šŸ—£ Gigs

Who can find the photos firstā€¦

Yes GET IN!

I do have a better (more intimate) one.

Dear Eric.

Send a Dishwasher round or I publish!

You are having the same problem as me ā€¦ it wonā€™t open :confused:

Feel free ā€¦ Iā€™m not parting with either of my 2 Dish Washers :cool:

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U2 were excellent - as was Gallagher.

Weā€™d declined the ridiculously-priced VIP standing and gone for the ordinary, so we were surprised to end up only five metres from the barrier, which meant the band were behind us on their walkway for the first few numbers.

Great view, surprisingly loud for a stadium gig, (Iā€™ve seen Carter at Brixton so I know loud), not too much waffle, just some nice tributes to Jo Cox, and a mention of Kirsty McColl, and some footage of Syria that brought home the true state of the country.

Ten hours on my feet, most of it in the sunshine, hanging out with the general public, but other than that, a great experience.

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The Killers last night were superb (but I am biased). Of course it wasnā€™t 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 Iā€™ll ever go to a BST event again.

Theyā€™ve made it all nice, the bars look like a little street seen in Havana (the Casa Barcardi near a ā€˜Hasta la Victoria Siempreā€™ sign was amusing - someone doesnā€™t know their history) or old English scene with gin bars. They didnā€™t 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 ā€˜Golden 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 wouldnā€™t 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 theyā€™ve had some corproate freebie. My partner says thatā€™s 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.

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Every gig should have a hug space. :cool:

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I am not so sure. I like my personal space.

Yeah, @intiniki Iā€™m not really a fan of BST. Itā€™s always pretty poorly organised (or has been when I used to go), loads of faff, and as you say, so bleedinā€™ segregated. Iā€™ve not really missed it. Sound is always crap as well, which is an annoyance.

Iā€™ve pretty much just carried on since Glasto, trying to put off the blues as much as possible.

Saw The Maccabees last show at Ally Pally Saturday before last. It was a pretty emotional night, if Iā€™m honest. Way more so than I suspected. It probably sounds a bit daft, but I feel a bit like I grew up with them. They were amongst the first gigs I went to ā€˜on my ownā€™ (i.e. without parental supervision). I saw them play in tiny venues, as support act (to Jamie t amongst others), and saw them open the Carling Stage at Reading, my first ever festival. I watched them grow from an angular, up-tempo indie guitar band into a really interesting, ambitious band with a much rangier repertoire. The gig itself was brilliant, a really jubilant, triumphant blast through all their hits, spanning their entire career. Despite Ally Pally being approximately 4.5 degrees cooler than the sun that night, there was loads of energy in the venue, and by the end when they were joined on stage by Jamie t, Jack Penate, The Mystery Jets and various other pals that have been on their journey, there was barely a dry eye in the house. It was a fitting send off for a really good band, that perhaps never quite made it as big as they deserved. Like Intiniki, this was a band I have seen more times than I can count (including festivals etc probably 25+ times), Iā€™m going to miss them a lot.

Couple of days off, then up to Manchester for Radiohead @Old Trafford. We had tickets for the original shows at MEN, which for obvious reasons, had to be rolled into one show. The result was that ticket holders for the original shows got preferential ā€œFront Standingā€ tickets, similar to the Golden Circle. It was a bit weird, tbh. On the plus side, we were dead close, and had plenty of room to throw some shapes (as you obviously do at a Radiohead gig) and easy access to bar/bogs. That said, it did feel a tad weird having so much space when the barrier keeping people out of the circle was absolutely rammed. The gig itself was, unsurpisingly, fantastic. A similar set to that at Glasto, with a few changes. They opened on Let Down, and swapped The Bends for Creep in the encore. Once again, there was raptous applause and cheering in repsonse to the line ā€œBring down the governmentā€¦ā€ during No Surprise, with the seemingly almost ubiqitous ā€œOh Jeremy Corbynā€, to which Thom joined in, playing along on his guitar. Great show, I really like Manchester (probably a good thing, as Iā€™ll probably end up living there), itā€™s full of good people. Made loads of ā€˜matesā€™ with folk around us during the set, and then afterwards at an unofficial after party in town. Cracking day and night all round. May have to start more of these away day gig trips.

