...and all that Jazz

Hello beautiful people,

...It has been a while since i have done a blog but what better time to do one than a sunny Friday afternoon :)!

The last few months have been pretty crazy! For those of you who didn't see the blog about supporting Tinchy Stryder, Kate Nash and Chase and Status please got to http://eddclay.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/a-day-in-the-life-of-chloe-swaby/

Where do i even begin?! The last month has without a doubt been the best month of my life. After the hype of the coventry gig i didn't think that anything could top it so soon. I had to get back to reality and sit two exams which definitely was not fun! I hope everyones exams went well this summer and that you can now relax and enjoy the sunshine. Exams finished and it was time to crack on with music. After a week of celebrating I packed up my room in Cardiff and headed back home.

Receiving the news
Later that week i headed into London to meet up with a DJ who i am currently writing with, however, at last minute we had to reschedule...Now, i will be completely honest with you, i had woken up at 6am to drive into London with my dad so i took advantage of this spare time and went for a sleep in the car :). What a classy lady i am! I was fast asleep when my phone started ringing - miracle as i was in an underground car park!? I picked up the phone and just heard the words 'Wonderland' and literally jumped out of my seat, one of my managers from Downtown had called to say ' Chloe you are supporting Wonderland this Sunday!' for the first time in my life i was speechless.

Preparing for the gig
The gig was only 4 days away so we had to get everything sorted asap. I called the band to tell them the exciting news and booked them a car to pick up from Cardiff airport. My voice was still suffering a little so i spent 4 days in bed getting better, everything was going smoothly and we were all set for Sunday night... until ... oh no, the boys got stuck in traffic on the way to pick up the car so we had no transport. On top of that it was the weekend and everywhere was shut - so poor Henry (pianist) had to jump on the mega bus during the early hours of Sunday morning and the others squeezed into Paul's (guitarist) car.

In London Town
Even though it was a stress getting everyone into London, nothing was going to stop me from having one of the best days of my life. We hit the studio for a rehearsal and then grabbed a pub lunch, we headed to the Jazz Cafe about 4.30pm for setup and soundcheck to find the Wonderland fans already outside the door! From this point on i knew that the crowd were going to be awesome. We met a few of the Wonderland army , they were all lovely and one of them had even seen our pop remix on youtube.

Meeting Wonderland
We finished our soundcheck and headed upstairs to our dressing room where the lovely event managers had given us food and drink.As some of you know i LOVE twitter, i am finally getting used to it, whilst i was putting on my make up and getting changed i had a lovely tweet from Leigh in Wonderland which calmed my nerves a lot! We kicked the boys out whilst we did our hair and make up :) however i thought they didn't seem that fused until i walked out onto the balcony to see that they had been distracted by the arrival of the beautiful Wonderland girls! We all watched in awe as they did their soundcheck which was amazing.
Their dressing room was right next to ours and so we managed to meet them all and have a really good chat before the gig, they are SO down to earth and beautiful and their accents are amazing! It was such a pleasure meeting them. They were unbelievably nice to me and my band and can you believe they were thanking us for supporting them?! I was like... NO THANK YOU! haha :). They were just so cool and it was lovely to see how buzzing and passionate they were about the gig and their fans. They put my mind at rest and i literally couldn't wait to get on stage.

Show time
7.45pm, i won't lie my legs were shaking a little but the adrenaline was pumping and i couldn't wait to sing. The Jazz cafe was such an awesome venue however we had to get down some very steep stairs to get onto the stage and i was just praying i wouldn't fall over in my high heels! I was met on stage by lots of smiling faces and i could feel the audience was buzzing. The next half and hour was a bit of a blur if i am honest, it was such an awesome experience singing to a crowd that energetic knowing i was supporting one of the best girl groups in the country. Wonderland army you were awesome, they danced and smiled the whole time and made me feel so welcome. We did all original songs with the cheeky pop remix in the middle which went down a treat, we even got the audience singing along with us! It was so much fun. I know you all laugh at me for saying this but i literally 'had the best time ever.'

If any of the Wonderland girls or fans are reading this i just want to say a MASSIVE thank you for letting us come along and giving us that opportunity. I am still sitting here today smiling about it. The response to the gig has been unreal and i am blown away by the amount of support and lovely feedback. xx

Where now...?
We have lots of big plans for the summer, last Wednesday I went busking in Earls court tube station which was such a laugh and i will definitely be doing that again, if you hang around Leicester square on Wednesday next week you might just find us :). The next big plan is to go on a school tour up in Newcastle at the beginning of September. I am also organising a Charity music festival with my lovely older sister in aid of Teensunite (A teenage cancer charity) on the 3rd of September and would love you all to be there.

My Debut EP 'Gypsy Lane' is being released this summer - you can preview the songs on facebook/soundcloud

Please get in touch on twitter @chloe_swaby or Facebook http://www.facebook.com/cjswaby

I'd love to hear from you,

I hope you've all had a lovely day - roll on the weekend!
Thank you for following and supporting my musict

Big Love
Chloe xxx