Happy Now
Bon Jovi

What would you say to me?
If I told you I had a dream
If I told you everything
Would you tell me to go back to sleep
Take a look in these tired eyes
They’re coming back to life
I know I can change
Got hope in my veins
I’m telling you I ain’t going back to the pain

Can I be happy now?
Can I let my breath out?
Let me believe
I’m building a dream
Don’t try to drag me down
I just want to scream out loud
Can I be happy now?
Been down on my knees
I learned how to bleed
I’m turnin’ my world around

Can I be happy now?
Can I break free somehow?
I just want to live again
Love again
Pick my pride up off of the ground
I’m ready to pick a fight
Crawl out of the dark to shine a light
I ain’t throwing stones
Got sins of my own
Ain’t everybody just trying to find a way home?

Can I be happy now?
Can I let my breath out?
Let me believe
I’m building a dream
Don’t try to drag me down
I just want to scream out loud
Can I be happy now?
Been down on my knees
I learned how to bleed
I’m turning my world around

You’re born then you die
It’s all gone in a minute
I ain’t looking back
Cause I don’t want to miss it
You better live now
Cause no one’s going to get out alive, alive

Can I be happy now?
Can I let my breath out?
Let me believe
I’m building a dream
Don’t try to drag me down
I just want to scream out loud
Can I be happy now?
Been down on my knees
I learned how to bleed
I’m turning my world around
Can I be happy now?
Ohhhh
I’m turning my world around
Can I be happy now?

That’s Entertainment
Paul Weller

A police car and a screaming siren -
A pneumatic drill and ripped up concrete -
A baby wailing and stray dog howling -
The screech of brakes and lamplights blinking –

That’s entertainment.

A smash of glass and the rumble of boots -
An electric train and a ripped up ‘phone booth -
Paint splattered walls and the cry of a tom cat -
Lights going out and a kick in the balls –

That’s entertainment.

Days of speed and slow time Mondays -
Pissing down with rain on a boring Wednesday -
Watching the news and not eating your tea -
A freezing cold flat and damp on the walls –

That’s entertainment.

Waking up at 6 a.m. on a cool warm morning -
Opening the windows and breathing in petrol -
An amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yard -
Watching the tele and thinking about your holidays –

That’s entertainment.

Waking up from bad dreams and smoking cigarettes -
Cuddling a warm girl and smelling stale perfume -
A hot summers’ day and sticky black tarmac -
Feeding ducks in the park and wishing you were faraway –

That’s entertainment.

Two lovers kissing amongst the scream of midnight -
Two lovers missing the tranquillity of solitude -
Getting a cab and travelling on buses -
Reading the graffiti about slashed seat affairs –

That’s entertainment.

Albums: Sound Affects

See Also: Paul Weller Official Website

Kylie - Image (c) Rex Features

First things first; we stayed at a little B&B not far (5 mins in a taxi) from the o2 called One Six Two – it was a great little place, well worth the money and in a fantastic location for the O2. So if you plan to visit the O2, I can highly recommend it, but more on that in another post.

After arriving at the B&B we went to the venue to grab something to eat. We ate at Las Iguanas, a South American style restaurant; it was very nice!

In the concert arena we had seats very similar to those for the Prince concert last year, just on the other side. I was quite relieved as I feared that we would be up in the gods. The o2 has very steep seating, and being near the top could be almost unbearable. As it was we were only 3 rows in on the top tier, which actually gives a very good view of the stage.

The show started at about 8pm. It was basically broke up into 8 acts with a stage theme to each, and a costume change between! Some of it was surreal, some of it was more than a tad camp… but all of it was pretty darned great! I enjoyed a few tracks that had much rockier tracks to them. I also enjoyed the video screens. They were actually worth watching because they would often show the whole stage from a higher angle and show what the all the dancers were doing in context.

Had a fab time – really enjoyed it – well worth it!

