The Year 11 Ball (Part 2)

This was going to be a blog of three parts. Part 1, the build up to the ball. Part 2, the actual ball itself. Part 3, what happens afterwards i.e. The after ball party, and what happens when you wake up from that. But I did not go to an afterball party, due to lack of voice, not wanting to be hungover for my drama group the next day, and leading on from that one, not wanting to be the only sober person at the party. So this has become a blog of two parts.

So, the day of the ball. Get home, get showered, get shaved and get ready. In that order. After having done all that, in full ball tuxedo, get into the car, and go to your friends house so you can get your limo/car to the ball. This is when it starts to get really exciting, because you have realised that this is actually happening. When everybody has turned up, the limo arrives, and you high five everybody. Well, at least, that is what my group did. So, we climb into the limo and smile like madmen, because it looks amazing. The leather seats, the lights, the drinks glasses, the drinks holders. The driver passes a couple of bottles down the limo. Non-alocoholic, of course, with us being underage, and it being illegal. *cough* But anyway, we have drinks, and as the limo starts to move, we start to pour the drinks. Maybe we could have poured them before the limo was moving, but we were excited and not really thinking about that. I had the honour of pouring the drinks. They make it look very easy in the movies. It is not. The limo going around corners, stopping, starting, and going over bumps in the road made it very hard, but I did it. Of course, we had loud music playing, with a heavy bass line. Not my choice, I hasten to add, but I went with it. So, when we all had our grape juice (that is what it was), we made a toast. To the future. Then we sat back and enjoyed the ride.

When we got to our school, which is where the ball was being held. Yeah, yeah, I know, not terribly fun or exciting to have it at school, but that is not the point. As we got out of the limo, there we people behind barriers cheering. I was quite surprised at the fact so many of the year 10 girls were there, and that they all knew me. I found this odd, yet nice at the same time. We had our pictures taken next to the limo, and then went to mingle with the other people who had already turned up. We were the third group to have turned up, so there wasn't many people to talk to yet. That soon changed as time went on. People were turning up in limos, fancy cars, motorbikes, buses, a boat, tractors, a trolley, and most interestingly of all, a tank. That was quite something. To see a tank rolling up with people from my school in was very impressive. There was lots of noise from everyone, as we all mingled around, the boys in tuxedos and suits, the girls in amazing dresses, looking stunning, waiting for the walk up to begin.

The walk up through the school was amazing. We had a drummer and a bagpipe player (I do not know what you call one of those. A bagpipist? A bagpipper? I do not know) in front of us as we walked past the people on the sides. It was quite something. Walking past lots of people with your date holding your arm. Very nice. As we walked past everybody into the hall, we saw that it had been transformed from the dull, plain usual hall, into an amazingly decorated hall, with all of our year seven pictures playing on a slide show. That bit was very funny. We walked in a spiral to get into our three circles that we would dance in. I was in the inner cicrle. We realise just how many people were in our year at that point. The dancing would be fun, with the girls in long dresses. You can probably guess what happened when we started dancing. Yes, that's right. The dresses got stood on. Not by me, but by the girls wearing the dresses, or the girls next to them. So, we did the waltz, the salsa, the tango and the cha cha cha. Non of these were to hard, but in a small space, and with dresses and tuxedos, they became just that little bit harder. But we went through that without anything going wrong. We clapped, and then the party really started.

