“One time is alright.”

It’s been three whole years since I last saw Harry Styles live. Three long, long, years. Me, a relatively new convert, but the withdrawal immediately after Love on Tour was still so very palpable and existent. I missed him. I waited and waited for more. For years!

This guy, his music and his energy, is seriously soooo addictive, I actually missed him. 

I mean, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know this is not out of character for me. I do love me some rock gods with infectious beats and a stream of social conscience actions and I miss them when they are not giving me new music or tours… (Yes, U2, I’m talking about you too!  Hurry up with the new album and tour already!)

And if there is a rock god with infectious beats and a social conscience, it’s surely Harry Styles. While Harry’s House may have been the album catalyst that orbited me into Harrie status, his unpretentious yet profound actions to make the world a better place keep me here for life.

The simplicity of running around a stage with a pride flag, of stopping your show to make sure people who appear upset are ok (even just being that aware of what’s happening in the audience around you while mid-performance speaks volumes…), of engaging with fans, or, as I wrote when first falling in rock god love with him, just being the example of being true to yourself.

Harry seems to epitomize his own song “Treat People With Kindness” and that is a rock god I will love and follow to the ends of time. Of course, it also drastically helps the longevity of adoration when I loooooove the music to the depths of my bones, which, oh, do I!

And so, three years of heart-rending withdrawal and yearning for new music and a tour in a world that so desperately needed the pure joy of new Harry Styles music and unadulterated bliss and positive release of gathering in person with tens of thousands of people all loving on Harry at the same time, finally, it happened.

First, the teasing and release of a new single and album, next, the tour announcement! A tour I must, obviously, go see. Obviously. And more then once. Obviously.

“Two times is one too many.”

(Ummmm, wrong, Harry! Wrong! Two times is a million to few!)

And so, with only seven cities to choose from, and with much perseverance with Ticketmaster, I managed to swing tickets to two shows at Wembley, London for my sister and I.

The instant elation once I had those tickets in hand (well, digitally), I cannot describe accurately. I don’t know about you all, but the last few years (well, really, oh, ten years or so) on earth have been trying… leftover global pandemic isolation, divisive politics, economic, social, and environmental polycrises etc etc.

Sometimes it has felt as though we are more and more detached from each other, like we forgot how to human. How to connect, empathize, build community. We forgot that human rights and dignity for those already marginalized does not mean less rights for those already enjoying them… As the saying goes, human rights are not pie.

The release of Aperture as Harry’s first single on the new album and its joyful reminders “we belong together” and can control the amount of light or darkness we let in our lives was a Band-Aid in these messy times. The announcement of a tour, and that it’s called Together Together, a beacon of hope.

Music is a powerful healer. A Harry Styles concert and its over-whelmingly positive, peace and love-giving audience night after night brings so much contagious good will into the world – something we so desperately need.

I’ve said before that going to see U2 in concert is like going to church. Going to see Harry in concert is going to community. Its right there in those lyrics and the name of the tour – We belong together; Together Together. 

It is something tangible he points out every night:

“The community that you guys have built in this room and rooms that I’ve seen all around the world is something so unbelievably magical. I hope you are aware of that. Over the years, I’ve heard people, friends, you all, talk about the people they’ve met, the friends they’ve made, and the community they’ve created together. That’s bigger than these shows, it’s bigger than me. That community exists even after the show has ended and you go home.”

Watching that community develop and interact before your eyes, being a part of it, is addictive, it’s like injecting pure love and positive energy straight into your veins, your heart, your soul. 

It’s like finding family, like going to one massive family reunion of 90,000 people. It’s watching them having already developed a micro-culture of actions or dances for all who wish to participate during specific songs – the phone lights moving up and down to the beat of Keep Driving, the Woodstock-esque group circle dances or straight up lying down on the ground and watching the sky to fully appreciate and soak in the beauty of Coming Up Roses.

These are things community does.  And as with the U2 fandom, and probably many fandoms, that community builds stronger over time as its members go to multiple shows on a tour and over the years and strangers get to know each other and become friends or at least aware of each other as members of this community.

It’s a beautiful thing to belong to.

“One, two, three times you’re on me and suddenly ready, steady, go.”

So three times we go to this magnificent beast of a tour. Three times we walk in the midst of this community, bask in the loveliness that is Harry Styles.

And lovely he is.  The man is a charismatic performer through and through. I adore this music in its recorded format – it speaks (sings?) for itself how good it is. But live – there’s nothing like live music and Harry is transcendent artistry, a master of performance and connecting with his community.

And now a marathon runner as well.  Literally – he ran multiple marathons during his three year hiatus and the training was put to perfect use on this stage.

This stage is massive. The main stage, huge in itself, but the B stage traverses much of the Wembley pitch – a rectangle shaped runway of three long vertical catwalks and the outer and inner horizontal catwalks, creating four inner rectangle sections on the GA floor. This man runs around these runways at full speed while singing and entertaining us.

