Paris day 1

After a couple of nights at home in my own bed it was time to head out to Paris.Kami and i were missing the 2 shows in Antwerp to chill out for a couple of days and to fly into Paris early to meet up and have some time with Wendy and her husband Chris who were flying in from Chicago for a week.We last saw Wendy in Philadelphia and in Chicago before that. Towards the end of March on one of the rare nights that i had had a few drinks i sent Wendy a “drunken” Blackberry message saying “ hey, you need to see some more shows, what's the chances of you coming to London”  She replied it would be hard and didn't think it was possible due to work and the kids. Not one to give up easily i replied with “ how about Paris then?” her reply wasn't one which i expected and was something like “ that might work, I’ll talk to Chris”

Several messages later and a few conversations with Chris and she had booked her flight to Paris for the two shows!! (i am a dangerous person to know when it comes to things like this!)

Kami and i flew out of Heathrow on Friday 27th May from Heathrow. Wendy had left a few hours earlier from Chicago but id had a message to say her plane had broke down and she was due into Paris 5 minutes before we were. I checked online and we were due to arrive in terminal 2 and Wendy into Terminal 1. I sent a text letting her know we would walk over to meet them when we landed.

We got off the plane around 12:30pm and we headed over to terminal 1 and past the “Final Cut” style picture below that welcomed us to Paris. I’d had a text while we were in the air to say Wendy and Chris had landed 5 minutes ago.As we headed out of terminal 2 into Terminal 1 who should be sat there but Wendy and Chris!

The four of us headed to the train station within  Charles De Gaul airport and took the 30 minute train ride into the centre of Paris. Kami and i had booked a cheap hotel by the venue while Wendy and Chris had booked an apartment for 7 nights on the Isle  of St Louis right in the heart of Paris. We headed our separate ways for the first night, Chris was tired after the 16 hours of travelling and we arranged to get in touch tomorrow with a view to having drinks and dinner.  We took the metro to our hotel which whilst was a bit out in the residential area of Paris it was very clean comfortable and within easy access of the public transport, plus it was cheap and only 2 miles from the venue.

Final cut style picture           Old man, pink socks!          Cool wall type poster            Wall in Metro station

  

We headed out for dinner around 9pm and stayed local, found a nice Italian restaurant about 20 minutes away from the hotel and had some great food and drink,then an early night to bed ready for some sightseeing the next day.

View from hotel room     Our first view of the Eiffel Tower              Sunset over Paris walking to dinner

     

Dublin show 2

We all met up at the hotel bar again with the exception of James who had flown back to Newark, NYJearlier that day. He’s an airlines steward and was hoping the Iceland volcano ash would cause problems with his flight so he could see the second show, however the wind had changed and the ash had died down.

After walking the 15 minutes to the venue we all made our way in, Jackie and Dave were seated tonight, Kami and i took our usual place on the left side  a bit further left tonight in front of the Hotel room. Kevin joined us later on with Philippe. I have a friend, Shane, from the USA who is in charge of all the pyrotechnics for the show, we had a chat before the show and he commented on how they had added more speakers due to the way the sound was the night before. It should be a lot better tonight he said.

Sure enough as soon as the first few notes of In The Flesh started it was clear that the sound had indeed being improved from last night. Roger and the band were on fine form tonight, I've noticed before when I've seen Roger in Dublin (2002 and 2007) that he loves the Irish crowd and they love him back. He likes to put on his Irish accent and have a chat to the fans, tonight was no exception with him telling an amusing story about him and “the boys” in the late 1960’s out late at night coming back from a gig and getting stopped by the Garda. Roger seems to have this problem with dates, I'm not sure if its his age or what but there's been a lot of times during the tour he has referenced dates and shows and got them wrong. He mentioned tonight of the In The Flesh tour date they played in Dublin on the 24th June 2002 when in fact it was the 24th July. Don't get me wrong I'm not having a go we all make mistakes, it just seems odd knowing how much of a perfectionist he is with anything, he seems to get a lot of dates mixed up!

The crowd were good tonight but i think last nights was a little better. The band themselves just seem to get better and better and i wonder at what point they just wont seem to be able to improve! I get the feeling now that Dave K could play the set with his eyes closed! his solo on top of the wall tonight was unreal, i had very little view of Dave on top of the wall tonight due to being so far forward so i closed my eyes and listened to the solo without watching the actual show, it was faultless. One thing i would say is that whilst the “money shot” of Roger hitting The Wall is spectacular it does tend to take your attention away from Dave K’s solo, and the best part of it too! If you are seeing more than one show then i would really recommend just closing your eyes for the solo during Comfy Numb and just listen to the music without seeing the visuals.

Exploding walls for the guys.

   

Or hair flicks for the girls!
    
One thing i do like watching during the show is the faces on the crowd on the front row, I've seen shock, amazement, disgust and tears at some of the shows I've seen.

I think I've mentioned this in an earlier review of the shows but during the second In The Flesh when the flag bearers come out and stand on the podiums at either side of the stage one of the roadies comes out and holds a cardboard sign up at the flag holder on the left as you look at the stage. The writing on the sign is different at every show and is always to try and make the guy holding the flag smile and laugh” Early on in the shows this worked but i think the guys a bit used to it now so he hasn't been laughing or even breaking as mile! Tonight was a bit different though, Liam(one of Rogers security guys) and the roadie spoke to the audience in front of the podium at half time and i could see what was going to happen as they were talking.

All became apparent when during In The Flesh the crowd in front of the flag bearer held up pieces of cardboard (parts of an old brick) that said on the four pieces “ We love you Dave Butcher XOXO” Liam had handed these out about 5 minutes beforehand and asked the audience to keep them behind the barrier, at his say so they took them out and held them high all in a row. The guys face was a picture, at first he didn't get what had happened but then when it dawned on him he smiled and then laughed out loud. The members of the audience were rewarded with a guitar pick each but left their pieces of the wall on the other side of the barrier.

Laughing flag bearer

There’s a few things like this happen during the show that most of the audience don’t see, I'll mention a couple of these in later reviews.

As the wall came down i quickly turned the flash forced ON and took a couple of pictures of the wall mid flight, these came out ok but  because of using the flash it highlights all the dust that's in the air, I'm trying to refine this picture taking and will hopefully  get a few better ones at future shows.

 

All in all two great shows in Dublin, a very enthusiastic crowd at both nights and it was great to see the show in such a unique and intimate venue.

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A rainy morning at Heathrow...

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London O2 show

Thanks to Rolf for the image below:

Myself and Kami, London O2 Arena

Why Greece ?

Dublin day 2….

So after getting back to the hotel around 1am earlier this morning unfortunately there was little time to have a lie in as we were setting off early to head into Dublin for the sightseeing bus tour. We got off a couple of stops away from where the sightseeing bus tour starts but spotted a bar doing Irish breakfast for 6 Euros so headed in there first.

We’d heard yesterday too that the volcano in Iceland had erupted again and there were severe delays to flight in the UK. At the moment it was mainly in Scotland however Obama had left earlier than they were due to and had flown out last night so all the traffic was back to normal in the city centre.

getting ready for the bus tour                On the double decker bus                 The Dublin spire

    

The weather while nice and sunny was a bit cold today, we stayed on the top deck of the bus apart from a few minutes when the rain showers broke through. It was a “Hop On Hop Off” and at 11 ish we hopped off and had a walk round the Temple Bar area of Dublin. This is a great place at night with restaurants, bars and street vendors. During the day its a little different and a lot quieter.

Says it all really!!                                     The temple bar                                          Green is everywhere!

    

We had a couple of drinks in the actual Temple Bar itself and were “treated” to a bagpipe serenade by some Scots guy in a kilt who sounded as though he was just practicing in the bar!

Bagpipes:

 

Bagpipes in the bar                   The best cider ever!                  Whisky menu!        Happy face in the bar

Brief tour of Temple Bar

After a couple of drinks and a chat with the girl serving we headed for a couple of pictures of the river and then back over to the bus stop to Hop On again. We stayed on the bus the whole tour then and didn't get off till the last stop.

The whole city was out yesterday!       Sign in the Hard Rock Cafe window!   No shortage of bars in Dublin

      

We grabbed the bus back to the hotel where we chilled out for a couple of hours before heading down to the Jury bar to this time meet up with people before the 2nd show tonight!

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Dublin show 1…

This venue is unique! its like no other arena I've seen! Its like an amphitheatre but its indoors. It has an area for standing on the floor but the first (and only) balcony is very close to the stage and as myself and James found out its fantastic place to see the show from.

 

Kevin, myself, and James took our place by the left hand side of the stage right in front of Dave K. Jackie and Dave were up in the balcony as Kevin had managed to get seated tickets for them. From the second that In The Flesh started i could tell the sound wasn't as it usually was. It sounded a touch muffled and was very VERY quiet. The crowd had obviously noticed too as at the quiet part before the beginning of Mother i heard chats of “ turn it up, turn it up” coming from the rear of the audience. With the exception of the sound the show was fantastic. The crowd were great and started to sing along at every chance they had.

For the second half of the show James and i decided to go and sit on the balcony, i had spotted four spare seats that had been free the whole of the first half. We made our way up there, Jackie and Dave spotted us and came to sit in the two other empty seats next to us. It was evident after the first 20 seconds that the sound up here was way better than down on the floor, I'm sure they had maybe tweaked something during the intermission and was told at the second show by my friend Shane on the tour that they had added more speakers for the second night.

 

 

 

It was fantastic to be more or less level with Dave K and Robbie while they were on top of the wall, I’ll add some pictures to the 2nd show review i do to give you and idea of the seating set up.

After the show we headed back to the hotel bar with Dave, Jackie and James. Kevin and Philippe joined us 20 minutes later, we both had a little  food at the hotel bar as neither of us had had much apart from the airline lounge food earlier in the day. We then took a taxi back to our hotel and hit the bed around 1am. We were off on the Dublin tour bus tomorrow.

