Last train home
Today was just about the best weekend of my entire life.
So on Sunday afternoon i packed a few things and set off for 24hrs at home. I had intended to cycle to the station, and then realised when i meant to leave that i had no idea at all where my bike key was... so i rushed to the bus stop, got there just after 3.05. My train was at 3.32. By 3.15 things were not looking good so i rushed round the corner to get a cab. I asked the woman how much it would cost and she said £6.40 but i only had £6.39. She said she'd take me for £6. We had a nice chat about when she used to live in somewhere rather like paradise that i have forgotten. Where they speak Spanish. An island that is two words where the second one begins with L? hmm. I got my train and all was well.
It turned out my sister had gone wall climbing with Dad that afternoon. Actually i already knew that, and the plan was to meet at Mile End and go straight to the gig. What i didn't know was Anna had forgotten the tickets. O yeah i should have mentioned i was taking Anna to see Lostprophets in concert, it was her Christmas present. I had bought the tickets last November... So that meant i had to go home to get them and Anna would go home too. And rather than getting home just after 5pm as promised she got home at 6.30. So that was a mad rush and we got a train from Wood St station and as it was coming just as we arrived we decided to get a ticket at the other end, as the next train was in 30min. So when i got to Liverpool st and presented myself to buy travel cards i got fined £20 for not buying a ticket before i began my journey. But i should be grateful as they should have fined me £20 each... I could have lied and said the ticket machine was broken, but, not that i'm perfect, far far from it, but i just can't lie. I realise also i could have used my oyster card even though your not meant to use it on overground lines (it's so confusing) but the guy said i couldn't from the station we had travelled from and who even knows. And what is most annoying is this morning on my way back to Cambridge i discovered the ticket machine *was* actually broken at Wood Street!
Anyhow, so we got to the venue - Wembley Arena, at 8pm. The gig had started at 7.30 and we had missed Aiden. Score! i didn't want to see them anyway. Then , next on was Taking Back Sunday. I was just so insanely happy, and up to this point i was more excited about seeing TBS than about Lostprophets. Ahhh. They were soo great. Adam Lazzara had such stage presentce, he joked around with the crowd and did all the crazy stunts with the mike that he is famous for. And me and Annna, being the front line soldiers that we are, were reight near the front. But without the lame excuses or being annoying, we just wove in and out the uninterested crowd who were less moved than us by the awesomeness that is Taking Back Sunday. I was only sorry they didn't play a longer set, i'd love to see them headlining somewhere. And congratulations Adam on your recent engagement. And no, i'm not even the tiniest bit jealous of Chauntelle.
During the interval a lot of people went off to the bar etc, so me and Anna got even nearer the front. I was a little thirsty, but we didn't want to lose our place in the pit.
And then.... LOSTPROPHETS! If you thought i was excited about TBS, i got even even even more excited when Lostprohets came on! Thier first song was performed behind a thin sheet, with a wonderous light show that projected their silhouettets very largely on the sheet. I forget what the first song was, i was too excited to take it in
Rachel: AHHHHHHHHH!
Random guy: Ah my ears
Rachel: Sorry
Rachel (t0 Anna): Ahhh i'm so excited
Random guy: I can tell
They then played "Burn , Burn" and the crowd went mental and several circle pits spontaneously appeared. The whole gig was amazing. They had a brilliant light show, and the backdrop changed four times during the show. Me and Anna got so close i was practically floating with joy. One thing i liked too was the fact that although Lostprophets have a lot of fast and moshable songs, they have a few slower songs where people weren't moshing where you could catch your breath a little, and put back on that shoe you nearly lost. Magical moments were Last Train Home and Fake Sound of Progress. But definitey the best by a hundred million miles was the final song - Shinobi vs. Dragon Nionja, the greatest song that exists. The crowd went so insane. Some other cool things - a huge mexican wave the band got the crowd to do, which looked pretty impresive in a venue that big, and i enjoyed the general chat from the band. I remenber when i went to see Finch (another great gig, but not so great even though i think i like them better) they didn't talk to the audience all night, they just played for over an hour, then left. Seeing Lostprophets was so much the better live experience.
