GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SIX
Who
As I'd got a lot of London activities out of my system two weeks before it was quite simple to prepare, my main concern being arriving in good time to see The Book Of Mormon musical. As a South Park fan I'd thought it would be a niche interest but incredibly the show was well on its way to selling out, and here I was thinking I was being paranoid by insisting on getting tickets months in advance! Vindicated again! I left work early and had no problems getting down to Euston. After the Worst Hotel Ever experience of two weeks before we'd rebooked a reservation at £80 for a hotel in the middle of Oxford Street near Tottenham Court Road. Hotels is one area where London is a total rip-off - although The Book Of Mormon tickets cost a stonking £66.50 - more than the gig! - but you can't argue with convenience, and a hotel so damned central that we could walk there from Euston and in turn walk onto the Prince Of Wales Theatre near Leicester Square is hard to argue with. We simply didn't have time to travel out to Zone 6 then back in time for the show, and considering that we were going to chance getting back to Orpington from Wembley - on the assumption that Wembley Stadium is built to handle massive crowds - we only had to pay for one night. It was a muggy day, the hotel room was tiny and the staff indifferent - even disputing our assertion that there was no toilet roll in the room - and we only had time for a quick McDonalds meal. Also non-music shows have a very poor track record for me, as it's much harder to feel engaged in a performance when you're not singing your heart out and standing up, and I always come away feeling I haven't seen enough, Bill Bailey being a rare exception. This made it more of a surprise that The Book Of Mormon was absolutely fucking incredible, on balance even beating The Killers!
Yes, that's right, without even realising it I'd planned a Mormon weekend for us, as obviously Brandon Flowers is a Mormon, and as I've just discovered that is why he doesn't drink. Although the Mormon attitude to a musical poking fun at them is positive, banning alcohol and shamelessly adapting Christianity to make it more America-centric is less so. Still, as far as religions go it's one of the best! The theatre was packed and although I was annoyed with our seats at first - thanks to the old overhanging balcony issue - once the show started I realised that we were close enough to really enjoy the magic. The acting, humour and singing were just incredible and I came away determined never to see another West End musical again without damned good reason, as nothing could ever beat this! The comedy in particular was what made this a cut above po-faced "normal" musicals, and I was happy to shell out for both a programme and soundtrack album too. I've been enjoying the soundtrack on repeat since - especially Man Up and Making Things Up Again - and was impressed that adverts for the Mormon faith had even made their way into the programme! But anyway, we headed back to the hotel to drop our stuff off after struggling to find a decent pub without bouncers, then found that the incompetent fuckwit hotel staff had failed to close our door after putting the toilet roll up there. Fortunately it was a case of one act of incompetence cancelling out another, as they'd also turned all the lights off so nobody would have been able to see. Once again, they should be grateful we don't believe in leaving negative feedback, and I don't know whether to bemoan the shocking bad luck to be fecked over by two hotels in a row, or to be grateful that nothing had been nicked! We dared to head out again to find a Samuel Smith's pub - which was a nice discovery if a bit ragged in appearance so late on a Saturday night - and enjoyed a pint, then moved onto a pub with Löwenbräu on tap, which rudely didn't serve us. I think they were closing up, but some communication would have been nice!
We used logical deduction to find the entrance to get into the back door of the hotel and had an acceptable night's sleep, although some air conditioning would have helped. In the morning we quickly checked out, briefly exploring the area and random old hut building in Soho Square, which was much scruffier than somewhere so central in London should be, although I can see they're redeveloping a lot and maybe it will be awesome eventually. After a Spoons breakfast in the biting wind on the pub balcony at Victoria station we headed back to Orpington to drop our stuff off then headed back into Central London again. I'd torn up and revised the itinerary several times before deciding to head to South Kensington and check out Brompton Oratory, which I'd first glimpsed from the roof of Westminster Cathedral two weeks before. I had a theory - that Catholics have worse cathedrals but make up for it by not being camera Nazis - that was quickly shattered upon seeing a no photography sign, but I was happy to say a great big fuck you to them by getting a few sneaky shots in, despite Matt's cheeky attempts to thwart me. We then walked up towards Hyde Park and were amazed to spot a Mormon Chapel just randomly on the way, and I was insistent that we had to go in and check it out. The greeters weren't quite as cheesy as in the musical and earned kudos for not hassling us, and the chapel was a wonderfully modern/simple affair and we got to watch an ultra-slick touch-screen video introduction to their faith too. Matt hadn't wanted to go in but it would have been a crime not to, and now I know that there are two proper Mormon churches in England - in South London and Preston strangely enough - which I've added to my travel ideas list. We headed past Royal Albert Hall to the Albert Memorial, which is hugely impressive, and by now the sun was out but as rain was forecast later I'd gone for both rain coat and sun hat.
