U2 @ Wembley Stadium, 15th August 2009

I would say that I am an armchair fan of U2, in the same way that I am armchair fan of Reading Football Club. I wouldn't normally go to a match or buy the shirt but I do read about them in the paper. I'd never seen U2 play and I only own a greatest hists compilation but I do like their music. So I was quite interested to see them at Wembley.


Opening for them on this occasion were Glasvegas, who I have stuggled to be interested in before. Their performance this evening did nothing to inspire me and I finally realised that all of their songs sound the same because they have the same drum beat. All in all I wished I had been able to get tickets for the night before and seen Elbow, but there we go.

When U2 finally took to the stage it took a little while for them to warm up too. They opened with material from their new album, which I have to say I wasn't familiar with and didn't make much of an impression. The early part of a stadium gig when it's still light can often be a bit difficult, and the staging came into it's own as the darkness came on.

Much had been made of the 'claw' that is the stage for the 360 tour - it was fairly impressive, especially with all the different lighting.



I was surprised hw political the set was, with specific references to the Iranian elections and quite a long set piece highlighting the democratic situation in Burma. There was also a video of Desmond Tutu which was actually quite creepy.

The oldies are certainly the goodies when it comes to U2 and my stand out track of the night was Sunday Bloody Sunday, closely followed by Where The Streets Have No Name. You can see the whole set list here:

Edit this setlist More U2 setlists

So overall, a pretty good evening :-)

U2's 12th studio album, No Line on the Horizon, is out now

Oasis @ Wembley Stadium, 11th July 2009

Trying not to look back in anger


So my third trip to Wembley in a week meant that I was prepared for the layout if not the crowd...


Annoyingly The Enemy, who were billed as part of the support, weren't playing so we we hung about with nothing to do except eat popcorn until the first support act finally came on. Reverend and the Makers are a good band - a bit political for my liking but at least they have something to say. The frontman worked the crowd really well and I'm tempted to download a couple of their songs if not the whole album. I felt a bit sorry for them as they were obviously only allowed to use half the stage, but they made the most of it.


In the absence of The Enemy (boo), Kasabian were up next. Now, I'd been impressed with them at Live Earth and they certainly got the crowd going mad, but it was just a bit too heavy for me. Call me a musical lightweight but I like to be able to sing along to the songs and I couldn't do that with Kasabian.

Anyway, on to the main event - the Gallagher brothers and whoever else is making up the band at the moment (apparently they're on their 5th drummer). Liam, with his charismatic stance and his vaguely tent-like mac was instantly recognisable even from way up at the back.

Back in the 90s I was most definitely in the Oasis camp in the battle of the Britpop bands - while I like Country House as much as the next person, What's The Story was the album (on cassette!!) that never left my walkman. And I'd always wanted to see them live, so I'd been looking forward to this for about 14 years (ouch, that hurt to admit to). Their stage show is like the complete antithesis of Take That - no showmanship at all, and certainly no elephants. Just the band standing there, playing their instruments and singing. Back to basics if you like. Which I do like, but when you're up in level 5, 80,000 people away from the stage you kind of wouldn't mind the odd elephant as the band are about the size of ants at the other end of the stadium.


Anyhow, it really is about the music and we were lucky not to suffer from the sound problems that they'd had previously on the tour. The back catalogue of the band is super amazing - my favourite songs on the night had to be Morning Glory, The Masterplan and the magical version of Don't Look Back In Anger, featuring the audience doing all the singing accompanied by Noel on the guitar, was very special indeed. There's something about 80k people doing something in unison that is somehow much more fulfilling than it should be.


But before I finish, a couple of words about the crowd, the majority of whom were horrific. I'd specifically gone for the seats in the stand to avoid the moshing and bottle throwing on the pitch (it's official - I am old and boring!). Where we were sitting, however, we still got covered in beer from flying plastic glasses. Walking round the place wasn't nice either, it was like a bad night out in Magaluf with big gangs of completely wasted guys (the ones sat next to me had practically passed out), unable to walk straight and happy to fight anyone they might stumble into. And that really ruined the night for me - the final straw was when the guy in front of me clambered up to stand on his seat and proceeded to take off his shirt, blocking my view of the stage with his particularly unattractive pasty, sweating naked back. Yuck.

Because of the crowd I really struggled to enjoy the gig, although I'm pleased I went and I enjoyed the music. We even left before the end (and I NEVER do that) because I couldn't bear the thought of being stuck in the crowd waiting for the tube.

Final scores on the doors in the battle of the Britpop Bands rematch in the Noughties has to be Blur 3 Oasis 1. Maybe Blur just sound better after a break, but I think my teenage allegiances have finally switched.

Take That @ Wembley Stadium, 4th & 5th July 2009

Back For Good? Most definitely!

So, continuing my 90’s nostalgia trip, I went to see the last 2 dates of the Take That Circus tour. Both nights were very different experiences but both amazing – on Saturday I went as a grown up and sat in the seats at the back, and on Sunday I became the teenager I never was and joined the queue outside Wembley in the morning to get to the front barrier and see the show up close, but more of that later.

