and my final month living in the UK!