Carrie Underwood at the Royal Albert Hall

I had an amazing time during the afternoon and evening of this past Thursday. Some time ago my friend Becca, knowing that I am a Carrie Underwood fan, had been kind enough to invite me to attend Underwood's first-ever concert in the United Kingdom with her. While I was initially concerned about not being able to get transport to London, I was able to obtain train tickets and we made arrangements accordingly.

All of my pictures were taken with my phone, as I did not bring my main camera with me. Unfortunately, most of the images I took within the Royal Albert Hall's auditorium were blurred, which I was extremely disappointed with. A few did turn out well, and I also brought my Vado along and captured a few videos, making up for the image losses.

The trip began when I arrived at my local railroad station. I was slightly nervous, as it was my first time on board a train and I was not sure what to expect, but once I was on the train and on my way to London I relaxed. My train was slightly late to arrive at my local station, but early to make it to the St. Pancras (the station in London my train was bound for). There were a few bumps on the tracks, but I found the ride to be a fascinating new experience and I became fond of watching the countryside as it went past me.

Once I had arrived at St. Pancras I quickly met up with Becca there and we made our way to the London Underground (the subway system for the whole city and some areas outside Greater London). The Underground was the only part of the trip I was more nervous about than the initial train ride, as I was expecting a poorly-signed, complicated system; instead, I learnt that the Underground is surprisingly well-directed and easy to learn (well, the part I travelled in was, but I doubt it would change much outside Zones 1 and 2).

This is the inside of the London Underground train we rode on our way to the Royal Albert Hall. My first-ever ride on the Underground turned out to be the emptiest I have ever seen the place, for whenever I have seen pictures or videos it has always been packed with people. It was hot in parts, though, as the Underground is currently not air conditioned (made worse thanks to the recent rain).

After we exited the Underground at the Tube station for South Kensington, we made it to Exhibition Street, where I took this picture. Most of our time in London was spent in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, although St. Pancras and King's Cross (the station Becca travelled to) are both located in the London Borough of Camden.

We walked up Exhibition Road, turned a corner, and arrived at the Royal Albert Hall! It is deceptive, as it looks small from the outside (and at that particular distance), but inside the Hall is humongous. When I first set eyes upon the Royal Albert Hall I had one of those "wow, I'm really here!" moments.

Another shot of the Royal Albert Hall, taken at a different angle. Becca found it amusing at how "touristy" I was behaving...in my taking lots of pictures and looking around in a fascinated manner at my surroundings. She was correct...with this being my first visit to London in over sixteen years I was more than happy to walk around and take in as much as I could in the time we had before going into the Hall!

The Albert Memorial, located just across the street (Kensington Gore) from the Royal Albert Hall. While we were there, the sun was at just the right point in the sky to give the gold on the Memorial a bright shine. Apparently, some twenty years ago this structure was under wraps due to renovation.

The "What's On?", showing the line-up of events at the Royal Albert Hall for June 2012.

The posters advertising Underwood's performance at the Royal Albert Hall. When we went into the Hall we explored the building for a bit, as there was still an hour to go before the doors to the concert opened. The merchandise stand opened while we waited, which Becca and I quickly got in line for; I purchased a poster, a photo card, two keyrings, and a magnet.

A shot showing both how full the auditorium was that day and people still entering: the concert sold out within ninety minutes, so Becca was fortunate to rapidly obtain tickets for the performance. Those empty seats in the background? They were all filled before Underwood came onto the stage.

Becca and I had wondered what sort of fans would attend the concert, and what was delightful was that the demographics of the crowd were diverse: I was sat next to a man in his sixties and Becca was next to a couple in their forties; there were white people, black people, Asians, teenage girls, teenage boys, families, people on their own, and people with others. It was good to see that Underwood's United Kingdom fan base covers a broad array of people.

Now on to an image of Underwood herself! She is hard to make out, and sadly her face is not clear in any of the pictures I took (my phone camera is good, but it was not suited for this type of photography), but I can assure you that the bright person in this shot is Carrie Underwood. She started performing at 8:30pm.

Becca, myself, and the man next to me (and possibly several others) received an unexpected seat upgrade, so we went from paying for standing seats (worth £25) to getting regular seats (worth at least £50) at no extra cost. We were also not that far from Underwood herself, and much closer to her than we would have been in the seats we originally paid for.

Another shot of Underwood performing. I was amazed to see Underwood in person, although I did promise Becca that I would not embarrass her by shouting "I LOVE YOU CARRIE!" (someone else did that instead, and a group of teenagers did the same thing but substituted "I" for "WE"), running up onto the stage and doing something really stupid, or by being so overwhelmed at the sight of Underwood that I would faint and miss the performance! Nah, I wanted to see the show, not have us thrown out.

The set list for her performance is here. Underwood sang all the songs I hoped she would sing ("Last Name", "Before He Cheats", and "Blown Away"), plus several from her newest album, Blown Away. She sang "Before He Cheats" as the final song in the main group with "I Know You Won't" and "Blown Away" being her encore. She also performed a cover of Coldplay's "Fix You"; before she sang that particular song she explained how she wanted to sing something by a British artist out of respect for her British fans and talked about how careful she is when covering another musician's work.

Now for the videos:

This video helps make up for most of the blurred images I ended up taking of the auditorium: it shows how full the Hall was becoming.

This is Underwood performing "Last Name", from her Carnival Ride album. While I loved hearing all the songs she performed live, this was among the best.

This is of Underwood speaking to her audience. I wanted to capture at least one video of her addressing the crowd, so I kept my Vado on standby until an appropriate moment arose. This is a humorous part in this video.

The concert ended at roughly 10:15, giving Becca and I time to leave the Royal Albert Hall, ride the Underground back to our train stations, and say our goodbyes without having to rush (our respective trains departed London at 11:15). I made it to my train in time and even had to wait for a few minutes for the gates to open; unlike the travel to London, the train ride back had several stops on the way, and it was well past 12:30am when I arrived back home.

Carrie Underwood's concert at the Royal Albert Hall and London itself were far more impressive than I had ever thought they would be, and I hope the success of the performance will encourage Underwood to return to the United Kingdom. I thank Becca, again, for the chance to go and see Underwood live.