Misha Williams blog

Hey Guys!

it's FINALLY HERE! I've been working on my Girls Aloud Tour Video Diary and Tour Blog! You can find a my Behind the Scenes Video Diary on my VIDEOS page! Have fun!!! :) Love Misha :)

The Girls Aloud Greatest Hits Tour started on May 14, and I was SO EXCITED when I heard that I was invited to perform as a supporting act for the tour! I was seriously jumping up and down! My favorite thing in the world is performing songs I've written, and I was about to have a big opportunity to perform my music to almost 100,000 people! That's incredible! I was working in Japan the week before my tour doing TV performances and interviews, radio interviews, and record store meet 'n greets. I left Tokyo for London on May 13 and flew to Newcastle, England for the first show on the 14th! Talk about jet lag! The first show is always crazy backstage because everyone's trying to get things ready behind the scenes, and the crews haven't gotten completely used to the schedules yet. I had my first and only sound check before the first show so the engineers to get all of the volume levels right for my performance. Since I had been preparing my show before I left for Tokyo, and I was totally ready and pumped up for the first show! The crowd was incredible!!! When I'm performing in such a big arena, it's so hard to see the crowd with all of the lights beamed at you, but I could see thousands of colored glow sticks and lit up bunny ears from the stage! I love colored lights! I've been performing for about 10 years, and these were the biggest crowds I have ever performed for! It's such an amazing feeling! During the entire tour, hearing the crowds cheering and really responding to the music was so inspiring…you all gave me so much energy! When I get tons of energy from a great crowd, I really want to give you guys just as much energy back! We were on tour with 2 other supporting acts, Natalia and the Rogue Traders. Both were amazing acts…so talented and genuinely nice people! Natalia and her dancers were my "dressing room buddies" for a lot of the shows, and we had so much fun goofing around for a few weeks!

The first time I met Girls Aloud was at the first Glasgow show 3 days into the tour. Every arena was completely different backstage, so sometimes our dressing rooms would be right next to Girls Aloud's dressing rooms and sometimes it would be practically on the other side of the arena! When I met the girls, they were so nice to me and wanted to make sure I had everything I needed. They invited me to stay late and watch their show! It was so good! After that, I'd see the girls all the time in the hallways, in catering, just walking around, and doing sound checks. They invited me to some of their parties on tour, and that was great because I got a chance to hang out with them when we weren't working. Sarah gave me tips on where to go in Manchester on our day off, and since I love dancing, it was really fun to dance with the girls and their dancers at one of the clubs. There were a couple of birthday parties on the tour, and it was really just good clean fun! I'm sure people think there must be all kinds of drama going on behind the scenes…fights, disagreements, or whatever, but it really wasn't like that at all. We all worked really well together, and everyone just wanted to put on a good show! When you're working constantly on a tour like that, it's hard to have time to really get to know the people you're there with, so it was nice to hang out with people outside of a working environment. The important thing is not getting carried away with the social stuff because I'm there to put on a good show for the audience. That's my job! So as a performer I have to know when I need to rest and not go out!

At one of the Newcastle shows, something crazy happened! Normally before I go onstage, Natalia finishes her set and hands the microphone to the guy backstage. Then he sets the mic stand out for me and comes back and gives me the microphone. Then normally the music starts and I walk on stage with the microphone. Well, most of that happened!...except that the microphone mysteriously vanished backstage! It was just gone! Then, of course, the music starts, and I'm supposed to be going on stage with the microphone! So my mind is in 5th gear, and I figure, "Hey, it must be on the mic stand on stage!" I head out there on stage crossing my fingers and hoping that it's there! WRONG!!! That would have been too easy! So now the music track is playing and I'm on stage with no microphone. Of course at times like this, you would kinda want to tell the audience what was going on…but they wouldn't be able to hear me! There was no use in freaking out, so I just went back to the side of the stage, danced around a bit, and waited for someone to find a microphone to give me! Once they found a mic for me, the restarted my track and I basically just told the crowd, "Well, that's what happens when you don't have a microphone!" It was crazy! Sometimes things like that happen and you just gotta "take it like it is" and not let it mess up your performance! It actually ended up being one of my favorite shows!

One of the biggest crowds we had was at the Manchester Evening News Arena. I don't think I'd ever seen that many glow sticks before! I think the arena held about 9,500 people! It was really cool to see how different backstage was at each arena. Sometimes we shared dressing rooms, sometimes the dressing rooms looked like locker rooms, and sometimes we had amazing dressing rooms with lots of space and great lights! Strangely enough, some of the dressing rooms didn't have mirrors! That makes getting ready for a show kinda tough! I absolutely loved performing at Wembley! I've been to shows there in London before, and it's pretty much a performer's dream! So many great performers and bands have played there. I felt such a connection with the audience at that show! It was one of the most in-depth connections I have ever felt with a crowd! That's such an amazing feeling! I love getting personal with an audience, getting people involved, waving at people, and singing directly at them! It makes it so much more fun! I also had my first trip to Ireland on the Girls Aloud Tour! I love seeing new places and getting all wrapped up in the history and culture of the places I go! The last few days of the tour went by so quickly, and on the last show, emotions were all over the place! It's so sad to see it all end…everything we've been working on over the last few weeks. Twenty days, fifteen shows, thirteen cities. I will never forget what a wonderful experience it was to be a part of this tour! I can't wait to have my own UK arena tour!