i think starkid innit was like one of the most insane things to ever happen to me maybe. god!!! i'd seen darren, joey, and lauren a few months prior (innit was announced in february '24, that was in october '23) and i'd waxed poetic plenty about how i'd finally got to see starkid live in some capacity, instead of having to wait until i could independently travel to america like i'd thought; even though it wasn't a full-on starkid concert, it was ultimately a darren criss concert with two other starkid members where they performed two starkid songs, that was good enough for me. because that was INSANE right? like i didn't imagine i'd really ever get that realistically and then very suddenly i DID. so i was chuffed to bits over that and then on tuesday 13th february 2024 during second period my phone buzzed in my pocket so i went into the toilets at break to check it and HOLY FUCKING SHIT. this was my reaction at the time:

just to give you an idea.

tickets were a fucking bloodbath. devastatingly we couldn't get any for my friend that i was going to bring (don't you worry though made it up to them with spies and icbiballtay) because as it turns out this was the fastest selling show in the history of the london palladium. i actually got a really good matinee seat in the stalls (L45) because i went with my mum who needs an access seat meaning we HAVE to be near the front. which i am NOT MAD ABOUT. so yeah kind of a miracle there actually. thank you starkid gods?

of course as is custom i did a full recount of the entire day afterwards. so here it is :3 (this is even more abridged than the darren criss recount btw because i did include in it a lot of conversations i had with people outside the palladium and things like that. this was a bit different because i'm way more involved with the starkid community than the darren criss one and i'd joined a groupchat beforehand so had a lot of friends there already. meaning i had a lot more i needed to cut out of here!)