And the thing i liked most, after the last song (which is about two old arcade video games) it went dark and the words flashed as big as the whole back of the stage "GAME OVER".
I have to say though, Wembley Arena is the worst venue i have ever been to in my entire life. They are a huge huge huge place, yet there are no cloakrooms, so i had to keep my bag with me (which Anna had filled with stuff) the whole time, which was annoying when you're trying to mosh. And secondly NO WATER. It's ridicuouls. I was so insanely thirsty by the end. It was just so unsafe. Every other venue i have been to they have people at the front handing back cups of water during the gig to those in the pit. It makes SOOO much difference. It was so bad that during the breaks between songs in the second half the pit just chanted "WATER! WATER! WATER!", and Wembley had none for us. You could tell the band felt sorry for us because the lead singer, Ian Watkins, started throwing us as many bottles of the band's own water as they could spare, which i thought was a really decent thing to have done, considering providing us with water is the venue's responsibility, but was hopelyessly inadequate to quence even 20 peoples' thirst. And even after the gig, there was no water anywhere. There was ONE water cooler, which was drained in minutes. Me and Anna grabbed cups and got water out the toilet sinks in the end, whichis pretty manky, but we were dying and there were no shops anywhere near. It was non-drinking water and it was warm. When buying a t-shirt outside i gave my full cup of water to a girl in line behind me. when i offered it to her she looked like she was about to cry with joy.
so i think that is pretty shabby of Wembley, who are such a huge venue, to provide such an awful, and dangerous service. So many people could have fainted from dehydration. It was unbelieveably hot and sweaty.
Now, home. where is the station? Drama with tube maps and losing Anna's bracelet down the drain (which i eventually wrenched open and she got it out, thankfully) meant our train was due to leave in 7 minutes and we had no idea what direction to go.
After getting lost, a kindly man and girl took us to a station. The wrong one, but it was so late by now any one would do. We got the last train from Wembley central, the last circle line train to Liverpool St, and had less than a minute to sprint across the station to get the 00.30 last train home.
So on Sunday afternoon i packed a few things and set off for 24hrs at home. I had intended to cycle to the station, and then realised when i meant to leave that i had no idea at all where my bike key was... so i rushed to the bus stop, got there just after 3.05. My train was at 3.32. By 3.15 things were not looking good so i rushed round the corner to get a cab. I asked the woman how much it would cost and she said £6.40 but i only had £6.39. She said she'd take me for £6. We had a nice chat about when she used to live in somewhere rather like paradise that i have forgotten. Where they speak Spanish. An island that is two words where the second one begins with L? hmm. I got my train and all was well.
It turned out my sister had gone wall climbing with Dad that afternoon. Actually i already knew that, and the plan was to meet at Mile End and go straight to the gig. What i didn't know was Anna had forgotten the tickets. O yeah i should have mentioned i was taking Anna to see Lostprophets in concert, it was her Christmas present. I had bought the tickets last November... So that meant i had to go home to get them and Anna would go home too. And rather than getting home just after 5pm as promised she got home at 6.30. So that was a mad rush and we got a train from Wood St station and as it was coming just as we arrived we decided to get a ticket at the other end, as the next train was in 30min. So when i got to Liverpool st and presented myself to buy travel cards i got fined £20 for not buying a ticket before i began my journey. But i should be grateful as they should have fined me £20 each... I could have lied and said the ticket machine was broken, but, not that i'm perfect, far far from it, but i just can't lie. I realise also i could have used my oyster card even though your not meant to use it on overground lines (it's so confusing) but the guy said i couldn't from the station we had travelled from and who even knows. And what is most annoying is this morning on my way back to Cambridge i discovered the ticket machine *was* actually broken at Wood Street!
