Madrid 2nd show

I didn't do much at all during the day yesterday. I didn't go to the gym since I had a bad headache during the night, and I still had a touch of it in the morning. Kevin’s been battling a cold for the last couple of days, so we both stayed in the hotel most of the day. I indulged in another one of the hotel's hot chocolates that you could literally paint the walls with--it's that thick! But it's good. :)

 

As we then knew, the show didn't start till 9:30, so we made our way out to the venue around 7:30 and had dinner at the restaurant across the street where we ate the night before. It was a bit later, so the place was packed, and we ended up having to share a table. Two English girls had come over from the UK for the show and hadn't seen Roger before. They loved hearing Kevin's stories of traveling Europe for the last 18  years, and I gave them a card for my blog and told them to check it out when they get home. Hope you both enjoyed the show, and I look forward to seeing your comment! After dinner, we headed over to the venue, and I got chatting to two amnesty international guys. There were a lot of them around the entrance to sign people up, and they told me that Roger had specifically asked that Amnesty international be at the venue.

Two new Roger fans we met          Amnesty International reps

   

Kevin and I made our way to the front left of the stage after entering the venue and stood in the same place we were for the first night--left side about three rows back from the barrier. The guys came out again  just after 9:30 to a rapturous applause, and the two guards threw Pink onstage.

One of the guards heading to the stage

 

As seen in the pictures below, the words “No Fucking Way” were written in Spanish on the left hand side of the wall during Mother.

      

After Young Lust we made our way right to the back of the venue to the first level behind the seats. It's amazing how much better the projections look from further back, and as much as I like being at the front, I would definitely recommend to anyone just seeing one show to watch it from at least halfway back to take in all the projections. You miss so much when you’re closer than fifteen rows out.

After the first half we made our way backstage for a drink and to meet up with the guys. I first saw my friend Jose, whom I hadn't seen since Barcelona in 2002! He's a great guy, but it's always a touch difficult communicating, since he speaks very little English, and I speak even less Spanish! We always seem to manage, though. He’s been writing a book on The Wall for the last five years, and he's hoping to have it published next year. Unfortunately, it will only be in Spanish--at least for the moment. I had a quick chat with Marky again, and it was great to see Pat Lennon. They not only do a fantastic job onstage, but they are also such wonderful, down to earth people off of it.

Me and Jose

Before the second set started, Kevin and I made our way to the section of seats up on the right of the stage and watched the second half from there.

Comfy Numb

The second set just seemed to fly by again. Dave's guitar on Run Like Hell sounded fantastic, and to watch Jon Carin switching between guitar and keyboard is just amazing--it all just looks so natural to him, and he makes it look really easy!

Its nice to be at the side of the stage when Roger comes over to the podium on the right and does The Trial sequence. He lays on his back on the floor at the start, looking up at the graphics onscreen before standing up and gesturing to the crowd in the wings with his arms open wide, savouring all the admiration they give him. He repays them by picking people out, pointing to them, and smiling.

The wall fall tonight was excellent. Harry Waters came out at the start of The Trial and sat on the rear of the front barrier to watch it fall down. I guess it's something the band rarely sees from the front! The bricks float down with grace from the top couple of tiers, and the second fall of bricks just tumble down and, as can be seen below, cause chaos at the front of the stage. The large section to the right came in one big section and had security below running for their lives!

The crowd did the Ole Ole Ole chant before Outside The Wall again, and it sounded even better than the previous night.

 
All in all, not just another brick in the wall, but a fantastic goodbye show for Madrid, since the band (and Kevin and I) moved on to Barcelona to take in another few bricks.

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Madrid 1st show

Having two days off between shows made it seem like an age since the last show in Lisbon. Last night was the first of two shows in Madrid, Spain. The venue was a modern building right in the heart of Madrid--a huge silver structure with a cavernous interior that juts out into the high street.

We headed toward the venue around 6:30 P.M, went for dinner at a restaurant across the street, then went into the Venue about 7:30 P.M. The floor was all standing, and Kevin and I wandered over to the left hand side of the stage and reached our way to about two rows from the front. By the time we found our place, it was about 8:30. The shows in Lisbon started at 9 P.M, so naturally we presumed Madrid would be the same. However, it turned out to be 9:30 before the band came onstage.

We didn't want to stand in one place for an hour before the show, so we had a wander around the floor  to take in the atmosphere. Marky Lennon spotted me and came over to say hi. It was the first time I'd seen him  since the European tour started, and it was good to catch up with him. We had a good chat with Snowy before the show, too, and again, it was good to catch up with him. I hadn’t seen him since last December at the L.A. shows on the US tour.

The crowd started getting a touch restless around 9:20 and started whistling and chanting like they  commonly do in Europe! Sure enough, at 9:31 two “guards” holding Pink walked up to the front of the stage, and the “I'm Spartacus” background tape started to roll. "I'm Spartacus," "No I’M Spartacus," rang out through the huge venue to the sound of deafening cheers from the crowd. Pink was thrown onto the stage, and Roger's trumpet playing came on over the PA system.

Roger came on stage as happy as I've ever seen him, running up and down the full length from left to right holding his arms out and taking in the admiration.

        

The two guards had, by then, made their way onto the stage. One placed the leather trench coat on Roger while the other helped him with the sunglasses from the onstage mannequin. He  belted the coat up, pulling the belt tight around his torso and walked over to the mic.

Not sure if this is a new graphic that's on the wall during the start of In The Flesh, but I never noticed it before.

The crowd went wild as the plane came down, and the bricks exploded when it crashed into the wall.