We had a DJ, and of course when the music started, we started to jump up and down in time to it. Because, as teenagers, that is pretty much the only way we will dance at parties. Unless it is a rather intimate dance. But at a school ball, and with the tempo of most of the songs, that was not likely to happen. So, everybody was jumping around. And singing at the top of our voices. We did this for the entire night, unless the song was something like YMCA, tha cha cha slide or the Macarena. Because, let's face it, everybody knows actual dance moves to those songs. At some point during this, I went with a group of guys to have our photos taken, single ones and group ones. And behind the photo thing, there was food. After quickly grabbing some food, sticking some strawberrys and marshmellows onto a stick and putting them into a chocolate fountain, and grabbing a lollypop, we went back into the hall, grabbed a drink from outside, and continued with our random jumping and singing. After having done this for a few hours, we got rather warm, so some of the guys and I stepped out to cool down, and remembered that there was a casino in a different part of the school, just for that one night. So we went there, and played roulette and blackjack for a bit, until we decided that we would develop gambling problems if we stayed any longer. We went back into the hall, where a band had started to play. Cue random jumping and singing at the tops of our voices. At some points, the band gave up singing and just played the music, because we were singing the songs ourselves. Lets face it, if you play Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi at a year 11 ball, everybody will know the words, the tune, the timings, and everything, so all you need to do is play in to background. This trend continued with most of the songs, us jumping up and down, singing, and the band just playing.

At the end of the night, balloons were relised from the ceiling, and everybody cheered and started hitting them around and popping them. The DJ came back on the play some more music, and we again started jumping up and down, singing. This was at nearly midnight. People started to leave just before midnight, and there was hugging, and handshakes and general goodbyes. I got a call from my dad at midnight saying he was ready to pick me up. I missed the call three times before I answered it. I could not hear my phone. I made my way outside, after having said goodbye to my friends who I was dancing with. I said goodbye to my friends who were outside, and promised that we would meet up at some point. At that point it really hit me. This is it. I had made it through the years. I realised that I would not see some of my friends again. Or, at least, not as much as I did. I hugged my friends, shook hands with them and walked off to find my dad.

Well, that is that. The end of an era. The end of year 11. It is quite emotional really. I have grown up with these people. I will be seeing most of them next year at sixth form, but the ones that I will not be, I will miss dearly.

Well, until my next blog dear readers, Adios!

Music

I am sort of continuing from my other blog on music. I really did this as a practise for my English GCSE, but it sounded so good, I thought I would share it with you. Enjoy.
There is a trend developing, and that is to just have people singing over a track which does not consist of any form of music, merely computerised drum and bass. And quite often, the singing is not even singing, just talking very quickly, or making your voice go up and down during words. What has happened to the world that I used to love living in? Where have the singers, the guitarists, the drummers and the people with actual talent gone? Why do people feel that someone using auto tune to sound like a robot is someone with singing talent? It makes no sense. People with real talent are being over looked because the consumer thinks that robotronic voices are "cool" and "hip". People who can sing should be celebrated, not thrown onto the rubbish pile with the people who have had their time. It is in fact, the people who steal the limelight from these talented people that deserve to be thrown onto the pile of rejected wannabes. I know many people who are talented, and who get over looked because of these rappers and auto tune using people. If you want to hear real music, and see real performers, then look at the people who do not get recognised. And when these people do get a break, their fan base is not nearly the size it should be. People with talent need to be seen as gifted, because they are. With so many talented people out there, we should have no trouble filling the charts with them, and ousting the people who use auto tune to make money. Talented people are underneath our very noses, all we have to do is wake up and smell the talent that they have. I have some advice for you, go online, see if any smaller, local bands are playing anywhere near you soon, and go along to it. You will then see just how talented people really are, and how they, unfortunately, get overlooked by this throw away culture. This is a throw away culture. The current music that is listened to is not built to last, and raw talent will last forever. It will be listened to for generations. And it will never be forgotten by the people who witnessed the beginning of the group. The current "stars", no one knows where they came from, they just appeared. With proper musical groups, they start of small, and grow and grow until the take over the world. This is what should happen. Not these throw away artists, we want properly talented people, who play proper music. The music that these people create will last forever, and will not blend into the background. As I said earlier, I still listen to older music, not only because it is good, but also because it is time less. As Bob Dylan once said "The times they are a changing", but they should change for the better, and not spiral downward into decay, which is happening with these auto tuned artists. Now, not all of you who read this article will agree with my views on the matter, but I hope that I have convinced at least a small minority of you into listening to proper music, with real people. Thank you for listening.