GIGs :D
after much chin stroking and faffing on ebay...i managed to procure a single standing ticket, at face value, for the lily allen dizzee rascal gig at manchester M.E.N!
posted and arrived in a day and after running about procuring some dizzee cds (i like to be prepared to sing along-and Dizzee is better than i gave hoim credit for-'boy in da corner' won the mercury prize!!), i was prepared-but ebay scares me, and although i had a reliable well reviewed seller, i still wasnt 100% if my ticket was genuine :/
here follows my very chageable review-enjoyed it very much, but couldnt help a bit of disappointment creeping in...
got there an hour early...found my ticket was genuine :D had to queue in the outer layer of the arena (hard to explain but a wide corribor runs around outside the arena)- turns out they were walking everyone down the stairs all around the arena stands to the floor-and i was at the front of my queue! after the stewards waved their arms to say DONT RUN, we were told SIT DOOOWN-wierd...but i got right on the barrier, virtually front centre!!!and since we had an hour to wait, i was happy of the seat-talked to some people who followed lil around on her last two tours!i'd do it for coldplay or muse, but not lily...
the support was pretty good. LDN white rapper called professor green.
they had a sort of DJ playing in between the acts who was turning the music down to get the crowd singing along-verrrry cool. especially as they played paper planes and empire state of mind :D
it was a well run gig. there didnt seem like massives gaps of time between the acts and prof green had came on early :)
so dizzee appeared-and was FANTASTIC! good audience participation etc and a full backup of MC, singers (for dirty cash, fix up look sharp, and holiday etc)-plus a BRASS SECTION-and a guitarist who looked like he belonged in spinal tap :P-who did an ace mix of a dizzee track (stand up tall i think) and smells like teen spirit :D his encouragements of bounce-bounce-bounce made me get a stitch :D
finished with bonkers-always a crowd pleaser!
so lily came on after her MC encouraged the crowd, and it was...a bit disappointing after dizzee...the stage was big. maybe from further back it would have looked ok but up close, and without the musical entourage of dizzee (and with more stage space)...and also the bronchitis she had...lil just didnt look like her heart was in it. not too much chat (i saw her in leeds a year ago and there was a lot more happy banter) and, bless her, a bit of coughing at some points!!
smile and LDN were welcome, she started with everyones at it (a good opener, but at leeds we had a lily silhouette formed from the white cover over the stage, this was impossible with the black one we had and manchester) she did however rise up out at the top of some stairs :D but dare i say it, i was a bit bored at some points-maybe i've been to too many gigs :/
Naieve was nice, i missed "him" and "everythings just wonderful" but 22 and her wee rave section in smile were ace-plus "fuck you", i LOVED waving my arms about flicking the Vs, and at one point she was smiling down at us, and i was grinning like an idiot-such a good time!
so fair play to her, but i think twice is enough in terms of her live shows (to her defence, BRONCHITIS-although lil, a fag half way through the set will not help!!! and i was trying to film a few tracks from my vantage point with a crap cameraphone which kept gtting a full memory!)
it was well worth the money for two headliners, but NO interaction between lily and dizzee, surely "wanna be" was one of the things prompting the coheadline??sorely missed that and it just seemed like dizzee was a support act for lily.
anyway, bring on La Roux, Flight of the conchords, and Jay-Z...my next three gigs :) (im cutting back a bit)
posted and arrived in a day and after running about procuring some dizzee cds (i like to be prepared to sing along-and Dizzee is better than i gave hoim credit for-'boy in da corner' won the mercury prize!!), i was prepared-but ebay scares me, and although i had a reliable well reviewed seller, i still wasnt 100% if my ticket was genuine :/
here follows my very chageable review-enjoyed it very much, but couldnt help a bit of disappointment creeping in...
got there an hour early...found my ticket was genuine :D had to queue in the outer layer of the arena (hard to explain but a wide corribor runs around outside the arena)- turns out they were walking everyone down the stairs all around the arena stands to the floor-and i was at the front of my queue! after the stewards waved their arms to say DONT RUN, we were told SIT DOOOWN-wierd...but i got right on the barrier, virtually front centre!!!and since we had an hour to wait, i was happy of the seat-talked to some people who followed lil around on her last two tours!i'd do it for coldplay or muse, but not lily...
the support was pretty good. LDN white rapper called professor green.
they had a sort of DJ playing in between the acts who was turning the music down to get the crowd singing along-verrrry cool. especially as they played paper planes and empire state of mind :D
it was a well run gig. there didnt seem like massives gaps of time between the acts and prof green had came on early :)
so dizzee appeared-and was FANTASTIC! good audience participation etc and a full backup of MC, singers (for dirty cash, fix up look sharp, and holiday etc)-plus a BRASS SECTION-and a guitarist who looked like he belonged in spinal tap :P-who did an ace mix of a dizzee track (stand up tall i think) and smells like teen spirit :D his encouragements of bounce-bounce-bounce made me get a stitch :D
finished with bonkers-always a crowd pleaser!
so lily came on after her MC encouraged the crowd, and it was...a bit disappointing after dizzee...the stage was big. maybe from further back it would have looked ok but up close, and without the musical entourage of dizzee (and with more stage space)...and also the bronchitis she had...lil just didnt look like her heart was in it. not too much chat (i saw her in leeds a year ago and there was a lot more happy banter) and, bless her, a bit of coughing at some points!!
smile and LDN were welcome, she started with everyones at it (a good opener, but at leeds we had a lily silhouette formed from the white cover over the stage, this was impossible with the black one we had and manchester) she did however rise up out at the top of some stairs :D but dare i say it, i was a bit bored at some points-maybe i've been to too many gigs :/
Naieve was nice, i missed "him" and "everythings just wonderful" but 22 and her wee rave section in smile were ace-plus "fuck you", i LOVED waving my arms about flicking the Vs, and at one point she was smiling down at us, and i was grinning like an idiot-such a good time!
so fair play to her, but i think twice is enough in terms of her live shows (to her defence, BRONCHITIS-although lil, a fag half way through the set will not help!!! and i was trying to film a few tracks from my vantage point with a crap cameraphone which kept gtting a full memory!)
it was well worth the money for two headliners, but NO interaction between lily and dizzee, surely "wanna be" was one of the things prompting the coheadline??sorely missed that and it just seemed like dizzee was a support act for lily.
anyway, bring on La Roux, Flight of the conchords, and Jay-Z...my next three gigs :) (im cutting back a bit)