During his speech before Mother, Roger said he performed The Wall  thirty-one years ago in 1979 in L.A. Then he said they returned to play Earls Court in 1980. They DIDN'T!! They played L.A. in 1980! Something new I saw tonight was when the words “No Fucking Way” appear on the right side of the wall, the same phrase was written out on the left side, but in Spanish!! I wonder if this will  continue in each country according to the language; I bet it does.

While playing Mother, it was obvious to anyone watching the show that something was bothering Roger. He kept looking over to his right in disgust, then pointed to something off stage. It took a minute or so for the roadies to realise that there was a fire door open at the side of the hall, and the light it emitted onstage really bothered him. After some scuffling from the crew, the door was partially closed and the light turned off.

Apart from that, the first half went off without a hitch.

For the second half Kevin and I went to sit  in the first block of seats at the right side of the stage--one of my favourite places to sit and watch the second half from. The second half was great, and it was fun to see the enthusiasm of the crowd from our seats.

   

Crowd During Run Like Hell:

Roger throwing down his shirt and tie:

The wall fall was great tonight, however, at the last three shows, the majority of bricks fell backwards onto the stage. Due to the size of the venues in Europe, there doesn't  seem to be any clamps on the top of the wall on the sides. In the USA, this stopped certain parts of it falling down. Now, all the sides seem to fall,  giving it a lot more impact.

After the wall fell it took ages for the band to come back on to do Outside The Wall. I could see Jon, Graham, Harry, and G.E. at my side of the stage waiting for Roger to go onstage--there was at least a  five minute wait! Jon and Harry were looking at each other and talking to the crew. I think a few of them thought something was amiss, as did I. To the crowd, who knew no different, it was just an excuse to start the famous Spanish Ole, Ole, Ole chant, which sounded fantastic. I know Roger is aware they do this, and I have to wonder if his delay in coming back onstage was, in fact, to encourage the crowd to do this!

Crowd doing Ole, Ole, Ole:

Album with more pictures from last nights gig below:

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Madrid day 1

No show tonight, so we have the full day and night free. I went to the Gym across the street this morning for a workout. It felt great sweating out the Serrano ham and fattening cheese that I ate last night!

Kevin went for breakfast while I had an apple from the hotel reception. I'm not sure what our plans are today--just going to see a few sights in Madrid, I think. Kevin's been here many times before and said there isn't a lot to see. I Googled "sightseeing in Madrid," and it also said the same online! It said there are very few sights for such a big capital city!

Its 7 P.M. and I just got back to the hotel after walking 7 miles around Madrid sightseeing! I had a great day, although the weather wasn't sunny and a touch cool. Still, it was fine and was great weather for walking.

We took the subway from the hotel to the area of Sol, the central area in Madrid, and wandered around the streets looking at stores, buildings and sights.

While the buildings are nowhere near as nice as in Lisbon or Barcelona, I love all the squares with fountains and monuments in Madrid. It's a VERY clean city and the streets and subway are spotless. Since I only had an apple for breakfast I was a touch hungry towards 2 o clock, and we made our way into the main food market.

What an amazing place; it's full of stalls selling all types of food--each stall was food specific--and in the center were tables and chairs. You just go up to each stall, get a plate of what you want, then get  a glass of whatever wine you want. You can either wander around the market eating and drinking or find a seat and a table to sit down at.

   

I, of course, settled on some more ham, a bread roll, and a glass of Chianti : ) Kevin wandered off saying he was going to get a coffee and came back with what you see below! Although the picture doesn't do them justice, those are the biggest strawberries I've ever seen in my life!

   

After another glass of Chianti and people watching for a good hour, we headed out for more walking around Barcelona. The ham and cheese shops are a huge thing out here. The Spanish certainly know how to eat and what to eat--it beats our greasy English pub food any day of the week!

   

We ended up in a market square, except there was no market! There were, however, a couple of street performers, including some bizarre pagan goats that looked like something out of the film The Wickerman! There was another guy blowing HUGE bubbles, a guy pretending to be invisible, and a guy playing the wine glasses as seen in the video below.

Bubbles and the invisible man in the market square

     

After walking around for another 3 hours, we stopped for hot chocolate before heading over to a huge park that Kevin's been to before. Then we got the subway back to the hotel.

An unusual art installation in the park and the lake.

    

More pictures from the 1st day in Madrid in the album below:

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Lisbon to Madrid

So after the first two opening shows in Lisbon we have two nights off before the next two shows in Madrid. Our flight to Madrid isn't till 7:30 P.M. tonight, so we saw a few more sights this morning. There's a cable car system up by the venue that follows the edge of the ocean for about a mile.

We took the subway back up to the station by the venue and had breakfast at the Irish bar we went to two nights before.

We walked the half mile or so down to the cable car terminal intending to go up the top of the tower to see the view. However a new hotel attached to the tower is under construction, so the viewing deck was closed.

   

The whole area around the venue is a huge shopping, bar, and restaurant marvel; it's packed with unique places to eat, drink, and shop. The large buildings were originally raised for the Lisbon Expo in 1998, and over the years the whole area developed into a fantastic place to hang out for the day and night.

   

We took the cable car ride to the far end of the dock and took a walk around before getting back on it and heading back.

Cool wave sculpture

We headed back to the hotel, but not before grabbing a drink and a couple more custard tarts as a farewell to Lisbon! Took the subway back to the hotel, picked up our bags, rode the bus to the airport, and hung around there for a couple of hours before boarding the Easyjet flight to Madrid. We arrived at 11 P.M, took a taxi to the hotel, and sat in a local Tapas bar finally eating dinner around midnight!

Dinner last night.

 
Album with more sights from day 3 in Lisbon below:

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