Boy Meets Boy Meets World
This is a story about how I traveled from NY -> LDN to crash photograph Drakes first night in The O2 during the Boy Meets World Tour
Boy Meets Boy Meets World
January 30th | London
If you're reading this, it's not too late, it's the perfect time.
This is a story about how I bought tickets and flights NYC > London a week in advance and snuck my camera into The O2 on January 30th to photograph Drake during his Boy Meets World Tour, one of the most exciting nights of my life (two nights ago). Who am I? Nick Bucci, just another 22 year old kid from New York who's life changed in 2011 junior year of high school when Take Care dropped.
All of the pictures in this article were taken by me, on my camera, and edited in various coffee shops around London in the past 48 hours
Step 1: Tickets
So it's January 20th 5:00pm in Sleepy Hollow New York, a normal Friday surfing through the various OVO instagram accounts I follow when I'm reminded of Drake's Boy Meets World Tour. I struck out on the Summer Sixteen Tour in August, not being able to afford tickets to any of the shows I could see, in seats that I wanted. So just for fun I look at tickets in Europe and this is where it all begins. £180... for front row standing tickets, Golden Circle, in London? I quickly convert this to $227.45... I'm confused. I nearly spent $500 a few months ago to be in the nosebleeds at an NYC show. I check a few different sites and confirm that this is real, I buy the tickets on the spot, total impulse. I had to, for that price, are you kidding me, without even really considering that I would also have to get to London, find a place to stay, maybe find somebody to come with me. None of that mattered in the moment. One of my biggest regrets of the past 5 years was not going to Drake Vs Lil Wayne in 2014, still mad about that, so I had to pull the trigger on this opportunity, couldn't let another chance slip.
Step 1A: the vision
Oh shit. I actually just bought tickets to Drake in London, I don't have flights, I don't have a place to stay, I'm not going with anybody, I don't have a plan, but this is real, I have the tickets. But amidst all of that uncertainty comes a moment of clarity, my mind starts to race, if I manage to sort all of those things out in the next week I have to go further, I have to make more of al of this. I start to think that I have to sneak my camera into the show and photograph Drake, document this legendary night, I've been wanting to do this for 6 years. So much of my persona, my art, my vision, my aesthetic, my creative style, my view of the world around me has literally been sculpted by Drake's music and lifestyle. If I manage to have my camera in there with me, my instrument of expression, something beautiful could happen. Something so beautiful that it could change my life, I could take this hypothetical collection of images and get them into the hands of Drake's people, the OVO family, impress somebody, and get my chance to work with them, the ultimate dream. But lets dial it back for a second, I don't even have flights, so we'll get back to the vision.
Step 2: Flights
So there is actually an airline called WOW. This was definitely news to me, but I didn't care what it was called, how many bags they allowed, how many layovers there were, $200 flight one way, I could do that. 45 minutes after purchasing the concert tickets I purchase the flight. It's official. I'm going. No turning back. Absolute worst case scenario I sleep on the streets, wont really be able to afford a hotel for a few nights, I don't care. But I do have a few friends in London, so I'd rather try to get a bed, a roof, something like that.
Step 3: Accommodations
Some time between seeing the instagram post and buying the tickets on Jan. 20th I sent out a text to my two friends in London going something like:
"Hey! How's life? I am thinking about spontaneously buying tickets to a Drake concert in London... whats your deal these days, you still live there right? What do you think?"
Neither of them got back to me immediately, so naturally I had to disregard their opinion entirely and power throught with the plan, thats when I bought the tickets and flights shortly after.
In the days leading up to my flight I managed to convince Jim to let me stay on his floor for as long as it takes to make the dream come alive, it's been 5 nights, he's a great guy, he believes in me.
Step 3A: Alert the troops
All of this happened so fast so I didn't really have time to tell all of my friends and family that I was leaving, where I was going, what I was doing. I also didn't wan't to explain myself to anybody, even my closest homies don't fully understand my connection to Drake's music, it's runs a little deeper than theirs, we have different lives in some ways. So anyway, out of my excitement for the trip and for the purpose of cryptically telling people where I was and what I was doing I made this short film.
