writtenbycaitlin

Thursday 7th May 2026 BP Pulse Live Birmingham

Welcome!

Hi! Welcome to my first ever post! I’m Caitlin. I’m 20 and a creative writing student. I started this blog as a way for me to keep up with my writing practice and basically yap about the fun things I have planned this summer. If you’re interested in concerts, travel, and general fangirl things, you might want to keep reading!

I’m also an ambulatory wheelchair user. I have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, PoTS, and endometriosis. I’ll be sharing how these conditions affect my life while I do all these things, and some tips on how I get the most out of the things that I do manage for those who might relate.

Getting ‘ready for it…’

Making sure I get there in the first place is the main goal. This usually means staying in bed for as much of the day as possible and only getting up for essentials.

This day was a difficult one, because of the difficulties of being a fan of many different artists. It was also Olivia Rodrigo ticket sale day. So of course, this meant a couple of hours of queueing and fighting it out in the AXS war. This was taxing for me energy-wise, but I was thankful for the O2’s online system rather than the usual disabled access phone line experience I’m used to.

I managed to bag tickets for April 5^th and May 9^th, once with my best friend and once with my partner. I’m beyond excited, as I haven’t gotten the chance to see Liv yet and the view looks amazing. Keep an eye out for posts about that next year for sure!

It definitely put things in perspective for me when one of my friends called me in the afternoon from the standing line when I was still in bed. But, how I do concerts over the last few years has shown me that while the idea of standing and barrier is fun, it’s definitely not essential. There are so many ways to enjoy a concert, and ultimately, health and having a good time comes first!

After dinner, I started to get ready. Usually, I’d have loved to get ready and leave earlier. I’m a huge believer in giving the opener a go, you might find a new favourite! Unfortunately, I can’t normally manage both. I can sometimes make an exception (I HAD to do this for Paris Paloma at Florence and the Machine this year! She was amazing), but usually it’s not worth the risk of me being ill during the main act.

I use my Visible wearable to keep track of how much energy I’m using and find it particularly useful on days like this. I’ve been using it since October and whilst not perfectly, it does give me an idea of when I’m overdoing it. It can’t necessarily catch the mental and emotional exhaustion, but it can catch the physical, so stops me from being on my feet for too long by telling me to sit down when my heart rate stays too high for too long.

The journey and pre-show experience

By 6pm my best friend and I were ready to go and made the 1.5-hour drive to BP Pulse Live. When we arrived, we parked in the accessible parking. It wasn’t too far, fine for me being pushed in my wheelchair, but it’s worth baring in mind that it may be a struggle if you’re walking or self-propelling, and it’s on a slight incline.

Security was super quick and efficient. There was no line at all because we got there a bit later, and the arena has a separate access entrance which was great. In my opinion, it’s the best venue I’ve been to in terms of accessibility (I also attended my first concert there in 2023- Hozier! And Florence and The Machine earlier this year). I have always found getting tickets there a breeze (just use Access Card to sign in, and purchase smoothly online!).

We went to the merch stand and only waited about 10 minutes, again in the dedicated access line with a lowered counter.

We both hurt our bank accounts a bit here, but the merch is adorable. My best friend bought this hoodie which I’m high key jealous of, but I couldn’t justify the price. I bought the jersey which is so cute and comfy.

I used the bathroom on the way to our seats (there are several accessible toilets all around the arena, which are all radar key operated which is handy, and keeps the line down for those who need it). Then we got shown to our seats by a friendly member of staff. They’re super helpful, and helped me by pushing me up the ramp to our seats when I left briefly during the concert.

Our seats were similar to when I saw Hozier in 2023, but better because of Conan’s stage layout. The runway came out to almost in front of us.

View from Wheelchair Accessible A, Row 1, Seats 22 and 23!

The pre-show playlist ate. We had ‘Under Pressure’ (Bowie edition of course), ‘Sue me’ by Audrey Hobert, a bit of Brittney Spears, and then right before the show, ‘bad idea, right?’ by Olivia Rodrigo. Perfection.

The concert

Conan was amazing. His voice in person is just as good as studio recordings, and he seemed so genuinely excited to be there. Once again this was my first chance to see him, after about 5 years of being a massive fan, so I was unbelievably excited. The arena was a sea of sailor hats and pyjamas, everyone was on theme matching with his beautiful outfits. The glitter on his outfits was stunning.

I loved the stage décor, it’s rare to see and I think the only other person I’ve seen with a stage set is Chappell Roan. In queer artists we trust!

He does one sitting at a campfire and picks it himself. For us his was the live debut of his recently released deluxe song ‘Do I Dare’. The second is an opportunity for a fan to be chosen to pick between two options, if they pull the long end of the wishbone when breaking it with Conan.

As a massive ‘Superache’ fan, and someone who came dressed themed to ‘Astronomy’, it did pain me to see it not get picked, but ‘Lookalike’ was still so good.

For me, I think that a ranking of his best performances would be:

1. The Cut That Always Bleeds
2. Family Line
3. Memories
4. Eleven Eleven
5. Heather

Also a bonus shoutout to ‘The Best’ which I really loved and ‘Caramel’ which was a great ending!

After the show

After the show we met up with my other friend who had been standing, which was nice as she’s a friend from uni who I hadn’t seen in a couple of weeks. We then tried to make a quick exit which was ultimately halted when we tried to leave the car park. The line that we joined to leave probably moved about three car spaces in about half an hour. It took us until 11:20pm to leave the car park.

We then faced a motorway closure and a deep craving for a post-concert McDonald’s. So of course, we took a little detour through back roads to one that was set to open at 12am. It did not. Luckily for us, we passed another on route. Nuggets and chips acquired! Not too much longer later, I fell asleep for the rest of the journey.

The next day consisted of many hours of sofa-rotting for me and Megan. I was very fatigued and suffered from quite a bit of muscle and joint pain. These are risks that I know come with a big activity like this for me. If it doesn’t cause me permanent worsening, it’s usually worth it.

It was an amazing concert. I miss it already, but I also know that it won’t be long until I’m back in my element! I’ll be back at Wembley in a few weeks for Mr Harry Styles. I am so so so excited! Keep an eye out for a post about that in June.

Thanks for reading and follow my social media for more content! Including more photos and videos from the concert!😊

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