I think that this was pretty much the track list…

Act 1: Xlectro Static
* Speakerphone
* Boombox/Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (Greg Kurstin Remix)
* Ruffle My Feathers
* In Your Eyes

Act 2: Cheer Squad
* Heart Beat Rock
* Wow
* Shocked

Act 3: Beach Party
* Loveboat
* Copacabana
* Spinning Around

Act 4: Xposed
* Like a Drug
* Slow/Free
* 2 Hearts

Break

Act 5: Naughty Manga Girl
* Sometime Samurai (video projection)
* Come Into My World (Fischerspooner Mix)
* Nu-di-ty
* Sensitized

Act 6: Starry Nights
* Flower
* I Believe in You (ballad version)

Act 7: Black versus White
* On A Night Like This
* Your Disco Needs You
* Kids
* Step Back In Time
* In My Arms

Encore
* No More Rain
* The One (Freemasons Vocal Club Mix)
* Love At First Sight (Ruff & Jam US Radio Mix)
* I Should Be So Lucky

I really enjoyed it, as I would expect to, especially with the company I was keeping on the night. If I had any complaints it would be that it felt a little short compared to 2006 in Manchester and a very similar running order. A few songs dropped out and replaced by Lost Highway tracks.

Set List:


LH   - LOST HIGHWAY
NJ   - BORN TO BE MY BABY
SWW  - YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME
SWW  - RAISE YOUR HANDS
BJ   - RUNAWAY
KTF  - I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD w/ Mercy & Start Me Up
LH   - WHOLE LOT OF LEAVIN'
KTF  - IN THESE ARMS
C    - CAPTAIN CRASH & THE BEAUTY QUEEN FROM MARS
LH   - WE GOT IT GOIN' ON
C    - IT'S MY LIFE
KTF  - KEEP THE FAITH
NJ   - I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU - RICHIE VOX
YG   - BLAZE OF GLORY
HAND - WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T GO HOME
HAND - HAVE A NICE DAY
NJ   - BAD MEDICINE w/ Shout
SWW  - LIVIN' ON A PRAYER

ENCORE:
CR   - ALWAYS
LH   - ANY OTHER DAY
SWW  - WANTED (DEAD OR ALIVE)

Beyond You
Marillion

If you were a baby I would take you and run
I could hide you in the folds of my heart
There’s a truth in the madness that I can’t get beyond
And a fever that won’t leave me alone
I don’t want my heart
Don’t want my head
Don’t want my friends
Don’t want my bed
I can’t live with myself
I can’t live with myself
Can’t take no help
I try to want to
But I can’t get beyond you

I will stare from the window
At the shapes in the rain
As the space between us drives me insane

I can’t live with myself
I can’t live with myself
Can’t take no help
Don’t want no one else

If I was a child
I would refuse to leave
I would sit down on the street
Kick my legs and scream

I’m not much of a man
But I know how I am
I know this won’t fade away
I will pretend and be strong
But I wonder where I belong

And the feeling comes in waves
A hole in my body, aching
Like a heart dying
A soul crying
Exhausted and insecure
Took all you have and I still want more
So I reach out to hold you
But all I do is hurt you
Hurt you

I can’t live with myself
I can’t live with myself
Can’t take no help
I try to want to
But I can’t get beyond you

If I was a child I would take you and run
And I say I don’t know… But I know
And I say I’ll go

You just spent the whole day
Driving away

Don’t Stop The Music
Rihanna

Do you know what you started
I just came here to party
But now we’re rockin on the dancefloor
Acting naughty
Your hands around my waist
Just let the music play
We’re hand in hand
Chest to chest
And now we’re face to face

Due to numerous problems, I get to work at 9:10am. Ticket Master are not showing tickets available for the Saturday and Sunday shows. Two new shows have been added; Tuesday and Wednesday, but there are no good seats availalble. If you have been to The O2 you will know that the tiers are steep and being at the top of tier 4 might be a bit much! I don’t like the idea of crap seats mid week.

I look around online and find tickets for sale at 4 times face value for crap seats. I’m not lining the pockets of some other leaches just to get crap seats. I’d quite happily pay £200 a ticket direct to the artist and promoter – but not to wankers who have snaffled all the seats up and then trying to make a fast back. It’s almost enough to make you leave behind your capitalist roots and become solcialist.

