Ah yes, another day when I had something else booked and the Man with the Hat rode in with a counter-offer. How does he manage to hit those days..? Well, nobody's forcing me to change my plans, of course - but I figure there's no earthly point in sticking to my original plan if I'd rather be doing something else. So, I was off to King's Place.
I had to revise how to get there - it's not hard (nor does it really take very long) but it's been a while. Train, Victoria Line to King's Cross - I remembered from there. It was fun trying to figure out the trains at Clapham Junction - between trains on the point of departure, that I wouldn't get to in time, and trains that didn't stop at Vauxhall - there wasn't much scheduled for Victoria, so Vauxhall it was. At King's Cross / St. Pancras, I remembered to head for the King's Cross side.
You'd be forgiven for wondering whether a referendum was happening.. newspaper headlines on the Tube, a lady handing out fliers, a poster urging people to vote.. Up York Way, the landscape was a bit altered by a lot of construction work - but I eventually came across the building of glass on the right. I was early enough to hit the cafe, where I can now recommend the orange brownies.. anyway, when the Man arrived (with a big pile of impressive-looking free programmes for us!), I collected my ticket (and programme) and went out to the attractive seating area to the back. Opening onto the canal, there's a large grassy area, populated with tables and chairs (tables topped with ingenious flower-pot ashtray/bins), and - for the Euros - a separate bar (unstaffed when we were there), and widescreen tvs wherever you turn.
A barge was moored beside us, and - for those of us there early enough to enjoy it - it was a lovely place to spend a warm, reasonably bright (if not exactly sunny) evening. We were a smidgeon jealous of the corporate barbeque over the side, smells wafting in our direction (what a perfect evening and location for it!) but, despite discussion, we did not invade. We did, however, down our drinks - a lot of the bar staff were in training, and unqualified to answer complicated questions such as whether we could take drinks in with us. So we decided not to risk it. As it happened, there was a large pile of plastic containers right outside the theatre door, ready for us to decant our drinks into if necessary..
Seating was unassigned - this was in Hall Two, the smaller of the venues here. The concert - marketed as East Meets West, but with the logo "Korean Sounds" on the backdrop - was a combination of Western classical music (the first half) and Korean (the second half). It's interesting how, if they have unusual music in a classical concert, they generally try to sweeten the audience by including something more conventional - which is probably why we started with Mozart. This piece - as with so many classical pieces - is composed of several movements, and it was interesting to see many of the audience applauding vigorously after the first.. and less so after the second, as they realised they weren't supposed to.. and I think they'd stopped entirely by the time the third finished. Tip, guys: wait until the performers get up, smile, and take a bow. Much safer.
Mozart was followed by Janácek. Typically with Eastern European composers, this was something a bit different - as I remarked, if someone thinks classical music is boring, get them to listen to something like this! At times discordant, it was a step too far for some.. but hey, for me, I liked it. Can't go around listening to the same stuff all the time - you'd go brain dead.
And so to the interval, and a long, long queue at the bar. The person I was with remarked at the fact that there was only one barman - as we were waiting, of course, the Man with the Hat happened by, drink in hand; he, in his reliably resourceful way, had gone to the much quieter bar upstairs. Well anyway, he was good enough to tell me that the make-or-break Ireland match, which had started during the concert, was still nil all. And then he moseyed off, and we were queueing to the end of the interval.. the busy barman was happy to put our drinks into plastic for us.
The second half saw a costume change, and a change of pace to classical and Buddhist Korean music. The stage was now strewn with pallets. and there were gasps of appreciation as the musicians came on in gorgeous traditional costume. Three on zithers, one on a flute. Some found it a bit drawn out.. my impression was that this is music of a different pace, a pace that Londoners just aren't used to. And I found it good for the soul. Whatever your impressions - definitely different.
We repaired to the outside seating again afterwards, where I made sure to seat myself facing the telly. The match was about 65 minutes in by now - still no score. Until.. 85 minutes or so in.. something started to happen. And then.. a roar from the crowd. We' d done it, and Italy could do nothing in the closing minutes to change that! A historic victory - this is the first time that Ireland has made it out of the group stage of the Euros. (Olé, olé, olé, olé..) Memories of Stuttgart, 1988, when we qualified for the Euros for the very first time.. Whatever happens now, they've done us proud.
Apologies to my companions for having one eye on the telly the whole night - even when we were forced to go inside at 10, I was still in front of a telly. Great night anyway, for many reasons. Sadly, on our walk back to the station, the dry evening had been replaced by a persistent rain shower - which was at least refreshing. Back too late to blog.. and yesterday was just too busy.
But keep an eye out for my next post.. to follow shortly!
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