Milan 2nd show…….

So we all got to the venue around 7:30, picked up any tickets that people were waiting for and made our way in to the venue. From the moment we hit the floor you could tell it was a totally different atmosphere to  the night before.

Kami and i went to have a chat with Dave k before the start of the show, his amps are made by an italian company, Brunetti and he had representatives from the company as guests there tonight to see the show and although he didnt say it i could tell he was a little nervous. We joked about turning them up  a couple of notches just so they could hear them and to make sure he got the sound right on the intro to Run Like hell. We headed back to the floor and met up with Kevin, Joe, Kim, George,Nigel, Jens and a few others. we were all stood on the left side of the stage about 4 or 5 rows from the front. Mark and Beth were in seats tonight just up to the left of us and were clearly visible in their bright yellow WTF Jimmy Buffet shirts!

Waiting for the show                      Mark and Beth

       

The crowd were already starting to get excited and there was still half an hour to go till ShowTime. Beth and mark were able to take some great pictures and videos of the show from where they were sat but also of us all on the floor as we were waiting for the gig to start.

Kami and i waiting for the show                  George and Kevin waiting for the show

 

The crowd went wild as the opening notes to in The Flesh were heard, humming along to the melody so loud it sounded like swarming bees in the hall! I looked at Kim and Joe who were stood right next to us and you could tell they were astonished at the atmosphere. Unfortunately it soon became apparent that we had a crazed fan next to us who thought nothing of shouting and screaming  “Roger we cant hear you” when he wasn't even singing! he then started jumping up and down right next to us without a care in the world of who he was affecting and at one point his elbow catching Kami right in the side of the face, one person you don't mess with is Kami and she turned to him and landed him a punch right in the gut! he was slightly taken aback by this and although he carried on doing what he had been it wasn't long before he burned out and disappeared off to the sides as all the energy from his body disappeared and he was unable to keep it up, he probably went for another beer! but wherever he went he never came back and wasn't missed.

The crowd started to sing during Another Bring like only the Italians can, perfectly in tune and perfectly in synch to Roger. You could see by the facial expressions from the band that they were loving it tonight, Dave kept looking at snowy as if to say “is this really the same audience?” Snowy smiled and nodded and just lowered his head and carried on playing. The fans watched Rogers every move onstage,wherever he walked there was a sea of hands and cheers, stage left, stage right, the middle he couldn't go anywhere and escape the fists and shouts directed towards him. I kept looking up at Mark and Beth and their whole section was stood up at times cheering and chanting, i knew they would both be enjoying the show a lot more than the previous night and was happy that the Italians fans had proved me right in telling the girls and Mark that there really is no audience in the world like the Italians.

At intermission Kim and Joe went to get a drink, Kevin and everyone else stayed put but Kami and i saw our chance to get closer to the stage and slowly started edging our way further to the front and to the middle. its a lot different in Europe at a standing audience show, if you want to move forward you do just that, no one stops you and everyone moves to the side to let you through and gives you space wherever you decide to stand. We got talking to a group of 4 Italian fans in front of us who started asking where we were from how many shows we had seen etc etc

Intermission was over in what seemed like a couple of minutes and again the crowd stated singing as soon as Roger started with the “Hey you” lyrics. The good thing about the standing shows and the fact the venues in Europe appear to be a bit wider than the USA is that the hotel room scene whilst to the left of the stage is over the floor area instead of over the first band of seats on the left. This means your sooo much closer to Roger during this part of the show. As the hotel room lit up it was as though every camera on the floor was pointed towards Roger and snapping pictures due to him being so close to the audience. I've never heard a crowd sing the words to Vera like they did tonight, it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end and i just kept thinking what it was going to be like when Roger takes his fist and “opens” the wall to the first note of Comfy Numb. Seconds later i found out, it was amazing, the crowd went absolutely wild and started singing the opening lines along with Roger.

Dave did not disappoint the crowd with both solos and I'm pretty sure the buys from Brunetti must have been impressed by not only Dave's playing but how his guitar sounded, how could they not be ? The guitar squeals, the bends, the hair flicks, it was all there tonight and even Roger looked a bit taken aback onstage as to just how good it sounded. its always better when the band play in the same venue 2, 3 or even 4 nights in a row as trip the front of house sound guy can tweak the sound that bit better when the venue is full of people, its always a lot harder to get the sound right at a sound check when the venue is empty! but when your able to get it right night after night when its full of people the 3rd and 4th shows always sound incredible and tonight was no exception.

