Advertisement
Published: October 20th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Lobster Head
I don't think it'll catch on somehow. Monday 11th June Tonight Em was functioning at none other than Kensington Palace, former home of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. She got her makeup done for her and then finished her off with a big red lobster stuck on her hat. Hey, it's the latest fashion here in London, soon everyone will be walking down the road with some type of sea creature sitting upon their scone.
Friday 15th June Today after work I was one of about 200 other Muse fanatics who took over Trafalgar Square for a bit of a sing along to some of Muse's most popular tunes. This was to raise money for Cancer Research and was timed to be the day before the mammoth Wembley Stadium gigs over the weekend. After a bit of stuffing around, we gathered around Nelson's Column and launched into it, as a lot of bemused bystanders wondered what in the hell we were doing. It was good to see the usually shy nocturnal creatures that Muse fans are appear out of the woodwork and I was surprised at the range of people and ages that turned up. After about 6 songs (I think the rest went
on to sing about 20) I felt I had to save my singing voice for tomorrow, singed the poster that would be presented to Muse, and headed home.
Saturday 16th June MUSE at WEMBLEY!!!
Em and I being the nutters we are decided to take our bikes to Wembley, as we thought 80,000 people streaming out of the stadium all at once trying to get on the tube would be chaos. It ended up taking us about 2 hours to get there as we thought it would be best to whack them on the overland train and ride the last bit. Our trains were delayed or not running so that stuffed that idea, anyway, we made it in the end. At least it was easy to navigate to with the massive Stadium arch visible from miles away. After purchasing the obligatory MUSE t-shirt we (surprisingly) entered through security and the ticket booth with ease. It was almost too easy, I could have had a bomb in my backpack and they wouldn't have known.
Once inside, the view was amazing. It was huge! The open air roof made it feel even bigger and the acoustics were just
Rockin Trafalgar Square
Young and old were goin hard. right. It was already about half full and as we had pitch standing tickets we walked down to join the throngs on the (plastic covered) hallowed turf of Wembley. After watching the support acts Rodrigo & Gabriella acoustify some Metallica songs, Dirty Pretty Things who only had 2 songs that anyone really got into and lastly, The Streets, who admitted they were only there to see Muse themselves. Just after they'd finished, Em said she couldn't stand in the midst of the tall moshpit any longer and was going to try and find a seat to the side. About 10 minutes later she returned (I don't know how she found me!) telling me she'd found a heaps better spot closer to the front around the side. I was a bit hesitant to move after jockeying for position for the last 4-5 hours but I went anyway and was glad I did after she led me closer and closer to the front. I could also breathe a bit better which was a bonus. If that wasn't good enough Em ended up sweet talking herself into the very front inner circle section reserved for those who'd lined up all day. No matter,
I was in a prime position to see the show of my life. Bring it!
All of a sudden....lights went out....classical music filled the stadium (turned out to be Sergei Prokofiev's "Dance of the Knights" from Romeo and Juliet)...white fireworks and glitter billowed from the middle of the ground....3 figures rose up in the middle of it all striking a pose....it was them!! MUSE!!! The crowd went nuts at such a brazen entrance as they walked up the catwalk towards the stage. Straight into it, they launched into "Knights of Cydonia" a tongue in cheek space age spaghetti western epic. If they had any nerves it didn't show, they don't have the reputation of being one of the best live acts in the world for nothing. The set consisted of huge screens playing prerecorded video as well as close ups of the band, 4 gigantic satellite dishes and about 10 giant balls that lit up different colours during the songs. Every song was flawless and the energy exuded by Matt Bellamy (lead singer) was very contagious. During the intro to the song "New Born" the so far dormant satellite dishes lit up and tilted up into the sky before
Wembley Stadium
Can't believe I'm here! shooting white beams of light through the open part of the Wembley Stadium roof.
After a short break they returned to the stage and sung "A Soldiers Poem" and everyone got out their mobiles to turn Wembley into a glittering arena. A few songs later during a quiet number "Blackout" 2 huge balloons emerged from behind the set heading out into high above the crowd. This was not all though, suspended a few metres below them were 2 acrobats tumbling and turning around to the dreamy rendition. Everyone was amazed at the spectacle and it was definitely one of my highlights. To pick the tempo up a bit they launched into the well known "Plug In Baby" and shot about 20 white balloons into the audience to be bounced around. They left the stage again before coming back on to say "Thanks you guys have been fantastic....and thanks for making us the first artists to sell out Wembley-fucking-Stadium!" The band then launched into closer 'Take A Bow' which they concluded with by unleashing giant flames right at the end of the song (which, even though I was about 30m away, felt the heat from), before soaking up the applause
New Convert
I knew she'd crack one day. and leaving the stage for the final time. Without a doubt, the best performance I've ever seen anywhere.
Now we just had to get the bikes through the masses streaming out of the stadium (which empties itself remarkably quickly) consult our paper map and ride the 22kms home...in the rain.
Sunday 17th June Wake up bleary eyes and quickly do a final pack. We ended up getting home about 1.30am so not much beauty sleep for us (not that we need it ). We caught the tube from Clapham and had to change over to another line at Charing Cross.
Wooaahh!! Hang on a sec. I don’t believe it. Emma is actually going to take over some of the blog writing. Lets see how long she lasts shall we?? I promised Aaron I would write about our action packed 12 day driving tour, covering approx. 2000 miles. We mainly travelled around the coast of the island and saw such a great diversity of landscape from mountains and rocky areas to stretches of green and fertile pastureland, lakes, rivers, bogs and of course the Atlantic Ocean. My trip highlight was standing (sometimes laying) on the edge
Warm up band - The Streets
Even he admitted he was just there to see Muse. (often a little too close for Aaron's liking) of enormous cliff faces, looking out to miles of ocean, breathing in the fresh air. Aaron’s highlight was walking through a small, narrow cobbled stone street in Galway, lined with pubs that were truly unique to Ireland.
The beginning of our holiday was extremely chaotic and stressful. Even a tube officer told me to calm down (what!! you say). Well…we were travelling by tube to get to a bus for the airport. We transferred to the second of the tubes we needed and looked out the window to see a group of teenagers looking through my toiletry bag. Woops, I left it on the seat at the tube station (I know mummy, very silly!). Half an hour later and involvement from the staff at the tube station I had my bag back. However, I was missing my favourite piece of expensive gold jewellery.
This fiasco set us back and we only made it to the bus with five minutes to spare. Then, to make matters worse, we almost missed our plane because we were too busy enjoying a meal in the airport. None-the-less the 1hr flight was enough time for
The Crowd Builds
Even Jesus was there...in from Cambridge?? us to calm down in anticipation for Ireland.
Our accommodation in Ireland for the first 3 nights was ideal because it was free!!! Luckily for us, Nat’s (our flat mate) relatives had an apartment in Bushmills, Northern Ireland. The apartment had a beautiful, fast flowing river only a couple of metres from our room and was surrounded by kilometres of green, open fields of buckwheat or something similar. The first night brought us a colourful sunset, the perfect backdrop for eating traditional Irish fish and chips.
*********DON'T FORGET TO CLICK ON PAGE 2 FOR MORE PHOTOS BELOW**********
Advertisement
Tot: 0.149s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 72; dbt: 0.0699s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb