Yoshiki Classical

So in my last post, I mentioned that I had the chance to see Yoshiki talk at MCM. As awesome as this was, it didn't compare to watching him live at the Royal Festival Hall on Thursday night (29.05.14). It was my first time ever seeing Yoshiki play live and I think a little different for many of his fans as it was the Classical World Tour and not his notorious Visual Kei rock band X Japan. No one was disappointed though.

My favourite songs that played during the evening were the Anniversary composition that he wrote for the emperor of Japan and also the Golden Globe Theme tune which he famously composed over a year ago. I also was pleasantly surprised with his brief rendition of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Despite being a relatively new fan, I was aware X Japan's history and particularly the tragic passing of Hide. Yoshiki took time in the second part of the concert to talk more about both band members Hide and Taiji who are no longer with us. It was heart breaking to watch him show so much emotion during this speech and during the song that followed, I saw so many audience members around me crying.

He was joined on stage throughout the evening by his septet string section (which he mentioned more than once that he preferred to call his "sextet" because it sounded cooler!). Also Katie from Violet UK joined him during two songs as a guest vocalist.

After the show, he was even amazing enough to accept flowers and gifts from fans. I was right at the front so had the chance to touch his hand as he went along the stage too! (why not, eh?)

MCM London Comic Con

Last weekend, I went to MCM Comic Con in London which was so much fun! I was expecting a busy and exciting weekend and the convention did not disappoint.

Last time I went in October, it was my first MCM and I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. It was also my first time cosplaying and I was proud to make my first ever costume, Xerxes Break from Pandora Hearts:

This time, MCM was even bigger, bringing in over 100,000 people from all over the UK to share in their passion for all things, comic, manga, anime and video game related. I was excited to try out taking a few more photographs using my parents' DSLR (a new found hobby!). I also edited them using Photoshop Elements which took a lot longer than I expected but most likely as I'm still getting used to finding out what features do what!

The stalls were really popular with fewer people on the Friday as always but Saturday being incredibly busy again. To be honest, to give the organisers credit, once you were inside, you didn't feel it was too crowded. There are also people that complain but I arrived mid afternoon on the Friday and only had to queue for a short time to get my weekend wristband. The one thing that would have been better on the Saturday morning would have been sign posts just dividing up the queue but it seemed they learnt quickly and this was in place on Sunday. Also, the rain caused some problems for the cosplayers outside on the Saturday afternoon but no one can control the weather right? ;)

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time this time to make a proper costume reflecting a character so I improvised with what I had and pulled together a few variations using a new corset I had bought. There were also so many other amazing cosplays that I was lucky enough to photograph over the weekend. Here are just a few of the ones I managed to take reasonable photos of...

I would have to say the highlight of the weekend was also the panel interview with Yoshiki from X Japan. I only recently discovered X Japan along with the other J Rock and Visual Kei bands in the last year but am aware that X Japan are the fathers of Visual Kei and very much led by Yoshiki so the chance to see him talk about this and his passion for Classical music ahead of seeing him perform was a golden opportunity! He came across as funny, charming and someone who had seen quite a bit of adversity which gave him great inspiration and emotion to drive through his music. I think some of the moments that stood out were him talking about his father's suicide, watching him honestly speak about what rock music did for him at that time and hearing his reactions to the announcements that kept coming over the tannoy!