Supporting Take That was my favourite singer/songwriter Gary Go, and as Wembley is essentially his home turf, I was expecting a great show. On Saturday I had a great view of the whole stadium and I have to say I was incredibly excited to see him playing to such a big audience (especially as the last time I saw him play there were probably about 30 people there (Cambridge, 30/05/09), so the step up to about 20,000 was a big one). It was obvious that a lot of the people up in the stands didn’t know his music but hopefully I didn’t put them off by singing along to all the songs. I was really impressed with how he and the band filled the stage – Gary sounded really confident and the music was great. The set list was the same on both nights:

Open Arms
So So
Engines
Black And White Days
Life Gets In The Way
Heart and Soul
Wonderful

I have to admit that my attendance on Sunday and the associated queuing was all in support of MrG…myself and the other self-styled Go Go Girls with banners in tow wanted to see him on the stadium stage and let him know that he had some of his own fans in the house. Queuing from 6am (I have to admit that I joined in a little later but I did bring biscuits) secured us a place at the front barrier but it was every man (or should I say woman) for themselves when the doors opened – TT fans can be vicious!! So saying we met some really nice people in the queue, some of whom were converted GG fans after seeing him play at other dates on the tour. And seeing him play from the front was even better, although we didn’t have a great view of the rest of the band because of the set up of the stage. All I can say is that Gary deserves to be very successful and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one day he will be playing Wembley again on his own tour (Gary – if you’re reading this please have a thought for the Go Go Girls when this happens and make sure that we can get tickets before it sells out LOL!). On both nights after the show I overheard other people comparing him to Bono and U2, which is a pretty high accolade. Looking around in cyberspace I know that Gary has gained a lot of new fans through this tour so fingers crossed for his new single, which is out later this month.

The second support act on both nights was Lady GaGa and I have to say that the slot has just confirmed to me that she is really not my cup of tea. I understand from my new friends I made in the queue that she was booed from the front on Saturday (although to be fair I couldn’t hear it at the back) for her no show in Manchester, and I think it may have put her off her stride as she certainly spent a lot of time saying how happy she was to be on tour with Take That. While I like Poker Face and Just Dance I just think that she is too much of a show off for me and there is something about her that I find to be intensely annoying. There’s no doubt that she can sing, but 3 costume changes for a support act is just over the top and she milks the crowd something rotten. I took the opportunity on Saturday to go and get a drink while she was on but unfortunately that’s not an option when you are packed in at the front so I just stood looking a bit bored – I didn’t even take any pictures of her! For any ardent GaGa fans reading this – I can see why she’s so popular but she’s just not for me.

Now, on to the main event. Although I liked Take That back in the 90’s I was never a huge fan – certainly not one of the many who needed the emergency phone like when the band broke up – and I didn’t get to see them live until their come back tour in 2006, and I have to say that it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. It was in Wembley Arena, the atmosphere was fantastic and the show itself was completely breathtaking – and I thought it would be a challenge to beat that. But I’m pleased to say that the band managed to surpass themselves and what was lost in having a larger, more open space to fill was more than made up by the huge spectacle that we were treated to. The people who staged the show need some kind of medal as it was incredible – just absolutely massive and very very beautiful. Sitting up at the back for the first night gave me a real sense of the scale of the thing and the overall impression that they created, while being at the front on Sunday meant that I was just a lot closer to the action and I embraced my inner screaming fan when the band were right in front of us. For a complete picture I really needed to have done a third night near the B stage but 2 nights is probably good enough ;-)

But anyway, the highlights of the show are almost too many to list (but I’ll try…):

1. The Elephant, which was worked by people hanging off it and just looked brilliant. I wouldn’t like to be the person being the tail though, they had to stay upside down for about 20 minutes!


2. The Clown sequence when they made themselves up as clowns and then unicycled down the middle – the colours were amazing and it was just so much fun


3. All the circus performers and dancers were fantastic – there was a guy who went round in a wheel who was astonishing, along with a tight rope walker, trampoliners (is that a word??), trapeze artists, stilt walkers, hula hoopers – you name it, they had it


4. The show included both rain (all the people near the B stage get wet I think) and fire – you could feel the heat from the flames right at the back on Saturday and I thought I was going to burn my eyebrows off at the front on Sunday – it was HOT!


5. The songs they sang (and those they didn’t) showed what an extensive back catalogue they have. Gary gave a taster of some of their old stuff that they didn’t play including Babe sitting at the piano, which was a really nice touch


6. The boy band has truly become a man band – less dancing and no break dancing (which they were still doing in 2006) but instead a whole section where they played their own instruments as a ‘proper’ band


7. Never Forget. 80,000+ people (including the crew) doing the arms in the air thing feels incredible

All in all a brilliant weekend – they were filming for the tour DVD while I was there so I can’t wait to get a copy of that. Having seen Britney Spear’s version of the Circus (you can read my review of that here) all I can say is that you can give me Take That version any day – there really isn’t any comparison.


Engines, Gary Go’s third single from his debut album, is out on July 20th

Circus – The DVD is hopefully out soon...