Madge
Last night I went to see Madonna in Hyde Park (well, me and thousands of other people.) It's part of her MDNA tour.
I enjoyed it, more than I expected. I had hoped it would be good but I was prepared to be disappointed. I had read a bit about the tour and knew she wouldn't be performing many of her old hits, but I was surprised that most of the people around me didn't seem to know any of the songs off the MDNA album and only sparked into life when there was a song they recognised from her previous repertoire. Honestly, I thought I was bad enough, downloading her album only a few days ago, but at least I listened to it several times before the concert - enough to know the words to all the choruses but not all the verses. I kid you not, virtually everyone else was standing like zombies for the vast majority of it - and not just because they WERE zombies, because when an old song was played, they started singing along and bopping around.
Admittedly I was towards the back of the crowd, because I get a kind of claustrophobia when in a crowd of people being jostled and crushed - I've had panic attacks on crowded trains before now (thought I was having a heart attack the first time.) And at previous outdoor concerts I've had big slanging matches with people I felt were invading my space, blocking my view etc. So it's best for me to keep well out of it and stay further back where there's room to move around and I can enjoy it more. If I stood on tiptoe I could just about see the stage, and there were big screens showing close-ups of the stage anyway, so it wasn't too bad. As I'm not very tall, even if I were near the front there would be lots of taller people in front of me and I would probably have seen even less of the stage than I did.
I imagine that there would be a lot more people who knew the songs towards the front; the passionate fans who pre-ordered the new album and have listened to it non-stop ever since it arrived. But I wasn't in that part of the audience and it struck me as odd that so many people - like I said, virtually everyone around me - seemed to have booked tickets and then not bothered checking out the music that would be performed.
Thankfully the weather wasn't too bad and stayed dry for the majority of the performance, but we had a bit of "that fine rain that soaks you through*" towards the end. I had decided against wellies but went in walking boots; they weren't really needed, though, as all the bark that had been laid on top of the grass mud was doing a good job.
The small print on the tickets said you couldn't take in any alcohol but soft drinks in small containers were OK. So I decanted some neat cointreau into a small plastic water bottle. At the security/bag check, the guy said "Is that water?" I said "Yes" thinking "I'm bound to look guilty, I'm useless at lying" and when he said "I have to check it; I had a nasty surprise earlier on" and unscrewed the cap, I thought "The game's up." He sniffed it, screwed the cap back on, and gave it back to me, waving me through. I couldn't work out whether he genuinely couldn't smell the alcohol or was just putting on a performance for his supervisor and didn't personally care if people brought drinks in.
So, the performance itself - very slick, polished, superbly choreographed, and I enjoyed some of the different arrangements with the Basque group etc. I didn't see her get her boob(s) out, if she did (she has on previous legs of this tour.) There was one point where she was stripped down to her bra and then the big screen showed her back view, despite the fact that she was facing the audience and normally the big screen showed her from the audience view, so I guess it was then.
I also didn't notice the Marine Le Pen & swastika image that has been in the news this week - not sure if it has been taken out, or if it flashed past so quickly that it didn't register. I recognised which section it should have been in but there were loads of images changing constantly and it's not a face I would instantly recognise anyway, but I didn't see a swastika.
I went with Pip (my ex, for new friends who don't know. Don't worry, it was sanctioned by Ray, my current BF, who didn't want to go.) When we spoke at about 3pm to arrange a meeting place, he sounded a bit drunk, so I had visions of an awful evening to come (he's an argumentative, unpleasant type of drunk.) I gave him the hard word and he had sobered up by the time we met. He was in quite a good humour so that added to making it a good night.
He rang me when I was almost home (to see if I'd got home safe) and said he was almost home himself. After chatting for a couple of minutes, the line went dead. I tried to ring him back a few times and it went straight to voicemail every time. Probably his phone battery just died, but I can't help worrying that maybe he was mugged or worse. I've left him several messages last night and again today, asking him to ring me to let me know he's OK, and he hasn't done. I'd ring his house phone but, incredibly, I've forgotten the number, and I've lost my address book (again.)
* Courtesy of Peter Kaye
This entry was originally posted at http://mitzimaybe.dreamwidth.org/24727.html. I can rarely respond to comments on LJ, so if possible, please comment on the Dreamwidth article using OpenID instead; thanks.
