Him ; Bastille

Bastille Gig ; 39

~ Your mother warned of strangers and the dangers they may bring ~

As soon as I sing that line my eyes meet Kitty's. We both have a moment and smile at each other while she stands at the back of the small venue with her hands cradling her six month old baby bump. Sleepsong is a personal song...as I found out when I sung it to our unborn daughter the other week. It was the only song I could remember the words to at three in the morning...but the lyrics ring true for sure.

After the song finishes I run my fingers through the front of my hair. Normally I would've slicked my hair back at least several times now — ​obviously it always failed ​— and the stupid thing would fallback into place almost straight away. Thank god for my buzz cut. "You lot are fucking incredible!" I laugh into the mic feeling totally out of breath. The teenage fans scream their hearts out, the others just cry. Either way everyone is genuinely happy, and it feels good. It's not everyday a band like Bastille get's an over enthusiastic crowd...​maybe it's because we're in America? They're a rowdy bunch who're very passionate about their music.

"So this is going to be our last gig for a little while due to our...personal lives, but when us four return we're hoping to come back with new stuff!" ​I'm doing fuck all for the next three months. ​What I established with Mark and Beau the other day is that the new album is currently being pieced together, we already have five songs...but I might dump half of them and work on some more throughout the remaining year. I'm hoping to get Doom Days out by the end of spring next year...​fingers crossed. B​ut because of the baby who knows...I'm going to try aim for early summer at the latest.

The crowd go crazy as I can't help but smile. I feel pretty fucking complete right now. I've got fans who literally know every single fucking word to ​every fucking s​ong, even the shit ones. I've got the worlds best wife...and a baby on the way. I've got my parents support and love and my band mates by my side. I'm happy.

I'm ridiculously happy.

"Pompeii?" I look at Woody as he shrugs before nodding his head, Will and Kyle look at Woody as he then mouths 'Pompeii'. Pompeii is normally the closing song, I made it that because I figured people who hate Bastille — ​but like Pompeii ​— will have to sit through our entire set just to listen to that one song. It's proven beneficial since we've headlined a few smaller stages in big festivals.

"So we have one more song to play for you before we disappear. If you know this one...and know how to jump up and down — that would be greatly appreciated." With that Kitty shakes her head. The one reason why I can see Kitty is because the venue is small and the stage is...quite high up, either that or the ground ditches. Plus, this isn't a sold out show compared to every other gig. It's nice being on the low.

I have to look away from her or otherwise some fan in the crowd will realise who I'm looking at. Kitty has told me that we should stay private, the fans don't suspect a thing which is also nice. "Not the pregnant lady at the back" I joke as everyone laughs whilst I lean down and quickly grab my water bottle whilst the intro of the song starts. I manage to take a sip before Coop screams in my ear to sing — ​so I do​ — only to realise that I'm holding my water bottle and not my mic. That makes me lean forwards with laughter whilst the music suddenly stops and Woody immediately calls me a dickhead.

We're the embarrassing secret dads of the group. "Sorry!" I laugh once again into the mic as I put the bottle down. "Should we try that one again?" I look apologetically at the band, thankfully they all have smiles on their faces. Even Kyle! Kyle never really smiles, he's terrified of the fans cameras and shit.

That's when the music comes on again as I face away from the team and back at the audience. Kitty is still laughing...which makes me nervously laugh. "Sorry." I mumble through the intro as I try to sober myself up a bit — which is pretty hard to do. I don't know how actors can keep a straight face...like at all.

Thankfully this time I begin to sing and not interrupt myself anymore. I've clearly got too much going on right now...