Bonnie Raitt is less well-known in the UK but is a megastar in her native USA, and her concert at the Hammersmith Odeon (or the Eventim Apollo in new money) on 1st June was fabulous. Aside from her soulful and strong voice and her expressive slide guitar playing at the front of her great band, she built a strong rapport with the audience and an electric atmosphere. It was a great night.
I saw Bonnie with my oldest friend; we met 50 years ago, when we were 11 and became close friends in our teenage years. She came down to London from her home in the north west and we spent a couple of days catching up on all our news and treating ourselves. I had booked a hostel 5 minutes away from the Eventim Apollo which was only £30 each for a twin room, so I was a bit worried that it might be a bit on the rough side. However, we needn't have worried as it turned out to be spotlessly clean, warm, comfortable and with good en suite and self-catering facilities. The Abercorn House Hostel was excellent value for money, and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to have to leave a concert at Hammersmith before the end to catch their train.
Bruce Springsteen and E-Street Band's River tour at Wembley Stadium on 5 June, a Sunday, promised to be my concert of the year. I've been lucky enough to see them in concert 8 or 9 times, and they are the best live act I've seen, bar none. They give their all at every show, performing at full pelt for 3 and a half to 4 hours, working round a setlist, but taking requests via written signs from the crowd, often for more obscure numbers they haven't played for years. At this show they performed a track from the Magic album called "I'll work for your love'" which I really like, and which I've never heard them do live. In fact, Bruce made a comment that he hadn't been asked for that one before and he had to run through it quickly beforehand and had one false start before he got it right and led the band through it. We were seated in tier 5, high up in the stand, and the view, although far away, was pretty good. Sadly, the sound was not clear for us, and we experienced a lot of distortion and missed a lot of the banter and intros to the songs. This did affect our enjoyment somewhat, but even with that, it was great to see the band again and my good friend of many years and lots of concerts and my youngest sister and I had a great day out. We did manage to get back to the station in time to catch the last train at 11.25, which turned out to be delayed for 2 hours! So I got home at about 2.45am, while the other two were significantly later. Luckily for my friend and I, we are both retired so didn't have to get up for work, however, sadly for my sister, she did have work and managed to be at her desk on time on Monday morning.
The final concert was Neil Young at the O2 on 11th June. I went with my husband this time, as Neil is one performer we do agree on (not the case with Bruce and the E-Street Band!). The O2 isn't my favourite venue, but the sound quality was very good and the view from our seat was excellent. On the other hand there was hardly any leg room and it was red hot, but for Neil, we were happy to put up with that. It opened magically with a partially lit stage with some people in odd clothes miming the parts of eco goodies and baddies. Then we heard from a piano the intro to "After the gold rush," one of my favourite Neil Young slow numbers, before the stage lit up to reveal him in an oversized cowboy hat, standing at the piano. He performed another 3 quieter numbers before calling on his band, and from then on it was loud, stirring rock and roll all the way! And no rail delays after this one.
I usually try to space out treats like this but when musicians of this calibre visit the UK, given that they are all in their 60's (Neil Young, unbelievably, is 70) you just have to take your chance and see them while they are still performing and crossing the pond. Fortunately, most rock stars seem in less of a hurry to retire than I was!
I saw Bonnie with my oldest friend; we met 50 years ago, when we were 11 and became close friends in our teenage years. She came down to London from her home in the north west and we spent a couple of days catching up on all our news and treating ourselves. I had booked a hostel 5 minutes away from the Eventim Apollo which was only £30 each for a twin room, so I was a bit worried that it might be a bit on the rough side. However, we needn't have worried as it turned out to be spotlessly clean, warm, comfortable and with good en suite and self-catering facilities. The Abercorn House Hostel was excellent value for money, and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to have to leave a concert at Hammersmith before the end to catch their train.
Bruce Springsteen and E-Street Band's River tour at Wembley Stadium on 5 June, a Sunday, promised to be my concert of the year. I've been lucky enough to see them in concert 8 or 9 times, and they are the best live act I've seen, bar none. They give their all at every show, performing at full pelt for 3 and a half to 4 hours, working round a setlist, but taking requests via written signs from the crowd, often for more obscure numbers they haven't played for years. At this show they performed a track from the Magic album called "I'll work for your love'" which I really like, and which I've never heard them do live. In fact, Bruce made a comment that he hadn't been asked for that one before and he had to run through it quickly beforehand and had one false start before he got it right and led the band through it. We were seated in tier 5, high up in the stand, and the view, although far away, was pretty good. Sadly, the sound was not clear for us, and we experienced a lot of distortion and missed a lot of the banter and intros to the songs. This did affect our enjoyment somewhat, but even with that, it was great to see the band again and my good friend of many years and lots of concerts and my youngest sister and I had a great day out. We did manage to get back to the station in time to catch the last train at 11.25, which turned out to be delayed for 2 hours! So I got home at about 2.45am, while the other two were significantly later. Luckily for my friend and I, we are both retired so didn't have to get up for work, however, sadly for my sister, she did have work and managed to be at her desk on time on Monday morning.
The final concert was Neil Young at the O2 on 11th June. I went with my husband this time, as Neil is one performer we do agree on (not the case with Bruce and the E-Street Band!). The O2 isn't my favourite venue, but the sound quality was very good and the view from our seat was excellent. On the other hand there was hardly any leg room and it was red hot, but for Neil, we were happy to put up with that. It opened magically with a partially lit stage with some people in odd clothes miming the parts of eco goodies and baddies. Then we heard from a piano the intro to "After the gold rush," one of my favourite Neil Young slow numbers, before the stage lit up to reveal him in an oversized cowboy hat, standing at the piano. He performed another 3 quieter numbers before calling on his band, and from then on it was loud, stirring rock and roll all the way! And no rail delays after this one.
I usually try to space out treats like this but when musicians of this calibre visit the UK, given that they are all in their 60's (Neil Young, unbelievably, is 70) you just have to take your chance and see them while they are still performing and crossing the pond. Fortunately, most rock stars seem in less of a hurry to retire than I was!
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