I enjoyed it, more than I expected. I had hoped it would be good but I was prepared to be disappointed. I had read a bit about the tour and knew she wouldn't be performing many of her old hits, but I was surprised that most of the people around me didn't seem to know any of the songs off the MDNA album and only sparked into life when there was a song they recognised from her previous repertoire. Honestly, I thought I was bad enough, downloading her album only a few days ago, but at least I listened to it several times before the concert - enough to know the words to all the choruses but not all the verses. I kid you not, virtually everyone else was standing like zombies for the vast majority of it - and not just because they WERE zombies, because when an old song was played, they started singing along and bopping around.
Admittedly I was towards the back of the crowd, because I get a kind of claustrophobia when in a crowd of people being jostled and crushed - I've had panic attacks on crowded trains before now (thought I was having a heart attack the first time.) And at previous outdoor concerts I've had big slanging matches with people I felt were invading my space, blocking my view etc. So it's best for me to keep well out of it and stay further back where there's room to move around and I can enjoy it more. If I stood on tiptoe I could just about see the stage, and there were big screens showing close-ups of the stage anyway, so it wasn't too bad. As I'm not very tall, even if I were near the front there would be lots of taller people in front of me and I would probably have seen even less of the stage than I did.
I imagine that there would be a lot more people who knew the songs towards the front; the passionate fans who pre-ordered the new album and have listened to it non-stop ever since it arrived. But I wasn't in that part of the audience and it struck me as odd that so many people - like I said, virtually everyone around me - seemed to have booked tickets and then not bothered checking out the music that would be performed.
Thankfully the weather wasn't too bad and stayed dry for the majority of the performance, but we had a bit of "that fine rain that soaks you through*" towards the end. I had decided against wellies but went in walking boots; they weren't really needed, though, as all the bark that had been laid on top of the grass mud was doing a good job.
The small print on the tickets said you couldn't take in any alcohol but soft drinks in small containers were OK. So I decanted some neat cointreau into a small plastic water bottle. At the security/bag check, the guy said "Is that water?" I said "Yes" thinking "I'm bound to look guilty, I'm useless at lying" and when he said "I have to check it; I had a nasty surprise earlier on" and unscrewed the cap, I thought "The game's up." He sniffed it, screwed the cap back on, and gave it back to me, waving me through. I couldn't work out whether he genuinely couldn't smell the alcohol or was just putting on a performance for his supervisor and didn't personally care if people brought drinks in.
So, the performance itself - very slick, polished, superbly choreographed, and I enjoyed some of the different arrangements with the Basque group etc. I didn't see her get her boob(s) out, if she did (she has on previous legs of this tour.) There was one point where she was stripped down to her bra and then the big screen showed her back view, despite the fact that she was facing the audience and normally the big screen showed her from the audience view, so I guess it was then.
I also didn't notice the Marine Le Pen & swastika image that has been in the news this week - not sure if it has been taken out, or if it flashed past so quickly that it didn't register. I recognised which section it should have been in but there were loads of images changing constantly and it's not a face I would instantly recognise anyway, but I didn't see a swastika.
I went with Pip (my ex, for new friends who don't know. Don't worry, it was sanctioned by Ray, my current BF, who didn't want to go.) When we spoke at about 3pm to arrange a meeting place, he sounded a bit drunk, so I had visions of an awful evening to come (he's an argumentative, unpleasant type of drunk.) I gave him the hard word and he had sobered up by the time we met. He was in quite a good humour so that added to making it a good night.
He rang me when I was almost home (to see if I'd got home safe) and said he was almost home himself. After chatting for a couple of minutes, the line went dead. I tried to ring him back a few times and it went straight to voicemail every time. Probably his phone battery just died, but I can't help worrying that maybe he was mugged or worse. I've left him several messages last night and again today, asking him to ring me to let me know he's OK, and he hasn't done. I'd ring his house phone but, incredibly, I've forgotten the number, and I've lost my address book (again.)
* Courtesy of Peter Kaye
This entry was originally posted at http://mitzimaybe.dreamwidth.org/24727.html. I can rarely respond to comments on LJ, so if possible, please comment on the Dreamwidth article using OpenID instead; thanks.