Harry Styles at Old Trafford, my most expensive guilty pleasure
Seeing Harry Styles was quite a spontaneous decision for me after a rocky month, thankfully I didn’t pay £400 for tickets, as people on Twitter frantically dropped their prices just days before the event. Harry Styles however is still definitely an expensive guilty pleasure, and whilst a clear outlier in the music I listen to, the bittersweet, sentimental nature of his music made seeing him live a worthwhile, at times emotional experience. It was worth it for the sense of closure it gave me from a constantly up and down period in my life. That didn’t mean the tears didn’t come, because shamefully they did, but Harry put on an amazing show in the peak of the summer, as the sunset behind him and thousands of others on the 15th and 16th June at Old Trafford, Manchester.
I ended up going to Harry Styles with the person I bought a Parklife ticket from, unbeknownst to me due to a lack of checking her Twitter that she was an extreme Harry Styles stan, occasionally tweeting thousands of times a day about the man himself, which I only discovered after scrolling endlessly trying to find videos from the gig we went to. The tweets ranged from feet pics, sexual comments, and live videos, but thankfully her online persona didn’t bleed through in person, as she welcomed me to a world of kind One Direction fans I never thought I would ever, ever be amongst.
I met so many kind people over the night, from meeting fans getting lost on the way to the gig, receiving compliments on my Golf Le Fleur’s on the way to the toilet, or sitting down in the crowd with families, waiting for Mitski’s electric performance. Once Mitski came on to deliver an impressive set of her most popular songs like Nobody, and fan favourites like Working For The Knife, she didn’t get lost in the sea of thousands of people, still performing her quirky dances whilst the crowd lapped it up. It was quite a surprising opening act for such a megastar, but Harry continued to shout her out throughout his own performance, so he’s clearly a fan himself too.
After a brief section of silence, and a minor headache from day drinking, the sound of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was heard rattling from the speakers and bellowed along to by theatre kids and teenage girls. I felt very out of place but after an extended intro, Music for a Sushi Restaurant set the tone for the sunny evening… Whilst that song sounds like it was made in a lab to be played in adverts for the next five years, it was much more impressive in a live setting, in the outdoors heat of Old Trafford. Following this was Fine Line’s Golden and Adore You, more upbeat, summery tracks which were definitely highlights.
After a couple of favourites, he went back to his newest LP, performing Daylight, Cinema, and Keep Driving, which were all fantastic and of course the crowd had already learnt every word, although it was hard to tell as my ears continued ringing from the screaming between every song. Despite this, it was lovely to feel the sun shining and sway along to ‘If I was a bluebird, I would fly to you, you’d be the spoon, dip you in honey so I could be sticking to you’.
He then slowed things down for a more emotional section of the performance, performing Matilda (which yes, I shed a few tears to), Boyfriends, and what the crowd hoped would be Fine Line, judging off his setlist for Glasgow. This is also what I hoped for, as this was my favourite song by him, with its Bon Iver-esque vocals and dramatic instrumentation, it’s a perfect closer for Fine Line and would’ve been even better to witness live, at this point in the night, or as a closer, considering he gradually phases out certain songs from that era. Unfortunately, it seemed this wasn’t going to happen as Lights Up begun playing, but I wasn’t sad for long, as it was mesmerising yet melancholy to see live, and it was nice to see a pride flag wrapped around his shoulders. My only complaint for songs he didn’t do off Harry’s House, is probably Little Freaks, which I feel is one of the stronger moments on the comforting, reassuring album.
Following on From Lights Up, was probably my favourite song from Harry’s House – Satellite. The 80s flavoured, synthy, psychedelic pop song was an absolute joy to watch live after playing it on repeat for the last couple of weeks. The setlist was for the most part great, but could’ve been better with a few more Fine Line songs, considering the absence of many tour dates for that album due to COVID – personal favourites like Sunflower, Vol. 6, Cherry, Falling, and To Be So Lonely were sorely missed, instead he chose to play songs like Canyon Moon, and Treat People With Kindness, which whilst yes are popular and upbeat, are probably the two weakest songs on the album.
This was then followed with What Makes You Beautiful, which was an incredibly cheesy, but fun moment that everyone embraced, before getting back into the more mature sounds of Harry’s House, with the standout Late Night Talking. Harry performed each song confidently with an incredible stage presence, interacting with fans between songs, and sharing heartfelt stories about his primary school teacher in the crowd, and how he had made some of his best memories ‘just round the corner from here’, whilst also explaining his time on X-Factor actually begun at Old Trafford over a decade ago.
The show fittingly ‘ended’ with Love of My Life (Harry himself stated ‘we’re gonna play a few more songs, pretend to leave, and then come back out’), a very poignant closer from his newest LP, and even more stunning live. After a couple of minutes, he then returned to the stage for a handful of favourites, including the not so Freddie Mercury, more so Robbie Williams Sign Of The Times, which was actually quite beautiful, as the sun was beginning to now fully set, and an aeroplane flew past the stage in the far distance. Then came the huge hits Watermelon Sugar and As It Was, which were equally fun, especially as the crowd screamed ‘leave America’, responding to news of his residency in the States.
The closer for the night made a lot of sense, ending with a bang with Kiwi, but Harry Styles attempting dad rock was never really quite my thing, however everyone loved it, and it definitely saw the star finishing strong, before the crowd of 70,000 people all headed for the exit at once, whilst singing various ABBA, Queen, and Harry songs amongst themselves. It was a pretty great end to the evening, the only bitter taste in my mouth being that a handful of my favourites weren’t played (especially Fine Line, which he played in Glasgow, but not closer to his hometown?). Fortunately, me and my new Twitter stan friend were on the same page, and in the car on the way to McDonald’s blasted Sunflower, Vol. 6, Fine Line, and Cherry, amongst a handful of others before arriving back in Fallowfield. However, I still clung onto hope…
Whilst I didn’t have a ticket to his show at Old Trafford the following day, I did have nothing better to do, after a day at my friends recording studio. I raced to Old Trafford after getting an Uber to somewhere accidentally very far away, and had to run part of the journey, breaking my glasses in the process. I missed the first few songs, but you could hear them clearly from a 20-minute walk away. I didn’t plan on getting into the show, but I did plan on sitting at Old Trafford tram stop with a pretty good view, in fact it was nearly as good a view I had the night before, and I wasn’t deafened by the shrieks of everyone in the crowd, as, to my surprise, there was only 10-15 people at the tram stop doing the same thing as me. It was quite nice to just relax and relive the previous night, no longer sweating, wishing I had just one sip of water, and having to hold back a nosebleed in the peak of the performance (I conveniently get them daily in the Summer). It was nice to see glimpses of the concert through the windows of every tram that passed, as I sat there and enjoyed the music. I was delighted to hear the crowd chant ‘Fine Line! Fine Line! Fine Line!’ after Boyfriends, but unfortunately, for two nights in a row I was let down, I didn’t let it ruin either night though, although admittedly when he closed with Kiwi again, I put in my AirPods and played Fine Line Instead, bitterly making my own ending for the show.
The two nights I saw Harry Styles were nearly everything I had hoped for, helping me process difficult emotions from the past couple of years of my life, hearing songs that had soundtracked my life, played by his endlessly talented band, with a constantly changing backdrop of visuals, as Harry performed just as impressive vocally live as he does on record.
Stream Harry’s House here…