We then wandered onto the Serpentine Gallery - which was closed but randomly had blow-up nude male sex dolls all lined up in the window - but we were only interested in seeing the new Pavilion, which I'd seen publicised in the Metro, and it looked very cool. I had a bottle of "real" apple juice and we got to climb over and take photos of the impressive construction, then as an added bonus got to head past the Princess Diana Fountain and the massive Serpentine lake. With plenty of time to spare we arrived at our final touristy destination of Wellington Arch, which I'd discovered had a gallery and viewing deck cleverly hidden inside. It was just 2pm but I was happy to complete my intended "sunny day" itinerary, and in Brompton Oratory doing the main "rainy day" activity as an added bonus! As we had a good few hours of standing up ahead of us we were both happiest to head back to the awesome Bier Keller by London Bridge, as I even observed that we could get direct trains to Wembley Central from there, hopefully beating the crowds by getting on the Jubilee Line earlier. The second experience at the Bier Keller was as delightful as the first, as even though they served us two steins of Paulaner by mistake - after I'd clearly pointed at another beer - and it was loud and full of some shouting twats so early in the afternoon, when the beer is so good who can argue? My photos suggest I actually had two steins - and the twats left quite swiftly singing the Dambusters theme along with quite a lot of the crowds - and I also enjoyed a chicken with chips and sauerkraut and a bottle of Augustiner that tasted vinegary. It was a master class in pre-gig preparation, as I'd drank precisely the right amount to enjoy myself without feeling pissed or in constant need of the loo throughout the performance! The gates for the show had opened at 5pm and we made our way out of the bar before then, jumping on the Jubilee line which was very quiet yet in retrospect it would have been better to change onto the (faster) Metropolitan Line, but no harm was done as we arrived in reasonable time at Wembley Park.
There was a wide boulevard leading up towards Wembley Stadium and the whole approach looked to have been regenerated quite nicely, and the signs were very clear indicating which part of the stadium we had to walk to. Naturally we had to walk to the opposite side and after a very quick security check we made our way through the turnstiles into the concourse. We headed straight down the steps onto the pitch and it was amazing to see Wembley Stadium inside for the first time. The pitch was 100% covered with plastic and there were covered cables slap bang in the centre again, although this time they were a bit flatter and not such a trip hazard. We made our way to a spot in front of the mixing desk right in the centre again and observed an impressive crest above the stage emblazoned with the phrase "Battle Born - Nevada" and two massive lightning bolts to either side. At this point there were plenty of empty seats and the venue was an awesome combination of intimacy and massive size, with the compact bowl shape giving the best of both worlds. I've read that the capacity is 90,000 - or 105,000 with a combination of seating and standing (like tonight) - but as far as I can gather just 78,000 people were here for The Killers. The seats were red and the arch - which I thought went over the stadium - in fact is barely visible from the inside as it skews off to one side. I shot a panoramic video of the surroundings and waited for James to come onstage. When James were announced to play I was delighted, yet I'm baffled as to why they are playing second fiddle to The Gaslight Anthem who were announced first? Maybe Gaslight were just stroppy about being kicked down the bill? Either way though it made me glad I'd resisted the chance to see James with Echo And The Bunnymen in Birmingham, as that was practically the same price as this show and now I could see them effectively for free!