Run like hell had all the audience clapping in unison, Roger not even trying or needing to tell everyone to clap louder or enjoy ourselves, i don't think it was possible to do it anymore that they were doing! The pig made its 2nd appearance in as many shows and to be honest its very rare that i even look at it now, its so much better watching Roger getting into his act onstage. he pulled his imaginary gun from under his coat once again to shoot at the audience member that he had picked out tonight and then took his machine gun to shoot at everyone else commenting that that there would be “ no exceptions” to who he would shoot!

The “animated” part of the show went so quickly tonight and before i knew it i was screaming at the top of my voice “ tear down the fucking wall” little did i know this would turn out to be literally what the crowd would do!!

The wall started wavering on the top left side before Roger stepped offstage, it sounded like every voice in the venue was shouting “tear down the wall, tear down the wall” the first two rows of the wall fell forward onto the stage, the next few rows teetered backwards and forwards looking like they had a mind of their own but couldn't decide which way to fall,  “forward” i kept willing to myself and just as i did the whole next 10 rows started to fall forward into the crowd. it was incredible, i don't think I've seen any other “wall fall” where ALL the bricks fell forward onto the stage and crowd. I’d guess maybe 6 or 7 bricks landed in the first few rows of the standing crowd and as security leapt up to try and recover a few of said bricks ( which incidentally cost $100 each) the crowd could see what was happening and the remaining 2 or 3 bricks started to get passed further away from the front as the audience “crowd surfed” the bricks well out of reach of security. it was then that i could see little bits getting torn off the corners, then the sides and everyone wanted a piece of the brick.This all happened in the space of a couple of minutes and as Roger walked back onstage he could obviously see the couple of bricks getting ripped to bits and pointed and laughed out loud. I looked back over to one of the bricks and in the space of seconds it was destroyed, everyone that managed to get a piece started  waving it in the air towards Roger and the band, it was incredible and a sight like I've never seen before. Dave, Snowy and everyone else were just in fits of laughter as they saw what was happening.

G E Started the opening notes to Outside The Wall and the band continued as the crowd cheered and waved their bits of white cardboard. As roger said his little speech to the crowd they started the Ole, Ole Ole, chanting, just as they started to stop Roger looked at Robbie, said a few words and Robbie took his microphone and said Ole, Ole, Ole, this not only had the crowd shouting and screaming but also started the loudest ole, ole Ole chanting I've ever heard, so much to the delight of the band that they all started to jam and play their instruments along to the chanting!! this went on for at least a couple of minutes before the band finishing their unrehearsed and unexpected extra track and Roger continued to introduce the band, Dave k’s reception was great and again made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, i can only imagine what Dave must feel like onstage when he hears this, it must be an incredible feeling.

And then it was over, the band left the stage, the crowd made their way to the entrances and every odd person we saw walking on the floor there was one with  a piece of white cardboard in their hands. A nice Italian guy tore a large piece off his what must have been 18” square piece, i tore this in half and handed half to Kami and kami “stole” my half and gave it to Kim, i was more than happy to let it go to a good home though.

We all met up outside after the show and headed out towards the Metro to get the train back to the hotel. Mark had picked up a couple of hats from the bootleg market for the girls which looked about as official as you could get!

Kami in her new hat                                Just another, another piece of the wall

  

Milan sightseeing day 3…

We were all up and awake for 10am and decided to do the Milan “hop on, hop off” sightseeing bus and leave the hotel at 11:45 to catch it just down the street. Jens, Rainer, Judith, Philippe and a few others were going to see the Duomo today so we all said we’d meet up at a restaurant around the corner at 5pm for dinner before heading out to the show together.

  

Joe and Zach                                     Waiting for the open top bus

     

We took the Blue line tour first that took us all through the streets of Milan, we each got a pair of headphone as we got on the bus and could select from different languages on the tour as the narrative took us through the sites as we went along. Jeff would have been proud of me as when the narrative stopped i changed Kami's audio from English to French without her realising and it took her a minute or two to realise! She got me back good though by doing it several times and me trying to understand what some German chick was saying about some building in front of me.

Joe and Kim on the bus                      myself and Kami                                Mark getting a little hot

   

Kim and Joe left the bus to try see The last Supper after they missed the trip yesterday and Mark, Beth, Kami and i got off the bus at the Castello (castle) to have a look round.

  

There was an exhibition of some of Leonardo de Vinci's work on so we paid the 6 euros and went to have a look round that. Again just as yesterday it was amazing to be able to get so close to one of his paintings and almost touch it!

Beth, Mark and Kami viewing the painting      Signed by the man himself in 1515!!!             The painting

        

Newly renovated area of the Castello:

   

Kim sent me a message to say they couldn't get to see the Last Supper painting and would get back on the bus at the next stop, the one after ours.

