Before I start this review I want everyone to be aware that there are absolutely NO spoilers about the show, it’s mostly my opinion on the meet & greet and general thoughts about the show, there will be no specific details as Dan & Phil specifically told us not to spoil it.
So I don’t know how many people read my ‘Summer in the City’ review from last year but I had a pretty shit time waiting in the Dan and Phil meet & greet queue only to be told to fuck off after three hours essentially (no one was that rude but that’s what it felt like). I was gutted as I figured it was pretty much my only chance at meeting Dan and Phil and I’d missed out. And I’d also had to queue for three hours in the hottest queue ever. BUT ANYWAY, it turned out I was wrong about meeting Dan and Phil because of their announcement of The Amazing Tour is Not on Fire!
Me and my best friend Jess didn’t find out about the tour until 45 minutes after the tickets had gone on sale but after refreshing the page over and over and over again for maybe fifteen to twenty minutes straight we finally managed to get two VIP tickets for the Birmingham show! I think Jess nearly passed out when she finally booked them but it was worth it because we were finally going to meet Dan and Phil.
So we must have had absolutely months to plan for this but nothing could have prepared us for how nervous we were on the day. We’d met All Time Low only a few months beforehand and we had completely messed up that opportunity – Jack Barakat stuck his hand out for us to shake and we gawped at him for a good twenty seconds too long. We were absolutely terrified of making complete asses out of ourselves in front of Dan and Phil too. Anyway, here’s a nifty picture Jess got of when Dan and Phil came in (if you can spot them) – we were hiding far away:
They called people up to queue to meet them and me and Jess sat there for a while because we were hella nervous but eventually we got up and joined the back of the queue because we had to do it sooner or later. We got our books out ready, set our phone cameras to selfie mode and then suddenly it was time. We could meet them at the same time if we’d wanted but me and Jess decided to go separately and she’d asked me to go first. So I stood there waiting for the people in front of me to finish and then suddenly BAM it was my turn.
The first thing that hit me was how bloody tall they are – like I knew they’d be taller than me but oh my god I was astonished, they are SO TALL! And Phil was straightaway like “Hi! Let me give you a hug!” and then I hugged Dan as I heard Phil tell me that he liked my t-shirt and Dan said “Yeah I was about to say, it’s awesome.” That actually meant a lot to me because I’d been planning what to wear for like a month and I’d finally settled on my new Donkey Kong t-shirt as the perfect one and it wasn’t in vain! Then Phil went “Right shall we take the picture? No, wait, first we’ll sign your book. We’ll do both things!” And they took my book and signed the page I’d chosen.
Then Phil asked “Are we taking a selfie with your phone?” And I said “Yes please but can one of you take it because I’m shaking so much” so Phil said “Yeah, Dan’ll take it.” So I gave Dan my phone (Dan has held my phone ahh!) and he took one selfie and I thought ‘on no I’m doing that horrible cross-eyed thing I always do when I wanna look good’ and he said “I’m just gonna take another one” so I had time to try and improve my face (haha). I said thank you, they both said thank you and told me to enjoy the show, and then it was over and I went to pick up my goodie bag.
I took the goodie bag from one of the staff and waited for Jess to come out and we both agreed they were absolutely lovely. And I mean it – I was so nervous that they’d look at me and wait for me to say something but they were brilliant and obviously knew a lot of fans would be extremely nervous. I wouldn’t have changed a thing that happened, it went perfectly and Dan and Phil were such sweethearts. In the goodie bag there was a bag of popcorn (there wasn’t in mine but I don’t like popcorn anyway), a poster, a flower crown, a ‘platform’ postcard and a book by Jessie Cave. The actual goodie bag was a tote bag that said ‘The Amazing Tour is Not on Fire’ on one side and then ‘I Actually Went Outside to See Dan and Phil on Tour’ on the other side. Me and Jess actually took a really nice flower crowns selfie:
So we sat down in the room talking about what had happened for a while and then decided to sign the VIP book which was basically a book for Dan & Phil – they got through at least two books at just our event so Dan & Phil have an awful lot of signatures and stuff. We’d already signed it from ourselves but we decided it would be funny to leave the following message:
“DIL. WHY DO YOU NEVER ANSWER THE DOOR? – Eliza Pancakes (Jess drew a stack of pancakes)”
Ah yeah, we think we’re pretty funny.
Anyway, we went off and chilled for a bit and then it was time for the show! We were originally worried because we’d been assigned two seats that were separated by the aisle but luckily when we were taken inside we were put in the correct aisle but relatively random seats. We were on the third row so we had a brilliant view.
As I stated at the top I don’t want to give away any spoilers, mostly because Dan & Phil asked us not to but also because it was so amazing that I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone that’s going to watch it live or going to see the recorded online version. Trust me when I say that you’ll love it and that I can’t wait for the recorded version to come online so that I can watch it whenever I want. I’m so proud of Dan & Phil and they clearly put in a lot of thought, effort and imagination into this truly amazing (no pun intended) show – I don’t know what I was expecting but it was definitely a lot less than what they did. Also, they’re both such obviously huge dorks and I loved it!
So overall, I would recommend looking out for the online version as I don’t know whether the tickets are sold out but if they’re not BUY ONE NOW. Also buy their book ‘The Amazing Book is Not on Fire’ that their tour was promoting. Also if you’re reading this like “Who even are Dan and Phil?” GO AND CHECK OUT AMAZINGPHIL AND DANISNOTONFIRE ON YOUTUBE RIGHT NOW.
And as a final note, thank you so much Dan and Phil for an amazing night, I will remember it forever as one of my favourite nights ever!
Also, I have now seen and written a review of Interactive Introverts so feel free to give that a read HERE [x]
EDIT: I’ve had someone ask me and I’ve seen quite a few people wondering what time the show finishes – I saw it at 7.30 and it finished at about 9.10 so it was on for just over an hour and a half with no interval.