Step 4: The big day
Fast forward to January 30th, I spend all morning researching the policies for cameras in The O2, it's not looking great. I see the official rules and regulations on their website, absolutely no professional camera equipment inside the facility. They even go as far as to say "cameras that look similar to SLR cameras may not be allowed in." This would be bad. So I plot and scheme a bit and come up with this plan. I remove parts from the body of my camera to make it smaller and shitty looking. I take off the grip, the battery door, the rubber eye piece. I put a body cap on it and shove it into one of my lens bags, the whole thing fits into my jacket chest pocket. Then I take my smallest lens, 55mm prime, cap it up, take off the hood, and throw that into my other jacket pocket. The plan is when they question me about the equipment at security I will say the lens pairs with my smartphone to become a camera, far from professional but good for distance shots (these things actually exist, I've never used one though). Then I will say that the body of the camera is a point and shoot by itself, never fully taking it out of the lens bag, pretty believable given its size and coming out of my jacket chest pocket. The key to all of this is to act like I know nothing about the gear, like "I don't know man, these are just some shitty cameras for me to take some shitty instagram pictures with, I'm alone, I'm a loser, it's no big deal". Sure enough, after waiting 2.5 hours in line, alone, mostly jamming in my headphones, I get to security and it goes exactly to plan. I get through security with my camera and I'm feeling like this V
and this
and this
and definitely this
2 minutes later I get denied at the golden circle entrance and I freak out, thinking it's all unravelling. Then I realize I was just given the wrong wristband and I go back to get the correct one. I get that sorted and finally I get all the way in. I find myself a spot on the divider, right side of the center stage (drizzy POV), and hold it for the next 4 hours. I talk to the the beer distributing man who hooks me up with a £2 discount on my second beer after I tell him I am out of cash and can't give up my spot, I've come too far. Thanks man! Then while waiting for the openers I befriend the woman guarding the center stage in front of me on the other side of the divider. We talk about her job, she says she likes Drake's music, but only the R&B stuff, I say I love Drake's music. I'm glad we connected because now I know she won't give me any trouble about using my camera when the show starts, but of course its not that simple...
I take a few pictures during Young Thug and the other openers, good warm up, no problems. Once Drake comes on my security friend gets moved down the line and is replaced with a guy who quickly tells me I cannot use my camera... I tell him that I cleared it with a few other security guards and that they had no problem with it at the doors, I beg him to keep cool. He tells me he will look the other way but his manager won't be so nice. I say thank you so much and "what does you manager look like?". He smiles back and says "guy with a beard". That becomes the new challenge, avoid the guy with the beard. Halfway through the show another security guard substitutes in my area, we have a similar conversation, she says I can't use the camera, but eventually she lets me continue as well, warning me about the manager. She took a bit more persuasion, I showed her my New York ID at one point when she was blocking my shots to tell her how far I had come. We actually ended up having a nice conversation and shaking hands at the end of the show, I think she could sense my unusual excitement about the whole thing.
The rest of the story is simple: I bumb and bask in every moment, go absolutely insane when Know Yourself drops (as instructed), take pictures with my camera and my mind, sweat an ungodly amount because I need to keep my jacket on to hide my camera when the manager comes around, stay balanced after being on my feet for 8 hours straight. I did take this one picture of myself at some point, always need one, I was battered. I only had a 55mm lens which isn't great for selfies, and I'm not great for selfies either. So that's my story, and these are my pictures, and this is my vision.
Up to this point it has all gone to plan, actually better than planned, it's kinda blowing my mind but honestly all of it means nothing without the last step, which is where you come in. Now this is the part where I am going to try my hardest to not sound gimmicky or like every other Drake fan with a bright idea writing fan mail. In my head I did some real great work, this is a real opportunity, a real offer to work legit, a real ass thing that could change my life in a big way. Imagine I even get one gig out of this article, nothing else, working for free, what it would do for my portfolio and prospects moving forward. On the other end Imagine I get some strong connections in OVO and get to do work again and again in the future. A boy can dream.
So to be explicit, because this is getting long and I've been in this Pret A Manger for almost 9 hours today working on this, I need you to send this page to anybody that you think could help the vision progress. Somebody that could get me back in to one of the O2 shows legitimately with all of my gear while I'm still in London. Somebody that could put in a good word with any of the major players. Maybe you are one of the major players, maybe you are Theo Skudra, that would be a good connect... This page is unlinked and unlisted on my website, the only way it can be accessed is through the link you clicked on, so thats what needs to be shared. I sent the link out to a handful of people like yourself who I believe have connections, family, or friends in the Drake/OVO network. I have only shared a few of the pictures so far in my networks, I want to se where this goes first, and some of them I like so much I may never share them on the web, only print.
So finally, if you've made it all the way to the end and are reading this right now I salute you, hope you enjoyed the pictures, hope you found my shitty writing entertaining at times, and hope you'll help the vision keep moving forward by sharing this story, because I'm out of tricks. Bless up. More Life. - Nick Bucci
Contact:
Mobile: 914-960-5518
Email: Bucciprofessional@gmail.com
London Address: 49 Alderbrook Road, SW12 8AD [Jim's flat]
NY Address: 17 Lawrence Ave, Sleepy Hollow 10591
Instagram: buchana_banana
Website: You're on it
Content:
http://www.bucciprofessional.com/blog/its-getting-chilly-out-there-views
http://www.bucciprofessional.com/blog/when-i-was-on-a-mission-to-make-it
http://www.bucciprofessional.com/blog/9pm-in-croton
http://www.bucciprofessional.com/blog/way-up
This project was sponsored in part by Pret A Manger's ass numbing wooden stools, painfully slow wifi, and hella cheap but delicious sandwiches. Couldn't have done it without them.