Milton Keynes National Bowl - England, June 17th, 2005
Well, after a month of friends begging me to get them a ticket, I was finally holding four pieces of paper in my hand. Green Day - Milton Keynes Bowl June 18th 2005. God bless Ebay. So I selected two of my best friends and a few days later we were off, trundling along in the car, deafening my dad with American Idiot (which we had very proudly brought along).
It was about 2pm when we got to the stadium, 3 hours since leaving and having listened to Holiday about 6 times through, I was eager to sit down. Unfortunatly it was twice as hot outside of the car, and at the gates some buffed-up security guys were calmly searching peoples stuff and removing water bottles.
Anyways, you don't wanna listen to me rambling about some stupid water tax. You wanna hear about the concert of the year, don't you? Thought as much.
So, we sat down. There was already about, 45,000 people already at the stadium. It was the largest amount of people I'd ever seen, and there were more to come. We sat ourselves down at the very back of the stadium (as a future note, don't try and bribe the security at the mosh pit with fifty quid, it doesn't work) and settled down with the programme.
Sadly, Green Day wouldn't be coming on until 9pm - 7 hours to go. But at around 5pm, after buying a LOT of merchandise (I hope Green Day get some of the profits, £16 for a shirt and £35 for a hoodie!?), Hard-Fi came on, followed by Taking Back Sunday and, lastly, Jimmy Eat World (which I missed, seeing as my friends had 'accidently' put sweet chilli sauce on my chips instead of ketchup and I was too busy throwing them at them to notice a band was playing). Okay, I admit, the support bands were of course, nothing on Green Day, but they seemed to have a lot of followers - people wearing Taking Back Sunday scarves and the lot. They were good, I give them that.
But by 9pm - well thats when the action really started. Me and my friends returned from the stalls and sat down, only to stand up again as the huge crowd began cheering as the "dun-dun-DUN" thingy played (well come on, how the hell am I supposed to know what its called?), then we watched in peals of laughter as some hammered rabbit ran onto the stage dancing to YMCA - and then with screams from the 65,000-people crowd, the voice we know and can only love shouts "Get that f***ing rabbit off my stage ... and then the oh so familliar opening tune of American Idiot plays and Green Day run onstage, Billie Joe grabbing the mic screaming "ENGLAND!!" at random points during the song.
Wow, I've said a lot so far - sorry if I'm boring you already, but a lot happened at that concert.
Anyways, although I can't remember the exact order, our golden boys went on to play most of the American Idiot album - Holiday, Boulevard, Are We The Waiting/Saint Jimmy, Jesus of Suburbia. Wake Me Up When September Ends was definitely a memorable moment - Billie-Joe had tears in his eyes (or so it seemed) as he watched the crowd wave candles and lighters chanting the words as the sun vanished from view.
Then came the old classics - Basket Case (which sparked a lot of cheering), Longview, Maria, Hitchin' A Ride, Minority (And I think Brainstew/Jaded too). Then, as is at every Green Day concert, Knowledge (the Operation Ivy cover) begins to play, as Billie informs the audience that he's going to make a band on stage. So up comes a drummer, a bassist, and finally a guitarist - who Billie promptly asked "Have you ever been laid? No? Well you're gonna get laid tonight!" before snogging the lucky guy, insulting his guitar skills, GIVING him the guitar and sending him off shouting "You were sh*t! Get off my stage!".
This is going on forever ... but anyway, just to bore you to the point of ... something, next was the famous King For A Day (which never gets old), during which the band donned bizarre hats and, Billie wearing a crown and cloak surveying his empire - or his fans, depends how you look at these things.
And the concert finished with Time of Your Life - Billie stood at the very front of the stage, singing his heart out on his guitar - well not on his guitar, you know what I mean.
And then its back in the car - at three am, with We Are The Champions ringing in my head, that we make our three-hour-drive back to that sh*thole suburbia that we stupidly named "home" (but thats another story).
And now - don't think I didn't hear that sigh, you son of a - I shall tell you all about the other finer points of the concert!
Billie Joe's masturbation - I dunno what song it was during, but Billie was leading the crowd in chants of "Heyyyyy hoo" when he started making orgasm noises and slowly shoved his hands down his usual black trousers. And typically, the crowd roars, and me and my friend Zoe (being the dirty minded kiddies we are) crack up laughing as he finishes with the line "SOMEBODY F*CK ME!" And of course, the crowd offers but alas, to no avail.
Tré's wierd, random noises - Well, I think I heard it, but at one random point Tré stood up, grabbed a mic (no, not a Mike) and made a wierd noise that sounded like a baby duck .... well okay, nothing unusual there.
And lastly (yes, the end is almost here), the fireworks! Well, I bet not every concert gets fireworks, but there were a few at the beginning of Holiday and when Billie had strummed the last chords of Time Of Your Life, he leaves the stage beneath a blanket of, well, fireworks. Pretty impressive ones, too. Very impressive, in fact. Okay, I'll stop now.
So now, my little friends, you can take a deep breath. You didn't have to read my account of my very first concert (and what a concert to see), but I'm awfully glad you did. I mean, gee whiz, it was a long review - but then, it was a long concert. And its gonna stick in my head like some annoying radio jingle for the rest of my life.
