Well, here's mine......
For me it would have to be R.E.M at St.James Church, Piccadilly, London - 15th September 2004.
I'd heard a few months previous that they were due in London and they there were to play a 'Unique London venue'. But that was all we knew....I was already desperate to see them, and the 'Unique venue' element had made it an absolutely must see.. without fail expedition.
A few weeks passed and then, the news I had been longing to hear. It would be a predominantly fan-club member / competition winners invite only. Heh, I was a member and had been for 11 years. I was convinced that my 'Congratulation your coming' email was already winging its way to me direct from REMHQ. So there I sat for another week crouched underneath my email 'letter box' checking at seemingly hourly intervals for the pending news.
Another week passed but alas nothing. Then news had started to filter through. Emails has begun to arrive at the lucky recipients., damm it.
And then at 1548hrs Sep 1st...a message arrived.
"R.E.M. will be playing a special evening show at a unique and intimate London venue on Wednesday 15th September. We would like to invite you and one guest to attend this performance"...........aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrgggggggg yyyyyyyeeeessssss. I was going.
A week later we found out more details of the venue, which we were asked to keep to ourselves. And a more appropriate venue they could of decided upon. A small church in the middle of Piccadilly, St James.
The 15th seems to take an age to arrive but eventually it did and I'd already decided that it would start early. I wasn't completely sure what time I should arrive and the guest I'd invited would only be leaving work at 5pm and there was no way I was waiting until them. So I set off at about 10am and got to 'Church' at about half 11. A small queue of crazy fan-clubbers (whom I later learned were called Lucy, Bell, Julia and husband) had already arrived and I joint them as number five in line. The lead up to doors @ 7.30pm seems to fly by. During the wait each would take their turn to visit the local chippy and loo whilst the others held their space for their return.
The doors finally opened and we flooded in. I was lucky enough to get a place right at the stage. Right underneath where Mike Mills would stand and so the night began (one that I would never forget).
An amazing venue with the acoustics to match, framing a perfect picture of Michael, Mike and Peter on stage, seemingly enjoying the evening us much as we did.
The thought that we were actually there, front row, 2 feet away from the guys, even now, gives me an happy contented feeling. I could talk through the set list, the surprise arrival on stage for one song of Thom Yorke and the sweaty exhausted, yet exhilarating ending through the yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahs of 'Man on the Moon' but I would probably go on forever. Needless to say that this memorable night would remain strong with me for many, many years. As I'm sure it will with many other friends and fans alike.
7 comments:
I recently went to my first ever rock concert - The Eagles. The tickets were actually a present for my parents by I went with them, after they convinced me to tag along.
I wasn't sure what to expect having never been to anything like that before, when we arrived I suddenly realised why people are hooked on these kind of concerts, the atmosphere was amazing.
The first thing a remember noticing was the ages of the people there. People my parents age (late 50's) to others my age (21) and an sure younger, most of them wearing Eagles T-shirts, many going back to years before I was born.
I'd actually spent quite a few years listening to The Eagles at home, so I soon started singing along, the noise and enegry was electric. I did occasionally find myself just quietly listening and looking around the crowd, watching people gently bopping up and down and swaying to back and forth to the music.
Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves including my parents. All together a totally memorable first ever concert.
I went to my first Bruce Springsteen concert on 04.07.85. during the height of Springsteen mania.
The Born In the USA album was selling millions of copies around the world, and after trying to get a ticket to the Wembley shows for hours on the phone, I finally managed to get tickets for the gig. I was so excited, as I had heard countless stories about the "legendary" Springsteen shows lasting anything up to 4 and a half hours.
The concert tickets came weeks before the concert, and as I had only heard the Born In the USA album, I spent the weeks leading up to the concert, buying and listening to Bruce's back catalogue, as I wanted to know every song he would sing on the day !
It was a gloriously warm evening and because of the success of the new album, aswell as the long time Springsteen fan's being there, there was also a new breed of fan in attendance, myself included.
I had heard that Bruce has started every concert on this tour with "Born In The USA" but on this occasion he opened with a beautiful acoustic version of "Independence Day."
Not many artists then or now could have silenced 90,000 fans with such a sensitive and awesome opening number.
This brought the ferocity of "Born in the USA" into greater contrast and the rest of the concert was relentless in its frenzied attack.
The River brought tears to my eyes, never felt such emotion in a concert, to this day. Jungleland, wow, Clarence hit it on the nail. The Boss was on fire.
I can recall Bruce and Nils Lofgren donning huge cowboy hats for "Cadillac Ranch". Steve Van Zandt (now a star in The Sopranos) was a guest at the show, foreshadowing his return to the E Street Band by about 14 years.
4hrs and 10mins later, Bruce was still going strong, and in my opinion has never bettered the final encore of "Ramrod", "Twist and Shout" and "Do You Love Me".
I went to the concert that day looking forward to seeing Springsteen perform. I came away that night in awe of the man and the performance of him and the E Street Band. It was a love affair that has lasted more than 22 years, more than 25 concerts since, and resulted in my starting to collect used Springsteen tickets from other shows from around the world over the years.
Well said.
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