Guest Post by Jay, bassist of Colour Me Stupid. Images taken by Jodie Cunningham.

This was my first year for the Kerrang! Tour, I went on the 30th January to Birmingham Academy, I could talk about my journey there (which was terrible by the way) as none of us had ever been to Birmingham before so the usual satellite navigational device was needed.  But I digress. We were a tad late for Young Guns which I was disappointed about, but we did catch the last two songs which I must say were simply amazing to say the band had never really performed in this type of venue before; I was very impressed with Gustav (Vocals) who commanded the crowd brilliantly. After their set me and the guys moseyed on over to one of the ATL merch stands which I must say, were amazing; they had screens behind them detailing the line up which I thought was awesome, I’d never been to an 02 Academy before so all this was new to me.

Next band up; My Passion, I had seen these guys before the Kerrang! Tour so I was looking forward to see them again. Their set opened with a pre-recorded track and a little light show to set the mood. The band then thrashed their way onto the stage and burst into Crazy and Me, an instant crowd pleaser, and my personal favourite.  I swear, these guys never stand still, that’s what is so great about their performance, it’s so energetic and over powering. They played all the crowd favourites such as Thanks for Nothing and Play Dirty. Their final song was, of course Day of the Bees, while not their best really did do justice, My Passion really have done well for themselves to get to where they are. All of them interacted with the crowd in their own way from throwing Simon’s slobber covered glow sticks to Laurence’s whipping microphone leads, My Passion really do have it all.

After getting drinks and buying Tee’s The Blackout were set up and ready to go. No offence to the guys but they were my lowest rating band of the evening, mostly because of how they interacted with the audience, too much swearing and insulting for my liking, now I know that it’s part of their act, but it didn’t just work for me. However, they did come around and compliment the audience for their participation and they performed their songs really well, my personal favourite out of their set was This is Why we Can’t Have Nice Things.  An overall good performance in terms of songs, but they did seem to drag on more so than the final band All Time Low,  I swear Sean said “this is our last song” about four times.

After The Blackout had finally finished and I had relocated myself for the final band I could easily tell the crowd were getting restless. The lights dimmed and the band started playing off stage which I thought was pretty different considering intros are normally pre-recorded but All Time Low really pulled it off. ATL then burst into their new album with Lost in Stereo which is one of my current favourites. The crowd went wild from where I was standing, which was conveniently at the front; you’d think being at the front surrounded by girls would be a good thing. But in this scenario it really isn’t, it’s a smelly sweaty mess. We had to help a drowsy teenage girl over the barrier, and by help I mean crowd surf her over because it was that humid. Their final song which was Dear Maria… was easily one of the best performances of the night, at this point I wasn’t able to raise my hands because I was crushed, my hand went slightly blue from the lack of blood getting to it!

Overall my night at K! Tour 2010 was truly EPIC, my personal highlight would be seeing My Passion again, they’ve grown so much as a band and as performers and they show it. After All Time Low ended their set myself and a slightly dazed girlfriend exited the venue for the drive home. I’d recommend to anyone the bands who played at this year’s K! Tour and they all are a must to go see live.