But unlike everyone else, I'm not going to finally finish this review with the words "Thank you Green Day, I had the Time Of My Life". Instead, I'm gonna finish with this -
"The End"
By Me :):):)
alisonlind7@hotmail.com
It was about 2pm when we got to the stadium, 3 hours since leaving and having listened to Holiday about 6 times through, I was eager to sit down. Unfortunatly it was twice as hot outside of the car, and at the gates some buffed-up security guys were calmly searching peoples stuff and removing water bottles.
Anyways, you don't wanna listen to me rambling about some stupid water tax. You wanna hear about the concert of the year, don't you? Thought as much.
So, we sat down. There was already about, 45,000 people already at the stadium. It was the largest amount of people I'd ever seen, and there were more to come. We sat ourselves down at the very back of the stadium (as a future note, don't try and bribe the security at the mosh pit with fifty quid, it doesn't work) and settled down with the programme.
Sadly, Green Day wouldn't be coming on until 9pm - 7 hours to go. But at around 5pm, after buying a LOT of merchandise (I hope Green Day get some of the profits, £16 for a shirt and £35 for a hoodie!?), Hard-Fi came on, followed by Taking Back Sunday and, lastly, Jimmy Eat World (which I missed, seeing as my friends had 'accidently' put sweet chilli sauce on my chips instead of ketchup and I was too busy throwing them at them to notice a band was playing). Okay, I admit, the support bands were of course, nothing on Green Day, but they seemed to have a lot of followers - people wearing Taking Back Sunday scarves and the lot. They were good, I give them that.
But by 9pm - well thats when the action really started. Me and my friends returned from the stalls and sat down, only to stand up again as the huge crowd began cheering as the "dun-dun-DUN" thingy played (well come on, how the hell am I supposed to know what its called?), then we watched in peals of laughter as some hammered rabbit ran onto the stage dancing to YMCA - and then with screams from the 65,000-people crowd, the voice we know and can only love shouts "Get that f***ing rabbit off my stage ... and then the oh so familliar opening tune of American Idiot plays and Green Day run onstage, Billie Joe grabbing the mic screaming "ENGLAND!!" at random points during the song.
Wow, I've said a lot so far - sorry if I'm boring you already, but a lot happened at that concert.
Anyways, although I can't remember the exact order, our golden boys went on to play most of the American Idiot album - Holiday, Boulevard, Are We The Waiting/Saint Jimmy, Jesus of Suburbia. Wake Me Up When September Ends was definitely a memorable moment - Billie-Joe had tears in his eyes (or so it seemed) as he watched the crowd wave candles and lighters chanting the words as the sun vanished from view.
Then came the old classics - Basket Case (which sparked a lot of cheering), Longview, Maria, Hitchin' A Ride, Minority (And I think Brainstew/Jaded too). Then, as is at every Green Day concert, Knowledge (the Operation Ivy cover) begins to play, as Billie informs the audience that he's going to make a band on stage. So up comes a drummer, a bassist, and finally a guitarist - who Billie promptly asked "Have you ever been laid? No? Well you're gonna get laid tonight!" before snogging the lucky guy, insulting his guitar skills, GIVING him the guitar and sending him off shouting "You were sh*t! Get off my stage!".
This is going on forever ... but anyway, just to bore you to the point of ... something, next was the famous King For A Day (which never gets old), during which the band donned bizarre hats and, Billie wearing a crown and cloak surveying his empire - or his fans, depends how you look at these things.
And the concert finished with Time of Your Life - Billie stood at the very front of the stage, singing his heart out on his guitar - well not on his guitar, you know what I mean.
And then its back in the car - at three am, with We Are The Champions ringing in my head, that we make our three-hour-drive back to that sh*thole suburbia that we stupidly named "home" (but thats another story).
And now - don't think I didn't hear that sigh, you son of a - I shall tell you all about the other finer points of the concert!
Billie Joe's masturbation - I dunno what song it was during, but Billie was leading the crowd in chants of "Heyyyyy hoo" when he started making orgasm noises and slowly shoved his hands down his usual black trousers. And typically, the crowd roars, and me and my friend Zoe (being the dirty minded kiddies we are) crack up laughing as he finishes with the line "SOMEBODY F*CK ME!" And of course, the crowd offers but alas, to no avail.
Tré's wierd, random noises - Well, I think I heard it, but at one random point Tré stood up, grabbed a mic (no, not a Mike) and made a wierd noise that sounded like a baby duck .... well okay, nothing unusual there.
And lastly (yes, the end is almost here), the fireworks! Well, I bet not every concert gets fireworks, but there were a few at the beginning of Holiday and when Billie had strummed the last chords of Time Of Your Life, he leaves the stage beneath a blanket of, well, fireworks. Pretty impressive ones, too. Very impressive, in fact. Okay, I'll stop now.
So now, my little friends, you can take a deep breath. You didn't have to read my account of my very first concert (and what a concert to see), but I'm awfully glad you did. I mean, gee whiz, it was a long review - but then, it was a long concert. And its gonna stick in my head like some annoying radio jingle for the rest of my life.
But unlike everyone else, I'm not going to finally finish this review with the words "Thank you Green Day, I had the Time Of My Life". Instead, I'm gonna finish with this -
"The End"
By Me :):):)
alisonlind7@hotmail.com
