I love live music and have a very diverse taste. Here are some of the acts I’ve seen:

• Elton John
• Will Young (twice!)
• Sheryl Crow
• Katie Melua
• Texas
• Jack Johnson
• Lionel Richie
• UB40

Being local to me, Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre (NEC) or the nearby National Indoor Arena (NIA) are where I’ve seen most of these acts.  The NEC is about five minutes away from Birmingham International railway station and the NIA is about twenty minutes away from Birmingham New Street railway station.  This is a bit of a trek late at night after concerts, so I sometimes spend the night in Birmingham staying at a hotel along Broad Street which is about two minutes away.

Unfortunately neither the NIA nor NEC offer carer’s discounts – typically tickets cost around £33 each.  However access at both of these venues is great; at the NEC you sit around twenty feet from the stage and at the NIA you sit at the very front of the middle tier which promises clear views.  At Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, which is acoustically way better than any arena, access is great and carers go free.

At the Hammersmith Apollo in London I saw The Beautiful South (my ultimate favourite band when I was growing up, so I was excited to say the least).  I was sat at the very back of the auditorium on the same level as everybody else. As a consequence all I could see all night was everybody else’s dancing shoulders, only catching the odd glimpse of the band.  I was so disappointed that I did a very rare thing for me: sat and wrote a complaint letter.  I never received a reply although disabled friends tell me that access at the Apollo has greatly improved.  I like to think that the stern tones of my letter frightened them into action, but I’ll never know...

Elsewhere in London, I saw The Spice Girls at the O2 Arena.  Here your carer goes free and I found access to be very impressive indeed; I sat about ten feet from the stage – it was superb!