Dublin Day 1, The luck and not so luck of the Irish!..

So after two excellent shows in Manchester, the second one with my dad who’s last show was The Beatles in 1963! Kami and i drove down to London for a night at home before flying out to Dublin the next morning. We’d stayed at my dads  for the last three nights, he really enjoyed the show and said it was totally different to what he was expecting! Phrases like “ There was some great guitar work” and “ that guy (Robbie) could do a show on his own” were heard and my dad left the venue speechless after seeing what i’d been seeing for the last ten years of my life!

We flew out of Gatwick to Dublin, i paid £14.00 roundtrip for my flight and due to Kami booking it a month or so later she paid £19.00! £5 more, scandalous!

We were up at 6:30am and sat in the airline lounge having breakfast by 8:30 for our 10am flight. I’d checked in online the day before, printed out our Boarding passes and both of us only had carry on luggage for the short two night stay in Dublin.

After an hour in the lounge, the gate was announced and opened and we made our way to board the flight, we presented our boarding passes at the gate and were asked to move along to the lounge. A second check was in place and the guy said to kami she wasn't allowed to proceed any further as she hadn't had her boarding pass stamped at check in! it was now 9:15 and boarding closed at 9:40. He pointed to the small print on Kamis boarding card  that said all Non EU  travellers had to have their boarding passes stamped at check in before coming through security. After a minute of pleading and realising the guy didn't care that we had genuinely missed the small print we had no option but to try get back out of airside, run to the check in, get the stamp and head back through security again for the flight.

We headed to the airport information desk only to be told is wasn’t as easy as the above as officially we had left the country! We had to be de-contained and go through the whole airport system again! we had ten minutes to do this and soon realised we weren't gonna make this flight. The lady at the info desk called to get someone to come and walk us back through customs and security and after seeing us sitting down for over an hour waiting for said person to come she decided to take us back through herself. As missing the flight was our own fault we also had to buy a new flight out to Dublin and the prices i was getting online that i was checking while we were waiting were coming up at over £200 each!! The “info lady” again being helpful called through to Ryanair and found we could get a flight for £100 each.

After taking us back through we purchased a new flight, headed back through security and 15 minutes later we were back airside waiting for the 1:30pm flight. Unlike the guy at the Ryanair gate the info lady was ever so nice and did what she  could for us, i went to the shop after getting through security and bought her a box f Cadburys Roses for her helpfulness. She was delighted as we took the box of chocolates to the desk to give her and said “ awww you didn't have to do that” to which i replied, “ i know we didn't have to but we wanted to”

We headed back to the airline lounge and sat and waited as the flight got moved from 1:30 to 2pm, then to 2:30pm and then to 3pm,  it was 3:30pm before we flew out but the good news was we were on our way! albeit 8 hours after arriving at the airport!

We had heard the day before the President Obama was due into Dublin today at 1pm, hence the reason for our delayed flight. As we landed at Dublin airport the cabin crew pointed out the reason for our delay!

Air force one

 

We took a taxi to the hotel, wasn't too bad traffic wise but we did notice cops were everywhere! The taxi driver had his radio on in the car and the broadcaster was telling how Obama had just taken off from a short stop in a small village in his Chinook helicopter, as we looked out of the window to the right we saw in the short distance a Chinook helicopter just starting to fly through the skies!

We were all meant to be meeting up at 5:00pm in the Jury Hotel bar just down the street from the o2 Arena. Jackie and Dave had arrived a couple of days earlier, Kevin and Philippe had arrived yesterday and our friend James from Newark had flown in earlier today but been delayed due to Obama's flight.

We freshened up at the hotel and then took a tax down to the venue, what we didn't realise was Obama was doing a speech right in the centre of Dublin and after 35 minutes (what should have been a 10 minute ride) in our taxi the driver turned the meter off and said he was packing in for the night after our drop off!

Jackie had texted earlier to say they were all leaving the bar and would meet us at the venue. After getting out of the taxi and walking towards the venue i realised something was missing out of my pocket, my camera!! Id left it in the backseat of the cab!! ARGHH!! today was NOT a good day. I called the hotel who in turn called the cab company and i heard back from the hotel 15 minutes later to say the taxi driver had found the camera and would drop it into the hotel later that night. Whew!

We met up with everyone outside the venue, Kevin was on the hunt for tickets for Jackie and Dave, Dave K had text Jackie to say tickets were like rocking horse shit his end due to their being a lot of guests at tonight's show. Kevin came back a while later with two nice piece of rocking horse shit and Jackie and Dave were all set for the show!

Paris, show two

More blog entries over the coming weeks, will catch up

Before the show

After the show

Kami, Michel & Benoit

Paris, show two pictures album:

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Paris, sightseeing day one pictures album:

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Paris, sightseeing day two pictures album:

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Paris, day three sightseeing album:

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Paris, sightseeing day four pictures album:

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