we had to leave early because the train strikes meant we had to drive all the way to [station about an hour from home] to get the train from there but it was all good! when we first left the house i actually forgot my nighthawks cap so i had to run back and get it but i managed in the end so it all worked out fine. the car journey there was quite uneventful but when we got onto the train we had an announcement that said the train was broken but the driver would get us "as far as we can" which was a tad worrying? but we got there so it was fine in the end. there seemed to be a bit of a curse tbh loads of people messaged the innit groupchat saying that they had transport issues and of course there was jaime's flight which was delayed by 19 hours so overall not great on the transport but we all made it!!! when we got to london we got a cab and it was all great, got to the palladium just fine and decided to get something to eat. we ended up in shake shack and i tried the chicken things but didn't like them, so i nibbled on some of mum's crinkle chips which were pretty good. and then after that we just decided to wait outside the palladium for a bit as there was a massive crowd there of starkid fans and omg!!! IT WAS INCREDIBLE genuinely mingling with everyone beforehand was on par with the concert for me, if not my favourite part overall. highlights included meeting [two people from the group "J" and "F"] and recognising them both on sight (when i saw "F" i literally BOLTED for them and knocked straight into a marley cosplayer with a walking stick and all i was apologising SO much), meeting [longtime tumblr mutual "D"] and NOT recognising her because i'd never seen a photo before so we sort of had a bit of a chat and she knew my name and i had an inkling it was her but i didn't want to say anything in case i was wrong but then she said "i know you don't know who i am but you will once you see my url, but i'm not sure how i'm pronouncing it, so-" and pulled her tumblr up on her phone and i just had to go "OH MY GOD ITS YOU!!!" and we exchanged the bracelets we made for each other and!! IT WAS JUST SO NICE i actually got two custom bracelets, one from "D" which said "curtwen" which i ADORE, and another from "F" which said tanya freemont with these little flowers that are SO CUTE i love it sm honestly!!! back to the highlights another one was meeting someone and their mum who were both into starkid and i actually loved them both so much they were both so funny but i didn't get to stay and chat because "J" shouted me over for photos (though i look very awkward in both of them. i'm grinning like mad i do not know how to conduct myself i just COULD not stop smiling that wide) ALSOO outside the palladium at one point a massive group started singing granger danger and i joined in and filmed it it was SO CUTE.. also when i was over there i finally got the courage to talk to someone who i'd seen earlier but was nervous to approach but i really wanted to chat with because they were in a charlene kaye conscious control tshirt!!!! so we had a lovely little chat and swapped instagram handles which was so nice. but i can't recount every interaction i had because i would be here for ages, i got a lot of compliments on my top which was so lovely [i fabric penned the lords in black onto a top] and i got to meet a lot of people from the innit gc which was super exciting!!! i've never had any experience like that before it was honestly the best thing i've ever done, meeting friends i'd made from that was incredible like i can't describe. when doors opened we queued for a while and i nipped into pret to grab a bottle of water and then we were in!! we decided to get merch before the show and while in the queue i got to say hi to and trade bracelets with [person from the groupchat "K"]! mum bought me a bag of milky way buttons which were great and then i spent £100 on merch to get a tshirt (£35), jumper (£50), and poster (£15) concert prices are insane but i had planned for that so i didn't mind. i was really lucky though because afterwards i checked my bank balance and i only had 33p left so if the total was literally £1 more i wouldn't have been able to afford it! i did go in with the expectation that i would spend all of my money. i didn't want to get mum to buy the stuff for me again because i knew it was expensive from last time! and then after that was the SHOW...!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GODDDD the second they started singing i genuinely started sobbing it was insaneee it was an INCREDIBLE show. like HOLY SHIT someone suggested lauren sing boy toy and she said "don't make me do that" but SO glad there was another lwl luvr in the audience. WE GOT ROGUES MEDLEY!!!!! WITH FEAST OR FAMINE!!!!!! LIKE WHAT THE FUCK OH MY GOD it was INSANE AND WE GOT HSIKM!!!! WE GOT COREY SHOW STOPPIN NUMBER!!!!!! WE GOT FUCKING HIDEOUS CREATURES the forgotten songs bit was SO funny i was obsessed with corey hamming it up for pays to be an animal. honestly obsessed with corey he's INCREDIBLE i didn't properly appreciate him until now i think but after that i NEED to hear him sing more. AND WE GOT A NEW VERSION OF SAMI/HARRY FOR NORI THE DOG!!!! LOVE JAIME FOR THIS i can't believe i've seen JLB LIVE like what the FUCK..! and then at one point joey and lauren walked on stage together and we fucking KNEW. like the second they walked on everyone started cheering and clapping because we KNEW what's coming here... INSANE!!!! they did this whole bit about how actually they're about to sing a whole NEW song we shouldn't make assumptions like this it's actually brand new.. and then the song STARTED!!! and of course it was granger danger and we SCREAMED!!!!! so count two to times i've seen granger danger live and it was INCREDIBLE. this time they kept putting in little comments about how it will get different soon, this is actually a whole new song it just starts the same.. it was SO funny i was laughing so hard!!! and then they did some more and the last song before the encore was completely out of left field because i can confidently say that NOBODY in the audience expected team starkid to perform wannabe by the spice girls (and not even just a little snippet of it they fully did THE WHOLE THING it was actually SO good like they ate that up. it was INCREDIBLE) so that was truly EXCELLENT!! and then lights went down everyone got offstage but then the band came back and like. ok so i kind of thought maybe they won't do gbth because darren isn't there but also maybe they might do it anyway because clark is there and he's established as harry too so perhaps? and anyway the band came back onstage played a little bit and then bass guitar G G G Bb A A A Bb G G G D C C C C A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A....... AND LIKE OMG!!!! whole palladium went INSANE it was SUCH a moment.. then clark said that actually we were ALL going to be harry and we were ALL going to sing it. by this point everyone was standing up because of the standing o that wannabe rightfully got so we were going hogwild. AND WE ALL SUNG GBTH!!! and like HOOOOLY SHIT i know i've had a visceral fucking experience of gbth before but now i've had a VISCERAL. FUCKING. EXPERIENCE. of gbth because to have the WHOLE crowd know it and sing along rather than only the whatever percent that are starkid fans not just glee exclusives... like to have 2000+ people ALL SINGING GOIN BACK TO HOGWARTS. and to SCREAM it at the top of my lungs AGAIN!! FOR THE SECOND TIME IN THE SPACE OF UNDER A YEAR?? LIKE THATS MADDDD????? (also this time i don't think i sounded like i was in physical pain at the end which is always a bonus. in the 15/10/23 one i'm crying so hard by the end of it that when i scream "MAN IM GLAD IM BACK" i actually sound like i'm about to fucking die so this time i'm pretty sure i decided to not scream that at the top of my lungs but rather at a normal volume? also i held the phone further out so you can hear me less anyway which is def for the best because i sound insane.) SO THAT WAS INCREDIBLEEEEE journey back was fine got a bit stressy but we made it and i got to put on my cool and awesome starkid london jumper which was great!!! and then afterwards i got to chat with the groupchat about it!!!! so overall INSANE fucking experience i LOVE starkid so fucking much like i cant even describe...... AUGH!!!!!! OH MY GOD OMG I SAW STARKID LIVE.. LIKE U GUYS....??????????????? I SAW STARKID LIVE WHAT THE FUCK