Anyhow, so we got to the venue - Wembley Arena, at 8pm. The gig had started at 7.30 and we had missed Aiden. Score! i didn't want to see them anyway. Then , next on was Taking Back Sunday. I was just so insanely happy, and up to this point i was more excited about seeing TBS than about Lostprophets. Ahhh. They were soo great. Adam Lazzara had such stage presentce, he joked around with the crowd and did all the crazy stunts with the mike that he is famous for. And me and Annna, being the front line soldiers that we are, were reight near the front. But without the lame excuses or being annoying, we just wove in and out the uninterested crowd who were less moved than us by the awesomeness that is Taking Back Sunday. I was only sorry they didn't play a longer set, i'd love to see them headlining somewhere. And congratulations Adam on your recent engagement. And no, i'm not even the tiniest bit jealous of Chauntelle.
During the interval a lot of people went off to the bar etc, so me and Anna got even nearer the front. I was a little thirsty, but we didn't want to lose our place in the pit.
And then.... LOSTPROPHETS! If you thought i was excited about TBS, i got even even even more excited when Lostprohets came on! Thier first song was performed behind a thin sheet, with a wonderous light show that projected their silhouettets very largely on the sheet. I forget what the first song was, i was too excited to take it in
Rachel: AHHHHHHHHH!
Random guy: Ah my ears
Rachel: Sorry
Rachel (t0 Anna): Ahhh i'm so excited
Random guy: I can tell
They then played "Burn , Burn" and the crowd went mental and several circle pits spontaneously appeared. The whole gig was amazing. They had a brilliant light show, and the backdrop changed four times during the show. Me and Anna got so close i was practically floating with joy. One thing i liked too was the fact that although Lostprophets have a lot of fast and moshable songs, they have a few slower songs where people weren't moshing where you could catch your breath a little, and put back on that shoe you nearly lost. Magical moments were Last Train Home and Fake Sound of Progress. But definitey the best by a hundred million miles was the final song - Shinobi vs. Dragon Nionja, the greatest song that exists. The crowd went so insane. Some other cool things - a huge mexican wave the band got the crowd to do, which looked pretty impresive in a venue that big, and i enjoyed the general chat from the band. I remenber when i went to see Finch (another great gig, but not so great even though i think i like them better) they didn't talk to the audience all night, they just played for over an hour, then left. Seeing Lostprophets was so much the better live experience.
And the thing i liked most, after the last song (which is about two old arcade video games) it went dark and the words flashed as big as the whole back of the stage "GAME OVER".
I have to say though, Wembley Arena is the worst venue i have ever been to in my entire life. They are a huge huge huge place, yet there are no cloakrooms, so i had to keep my bag with me (which Anna had filled with stuff) the whole time, which was annoying when you're trying to mosh. And secondly NO WATER. It's ridicuouls. I was so insanely thirsty by the end. It was just so unsafe. Every other venue i have been to they have people at the front handing back cups of water during the gig to those in the pit. It makes SOOO much difference. It was so bad that during the breaks between songs in the second half the pit just chanted "WATER! WATER! WATER!", and Wembley had none for us. You could tell the band felt sorry for us because the lead singer, Ian Watkins, started throwing us as many bottles of the band's own water as they could spare, which i thought was a really decent thing to have done, considering providing us with water is the venue's responsibility, but was hopelyessly inadequate to quence even 20 peoples' thirst. And even after the gig, there was no water anywhere. There was ONE water cooler, which was drained in minutes. Me and Anna grabbed cups and got water out the toilet sinks in the end, whichis pretty manky, but we were dying and there were no shops anywhere near. It was non-drinking water and it was warm. When buying a t-shirt outside i gave my full cup of water to a girl in line behind me. when i offered it to her she looked like she was about to cry with joy.
so i think that is pretty shabby of Wembley, who are such a huge venue, to provide such an awful, and dangerous service. So many people could have fainted from dehydration. It was unbelieveably hot and sweaty.
Now, home. where is the station? Drama with tube maps and losing Anna's bracelet down the drain (which i eventually wrenched open and she got it out, thankfully) meant our train was due to leave in 7 minutes and we had no idea what direction to go.
After getting lost, a kindly man and girl took us to a station. The wrong one, but it was so late by now any one would do. We got the last train from Wembley central, the last circle line train to Liverpool St, and had less than a minute to sprint across the station to get the 00.30 last train home.
posted by rakie_love at
12:37 AM
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4 comments
