THE WANTED

PERFORMANCE @ BRAMALEA CITY CENTRE

If you were to ask me last week who The Wanted were I would be like “who?” and then bust into the chorus of Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive”. Well, I certainly found out who they were. I have heard a few of their songs on the radio but I never knew the faces behind the music. Apparently I am a little delayed with the new wave of Boybands to hit the scene. Good thing my friend’s daughter told her about them because she told me Sunday night that they would be at Bramalea City Centre on Monday April 2nd. I thought hey, why not crash it? I was planning to wax my brows and brow lady is across the street from that mall, hitting two birds with one stone sounded like a fantastic plan to me. I was curious, so naturally that was the ultimate decision maker! I have always been like a curious little kitten wanting to find out and discover everything for myself.

The Wanted are a British-Irish Pop Group formed in 2009 by Jayne Collins who has had similar success with Female groups The Saturdays and Parade. The young lads of The Wanted are: Max George, Jay McGuiness, Siva Kaneswaran, Tom Parker, Nathan Sykes. They have opened for Britney and Bieber now they plan to conquer North America and are in the Greater Toronto Area promoting the release of their self titled EP. Only three hundred fans were able to get a wristband for an autograph if they pre-ordered the album. From what security told me girls were lined up waiting for wristbands at the crack of dawn, twelve hours before the performance and they even ran late! Did not start until almost 7pm. Much Music VJ Jesse Giddings was hosting a Q&A with the group after the performance, so it was a mini interview and performance that lead up to the autograph signing. Still a great marketing strategy, not to mention it was a brilliant move bringing the Boyband with the brown kid to Brampton.

I didn’t see any girls crying because as soon as the performance ended I booked it! That was already too crazy and there was no way I was going to stick around for more screaming without ear plugs. I completely forgot how it was at those events and then I had flash backs of last years Nick Carter signing. That was where all the female tears were shed because they finally got to meet the legendary heartthrob. It wasn’t as insane as I thought it would be but the turn out was still more than enough to make a person deaf, I would say five hundred people mostly hormonal teenage females. It was the smallest pit I have ever been in and some photographers don’t know how to utilize little space with common courtesy for other people. This required me to bust out some ninja techniques because I had to stay crouched to film, shoot and keep steady while trying to avoid fan signs and photographers with big lenses whacking me in the head. Regardless of how hard I tried I was still getting sign slapped by the fans and lens slapped by “photographers” with too much unnecessary gear, I think I still have Bristol board paper cuts on my head and a bruise on my cheek.

Once the group hit the stage, my ears were finished and every time the group came closer to the fans the decibels went up and the hands reaching over the barricade increased. It was a good thing I was below the screaming majority of the time and not directly at ear level. The group sang I think four tunes, I could be lying because it may have been three I honestly don’t remember it was all a blur. I did manage to film two tracks not my best work but considering the circumstances it is amazing footage! The vocals are from what I heard, nothing mind blowing but they held their own. The one playing the guitar Tom, did extremely well keeping focus on the chords. They all sang together and sounded well blended when they harmonized but two of them stood out more vocally than the others, I believe their names are Nathan and Jay. After the performance ended, I totally understood why these girls were obsessed with this British-Irish group, what teenie wouldn’t be? They have the classic Boyband appeal with a 2.o twist and they can sing without a voice box. I will definitley have to check out a set when they come back across the pond in the future and who knows maybe do an interview. You should check them too, everyone has a soft spot for Boybands and this is a pretty good new one. Watch the ALL TIME LOW and GLAD YOU CAME videos, below in the gallery you can find the photos from the performance.