James bounded onstage and announced that there was no time to mess around, and that they had just eight songs to give us. Excellent I thought, feeling confident in the knowledge that we were going to get all four of their hits, then what did they do? They fucked us over with five unknown b-sides! OK, apparently the opener Sound was a top ten hit so I'll let them off for that, but otherwise what the hell were they doing? They played Out To Get You and did an extended ending which I filmed some of, with Tim Booth doing some fit-like dancing, and then said that due to their bout of self-indulgence they'd have to cut it back to seven songs. The strangest thing was that I'd gone to the effort of checking the running times via the official website and that James had arrived onstage a full 25 minutes early, so how the fuck could they now be running over?! They then hit the nail on the head with the title of the next song Getting Away With It (All Messed Up), but they weren't getting away with it, the crowd were losing interest, and if the assertion of seven songs was correct they now only had two attempts to make it up to us. Thankfully though they did! I was delighted when they launched into Sit Down and the crowd perked up enormously, although not quite as much as what arguably the best song of the entire night deserves. It was delivered properly and only undermined by the bad feeling generated by their five previous songs. If they'd had thrown Destiny Calling and She's A Star - the other two hits - amongst them we'd have been a lot happier! I shot a short video and noted that Tim was completely bald and dressed in a leather jacket. Also I think it was James - not The Gaslight Anthem - who declared that they'd bagged the England dressing room as their own, and a bout of trumpeting and a quick go with a loudspeaker would have gone down well if I wasn't so pissed off with their initial choice of songs. Fortunately large side screens were utilised throughout, but James weren't visually very interesting as they'd chosen to play without any backdrop to mark the occasion.
Aaah yes, in the good old days I remember sitting down whenever Sit Down was played, but with the state of the plastic covering didn't much fancy it. I was resigned to James returning to the b-sides so was delighted to hear them launching into Laid - The Other Hit - as a big finale, and considering they'd played the best two out of their four hits I guess I can let them off, but guys, don't announce you have only eight songs to play and intend to make them count and then launch into five b-sides, it generates a lot of ill-feeling! Shockingly Matt claimed not to be impressed, but as he'd also disliked Miles Kane and Johnny Marr I'm starting to think he's just got a problem with songs he doesn't know. I'd very strongly encouraged him to stock up on Stone Roses music before their show and warned him he wouldn't enjoy the songs unless he knew them. I think most people are like that, the difference being I go out of my way to try and learn back catalogues before a show, yet quite rightly tick off a band - ANY band - when they start neglecting the hits in favour of b-sides. It's always a difficult one though, as if you see a band live and don't enjoy them then where's the motivation to go back and listen to their songs, and life is too short to learn every single song by support bands as well. Hell, I seem to spend all my musical time listening to bands to prepare for gigs as it is, rarely delving into the other depths of my collection. One unusual observation was that time didn't drag at all between the bands - even though James finished early - and Matt again insisted we sacrifice our excellent positions to go for a loo break. This time I came with him and we worked our magic again by finding our way back to pretty much exactly the same spot! One motivation had been to stock up on water though and I was supremely pissed off to spend £2.50 for a bottle of water which the guy behind the counter proceeded to pour into a plastic cup. Considering it was already in a plastic receptacle in the first place this was beyond a fucking joke and defeated the entire point of having a bottle of water handy throughout the show, and greatly increases the risk of drinks being thrown around too.
It was obviously no coincidence that he'd taken my money before starting to pour the water into the cup, undoubtedly they'd tried doing it the other way round and had a problem with customers walking off in quite justified disgust. If their plan was that we'd go back and buy more water then they failed, in fact I got my own back by not even considering buying a programme or t-shirt afterwards! If I'd had known I'd just have smuggled a bottle of water in! After getting back into the crowd we were greeted by the lovely sight of a guy being sick in front of us, which created a little exclusion zone where nobody wanted to stand for a good while until the crowd shifted a bit and the new punters were unaware what they were standing on. I was blown away to note that the lowest - and arguably the best - seats in the stadium were marked as unreserved seating, so that after paying to stand in fact if we decided we were boring wankers we could have chosen to sit down instead! Generally though the crowd were a complete contrast to The Stone Roses fans, with no beer throwing at all despite the plastic cups scandal and very little wankerish behaviour, drug taking or pushing. The crowd were quite locked-in and we had next to no opportunity to move further forwards, but in turn we had very little hassle from others pushing. Another interesting observation was a Spidercam zooming above the crowd on wires, which had an impressive flexibility but was somewhat pointless as I didn't see a second of footage from it shot onto the screens. Maybe the band were filming the show for posterity - and that would make sense - but there was a scary clause on the ticket saying that the venue had the right to create a simulated likeness of anyone in the crowd, so perhaps I was being scanned for a future avatar! Also of course a spider thing zooming above the pitch reminds me of the famous spider-shadow shape above the pitch at the Mexico World Cups, which could have been one of these cameras.
