Right, best start writing about these gigs before they slip right past me. Make sure you’ve got time to read it as it’s pretty long of a entry..Preparation and lounging about
Don’t think I did much at the beginning of the day, just lounge about at home and post on the muse board a bit for those who still weren’t heading off. Most people were travelling to the venue or into their hotel rooms. I did my usual stuff till around 2 o clock where I started getting ready to head off. The meetup was suppose to be around 3pm. I managed to get change into my fancy purple jumper and head off to funland for some proper action. I bought an a zone 1-3 weekly travel card to accommodate the 3 days (costs about £4.90 per day so I might as well got a weekly pass).
Lounging about in central London
After arriving at Central London at 3.30 (was slightly late but I got the feeling everyone was late), noone was actually there haha. Most people were still travelling. So I decided to bum around at the Apple centre until someone arrived. I got to play on the daddio Mac Pro with the Keystation 61es keyboard. I did a quick recording of Hoodoo and sooner got booted off for demonstrations haha. Max managed to somehow obtain my number and phone me up on where I was etc. I told him where I was but he gave up finding the area haha
Some funland action
After a long loung about in London, I finally got a phonecall from Kazzie about where they were. They were waiting for me prompty at funland for some DDR action. So yeah, arrived at funland and met Kaz, Steph, Popey, Jon, Haze, Charlotte and a few other random people haha. I instantly got on the DDR machines and played DDR, I went on one of the machines which I thought was Euromix 2 but it turns out it was In The Groove, that was completely new to me so I just stopped playing on it haha (didnt want to waste my energy on it). I went to the machine that actually had Euromix and played 3 songs; Nori Nori Nori, 5,6,7,8 (mwahaha) and the obvious Can’t Stop Falling In Love (Speed Mix) finale. The other two songs were simply warm ups, no way am I getting into Can’t Stop Falling in Love (Speed Mix) at the beginning haha. I’d be killed hahah. I’ll hopefully upload some videos of me in action when I have time uploading them on Youtube. Was dead impressed by the amount of knee steps I did, all pretty improvised and all haha. I also managed to dance my way through Can’t Stop Falling In Love as well, was really panicing that I’d fail that song due to lack of playing DDR for such a long time but I managed to pull through.
After a few extra banter on me and my excessive amounts of energy I was whisked away into playing a bit of bumper cars with the rest of the gang. This was actually pretty amazing haha. Being able to ram Popey or Kazzie up the arse (car wise haha) was awesome haha. So good that we had to have another go at it haha. (Hopefully I’ll upload some videos of me in action).
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Well, after a nice fun day at funland we had to get some burgers to eat before the gig, I only had a sausage roll for the whole day which meant I was proper starving haha. We managed to meet up with Bewilders and head right off to Soho for soem Gourmet Burger Kitchen action. The journey was pretty painless, Kazzie did try using her TomTom sat nav but the batteries died in the end so it was up to me to find the place.
We managed to find the place in the end, it looked like I managed to sniff my way to GBK again haha. Most of the musers were scared shitless of entering the resturant haha. We all got settled in (all 11 of us haha) and ordered our burgers. Noone has even been to Gourmet Burger Kitchen before so they were all in for a shock. It was pretty funny how me and Jon (Muserist) ordered nice yummy milkshakes while the rest got Coke. Max thought it was awesome to order some larger already but soon found out that it was simply not cool haha. He was the youngest out of the bunch and was trying to look old by buying alcohol. The eldest out of the bunch were sipping milkshakes whilst the youngest is getting ID’d for alcohol mwahaha. Kids eh?
Anyway, I’m sure you wanna know how yummy these burgers are so I’ll show a few photos of them in action
Awesome sight huh?
Max and Popey enjoying their food.
Heading off to Wembley
After some long banter and burger eating it was time to head off to Wembley. I managed to meet Michelle along the way at Leicester Square, I told her to wait by the Angus steak house but forgot that there were two Angus steak houses haha. So yeah, that was a bit confusing. Nonetheless managed to meetup with her though so its all good. The journey involved discussions of how I was the daddy of the meetup (organising and directing everyone etc). Felt a bit antisocial talking to Michelle only and sort of blanking the others haha.
Wembley
Quite a nice place, I think they’ve jazzed it up quite some bit since I last saw the Arena (where I saw Muse play haha). The water fountains were awesome, you can goto Wembley purely for the water fountains (fuck muse haha). The venue itself was pretty awesome, filled with lights and all (will post photos of that for the next date).
Kazz and the rest of the gang went to drop off a few things at Kaz’s car whilst me and Michelle went off to claim our guestlist tickets. I was already anticipating that we’d only get normal guest tickets and all.
..and I was right haha. Though the seats were not bad at all (being guest seats and all). We managed to claim our tickets quite painlessly and meet up with Kaz and the rest of the gang for a final banter before heading off to our seats.
We anticipated that we’d miss the noisesettes so we we’re basically bantering while the band was playing. We took some random photos of each other before we started heading off to see Muse play.
Take note at all the crazy hats (as well as glow sticks) everyone had before the gig. They were planning on throwing the glow sticks everywhere when all the lights when out so that people can party on with them (wasn’t too impressive I must say haha)
So yeah, that was it, afterwards we saw the band play. The setlist was pretty boring I must say, most of which can be found at Muse Wiki. I managed to take quite alot of photos of the band playing as well as record the ENTIRE GIG (excluding Take a Bow, that time I forgot to start recording haha). The stage was pretty amazing, Dom’s podium was a proper laugh and the Supermassive Robots were pretty awesome to look at haha. Though somehow I kinda felt like the show was quite a down grade from the previous shows they’ve done before which included confetti, balloons falling from the ceiling, guitar cams, bass drum cams, crazy silhouette screens and flares during Starlight.
