The Killers last night were superb (but I am biased). Of course it wasnāt quite the same crowd energy as at Glastonbury. Brandon Flowers is so much more relaxed on stage than when I first saw him. We think this was our 15th Killers gig. Too much?
But I doubt Iāll ever go to a BST event again.
Theyāve made it all nice, the bars look like a little street seen in Havana (the Casa Barcardi near a āHasta la Victoria Siempreā sign was amusing - someone doesnāt know their history) or old English scene with gin bars. They didnāt take tops of bottles which is nice and you can get all the food you want. You then dump all your rubbish on the floor (doubt we will see that in the daily fail).
We rocked up about 4 hours before the headline set with a view to get near to the stage. We tooled up. A lot of gigs my partner has been to have this āGolden Circleā usually for people who arrive early to get a wrist band. At BST there is a diamond circle (pricey and right at the front), golden circle (more than double the standard ticket price) and then the rest of us riff raff, bloody miles back. There is also a massive VIP ridiculousness which seems quite far away from the stage. They also had some VIP bar package. So above the sound desks are these momumental structures with a bar on top (obsuring a lot of the view of the stage). We could see no one up there even dancing along. Oh and there is a seperate south entrance for the VIP, Golden Circle and Diamond Circle. You wouldnāt want to rub shoulders with those people who paid Ā£60 for the privilege to stand miles away from the stage.
Once upon a time people bought a ticket and went along and it was fairly equal as to who would get to the front or not depending on how arsed you were.
Thing is there are less people at the front, often really not massively into the music as theyāve had some corproate freebie. My partner says thatās what happened at the Live 8 gig. People had camped the night before to get to the front to find themselves half way up the park whilst corporate freebies had a hug space to mingle at the front.
My partner and I nearly did get into the golden circle yesterday by error (G4 security easy to get by). When my partner suggested we try again I declined on principle.
I am still quite angry about this.