Later on in the day I find out that there is another main promoter and I manage to buy 4 tickets for the Sunday night for pay face value. The tickets are at the back on level 4 – which may mean really at the back, you know, up there in the clouds, sitting with the gods, watching the ants dancing on the main floor. ( btw: I also found a phone number for ticket master! )

I’m a little annoyed and dissapointed… would I have got better tickets had I been at my desk at 9am or were they all sold out during the presale stage anyway? But, I got the tickets for the Sunday, so I only have to take one unpaid day off work rather than the two that a mid week would have required. And I wanted to see Kylie in concert and didn’t expect to get as good as view as when we went to see Prince…

Today I found out that yesterday, they added a Friday to the schedule. These went on sale yesterday afternoon and now only have crap seats left! Had I known that I would have waited… actually had I known that I would have bought 4 new tickets for the friday and sold my sunday tickets at face value! If another weekend night appears on the schedule, I am going to be real mad!

Why is the process of obtaining concert tickets such a pain in the arse? There has to be a better way!

Listen again…

Fish left in 1988.

In 1989 Marillion released their first album with new singer Steve Hogarth, Seasons End. It was an excellent follow up album to Clutching and a good start for the new band member. This was followed by Holidays In Eden which I wasn’t that keen on. However in 1994 they release Brave which was a masterpiece. From that point on I kept religiously buying Marillion albums up until Marbles.

Fish however brought out Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors in 1990, which was ok. He followed this with Internal Exile in 1991 which was less ok. So when Suits came out in 1994, I left it and stopped listening.

A few weeks ago I realised that there were 2 Marillion albums that I didn’t have and 6 Fish albums. So I went to their respective web sites and ordered the missing back catalogue.

I listened to all the Fish Albums and they are shit. They get progressively better but not enough. At the beginning he is let down by poor musicians and although that starts to change you realise that actually Fish is a crap lyricist. Now, to just type that goes against everything I had ever believed about him from the Marillion era, but it seems that when he left Marillion, he was moving his lyrics into a more serious and possibly literary medium. He is a good poet but they just don’t make good songs. So many times it seems that he is straining to make a lyric fit to the music. The words just don’t appear to flow with the melody. The verse lines are often too long and thus all the expected rhymes are in the wrong place or not there at all. This is most noticable in that, with the the few songs that are actually good, the lyric seems to break down to a more punchier and snappier format. I just wonder if he is missing a group of talented musicians who can get him inline. Someone not afraid to tell him to edit to a song format when needed. It’s a shame because it’s the first time I have ever bought music that I was really unhappy with.

The Marillion albums are great. They are a perfect addition to my music library.

We didn’t see much of the support act, someone called ‘Common’ because it had taken us so long to get to London!

By the time we left the gig we were buzzing! We’d been debating since I bought the tickets 2 weeks ago, if we were going to do the aftershow or not. We’d pretty much decided to make the decision on the night, as we were staying at a hotel next to the venue we could adapt to the night, anyway we were still undecided going in but certain coming out! The aftershow is a gamble. It takes place in a small club at the O2 -The Indigo and there are no guarantees that there will be live music let alone that Prince will show up. You could spend £25 or even £75 each just to enter a club!
Anyway, we had a good feeling; Prince seemed in good mood and had not played a midweek concert due to the Stones gig… so we headed for the ticket office to see if we could get tickets. We managed to buy tickets straight away due to Victoria’s quick thinking about leaving the main concert, which was handy as the queue got very big! We then queued from 11pm to 11:45pm – when we got into the club, which is very nice by the way, Victoria headed for the dance floor/stage and I got the drinks in!
We were about 2 or 3 people from the stage (depending on movement!) There were people tuning instruments behind the stage curtains which at least meant we would be treated to some live music later in the night. I noticed at one point something that looked liked Prince’s effects pedals at the front of the stage, so I was starting to feel good about it, and then a little later a menber of the crew brought out a guitar to test with the pedals, the guitar was definatley a Prince guitar as far as I was concerned; we were in for a party night!
We hung out on the dance floor until 12:45 before the NPG, Common, and Prince hit the stage for what was going to prove one of the best 2 hours of music I have ever experienced!
The dance floor was now packed and we were at the front, Prince was a few feet away from us as he controlled his band to party the night away. It seemed to be a different personae than the person who had played 2 hours for us just earlier. This was a more intimate, more personal, more reactional gig. It just felt like Prince was just going with it, bouncing off the audience, playing whatever he felt like, however he felt like doing it. We were tired, foot sore from all the standing and dancing, sweat poured off me, at one point I thought cramp in my legs was going to take me down, but the adrenalin just kept us going!

We left the club at about 3am… definatley the best concert I’ve ever been to, and likely the best I will ever go to!

Apparently the Song list went like this… ( thanks to My Space, Fang for this list )

Main Show
1999 (full!), Alphabet St., Honky Tonk Women/Brown Sugar (riffs), Guitar, Cream, U Got The Look, Musicology, Play That Funky Music (feat. Common), Miss You Rolling Stones, Satisfied, The Rules, [Piano set] Little Red Corvette, Raspberry Beret, How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore?, Diamonds & Pearls, Sometimes It Snows In April, [Synth set] Sign o’ The Times, Pop Life, Erotic City, When Doves Cry, Nasty Girl, Head, D.M.S.R., I Wanna Be Your Lover, Purple Rain, [Encore 1] I Feel For You, Controversy + Housequake chant, [Encore 2] Kiss, Nothing Compares 2 U

Aftershow
3121 (+ Common rap), The Light, Girls & Boys, What Have You Done For Me Lately? Janet Jackson, Partyman, Let’s Go Crazy, I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) (Shelby lead vocal) Aretha Franklin, Baby Love (Shelby lead vocal) Mother’s Finest, Drive Me Wild Vanity 6
Break My Heart, Band Jam, Tell Me Something Good Rufus ft. Chaka Khan, A Love Bizarre Sheila E., Peach (vamp), Controversy (+ Common rap), Sexy Dancer/Le Freak Chic, Black Sweat (Prince bass solo), 3121/One Nation Under a Groove Funkadelic

I managed over the 80′s to get her first 3 albums imported. They were on Vinyl as that was the medium of choice as you will recall. Anyway, everyone kept borrowing the records off me to tape – oh for CD’s and MP3… they were probably the only sort after records in my collection.

I never managed to replace them on CD and have over time generally forgot about her. Once or twice I’ve done a search to see if the original albums can be bought on CD, but to no avail. ( You can now get a Best Of CD on Amazon )

Anyway, I was listening to Desert Island Discs ( yes I’m getting old now – deal with it! ) which featured Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys and he talked about going to America to cover the release of a Shannon record. He talked about how her the sound of her records influenced early Pet Shop Boys. It was only while listening to the version of “Give me Tonight” that they played that I suddenly realised this link – and it’s such a pronounced one!

Anyway, it was a slight trip down memory lane while I thought about that time when Shannon was in my life…

Anyway, what I saw was fantastic… she’ll really knows how to entertain and put on a show. It’s a brilliant concert for a brialliant album. I was thoroughly entertained… I just need to watch it all now!

See Also: Slide Show of some images…

As I was flicking through the radio channels, I happened upon Desert Island Discs this morning, no honest I did; anyway Robert Fisk was talking to Kirsty Young which I actually did find interesting. Anyway, as I came upon the channel Samuel Barber‘s: Adagio for Strings was playing, which is a fantastic and emotional piece. Whenever I hear it, I get the picture from Platoon of Willem Dafoe on his knees, arms raised in the air, with hundreds of Vietnam soldiers running towards him… Fisk then followed this with Winston Churchill‘s speach “This was the Finest Hour”, which in itself is a powerful piece of audio. One of his next records was Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major. I never want to like this piece of music, it just seems too commercial and trite, however, I can never get away from the fact that it is indeed a powerful piece of music. So Pachelbel’s Cannon and Adagio for Strings within the same 10 minutes!

Unfortunatley he then descended into “The Lord is My Shepherd” so I felt compelled to turn over, right into “The Who‘s” Pinball Wizard. Bizzarely enough, I heard this on Wednesday on the radio. Then on Thursday, I made comment about a work colleague being “deaf, dumb, and blind” to which Mark automatically responded with “but he sure plays a mean pinball”… So within 2 days I heard the same record that I’ve not heard for a while, with also a reference to it in a unconnected event.

However, unlike listening to Adagio and Cannon, hearing Pinball Wizard made me think… what a terrible song it is. I’ve never given thought to how bad a song it is before…