Was finally able to listen to songs such as Assassin (extended) as well as Hoodoo. Was quite impressed I didnt listen to some bootlegs of the gig and all. Probably spoiled the occasion and everything.
The photos I took were alright, I think I should have bought a camera with a better zoom so you can actually see the band’s face and all. I was only able to make semi decent wide shots of the band performing.
And yeah, that was the gig over with haha. I thought Michelle was quite blasé about the gig due to the fact that she has seen them quite a few times already before, but Michelle said she was very excited about the gig (just not good at showing the enthusiasm haha). Right after the gig it was time for us to blag our way into the aftershow haha. At first I wasn’t really bothered in going due to the fact that I had to goto the following two nights as well. But i dunno, somehow we managed to get our way to the aftershow, we had to say goodbye to Kaz and co since it was only possible for me and Michelle to get into the aftershow (and not a big bunch of people haha).
Michelle did a pretty good job in ensuring that I got to the aftershow door haha. There were many attempts in ushering us out of the venue by the security guards, Michelle noticed that most of the people wore yellow wristbands for the aftershow and she still had her old one she got from a previous gig. She did have another one but it was in another bag which meant we needed passes if we were to get into the aftershow. I had to phone Tom Kirk up a few times to get some passes for the aftershow (Tom was actually very nice in terms of trying his best to get us aftershow passes) Michelle managed to convince the security guards that we were genuine aftershow guests and that I had lost my pass during the gig haha. We were literally escorted straight to the entrance of the aftershow party. We met a muser on the board (M.U.S.E <3) who said she was a friend of Gaia.
Aftershow partae
After some long bantering we managed to get in. Tom went and got some aftershow passes and we were able to get into the aftershow. Michelle didnt even need to use her pass because her old one worked anyway haha.
The aftershow party was booming, there was music played live by a DJ and there was a free bar (managed to get myself a Bud whilst Michelle had white wine). The place was filled with the usual people and there was even a giant MUSE logo as well as some album cover posters on the walls.
The only band members to arrive at the gig were Dom and Chris. Dom gave me the usual nod when we walked past me and was immediately told off by a security guard for smoking at the party (You’re not allowed to smoke?!? haha) It was pretty funny watching him get told off haha, ROCK AND ROLL!
I should have too photos of Dom and his girlfriend, the clothes they were wearing was hilarious, Dom was wearing a black shirt and proper gay yellow trousers whilst his girlfriend was wearing a yellow dress with black tights haha. Everything was matching haha. Makes you wonder when did it all start to go down hill haha.
Chris came in with his wife and all and was pretty chirpy at the aftershow, he wore some random black cardigan which was quite funny haha. We eventually went up to Chris to say hi. Chris was pretty pleased to see me again haha, tis been quite a while since I’ve met him (Earls Court I think, blimely) Chris asked Michelle how the hell did she managed to get into ANOTHER aftershow again haha. We were mainly bantering on about his laptop and everything haha bless. After a nice chat with him we just spent the rest of the time enjoying the music.
The music was fun, there was a bit of boogey as well as Beastie Boys. Michelle was pretty amazed at my dancing (was doing alot of it today haha) and asked me to teach her how to dance. I just prance around and move whatever I feel like moving haha. At one point we started holding hands and danced to some boogie type song haha it was awesome. Twirled michelle a few times (at one time I messed up properly) and we then tried convincing Tom and Chris to dance. They said they were too old for all of it haha. So yeah, we just continued dancing, had a quick word with the band a few more times and that was about it.
The ever so painful journey back home
Was quite a painful journey back home. The tube was closed so we had to resort to Night buses, we took the N18 to central London where we could find some decent night buses, Michelle had quite a long journey to get back home and all, though she managed to get back alright. I was stuck at Paddington semi lost. Was pretty frightening walking around places in the middle of the night. In the end I managed to get Kazzie to pick me up from Paddington as well as staying over at her place.
Managed to meet up with Kazzie, Steph and Haze at Paddington station where we drove back to Earls Court to find some food (well, they did anyway). They went to some random kebab place to buy some burgers and all, I said no due to the fact that I dont eat yucky food haha. Had quite a long chat with Steph inside Kaz’s car whilst Kaz and Haze were getting food, cant remember what we talked about haha.
Afterwards we went back to Steph’s hotel room (which wasnt far at all). Think we just bantered a bit at the hotel room, I told them about the aftershow and showed them photos etc. We stayed up quite late I must say. Me, Steph and Haze had to share a bed haha. Steph was on the left side of the bed (she had a reason, think it was to do with piercings or something) so it left me in the middle and haze on the right side of the bed. It was proper horrible for me, I’m sleep on my side so trying to sleep on my back was a hard thing to do. I didnt get much sleep, just spent an hour and a bit talking to Steph about all sorts (including Manics and their fans haha) was random but fun.
Finally managed to fall asleep, apparently I snore? I think it was due to the fact I was sleeping on my back. Wasn’t the best way to sleep I must say..
So yeah, that was day 1, 2 more days to go haha.