so ya that was starkid innit. one of the best events of my life so far. GOD

okay sooo yeah in 2023 darren criss did a tour of i think a few north american locations and australia with joey richter and lauren lopez from starkid and i thought GOD if they can do bloody australia then WHYYY WHY LORD CAN THEY NOT JUST COME TO THE UK FOR ONCE!!! and then my prayers were answered and they did one night only at the london palladium and i managed somehow to snag matinee tickets :3 also this was a VERY monumental event not just for me personally (though it was that too. my first concert AND i got to hear bloody?? granger danger??? goin back to hogwarts??? LIVE?????) but also for UK based starkid fans in general because this started the working relationship between team starkid and LW theatres, which led to starkid innit AND spy another day west end concert AND i can't believe it's been a little less than a year. so thank fuck for that. anyway when i got back i actually made a full recount of the day and later posted an abridged version on my website at the time which i will put here!! it was INSANE you guys. uhh pre warning this recount of the day is kind of mad and at times sappy upon rereading it but it def captures The Emotion of the day i feel

ok so i woke up at like 8:01 in the morning which was good although a little later than i'd hoped. we got in the car and drove to the train station early because i literally COULD NOT WAIT. the train to london didn't take that long but my god did the tubes!! we got to kings cross and went down to st pancras ("st pancreas" according to my mum) where we met this lovely lady, we got talking on the lift and stayed with her for a bit while we worked out our trains. after that it was kind of hellish honestly? we just kept getting on tubes until we found bond street, there were so many that we couldn't get out of because there were no lifts only stairs/escalators. it got very stressful so i had a bit of a cry but in the end it was alright and we got there. we went to pret a manger and i got a bottle of water and a chocolate bar that wasn't really that nice, but i hadn't eaten for ages so i nibbled a bit. when we saw the palladium, all the signs outside it were for the darren criss show!! we had a really nice assistance worker who escorted us inside (we skipped the queue, i have decided i am never going to any concert without mum, we didn't have to queue AT ANY POINT) and showed us around, it was all so brilliant. then we got to our seats!!! we were at the end of the row because of mum's wheelchair, third row because only the front few were accessible which was GREAT. i was next to a lovely glaswegian woman and her son, she had really wanted to go but her son seemed less than impressed. we talked about darren, she was a massive glee fan and kept talking about klaine, which was sweet; she said that the assassination of gianni versace was really good, so i'll have to get round to watching that. there was a group of teenagers behind us who seemed to be massive theatre kids, too, which was nice. AND THEN HE WAS ON THE STAGE. thank the high heavens for auto stabilisation on my phone's video camera because god i was shaking like nobody's business i was seeing DARREN CRISS my IDOL since i was ELEVEN IN REAL FUCKING LIFE. I WAS IN THE SAME ROOM AS HIM. i was breathing all laboured i genuinely did not deal with it!!! it was fucking intense!!!! when he first came on stage he sat at the piano and wordlessly started playing the national anthem (ours, not the american one). then he started singing don't stop me now which was AMAZING. and oh my GOD the first act was SENSATIONAL i was filming a lot of it on my phone and i kept looking at the screen obviously to check it was a decent video and then i would go Hold on a second and look past my screen and remember OH YEAH. I'M IN THIS FUCKING ROOM. WITH DARREN CRISS. and my heart would STOP!!! joey and lauren were also onstage at this point but they were sort of singing in the background, and because i had a side view i had to crane to see joey and i couldn't see lauren at all :(((( after act 1 (i feel like calling it act 1 and act 2 is wrong because it's a concert not actually a musical but that's just how i've been thinking of it) our assistance worker came back and we went into the lobby to look at merchandise. there were a couple of t-shirts in the running, a black one and a yellow one, but i ended up getting the yellow one because it had the show name and info on the back!!! so that was an excellent souvenir, plus we got to skip the queue again which was so great. we got back to our seats and look when i tell you that act 2 was FUCKING TRANSCENDENT. I AM NEVER GOING TO BE THE SAME. THE SECOND HALF OF THE CONCERT WAS OH MY FUCKING GOD LEVELS OF INSANE I AM LTIERALLY A CHANGED PERSON I AM ACTUALYL NEVER GOING TO FUCKING GET OVER IT so for starters they LITERALLY SUNG GRANGER DANGER. LIKE FOR REAL. DARREN TALKED ABOUT STARKID AND HE JOEY AND LAUREN SUNG GRANGER DANGER. I HAVE SEEN GRANGER DANGER LIVE. I HAVE SEEN IT. PERFORMED LIVE BY THE PEOPLE WHO SUNG IT ORIGINALLY. IN REAL LIFE. but oh my god the highlight of the night for me was ONE HUNDRED PERCENT GOIN' BACK TO HOGWARTS. OH MY GOD. I THINK THAT'S MY FAVOURITE EXPERIENCE I'VE EVER HAD. DARREN GOT EVERYONE TO STAND UP AND THEN WE WERE ALL SINGING IN THE AUDIENCE AND IT WAS THIS HUGE SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND OHHHH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD. WE WERE ALL SINGING THIS SONG AND I GOT SO CAUGHT UP IN IT BECAUSE LIKE!!! NEVER DID I THINK I'D BE DOING THIS!!!!! AND JOEY AND LAUREN AND DARREN MY THREE IDOLS SINCE I WAS ELEVEN WERE SINGING IT WITH ME. I DON'T THINK I'M EVER GOING TO GET OVER IT I REALLY DON'T. that is definitely a memory i will hold close for the rest of my life oh my god!!!!!!!!

