Way back in 1997, husbandthefirst and I came out to California on holiday (ok, ok, vacation!). We stayed a few days in San Francisco, and before heading out for dinner one night we had the TV on in our hotel room, and it was tuned to MTV.  Suddenly, our ears perked up at the sound of a young girls voice and so we swivelled our heads to see who this marvelous sound was coming from. There on the TV was a young woman aged about 25, and 4 male band members….and they were THAT GOOD!

The band in question was No Doubt, and it was the lovely Gwen Stefani singing Don’t Speak.

Fast forward to 2009 and the Orange County Fair; No Doubt came back to their roots for 4 sold out shows (they are from Anaheim, CA). I got lucky enough to score tickets and took my friend with me. Ever since that day in San Francisco, I’ve loved the band, even Gwen’s solo stuff so it was with great glee and anticipation that my friend and I arrived at the venue. We were treated first to Katy Perry rocking out and singing something about kissing girls – she was awesome, by the way!

And we waited 10 minutes in between bands, and the crowd was hollering and cheering and then THERE THEY WERE and we were all up on our feet, screaming like young girls at a Beatles concert and belting out hit after hit along with the band! It was probably the best concert I’ve ever been to and after 22 years, they still brought the house down.