The fountain outside the Castello                Back on the tour bus

 

We had picked the red line tour bus up now and this took us on a different route around the city, ending up about 1/2 mile from hotel where we would be back for about 4pm in time to meet up with everyone at the restaurant at 5pm. you can tell mark’s a military man and i love that I'm not the only one that loves to plan things on time and down to the exact detail!

We got back to the hotel as expected, chilled out, freshened up and then headed out to the restaurant around the corner. unfortunately the one we had planned to go to was closed till 7pm and we had a show to go to then!  We all met up a little down the street at another restaurant and a few more faces arrived whom had flown in today for the second show only. Mark Poole and his wife and Matt and his brother.everyone else form the night before was there and although it wasn't the best restaurant and service in Milan we had a good meet up before walking up to the central station to get the Metro to the venue.

Pre show meet up

     

Few pictures of the guys during the day

George, Philippe, Kevin and Matt        Philippe and Rainer                          Philippe, Nigel, Rainer and Jens

    

It was certainly a lot easier (and cheaper) to get to the venue tonight, the green metro line takes you straight from the central station to the venue, takes all of 25 minutes at the most and costs 3 Euros! the show tonight was standing and i knew it would be a lot better atmosphere than last night and was looking forward to it a lot more.

Sightseeing bus tour in Milan VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Milan day 2 sightseeing………

 

So after a pretty late night i was awake around 7am, i still had an old itinerary that mark had done for us all and  today we were going to see The Last Supper painting, unfortunately (for me) on the old itinerary it said we were leaving the hotel at 8:15am so i was up showered and at breakfast at 7:30am kami woke and looked at the “new” itinerary and told me to go back to bed as we weren't leaving till 1:30pm!!

We all went our separate ways for a few hours before meeting up at the hotel again at 1:30 to leave for The Last Supper. Kami and i decided to walk into the Duomo area and took a leisurely walk which took us about an hour to get there. Just as we got to the Duomo and were about to sit down at one of the cafe bars i heard the shout of “Simon” i looked to my left and Anders whom we had met in Toronto and Chicago was sitting down having a drink with his friend Johan. We joined them for half an hour chatting about things Roger and catching up on the last 4 months. Johan had purchased one of Victoria's (Robbie Wyckoffs wife) pictures and was excited to get to meet Robbie tonight and asked me various questions about taking pictures and getting autographs backstage.

Victoria has some amazing painting that she does, they are definitely worth checking out on Facebook and online:

http://www.facebook.com/Victoria.Morales.Wyckoff

http://www.vmwdesigns.com/

Mark and Beth called to see where kami and i were, they were just walking to La Scalla to see the opera house, we had walked past earlier, we told them where we were and they came to join us for a drink for half and hour.As they had done a fair bit of walking today they decided to get a taxi back to the hotel, kami and i started to walk back.

 

Half way back i again heard the shout of “Simon” from across the street, “i turned to look” and it was Pat Lennon, one of the backing singers. We crossed over and had a chat for ten minutes before Kip Lennon bumped into the three of us chatting as he was walking back from the  Duomo area. i know i keep saying it but they have to be some of the nicest guys on the planet, always take time to talk and have become good friends over the last few months.

We left the guys to do their own thing and got back to the hotel around 1pm with just enough time to freshen up, have a quick drink and then meet in the lobby to go see The Last Supper. mark had pre booked the tickets about 4 months ago, its one of the most popular sights in Milan and does sell out very quick. Due to the fact that the painting is actually painted onto the wall and not a canvas, the only way you can see it is by coming to Milan! We had a 3pm viewing and had to meet our guide under the large “needle and thread” sculpture at 2:30pm. Again due to me not having my laptop most of the pictures i took are on Kami’s camera and I'll update this entry with pictures when i return home or get the pictures from Kami.

To be actually stood  a mere 5 or 6 feet away from the actual painting was amazing, to think it had been there all those years and had survived and was still in such a good state was fantastic.

you can read more details here about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_(Leonardo_da_Vinci)

Its all very controlled when you go to see it, there's no more than 25 people let in the room at a time, you have to go through  a couple of “air lock” doors that stop any outside pollutants getting in and of course your not allowed to take any pictures or video of the actual painting. Mark, Kami and i had some heated discussions afterwards about who exactly is holding the knife behind their back (read about it on the above link) however Kami was again right and i admitted defeat. After seeing the painting your led through the Disney style gift shop which even includes a last Supper colouring book where you can colour in our own version! Due to a couple of communication problems Joe and Kim missed the trip and i know it was the one thing that Kim really wanted to see, i felt real bad for her when we got back to the hotel and even though they tried to get to see it the next day it was sold out but hey Kim its an excuse to have to come back to see it and visit Milan again!

