Didn't do much sightseeing today, in fact i didn't do any at all! After the show last night i went straight to bed while Kevin and a few others went to the bar across from the hotel. I vaguely remember Kevin coming in the room around 2am but next thing i knew it was 9am. I managed to get back to seep for a couple of hours before getting up and heading out for breakfast in a local bar.
We headed out to the venue around 5pm, took the 20 minute train and then the 15 minute walk to the venue. Met a nice guy who’d travelled from Turkey from the show on the platform and we chatted and walked with him all the way to the venue.
Met up with Thomas, Dennis and his friend, Matt from Guildford and Berto and Elzira.
Berto and Elzira had started their tour 5 weeks ago in London, they had seen all the shows since (20 in total) and tonight was their last show. I could tell there was sadness in their eyes and Kevin told me later on that Elzira was even thinking of staying out for another 5 weeks and going home after Athens! However i don't think that happened and they will be on the plane home to Sau Paulo as I'm typing this, they are both such lovely people and i really hope i get chance to see some of the South American shows next March and take up their offer of a place to stay!
Amre from Turkey Elzira outside Hamburg venue
It was quiet outside the venue when we arrived so Kevin and i headed up to the bar in the football stadium next door for 20 minutes with Matt before coming back down and mingling with the crowd. Last night i had one or two people recognise me from the blog and come up and say hi, they were all asking where Kami was! Tonight was the same, i had a couple of people come up who had both been reading the blog since they found it on some Pink Floyd forum last year and a couple whom had found it recently while reading Rogers Facebook page.
Blog readers, Nicoli & Adrianna Michael & Christina A fans hammers walking stick!
Kevin (and my) friend Ralph arrived around 6:30pm, I hadn't seen Ralph since the Dark Side tour, Kevin, myself and Ralph had done a few shows around Germany and had a great time hanging out and drinking together. It was Ralphs 1st show tonight and i was excited to see what he thought of it especially as Ralph is a musician and a serious German one at that!
I headed in the venue around 7:15, i was 2nd row right in front of “The Big C” , Harry and the backing singers tonight, Elzira and Berto were front row in front of me and Matt was 2nd row sat next to me to the left and Pete and his wife from Switzerland were to my right.
I love the buzz before the shows, everyone milling around, taking pictures chatting to each other. I spotted Nicoli and Adrianna waving to me from their seats on the right side of the stage, they were very happy with the tickets Kevin sorted out for them. Also had a chat to Nicoli and Adrianna who i’d seen earlier outside, they had the best seats in the house tonight, front row dead centre. This was their 10th show and we would meet up again maybe in Athens.
The O2 pre show lounge Thomas, myself and Dennis post show
Show started around 8:10 tonight, i could tell from the start the crowd were going to be better than they were last night for some unknown reason! I've only been in this seat position for a couple of shows and this was early on in the tour in the USA. Its not my favourite seat to be honest, i much prefer Dave K’s side however it was cool to watch the backing singers and see just how much they do do apart from sing! I watched as they did some great vocal harmonies during The Thin Ice, normally I'm watching Roger on bass and take little notice of what anyone else is doing but tonight was a little different (in a good way)
The crowd cheered loudly for the first time as the Mercedes symbols tumbled down from the B52 bomber planes, and i also heard and saw Dave playing some nice little harmonics at the end of Goodbye Blue Sky, something which again I've either not noticed or haven't been there before!
I also had a great view of Robbie too through the open bricks half way through the 1st half and watched him beating the tambourine with such passion and enjoyment during Young Lust, you can tell the guy is loving every bit of this show and putting everything he has into each performance, this is definitely evident when you see video clips of Robbie playing and singing on YouTube and then see video clips of The Big C “on YouTube or example, the difference is like chalk and cheese!
There's a great part during where there are what sounds like gunshot noise, the lights flash on behind the stage and all 4 backing singers jump back in unison as though they are being shot, this happens 4 or 5 times and its great to see, especially from where i was sitting.
The much talked about spitting incident at each show!
At intermission we all headed back to the O2 lounge for a drink, they had a DJ on playing “pop” music and people dancing on the floor! very odd.
Elzrira drinking beer? It had to be her last show! Beto, Ralph, Georg, Kevin & Matt at intermission
I decided to go sit with Kevin, Ralph, George for the 2nd half, they were all 13th row centre on the floor and i like seeing and hearing it from dead centre, plus i wanted to see Ralphs face during the show as i said earlier i know how serious he is about the music, especially the drumming, being a drummer himself. I had a quick chat with him at intermission and honestly, it was me doing all the chatting as he really was lost for words, he was totally blown away by the show so far!
Hey, You, ITAOT, Nobody Home, Vera, BTBBH all came and went without a hitch. Roger then walked onstage for the 2nd In The Flesh, this really is one of my favourite moments of the show. Kevin and i looked over at Ralph a few times to see how long it took him to notice things, the hotel room coming out of the wall and the Pig during Run Like Hell especially, he didn't even notice the pig till it was right over his head, he was so fascinated and stunned by watching the band onstage he never took his off off them!
My view for the second half Spotlight guy on the Hummer
I meant to say in my review of last nights show, when the spotlight comes into the audience and Roger says “there's one in the spotlight , he don't look right to me” the light came straight onto Kevin! Tonight i was hoping id be in with a change but as we were a couple of rows behind where we were last night i missed it, or should i say it missed me There's a great little image (see 3rd picture above) which has taken me a while to capture where the last Hummer comes around and stops in the middle of the screen, you can see there's a soldier on the top of it with a spotlight and the next minute the screen goes dark and the “fake” spotlight comes out of the stage and shines into the audience.
I was hoping Dave K had relented and got back to his old self after the banter we had been having on facebook earlier in the day and him seeing just how good he looked at the opening of the track but alas he hadn't and his beret stayed on his head not being thrown off by hair flicks!
The wall took a while to come down tonight, first three rows, then the next few rows falling backwards and then 15 seconds or so before the rest of the bricks fell forward towards the audience, the latter ones having to be pushed pretty hard by the crew behind!
After the show we hung around outside chatting, talking and hearing (or not due to him being speechless) what Ralph had to say about the show.He was amazed and it still hadn't sunk in and he needed time to think about things before he could comment, am looking forward to seeing him again in Berlin to hear what he has to say.
Ralph, been there, bought the T shirt! Matt trying his hand at selling posters Hammers on the way home!
We met a couple of English guys on the way back who we spoke to before the show, hopefully we’ll get to see them again in Berlin. We all made our way back to Hamburg on the train, Elzira, Kevin, Matt, Beto and Ralph went to the bar, i went straight to bed and i heard Kevin coming in the room around 3am!
Another great show last night, looking forward to Herning, Denmark in 2 days time and seeing the extended wall again in the large football stadium which is the venue for my 86th Wall show!
All Hamburg show 2 pics below:
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