But anyway, although I don't understand why it was The Gaslight Anthem who were billed as the main support, appropriately they'd gone to that extra bit of effort by bringing a large black banner with them displaying their name and a skull and crossbones. I only knew two songs - which I've most likely picked up from free Uncut CDs - and they were played third and fifth in the set. The '59 Sound is alright but it is American Slang that screams "I am a hit" and the crowd seemed to agree. They didn't go down much better than James but I think just generally that the excitement levels were building. I shot two videos, the second during American Slang, and was impressed that my camera sound quality had improved drastically from the videos I shot at The Stone Roses, and even more so because when I zoomed in my new camera has the ability to re-focus. It was this level of detail that allowed me to observe that the band had a greebo/lumberjack look to them, with the singer sporting short hair but also some heavy tattooing. The rest of the songs passed me by but they were certainly inoffensive, and the band earned some kudos by having a song called Mulholland Drive, referencing a David Lynch film I really should get round to seeing! When The Gaslight Anthem finished at around 8pm - and again Matt was indifferent to the whole thing - a smaller lightning bolt was wheeled out for the centre of the stage and the lasers were tested in preparation for the main act. As far as I can gather it was nearly an hour before The Killers took to the stage but somehow the time just flew past. Before they came on I dropped the remainder of my water, but somehow if anything Matt's cup was even fuller than when he'd started!
Brandon Flowers appeared onstage well before the sun had set and before 9pm but we barely even noticed, much like last time. This time around though it was deliberately and cleverly understated as Brandon was singing Enterlude, which is an excellent sing along, and "we hope you enjoy your stay, it's good to have you with us, even if it's just for the day" is the best-possible opening sentiment. I shot a bit of a video which was ruined by many hands and cups being suspended in the air and terrible crowd singing, but the real genius was how the rest of the band quietly assembled onstage and they launched directly into When You Were Young with added pyro! I didn't shirk on the moshing at all and the whole show felt really loud, and my ears were certainly whistling a bit afterwards. The large stage video screen was utilised to provide an excellent and changing backdrop but once again Brandon hadn't made any effort with dressing up, defaulting to a dull black leather jacket. Those pink suits have set a benchmark that the band may struggle to ever live up to! The explosive start continued with more moshing for Spaceman and I arrived at a good balance of jumping as energetically as possible without wearing myself out or struggling with thirst. The show was taken down a notch with The Way It Was and I shot another video, which was blurred at first before my camera adjusted to bring Brandon into sharp focus. I captured an excellent moment of stunning sound quality and audience participation, with Brandon even changing the lyrics to name check Wembley. It felt like this stadium is their natural environment, and I was delighted to be seeing them in proper surroundings and making up for the disappointment of Nottingham so effectively.
Smile Like You Mean It deservedly remained in the set then the band dug into their back catalogue to play relative oldie and the rather good This River Is Wild, following it with Bling (Confession Of A King) before a cover of Shadowplay by Joy Division with added lasers. I shot a brief video of this which would have been perfect without the hands in the way, and Brandon teased us by taking off his jacket before putting it back on again. And here's the interesting thing. On paper this was quite a lull, but it didn't feel like one. The Killers were playing with gusto and the crowd were enthusiastic and knowledgeable of their back catalogue. By comparison when The Stone Roses had fucked around with b-sides and unwanted songs you could feel the momentum being destroyed, which is interesting as it shows that The Stone Roses songs have a natural pecking order, and Heaton Park had been so seminal that any deviation from that setlist had to be pretty fucking justified. On the other hand though The Killers just didn't soar as high. Hell yes, this felt good at the time, but the second the song finished it immediately faded from memory, and I felt no compulsion to go back and hear it again. Here I am writing this up a week later and I've felt no motivation whatsoever to listen back to any Killers songs, but by comparison I'm still playing The Stone Roses highlights on a loop! I'd very strongly assert that The Stone Roses are on a different plane, and the fact Matt didn't agree goes to demonstrate (1) that you had to have been at Heaton Park, (2) you had to have gone out of your way to learn all the songs and (3) living and breathing Manchester for four years gives you a natural affinity to their brilliance.