Milan 1st show.

We heard the day before about a metro and public transport strike in Milan from 9 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. which would continue from 6 P.M. to midnight the day of the first show. This wouldn't be a problem if the venue were in the city centre like in Madrid or Barcelona, but it wasn't--it was a good 30-minute drive outside the city!

I had arranged for a pre-show meet up at a bar local to the hotel at around 5 P.M. We walked down to the bar around 5:30 and met up with Jens, Rainer, Judith, Nigel and several others who only just arrived earlier in the day. In the end about 18 of us all met up. John from Uncut magazine even made it there--he obviously saw the details on my blog and decided to come out and join us! Renate from Switzerland, Rocco from Milan, and Frank and Troy from Phoenix, AZ arrived  a little later on.

Most people who know me know that for me this is the best part of seeing the shows and traveling around. I love chatting with everyone and enjoying a drink together. Sometimes it's the only chance we get to see each other--even though a lot of us still try to meet up away from Rogers shows.

Unfortunately, I used Kami's camera to take pictures at the meet up, and I could not upload them to my crashed computer, so I don't have any pictures of the meet up. I'll update the entry when I'm home and sorted out with a few pictures of us all.

After hanging out for a couple of hours and  grabbing a bite to eat at a cafe bar around the corner, 12 of us met at our hotel at 7 P.M. I had booked three taxis earlier to take us to the venue. It was about a 45 minute and 50 Euro taxi ride due to the strike and the amount of traffic on the roads in Milan. A few of us had to pick tickets up at the box office, and a few of us had to try to find tickets outside the venue. Kevin did his magic and managed to secure a couple of tickets for those needing them, although it wasn't easy--tickets were scarce, and demand was certainly out weighing supply!

I had purchased front row tickets for Mark, Beth, Kim, and Kami through the pre-sale late last year--Joe had managed to pick up a ticket in the front row that my friend Thomas had for sale,and ended up sitting next to the girls. My friend Brett, his wife, and I sat 10th row, same as Kevin and Jens. Troy and Frank were 8th row centre, and the others were spread around the venue in various areas. I finally got to meet up with Alberto who runs the Italian "Hey You" magazine and who interviewed me for his magazine last month. There were a couple of other people who picked me out and came over to say hello--Mr. Pinky and Nino--it was great to finally meet you!

Myself and Alberto pre-show

     

What was unusual about the first night in Milan was floor was all seating, but the second night was all standing! I've always only seen standing shows in Milan, and the atmosphere has always been fantastic. It was totally different with everyone seated. Security told people to sit down if they started to stand--until masses of people stood up during Run Like Hell, then they didn't really have any control.

The crowd was VERY reserved for an Italian audience, and, to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I told Kim, Kami, and Joe that the show would be fantastic and that the atmosphere was electric! The show WAS fantastic, but the atmosphere lacking. (I spoke to Dave K. the night after. He said the band thought it was a little flat, and they never enjoy the shows where the audience are seated.)

The sound at the show was fantastic--there were very few mistakes that I noticed. It was great to sit next to Brett and his wife who had flown all the way over from Florida just to see the one show. It's a shame you guys didn't get to see the show the next night when it was a standing audience.

Beth's view from the front row

   

  

As the band walked offstage after playing Outside The Wall, Dave K. spotted us all, laughed, and threw a guitar pick out towards us. Kim managed to catch it, then he took a few more from his pocket and walked over to us before throwing them towards Kami, Mark, and Beth. They all grabbed one each, much to the smiles and amusement of Dave.

Group shot after the show                                  Trust Dave!

      

After the show we all met up at the rear of the venue, had a couple of beers, and then headed out to try  for a taxi back to the hotel. The transport strike was still on, so it was a nightmare trying to get a cab. We tried  unsuccessfully for over an hour, and then we decided to walk to a nearby hotel and have them call one for us. Just as we set off walking, Thomas stopped a cab! Kami, Thomas, Zach, and I clambered in quickly  and headed back to the hotel. It only cost us 28 Euros due to the lack of traffic at 1 A.M, too!

Arrived back at the hotel around 1:45 A.M. Kami and  I wandered around for 20 minutes trying to find somewhere to eat,  but everywhere was closed, so we gave up and ended up having a few Cheez-its . Thanks to Brett who had brought some over for me from the US!

Milan 1st show VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL