I got to Hyde Park at 5.30 yesterday
morning and had to wait a while for my friend to arrive so I sat on my
cooler-box on Bayswater Road and chilled out. I saw loads of crazy
Floyd-heads arriving from all over the world, some trying for tickets.
If the Jewish guy from New York (roughly 55 years old) is reading this,
I hope you got in OK, dude. I was very impressed with the way you
dragged your wife over the railing without spilling your coffee!.
I saw a load of guys with 'Echoes' tee-shirts arrive and boy did they look single-minded!
Anyways, we managed to get right
at the front of one of the queues in the park itself and ran like Hell
to get to the front, (I went to the Wembley show in '85 and using this
tactic managed to get to the
stage), only to find that the front 60 or so metres was segregated for
the few people with 'corporate tickets' and guest-listers.
I couldn't f******* believe it!!
I can understand the use of a VIP area of some sort but this was
ridiculous! I'd waited for 6 hours to get in and had never had a chance
of getting close to the stage! I'd never heard about the Gold Tickets
or I'd have tried to get one. Needless to say, I was pretty
peeved but managed to put it to one side while I waited in the crush
for a further 11 hours for the mighty performance!
My feet and back were so sore
when they came on, I couldn't believe it (I wasn't 17 this time!), but
as soon as they started it was all worth it. The set went by in a hazy,
trippy flash and we were speechless at the end of it. Had that really
just happened? Were we so enthused that it couldn't ever have lived up
to the expectation? Still can't say for sure.
I'm sure I'll get more out of
watching the DVD in glorious stereo in a visual/audio sense (although
the live sound was largely very good) but I wouldn't have missed this
for anything. It was very profound and altogether bizarre. The whole
day was one to treasure, but would have liked to have been able to hear
the backline!
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