after that i yap like? a lot just about the journey home? like a whole paragraph just describing how i got a box of chicken from mini waitrose and dropped my bottle of water and such. i was definitely caught up in the excitement. but anyway yeah. INSANE EVENT!! and shockingly somehow the start of MANY INSANE EVENTS!!!! god i never thought i would see starkid live in any capacity until i was old enough to independently travel to america but now this. and the next. and the next. oh my god

a very potter senior year (avpsy) is the third and final installment in the very potter trilogy. as the name might suggest. it's a staged reading, as opposed to a fully produced musical, and it was performed at leakycon chicago in 2012. it's generally regarded as the "weakest link" of the trilogy and while i can't say i disagree with this i still love and appreciate this show so dearly!! the plot is certainly shaky but the thing is this isn't really a show you watch for the plot. a very potter senior year is the emotional conclusion and send-off to this beautiful trilogy and taking it as that it is PERFECT at its job. i've not met a soul who got through avpsy without crying an embarassing amount myself included!! you can even see that the actors on stage are fighting back tears it's such a moving show and a beautiful goodbye. at the time it was also a possibility in the minds of fans that this could even be the end of starkid full stop - considering that, at that point in time, their "main thing" was the very potter series, not to mention that the name "starkid" is itself taken from a line from avpm - so that really just adds to the impact of this show. i love you forever and ever avpsy!!!

also the avpsy soundtrack is just SO good. it's so slept on and for WHAT!! darren criss (who played harry in all 3 shows) couldn't be on the cast recording due to rights issues as his voice was owned by glee at the time or something like that? so clark baxtresser sings on the recording and GUYS. GUYSSSSSSS i love clark baxtresser so much. thank you clarky b for everything oh my godddddd anyway yeah avpsy soundtrack is EVERYTHING to me hello?? sidekick?? everything ends?? fucking i was???? ive fallen from up high the world has said goodbye im not an angel not the answer i'm just going nowhere faster????? SECRET EXTRA INNIT VERSE?????????? i'm certifiable about this honestly

idk i have significantly less to say about avpsy because i've only watched it twice due to the fact that it just destroys me every time. it makes me so damn emotional!!!!! love her though

