A fantastic spectacle of fans were lined up outside of the London Astoria all day bemusing and entertaining the central London mill of suits. From weird stares to arrogant beggars, all without the hottest ticket in town!!!

The most sparkliest of fans were in for a night of glam decadence - Rachel Stamp had come to town!!! With David Ryder-Prangley and co in town, only THE best support acts could come from Halo. And that other band who were on first, who conveniently I've forgotten. Except to recall that my gram could probably belt out a tune far better... and she's dead. Personally, I was there to support Halo - my Still Here EP played to extinction - their reputation had preceded them and I wasn't expecting anything more than perfection. And Halo did not disappoint.

Beer was cheap enough to get me through the abysmal first act, tidalmind (what were they on exactly?) and the anticipation was almost too much for me as Halo strode confidently onto the stage to claim the night, and win over this glittery London crowd.

They played through a setlist, mixing EP tracks, with unheard tracks before - lifting the crowd into a state of near oblivion, with crunching guitars and soarung vocals. The huge waves of energy from Halo on stage compounding the amazing tracks with an enthusiaism there for all to see. Graeme was spot on vocals tonight, filling the arena with his usual peircing voice, and singing to the dark side in all of us watching. Iain and Steve were moshing around with so much passion through the faster tracks I was tired watching them! Jim looked so happy to be playing, it made me wonder how modest can any human appear to be knowing you're in a band clearly set for world domination?!

There was memorably an excited reaction to the more well known tracks such as Sanctimonious and Cold Light Of day from the crowd. As a lot of the front rows now fixated on Halo, after inter-sex making out during tidalmind, had known all the words Graeme sweetly uttered from the now deleted Still Here EP. Now coming to the end of the set, and never wanting the fab Rachel Stamp to ever come on, I made a mental note to set my gigging diary for the next couple years around Halo. And even though I missed Jim's drumsticks being thrown into the crowd by inches, and my stupid camera having broke being left with no photos, I'd have never missed this gig for the world. Bring on a headline tour guys, you're far too good for support slots now!!!

Annie ([email protected])