Maybe if I'd never lived in Manchester and had had the good fortune to see The Killers a few times back in their early days I'd have felt a bit differently, but I knew all their songs - except the newbie - so think I'm in a pretty good place to stamp my foot down and say it may have felt good at the time but definitely wasn't as memorable. But yes, this weird thing of The Killers only having an impact at the time they're playing aside, the stage set and lighting was good, Brandon has a fine voice and, as the video I shot confirmed, Miss Atomic Bomb was quite a moment. The explosion didn't happen quite when I expected it, but when it came it was pretty impressive, and they compensated too by simulating atomic blasts and an orange backdrop on the video screens. Strangely enough there appeared to be a gong onstage behind the drums - I never noticed if it was used though. They followed this with Human which attracted as much of a moshpit and sing along as what is effectively a ballad can ever hope to do, and they broke out the laser effects again. I then correctly identified the long and rambling next introduction as the build-up to Somebody Told Me, which I shot a short video of and no doubt moshed quite a bit too. By this point Brandon's jacket was off and although there was a brief bout of rain I probably could have done without that rain coat. The Killers had talked beforehand of throwing a few surprises into their set, and they don't come much more surprising than singing I Think We're Alone Now! Brandon announced that they wanted to take it back, as the song was famous for being sung by Tiffany but in fact was originally a 1960s number - a fact I've only just learned - and take it back they did, provoking much singing and jumping in the video I shot of it.
Next up was an obvious Wembley Moment, and the fact the crowd knew what to do was an indicator that many fans had seen the band before on the Battle Born tour. Yes, it was Here With Me, as the lights went down onstage and everyone shone the lights on their phones all around the stadium. I shot a video of the intro and panorama around the seats but the main joy was in soaking up the atmosphere - the place looked quite full now - and seeing what was going on behind us, although the lights seemed a bit puny in such a large space. One weird observation though is why so-called modern phones like mine no longer have lights?! I've never liked For Reasons Unknown much so will say no more about it, and they followed it with From Here On Out and A Dustland Fairytale, which are nice enough songs but are hardly essentials. Yet again though, the band pulled them off so this didn't feel particularly like a lull, and I think also that my ultimate faith that The Killers would play all the hits also worked in their favour. The one and only new song then followed, and on this rare occasion I'll let them off as it was immediately catchy and a powerful statement of how much they valued this occasion. It was called Wembley Song and was a self-referential tune with lyrics mentioning Runaway and Mr Brightside, and obviously a crowd pleaser as the video screen made liberal use of the England flag and three lions symbology. Its main joy though was the super-catchy chorus, which was basically a call-and-response thing modelled directly on Queen's Wembley shows of the 1980s, and the video footage of Freddie Mercury made me wonder if the old stadium was really that much bigger, as it certainly looked it.
After this moment - which I shot another brief video of - it was time for Read My Mind, then we got to mosh to Runaways before the set drew to a close with All These Things That I've Done, which I still vehemently argue is better than all their other songs put together. It still should be right at the very end but tonight its position at the end of the main set worked out nicely, and in homage to Bill Bailey I was one of the few people singing the correct lyrics of "I've got ham but I'm not a hamster!" That's another good theory actually, as the fact their lyrics are such pish - albeit pish that sounds fantastic - could be another reason I find it hard to connect with the band once the songs finish playing. Nevertheless, I moshed continuously and appreciated the extended ending, and we were showered quite generously with lightning bolt shaped confetti which was unleashed towards the end. By this point it was raining a bit and if I recall there was some use of crowd footage on the screen, and I kept up the chanting of "I've got ham but I'm not a hamster!" while waiting for the band to come back onstage. Flesh And Bone works perfectly as a set opener but tonight was excellent as the start of the encore, and again I tried my best to photograph the words "flesh and bone" on the video screen. Also an image of a clock was flashed up - perhaps to remind the band of the curfew? - and this may be a good time to point out that, despite my relentless efforts, due to our distance from the stage and the bright glow emanating from it most of my photos turned out badly. If anything it just goes to show that I need to take even more!
At around this point pockets of people started to sing happy birthday to Brandon - apparently it was his birthday the day before - but this was overshadowed by the home straight as The Killers played Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine, which I shot a short video of and can confirm that the lasers were unleashed again. I moshed some more, then due to the efforts I'd made to listen to The Killers back catalogue I actually was happy to hear Battle Born! Last time it had been an unwelcome tacked-on thing after All These Things That I've Done but this time around it felt good, and strangely it was the only song I had stuck in my head at all afterwards besides I Wanna Be Adored! The band were introduced with the same "you may have felt a strange rumbling..." speeches from Brandon, and Ronnie Vannucci unleashed quite a drum solo, but this was overshadowed by the revelation that there had been two extra members onstage to be introduced who somehow I hadn't even noticed! The song finished with a blaze of pyro and fireworks as the band gathered to take a bow. I thought they'd leave the stage again but they stayed put. I was worried as there was still one pretty fucking glaring omission, but I had faith they'd do it, and they did. Yes, of course, the band finished brilliantly with Mr Brightside and I moshed from start to finish, and perhaps it was the approaching 11pm curfew that made them rush to draw things to a close? In Nottingham as far as I can gather they'd deliberately played Brightside at the start without any lights but that was just a waste, so to hear one of their best songs in its strongest possible context in sharp contrast to last time was a very pleasant surprise! Brandon made his way into the crowd with a massive beaming smile on his face to shake some hands, for this moment looking every bit as cheesy as anyone in The Book Of Mormon musical had managed, and Ronnie threw his drumsticks away - for the second time of the night in fact - while the other two remained anonymous, but I think that's the way they like it!
The lights went up and no public information was displayed indicating which way to go, so we headed out the way we came in and figured that Wembley Park was as good an idea as any. The floor was strewn with lightning bolt confetti and despite the long show I was happy to get back without any water or further visit to the loo. The path to Wembley Park was slow but steady at first, with many stewards operating Stop/Go signs and walls of bouncers to help spread out the crowd. It was going well until we were stopped for ages metres away from the entrance, as the steps cleared and seemingly they waited for the station to be 100% empty before finally letting us go down to the platform. We'd timed it quite well as we made it onto the very last fast Metropolitan Line train of the evening to Baker Street, then changed onto the Jubilee Line and headed to Green Park. We were feeling good and headed onto the Victoria Line to go one stop to Victoria and were not very impressed to be greeted by a sign saying that there was an 18 minute wait! It probably would have been alright but left no margin for error to get the very last train back from there, so we rejoined the Jubilee Line and made it to London Bridge, annoyingly missing a train by a couple of minutes. If the Victoria Line hadn't fucked us over we'd had got it no problems, why don't they just make the Tube 24 hours and regular, I'm sure they could recruit enough drivers who'd be delighted to earn such incredibly generous pay to make staffing viable? We then had quite a hefty wait and I went in search of a vending machine as the two on the platform were fucked. I eventually found one that had just Diet Coke left, but it felt refreshing and we eventually arrived back to Matt's at around 2am, which was far worse than we'd hoped for but at least we hadn't had to resort to a taxi.
There were some real tossers on the train and a good few people pathetically searching for a light for their cigarettes, and even a kid pleading with us to buy him some. The fact he was wandering around a town looking to smoke at 2am is truly tragic, and it's always good after coming back from a fantastic show to feel better than other people who've wasted their evenings. No excuses for not going either, as tickets were available and £50 is hardly a lot of money for a one-off treat! I'd agreed to change my alarm to a little later but still had my heart set on going to Southend-On-Sea, and although the train timings were tight we made it in excellent time. As I'd been to Southport two months before I was determined to see the longest pier in Britain, but at first glance it looked small and I couldn't appreciate its scale until we started walking down it. The weather kept changing - with sun, wind and dashes of rain alternating second-by-second as we braved the elements without any coats - but the walk to the end of the pier and back was an excellent way to spend an afternoon, as Southend doesn't have a lot else going for it, and any more than a few hours there is just excessive. That renders the ginormous hotel on the promenade a bit pointless, but my only complaint was the random camera Nazis at the Southport Pier Museum, as this was precisely the sort of visual museum that serves no purpose whatsoever if you can't photograph it. If I were a Mormon I may make a connection between this no photography policy and God's fondness for burning down the pier in vengeance, but as a rational person have to put this down to the fact it's made out of wood! As a final treat in Southend we walked the promenade a bit and I had a tasty/cheap fish and chips with a pint of Kronenbourg for lunch.
We then headed back and I insisted on going to the Bavarian Beerhouse - as it was directly on the walk between Fenchurch Street and Tower Hill it would have been rude not to! I enjoyed a reasonable stein before heading back to pick my stuff up then to make my way home, again utilising my laptop on the train to pre-sort the photos and finally got round to making some notes for this review, before eventually arriving home at 10:20pm. I found out afterwards that a mate I hadn't seen for 12 years had been at the show - so a missed opportunity for a meet-up had passed us by - and randomly that The Killers had played a set at The Garage after the Wembley show had finished, which apparently was a last minute idea to go back to their early days in England. Omission-wise the band had done precisely the same as in Nottingham, of correctly ticking off their ten best songs but missing out Bones and Sam's Town, especially sad as Sam's Town would have been hugely fitting with its references to London. Two songs they'd played in Nottingham had been omitted - namely Deadlines And Commitments and Heart Of A Girl - but I can confidently file those under totally unnecessary newbies which had no place at Wembley. In every single way this had been a better night than Nottingham, with the joy of standing up, a superior crowd position, a suitably tweaked setlist and a far, far greater sense of occasion. It was definitely worth going, but still, there is a natural pecking order in music and as good as The Killers are they will struggle to climb any higher up the tree.
Mark: 8.5/10
The Killers
Support
The Gaslight Anthem
James
Where
London Wembley Stadium
When
22nd June 2013
Price
£47.50
Who with
Matt
Position
Towards the front
Comments
When The Killers at Wembley Stadium was announced I didn't jump to attention and get tickets like I'd done with The Stone Roses. A good few days went by before I weighed up the thought that Wembley Stadium was somewhere we really had to visit for a gig once, and this was as good a chance as any on a Saturday night, that The Killers are a decent band, and that I really needed to make up for the disappointment of the Nottingham show, in particular the fact that we were sitting miles away and also that massive indoor gigs just aren't the same. A bit of planning later - in particular realising that I could see The Book Of Mormon musical on the Friday - and suddenly I was very keen on the idea, and the fact that Matt was easily persuaded and was happy with my insistence of standing up helped too. I had expected it to sell out quickly but Wembley is a massive venue and a lot of people are retarded, preferring to see people like The Fat Dancer instead, and I had no problems at all buying standing tickets. As far as I can tell standing sold out eventually but I don't believe the seated areas did. The Killers announced in interviews that they'd always dreamed of playing Wembley and I had no reason to doubt their sincerity, and when the tickets arrived they had a nice picture of the band on and seemed to scream that this was a MASSIVE SHOW. My preparation was low-key as the event was completely over-shadowed by The Stone Roses two weeks before and The Rolling Stones two weeks later, and also the week before we'd seen Bill Bailey - having fantastic seats at Wolves Civic to see an incredible show which somehow slipped from our memory the second it finished - and as an added bonus I was seeing The Strypes just five days later then Blondie with the Lightning Seeds just two days after that. Summer 2013 was looking pretty hectic!
Setlist (James)
Sound
Ring The Bells
Sometimes
Out To Get You
Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
Sit Down
Laid
Setlist (The Gaslight Anthem)
Handwritten
45
The '59 Sound
Biloxi Parish
American Slang
Mulholland Drive
Too Much Blood
Here Comes My Man
Here's Looking At You, Kid
The Backseat
Setlist (The Killers)
Enterlude
When You Were Young
Spaceman
The Way It Was
Smile Like You Mean It
This River Is Wild
Bling (Confession Of A King)
Shadowplay
Miss Atomic Bomb
Human
Somebody Told Me
I Think We're Alone Now
Here With Me
For Reasons Unknown
From Here On Out
A Dustland Fairytale
Wembley Song
Read My Mind
Runaways
All These Things That I've Done
Flesh And Bone
Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine
Battle Born
Mr Brightside