It is imperative to see him multiple times. My soul’s happiness depends on it.

“One time in the light“

For our first show (which occurred mere hours after landing at Heathrow, taking the Underground, and checking in to our Wembley hotel and buying the tickets that very day. 

What better cure for jet lag than a rambunctious, energy-infusing concert!?), we were wayyyy up high in the 500s section on the stage left side.  And while we were a million miles away from the stage and the band, it was the perfect spot for our first show. 

From this bird’s eye view, we could see the super cool stage B light up in intricate patterns, we could see the audience (community) dancing and laying on the floor.

We saw the overwhelmingly striking effect of 90,000 people shining their phones in synchronous movements, of them jumping up and down together (together).

We saw the wave while waiting for the glorious Shania Twain (yes, that’s right! THE Shania Twain) open the show, and how it moves sometimes together (together) and sometimes at different speeds on the different layers of Wembley.

We saw the fireworks of Sign of the Times and the light shows for the whole show. And we saw the incredible performance of Harry and his band. 

For not one moment did we wish we were closer, this spectacle was so spectacular from this angle.  The new songs hitting hard and hitting home alongside the triumphs and favorites of the previous albums. 

On first listens of the new album, it felt quiet, reflective, with few moments of dance tracks (Disco, Occasionally – the title doesn’t lie).  But live, these songs are bangers. And its just so so good to see them from this vantage on high. The strings of Coming Up Roses, the rave of Ready Steady Go, and the perfect little dance moves transitioning Ready into Dance No More. 

“It’s two times as fun already“

Of course, that contentment with being so far away may be in part because we knew we had at least two more shows to go. And when I buy tickets to multiple shows on the same tour, I purposefully try to buy seats in different locations to get the different viewpoints. There are reasons multiple shows are my jam.

For the second show, we were in the 4^th row (though it was essentially first row, because the first three rows were blocked off), close to the main stage on stage right. And for the third show 5^th row but this time on stage left. And while we had the time of our lives up high in the nosebleeds, its pretty damn exciting to be at this level too. To see Harry and the band and dancers closer in person.

To see the smiles and winks, the sweaty backs. Shania’s beautiful Dolce and Gabbana costumes.

Both of them and their bands putting everything in their performance, singing with their whole bodies. Seeing the crowd’s reactions.  Harries dancing and singing at the top of their lungs, not just to Harry as expected, but to Shania as well – doing the giddy up dance, yelling “Man, I Feel Like a Woman!

And the sound is a little better on the ground too.  (Wembley is an icon, but when you are that big of a stadium, you get sound issues. (They should investigate the speaker technology used at the Sphere in Vegas – maybe it doesn’t work in an outdoor venue though)).

“One, two, three times you’re only playing with me. Ready, steady, go.“

Three times is just not enough.  We tried for tickets to two other nights while we were in town, but alas, three times was it in the end, three times we are grateful for. I should mention, those three nights were 3 of a record-setting 12 night residency – the most shows by a solo artist at Wembley in a year.

Favorite moments (I mean, honestly – everything from start to finish, except the heatwave :P)

Coming Up Roses and all the numbers with the strings.  So beautiful.  But Coming Up Roses and the audience experiencing it fully – either dancing with each other, laying on the ground, or imbuing from watching Harry, it’s such a moving song and performance.

Sign of the Times.  Every time.  This song is just really the perfect stadium anthem song.  And it deserves the fireworks.  Never stop using fireworks with it!

Put a Bell on Your Bicycle? This song is not on the albums and what a marvellous surprise to add to the set list! it is infectious! It begins as an instrumental, and its such a rave beat my sister made us stand up (it’s the interlude while Harry leaves the stage and we all sat down to wait) because I was bouncing in the chairs – I couldn’t help it, its such a good beat.  And then Harry comes back and adds vocals through the voice distortion thingy (I don’t know what its called), repeating Put a bell on your bicycle.

Fine Line. The live version is sooo beautiful.

Harry dancing.  I slightly miss the Satellite Stomps, but Harry cuts a rug way more in this concert than in Love On Tour – So much so, that it (and the lasers and day glo visuals made it feel like we were 90,000 friends dancing at a club with him. That intimacy is hard to establish in a room the size of Wembley, but Harry makes it feel natural, effortless.

Aperture: I loved Aperture when I first heard it on Spotify, but American Girls pretty much took it over on the radio stations as the preferred single.  But hearing Aperture live – seeing 90,000 people dance and jump in unison to “We belong together” and sing those lyrics at the top of our lungs – I got weepy. 

That’s really what this is all about.  We do belong together.  We are better together, when we take care of each other.  And I say that as an introvert who needs her alone time to recharge.

Unless I have a concert and the energy of Harry Styles and 90,000 friends to recharge me instead.

There are just too many more favourite moments to list! I could list every moment. 

And I miss him already.

When can I go again?