Theeeeen, the following evening I took me dear old ma to see Arcade Fire at York Hall, in Bethnal Green. As @supermikey mentioned previously, they played in a square stage in the middle of the venue. Not sure if they did this at the other shows, but with YH being a boxing venue, they came out to an announcer in boxing style - which was a fun touch. Was an interesting experience, did also mean that you were never much more than 3/4 people deep from the stage, so it really heightened the sense of intimacy. Again, another absolute treat of a show. Such an accomplished set, packed full of hits. The showing from Reflektor seems a tad sparse (was a seemingly controversial album for non-superfans), and I was pretty disappointed that Orpheus seems to have been dropped. Other than that, I canā€™t fault it. They still sound huge, bombastic and relentlessly euphoric. For of Winā€™s charm and charisma RĆ©gine forever steals the show- it does, perhaps, help that she gets vocal duties on one of the biggest songs, Sprawl II. In addition to most of the classics, the new material sounded great, dead excited for the new album now. I couldnā€™t probably go on about them forever, so Iā€™ll stop here.

Off to Lovebox, hoping upon hope that Frank Ocean doesnā€™t do a Frank Ocean and actually shows up. Have been dying to see him for a good few years since falling in love with Channel Orange. Then Citadel on Sunday.

My body hates me, nearly as much as my bank balance. Fuck it.

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Has to be done, to avoid the following -

Hey Grandad, did you ever go to a late night gig, drink too much, hug a stranger, dance like no one was watching, eat a kebab in the early hours, dodge a street brawl then miss the last train and end up hitching a lift with a dangerous-looking and sleepy lorry driver, before getting home at breakfast time minus a shoe, but with enough tales of adventures to fill a decade?

Nah, I was a bit tired that week, so I just stayed in and watched Mrs Brownā€™s Boysā€¦

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From this, I surmise that you are, in fact, a dad wearing cargo shorts.

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Certainly not!

Putting aside the fact that the official map is all over the place and nothing like the arena, according to it, I was in fact waving a property portfolio in the air - from the area of the L in gold.

Boom! Just got tickets for LCD Soundsystem in September. Indecently excited already.

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Fuck.

So, I go out to karaoke because itā€™s hosted by a mate whoā€™s Dad passed away suddenly last week & he wanted friends around.

After a good night & late finish the ā€œcover bandā€ came on 3 piece cute chick singer guitar & keyboards.

Then we find out that the cute singers boyfriend was found today in his apartment.

Heā€™d hung himself.

FFS life - fuck off. And tbh may the ignorant xxxx that forced her to work tonightā€¦

Well I guess you can fiÄŗl in the blanks.

Nice. Where are you seeing them? Iā€™m tempted by the Warehouse gigs in Manchester. But obviously Ally Pally is (slightly) easier for me to get to.

Gotta see them again though.

I swerved Coldplay at Glastonbury last year to see them. Grooved away at the back of a very muddy Other Stage, so much so that part of my grooving involved creating a stable dance platform.

I have never regretted that choice.

Ally Pally @krg_ Manchester sold out already. Think first date at AP has also sold out.

Oh man. Iā€™ve only just seen this. Iā€™m incredibly jealous. That must have been something very special. Jammy git.

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Yeah, it was a pretty special night. Iā€™d 100% recommend seeing him/them(?) if you get a chance.

Weirdly, I discovered the other day that one of my absolute faves, Annie Clark (St Vincent), was in his band for a time. Knew she played with The Polyphonic Spree for a bit, but that was a new one to me. And thatā€™s your (not so) daily dose of boring KRG trivia :lou_is_a_flirt:.

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