a very potter sequel (avps) is perhaps unsurprisingly the second installment in the very potter trilogy. personally, despite my emotional connection to it not quite being as strong as that to its predecessor, i think it's absolutely the best out of the three! it absolutely has to be one of my favourite soundtracks of all time with NO skips, SUCH a good plot, this show is absolutely insane from beginning to end. i watched it for the first time a few months into my original avpm era and it HOOKED me, definitely in part because i'd had those few months to stew in my obsession but also because oh my god you guys. this musical is SO GOOD!!!! i can't recommend it enough. first time i saw the end scene with days of summer into the goin' back to hogwarts reprise i burst into tears and didn't stop sobbing for like 20 minutes.. it was definitely a time but i stand by that.

the thing with avps is that there is so much that COULD have gone wrong. with avpm it wasn't even supposed to be seen by anyone beyond those in the theatre and the cast/crew, so there was no expectation there and if it was bad then everyone would ultimately have just gone on with their lives; however, with avps the pressure was huge. already it's a big risk, announcing a sequel to a viral sensation: so many times these things try to pander to the audience, become stale, or otherwise just don't live up to the original. if that had happened to avps i really don't think we would have starkid as we know it today, the whole future of starkid rested on this. so to have all that expectation and then not only to live up to it, but exceed it by miles? is INCREDIBLE. it solidified starkid's status in the world of theatre, not just a one-hit wonder but a very talented and respected company.

and back to the soundtrack. i am so annoying about the avps soundtrack. i am and will continue to be in shock and disbelief that i have MET and TAKEN A SELFIE with one of the guys who wrote it.. (thank you AJ holmes for just? being there?? at spies are forever west end concert??? one of the moments EVER) like thats just a downright insane event. what the hell. no way... also singing days of summer outside the palladium before starkid innit is a core memory for me. AND SEEING NOT OVER YET LIVE AT THAT SAME CONCERT? changed me PERMANENTLY. god i love the avps soundtrack more than i can ever say. also i resolved to not talk in detail about the concerts in any of the sections about the musicals because i'm going to have separate sections on this page for them but i think it's important to mention here

a very potter musical (avpm) was starkid's first musical, released on youtube in 2009 to overwhelming love from both harry potter fans and those with little knowledge of the series. it is, as the name suggests, a parody of the harry potter series; however, despite otherwise completely disengaging with that franchise and condemning all of the author's bad beliefs (and encouraging others to do the same), i'll always love avpm. it was my introduction to team starkid, and what kickstarted the company to begin with: it was easier to upload the footage to youtube than to make cast DVDs, and then it just happened to go viral, and they kept making musicals from there.

i think i owe my life to this musical man. when i first discovered it i was 11 years old and debilitatingly anxious all of the time and also a frequent haunter of harry potter pinterest spaces. soon enough i started getting memes pop up on pinterest that were just screencaps of avpm and this actually annoyed me deeply because this wasn't REAL harry potter! but in the end, on the 7th of august that year, i very begrudgingly decided to check it out, i remember my exact thought was "at least i can say i've seen it this way", and oh my god. can categorically say this changed my life. (it also made me a very very annoying person in year seven but i think that can be excused.)

my deal with this musical could not and cannot be overstated. during that summer i was watching this thing every single day. i think i learned the soundtrack back to back in about three days flat, and i would sing it in my head every single night until i fell asleep. it was all i would talk about, all i could think about, my whole life revolved around this. i remember begging my mum to get me this t-shirt which said "luckily next year i'll be transferred to pigfarts" on it (which i still have actually) which i wore all the time. i genuinely didn't listen to or watch anything else for months and months. i could recite the whole thing, and probably still could now at a push. i made a whole google site where i typed out all the lyrics to the soundtrack (studio version, not live version) just to prove that i could. if ever i hear a word or phrase that was in the show, no matter how inoccuous and normal, i ALWAYS hear it in the voice in which it was spoken in the show. i recently found out that i'd annotated one of my harry potter books with references to the show. avpm impacted my life frankly an insane about and i'm grateful beyond belief for that but also jeeeesus christ thanks to everyone who stuck around during that era because i was NOT fun to be around