..one of the hottest, stickiest long weekends ever. Now, in case you need reminding.. on Thursday, I was booked for free comedy in Hammersmith (!) with Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith, Wimbledon and Greenwich, Random London, London Live Comedy, Hammersmith & Fulham Friends, and Discover LDN.UK. Did you think I'd actually go? ;-) Well, I didn't - but the reason was an unusual one. My new company is very nice indeed - and they have an annual volunteering day: gardening. I hate gardening. And it was on Thursday. For the whole day, they were at it. And a couple of weeks ago, the office manager kindly informed us that it was compulsory unless we were on holiday. Huh! Well now, I hate being told what to do. So I suddenly decided to be on holiday that day - and as it was a Thursday, the next too. Helen suggested we get last-minute, half-price, day tickets for Death of a Salesman at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on Thursday evening - sounded like a plan!
OMG, it was hot on Thursday. I pitied the poor gardening volunteers - heatstroke would have been a definite danger. Me, I rose late, went out to get some groceries - hot enough, even for a walk of just a few minutes! As I was out, I popped into the chemist's, and spied a whole heap of travel miniatures. Well now, they'd be handy! so I bought a heap of them. Got myself ready, and headed for Waterloo to catch the train. The plan was to catch a bus - and my, did I regret that walk down Tottenham Court Road, in the heat. When I got to the stop - well, for goodness' sake, the blasted bus wasn't stopping there - the number had been taped out, on the sign. No mention of where we should go either, and there had been no mention of disruption on the website. Now, that's the second time in a week. As I was in an internet blackspot - and not fancying a walk of any length, in the heat - I just crossed the road and took the Tube instead, cursing the fact that, had I known, I could've taken it a stop earlier and saved myself that walk down Tottenham Court Road. Bah humbug. Anyway, I've complained. Again.
It was easier from then - a quick hop got me to Waterloo in plenty of time, and my train was sitting at the platform, waiting. As I had plenty of time, I made my way well down towards the front of what was a very long train - handily, I ended up in the very last carriage (6) that would reach the platform in Milford, where I was to get off, I subsequently discovered. And I took a nice, cool seat at the rear of the carriage - a passenger near me, after a trip along part of the train (for some reason) remarked to his companion that it was a funny thing, but the rear of each carriage was nice and cool, while the front of each carriage was stifling. Hey ho..
So, Helen picked me up, we ate at home, then headed for Guildford. Not a town I'm happy spending any time in, following my disastrous prior experience there, to be honest - but at least we were headed for a part of it I'd never seen. Now, as Helen informed me, if you buy your ticket within an hour of the performance, in person, it's half price - which is significant, as the ticket prices are not exactly cheap, at the Yvonne Arnaud. Well, she'd kept a close eye on how the seats were selling, and that's exactly what we did, repairing to the upstairs bar to wait for the show to start. We had wine - and a bar of extremely melty chocolate; no aircon in the lobby, although there is a little balcony you can head onto. Decor is pretty basic, but comfy enough.
When we were finished, the house was open, and we entered to a blissfully air conditioned theatre, and a comfy pair of seats, near the back, which is where you enter. A minimalist stage - just a scruffy-looking fridge, a table and chairs, and a bed - an overhead ledge had two chaps sitting on it in near-darkness, with a neon sign that read "Land of the Free". And the salesman of the title entered from the main doors, as though returning from a sales trip, wearing hat and coat and carrying suitcases down the steps to the stage - good idea to keep your feet out of the way!
I've seen this play on television before, but not live - but this was an excellent production. Of course, it chronicles the decline of a man who used to be great at what he did, but who is finding that times have moved on, and his skills are no longer required. As he rants and rails, and tries to move people to do what he wants, he will find that things are no longer going his way - and as dream after dream faded, that neon sign started to lose its letters, until it no longer had any meaning. I thought the salesman's performance was just a bit bombastic at the start, but overall the acting and staging were excellent. The run has finished now, I believe, but to be recommended, if it rolls around again. As is the terrific, creamy ice cream we had in the lobby at the interval.
On Friday, Helen needed to run into Guildford again (centre of the known universe, obviously) for an errand, and left me in Costa for a while. Where I fancied something cold, and ordered a "frostino". Just as well I ordered the small one, which was about the size I'd expect in a cinema, let's put it that way. I settled into a comfy armchair in the corner to consume that, and a piece of the gianduja that, like Caffé Nero, they keep wrapped in foil, by the till, for 35p a piece. The frostino was yummy - but had so many chocolate chips, I spent most of my time chewing! Be advised.
When she returned, we headed down the road to Nando's for lunch - ages since I've been, and couldn't find my loyalty card, so they gave me another. And I'm pleased to see that their standards are as high as ever - tender chicken, sauce with a kick, even at the mildest setting. And they now have a new, mango and lime, dressing, as well as the option to have your meal without any sauce at all. Quite excellent! We didn't stay for dessert, which we bought from a market stall up the road, and had at home.
A lazy day followed, which was just as well; the rest of the weekend was.. strenuous. Saturday started with a quick trip to North Camp (so called because of the local military installations - this is a much more militarised country than the one I hail from). Good for a few cheap, local, small shops - a real find, in fact. One is a charity shop called Sailor Boy; we headed for the bookstore - cash only, and you can see why, when you realise that pretty much everything is priced at £1! A maze of little alcoves are crammed with books on all sorts, and I spied some Bill Brysons, high on a top shelf, that I had to get the small stepladder to reach. For £1, a real bargain.
Long-anticipated, the European leg of U2's 30th anniversary tour of The Joshua Tree kicked off in Twickenham on Saturday night and Sunday. 'Mare of a place to see them - after I saw them there in 2005, I swore - never again. Happily, Helen was also coming with me to the first concert. Which sorted transport for the first night - she drove. A palaver with a leaking fuel tank meant we ended up taking a rental Clio - which was absolutely fine, although the aircon just wasn't up to these temperatures. And after a trip of some distance, we were within London boundaries again - and I was happy. London, I missed you!
She'd booked a spot in one of the official car parks, which, from the direction we were taking, meant she had to turn at a roundabout and come back. Traffic, as we approached the stadium, was dire - we crawled for over half an hour, only to discover that the roundabout she needed to turn at was blocked off for doing that, and she had to turn at the next, instead. We must have spent an hour overall, trying to get into the car park - quite a challenge, in this oppressive heat. Mind you, when we did finally get in, it was a breeze - down the back, parked at the side where we were told, nothing in front of us, and we were at the right end for the walk to the stadium. As usual, easy peasy to find - even when you couldn't see it over the houses, you could just follow the crowd of the faithful.
At the stadium, we had to walk right around for our entrance gate. First came a bag check - after which they wrapped a tag around our bag handles, to show they'd been done. Just as they had at the theatre on Thursday, in fact. We had to scan our tickets to get through the turnstiles - barcode facing up, as I discovered. A convenient Mr. Whippy van furnished us with ice cream and water, and we took our seats - at Row 14 on the Lower Tier, not too far up, mercifully, although we were a little far from the stage, at L21.
As you can see, the highest resolution screen ever used in a concert looked like nothing so much as giant sheet of cardboard, at the start. That's poetry, scrolling up the side, by the way:
..and the theme of it, on this opening night of the European leg, was Love. A mixed crowd, fittingly for a 30th anniversary show, with an international feel:
Now, support on this leg is exclusively by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, touring with a lot of old Oasis numbers. Sorry, but I ain't never been a fan of Oasis, and we'd left it quite late to arrive, so by the time we took our seats, we missed the entire support set. Instead, we spent our time chatting to the fellows beside us, who hailed from Wolverhampton direction. The dad explained how he hasn't missed a single tour since 1980. Friendly folks, they let us have one of their souvenir fan cups - these, as Helen says, are a great idea, as people tend to take them home, thus less clearing up for stadium staff. (I also noted, yesterday, that there's a deposit payable on them, which makes it less likely they'll be left.) Good quality, hard cups too, with the tour logo (as on above t-shirt) and a measuring scale on the side. As we were leaving, I grabbed one that someone had left, so she could have one too - she still has them both, as I didn't have room to stash them; since I was travelling straight home after the concert last night, and you can't take big bags to the concerts, I was travelling very, very light.
A capacity crowd of 80,000 presented a low rumble as we grew closer to time. I was happy enough that the crowd around us were the standing sort - I do hate being made to sit at a U2 gig, it seems sacrilegious. They were late on, of course - advertised as an 8:10 start, it was more like 8:30 when the piped music was amped up ("Whole of the Moon" is
the chosen track they come on to). But they were greeted with a roar, as people shot to their feet - Larry is first on, heading down, to the satellite stage, in the shape of a Joshua tree.
SET LIST
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year's Day
Bad
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
With Or Without You
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running To Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God's Country
Trip Through Your Wires
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers of the Disappeared
New Year's Day
Bad
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
With Or Without You
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running To Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God's Country
Trip Through Your Wires
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers of the Disappeared
ENCORE
Now, this tour is an anniversary tour for The Joshua Tree, but beforehand they play some older songs, and after, some newer. My God, the first four songs are a real Greatest Hits parade - and what a terrific starter is Sunday Bloody Sunday, with that unforgettable drum solo, The Edge joining in after a few bars with a distinctive guitar riff. As if that weren't enough, the excitement is maintained with New Year's Day, then into Bad. The first section ends with Pride, a song about Martin Luther King, during which his famous "I Have a Dream" speech scrolls to the side, lines from it eventually slipping across the screen. For this first section, the screen stays a cardboard colour, broadcasting nothing up to that point, and forcing us to concentrate on the band. Which does work better if you're closer to the stage - I felt it fell a bit flat, back where we were. I must say though, Bono is in fine voice - best I've heard him, on any tour. And he name-dropped sundry people who were there that night - the only names that meant anything to me were Paul McGuinness and Bob Geldof. He also took the time to break Adam's baby news!! Wow, he was the last of them..
And so into the centre section, and The Joshua Tree - Pride fades into the opening strains of Where the Streets Have No Name, and the crowd went crazy. Now the screen comes into its own, going red (of course) for this song. I noticed it was coming up as yellow on the phones of those who were trying to photograph it. And so through each track from the album, in order - with the most amazing visuals, courtesy, once more, of the brilliant Anton Corbijn. For Streets, we have a rolling, black & white desert road, and more black and white desert scenes for I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, when Bono urges us to "Take it to church!" The screen gives us an amazing wide view..
..Which is even more spectacular for With Or Without You, as it slips into the blood red of Death Valley. I conserve my energy to be spent on Bullet the Blue Sky - from using it to criticise the treatment of refugees on the last tour, they've gone back to its original purpose, showing us a series of people, of different ages, trying on a US military helmet. Not a good look. Running to Stand Still finishes Side A.
Side B, and this tour is the first time ever they've performed Red Hill Mining Town! which is accompanied by an absorbing video of the Salvation Army Band, playing as backdrop. Into my favourite song from this album, In God's Country, then Trip Through Your Wires, with another hypnotic video, a clip on one side of a woman twirling a lasso in time to the music, and on the other, a woman (the same one? We can't really see her face well in either) painting the American flag on the side of the hut we saw in Bullet. One Tree Hill follows.
Before Exit, they play a little clip, from an old black & white tv Western series, apparently called Trackdown. In this episode, believe it or not, a conman named Trump says he can save the locals by building a wall. Well now! The Joshua Tree section ends with Mothers of the Disappeared, a line of women displayed on screen, each holding a flickering candle that eventually goes out.
After a short break, we're into the post-Joshua Tree songs. Miss Sarajevo opens this section, with footage from a Syrian refugee camp, focussing on a young girl, who films for us, and gives us a message for a stadium full of people. To our amazement, as the song progressed, we saw a large picture of her, printed on something like a sheet or a flag, being passed around a stadium - and we wondered. And after a moment, we saw it - yes, it was starting from our side of the stadium, being passed over people's heads! Sadly, too far up the stadium to be accessible to us. Kudos to the people who ran across the empty section at the back with it!
Beautiful Day had beautiful graphics, and then we were into another couple of adrenaline-pumpers - Elevation, immediately followed by Vertigo, would you believe! Ultra Violet was dedicated to Jo Cox, and featured shots of crusading women, past and present - well, Bono did recently win a Woman of the Year Award for his feminist work, you know! Then came One, and one from the new album - The Little Things That Give You Away. The night finished with Noel Gallagher brought back on stage, where he joined U2 for one of his numbers. Awesome, exhausting start to this leg - and one I'd have to take some time to process.
Out through the hordes to the car park, crossing the road in large numbers to intimidate the traffic into submission, and once we got to the car, we were off in no time flat. And the Clio turned on her lights automatically, which was clever - and the fog light, which wasn't. Back home, and I took my aching bones straight to bed.
Yesterday, a lazy day and an early meal chez Helen (many thanks to her and her husband, for excellent hospitality!). I could have stayed with her last night, but it'd have been such a late arrival at hers after concert #2, I said there was no point, and planned to head straight home instead. So, a train all the way back to Clapham Junction, where I could change to one for Twickenham - and it worked a treat, with the Twickenham train leaving from an adjacent platform, just in nice time to make it easily from mine. Off the train, and now I was really in the thick of the faithful, traipsing down the road - the crowd forked at one point, sent in different directions depending what side of the stadium we were on. I was the same side as the night before, just a bit closer - which I was looking forward to.
Turnstile came before bag check yesterday, and my, what fun we had, my handbag now crammed with a spare t-shirt and a bag of dirty laundry! Well, we managed, and I was free to run to the loo (as on Saturday, the regular ones rather than the portaloos - which are closer to the bar, but with no queue at the others, there was no need for them). And then an ice cream, and what with trying to manage that, a wallet, and change, with just two hands, I nearly dropped the thing! Gripped it so tightly I punched a hole in the cone - happily, this ice cream is pretty stiff, and I got it eaten before any escaped.
Through, then, to my seat - Bloody Hell, second row from the top of the Lower Tier! Well, I was nearly there before an accumulation of vertigo caused me to stumble. I got there, though, and took my seat. A nice breeze caught us from the overhang. And it was gratifyingly closer to the stage - if you looked in the direction of the stage, you couldn't see any of the gaps in the crowd on the pitch that were prevalent at the back. Which was great - as the crowd filled up, it was like being in the midst of a sea of people.
A lot of Irish in the crowd last night - I'm betting that was overflow, people unable to get tickets for the Dublin concert. The crowd around me had a more staid appearance than Saturday's - what with that, and being so near the corporate boxes at the back, I was worried I wouldn't be able to stand. The poetry last night had an angrier tone, about Puerto Ricans hoping to emigrate to the states. Again - and perhaps more noticeably, without people to chat to - a steady rumble grew among the stadium crowd as the hour approached. And finally, it was time for the start.. and wouldn't you know it, last night's crowd was as allergic to sitting as that of the night before! Well, but it would be so hard not to leap up for Sunday Bloody Sunday - it's like a call to arms.
Similar setlist to the night before:
SET LIST
Sunday Bloody Sunday
New Year's Day
Bad
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
With Or Without You
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running To Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God's Country
Trip Through Your Wires
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers of the Disappeared
New Year's Day
Bad
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
With Or Without You
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running To Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God's Country
Trip Through Your Wires
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers of the Disappeared
ENCORE
But being that bit closer made such a difference. I cried during Bad. And the whole thing was more like the original concerts, 30 years ago - the ones that made me a fan for life. Overall, I was just purely happy. Last night, I thought I might have been able to get to pass on that picture of the Syrian girl - wouldn't you know, this time I was too high above it! Don't tell me this is going to be like the last tour, when, in fully 19 concerts, I could never quite grab any of those torn pieces of poetry book pages that showered down on us..
I was delighted to hear them include Mysterious Ways, which as usual included pulling a girl up on stage for Bono to dance with. He took one of the roaming cameras to film her, and then gave it to her - the results appeared on screen, cleverly edited to display unusual effects. Without the two ending songs of the night before, we finished a bit earlier, methinks - before 10:30. Oh, and I had great fun clambering down - made it to Row 30 (from 38 - not bad) before the crowd started moving fast, and I panicked and had to stop and let them off. Made my way down slowly after that, holding onto the seats as I went and moving steadily till I got to the rail. And when I got to the bottom in relief, one of the stewards exclaimed "Well done!" Huh, thanks.
Ah, then was the fun of getting home. I mean, it's London, so it's doable - but it's Twickenham, so it's chaotic. You know, the stadium website claims the place is "easy to get to"..! Well, I suppose it's not too bad - it's the getting out of there. In 2005, I made the mistake of taking the train - never again, it took so long to shuffle into the station. No, I'd seen there were free shuttle buses to the Tube, so that was my plan. Now, I really wanted the one going to Hounslow East, where I could get a direct Tube - as I was leaving, I heard an announcement saying that the ones to Richmond were heading from left of the stadium (where I was expecting) - but then they said something about the Hounslow ones, which I couldn't hear. The usher I asked was completely clueless, just waving me in the direction of the buses, down the road.
Spent 15 minutes in the queue, sandwiched inside a barrier as bus after bus lined up at the stop. Well, they did seem to be putting on as many as were needed, and we did all get on a bus - unfortunately for my plan, they were all going to Richmond, but never mind. Traffic was dire - I wouldn't have made my Tube from Hounslow anyway. As it was, we were eventually dropped somewhere not in sight of Richmond station - I think the driver was planning to head back to the stadium to pick up more people. Blast the guy sitting outside me, who I thought would never move - he was unsure, it seemed. Thought I'd never get off that bus. Well, Google Maps showed me where the station was, and I grabbed a Tube headed to Hammersmith, moving well up the train to get a seat.
Alighting in Hammersmith, I was headed for the exit to catch the bus suggested by Google - and then that Piccadilly Line train I'd wanted to get from Hounslow pulled in at the next platform! Lovely - I crammed on; this was the last of these trains for the night, and was stuffed - a lot of U2 fans in the mix. Got off in Leicester Square, to announcements about the station being closed, and being too late for the Northern Line, I exited there. When I could find an exit that was open! And since I was unlucky enough to miss - by seconds - a whole series of buses headed my way - I walked from there, eventually getting in at 12:50am. Thank goodness I was wise enough to take today off as well! It went too late to blog - I rose late, and yes, this was as soon as I got it done today.
For tonight, nothing had been appealing - until I tried the Meetup app again, and came across a Meetup group called, attractively, Let's Do This! Quite new - anyway, they have organised a trip to see La Voix Humaine, a 40-minute solo opera, performed in English by Opera Up Close. It's in King's Place, which I love. I'd already found it by the time the Man with the Hat took us there, but it was with him I went the last two times: so this'll be bittersweet. Lordy if I didn't then discover that it's co-run by a couple of the Man with the Hat's old members! So of course I'm going. Great to see the Man with the Hat has left a classical legacy - there are very few Meetup groups doing this sort of thing. And at a discount, yet! Unsure, at this point, whether they're marketing it as a dating site, what with age restrictions, and an insistence that members post their photos and full names. We shall see..
Tomorrow started out with yet more free comedy in Hammersmith - the same five groups as ever. But then Funzing (London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @ Night) rocked up and saved me, with a talk on Blitzed - Drugs in Nazi Germany. However, over the weekend, Kensington Classical Music advertised - late notice, as ever - a piano concert in the Lansdowne Club; have to dig out that smart dress again!
On Wednesday, I was looking at free comedy in Greenwich, with London Live Comedy, Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith, Wimbledon and Greenwich, and Random London. (I do wonder what's happening with London Literary Walks, who used to have a walk almost every Wednesday over the summer..) Anyway, on Friday, what should happen (over lunch) but that I got an offer of £5 tickets to go see Queen Anne (offer now available only on Thursday). Well now, that had already caught my attention - so now I'm going to that. (The company involved do say not to spread their name around, but since they advertise on the Tube - and have done in the paper - I do think that's highly hypocritical.)
Thursday was more comedy - in Hammersmith - with the Famous Five (aforementioned) groups - Discover LDN.UK twice, as before. But you know, Eleanor did a good job last week of selling upcoming events to us - so instead, I'm going to see The Good Soldier Schwejk - mainly because it's on upstairs at Sands Films, where I've never been. Then it's back to Ireland for the weekend.
Next Monday, more comedy - for £3.60, this time. Tez Ilyas is performing at the Pleasaunce, and I know he's good - saw him in Top Secret once, for free..
The 18th, the U2 tour continues - I fly to Barcelona that day, to see them that night! One of their crazy, one-night-only appearances, on what is a very limited tour. Turns out I'm seeing them at half of all their European concerts for the year! Looking forward to immersing myself in the madness again.
I fly back on the 19th, and that night was - provisionally - booked for more free comedy (quelle surprise). Greenwich, the above three groups. There are some interesting Funzing talks that night, but I've already seen them. And then - why, Eleanor has another event! I listened to a clip of Hanitra, decided I liked her enough, so now I'm booked to see her in Sands Films that night.
The 20th, I booked another Funzing talk (the above two groups). This is a talk about serial killers, as given by a forensic psychologist (Jennifer Rees) that works with the police, and who also gives terrific talks about psychopaths. Highly recommended! She's a terrifically engaging speaker, and looks far too young to be working in such a murky area. Unfortunately, now I've had to cancel - turns out that the much-anticipated first Meetup of the Man with the Hat's other ex-members' group, Love London for Less, is happening that night, so of course I'm headed to that - we're going to the Icebar, where I've never been. Should be interesting. Never mind about the talk - although, despite being on the watchlist for the talk, I received no notice, Helen spotted, over the weekend, that another instance of that talk has been scheduled for next month, and I'm booked for that.
Then I'm back to Ireland for a long weekend - first to Dublin (from London City airport, a first for me), for U2's (one-and-only!) concert there.. then down to see my mother for a couple of days, flying back on Tuesday.
On the 26th, I had booked free comedy in Greenwich - same groups as before. Then Funzing rode to the rescue, and instead I'm now headed to a Funzing talk entitled "Politics - WTF!" Appropriate, no? Anyway, I booked them on a once-only code "iwantfunzingagain". Or you could try "Funzing30" - both give 30% off, but are time-limited.
On the 27th, free comedy in Hammersmith again. So far.
I fly back on the 31st, and saw an interesting Funzing talk advertised for that night - "Are We Living in the Matrix?" Well, I'm well overdue a free talk, with all of them that I've booked (every fourth free), so I contacted them to get a code to get this for free. Still waiting..! Despairing of them, I finally booked it on one of their limited 50% deals over the weekend.
And on the 1st, I finally get to see Jennifer Rees again, when she's giving a talk on The Psychology of Criminals. With dim sum, great! (Had to stick with a 10% discount for this one - Fun_Day10 or Fun_Week10 are the ones you want for that.) And it's walking distance from me for once, in Covent Garden. Excellent.. and Helen has sensibly decided to come too. On which occasion she'll deliver all the stuff I couldn't fit in my bag, coming back this time!
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