Shouting from the Hop

We went to see Echo and the Bunnymen last night, at Shepherds Bush Empire, and had an interesting time. The band were very good, playing numerous old classics, some of which I haven't heard them play live for many, many years! I guess that there will be live reviews of the gig elsewhere from the media or other bloggers, so I want to talk about the crowd for a change.

We arrived at Shepherds Bush early, so found a pub (The Green); it was showing the football (Liverpool, so we knew the band wouldn't be on till that finished at 9.30). The pub was busy, but it was a strange looking bunch. To me, it seemed more like the people you would get going to a football match than a gig - mostly male, mainly older, not dressed too fashionably (jeans everywhere...) but definitely in their best clothes! And there wan't too much hair about either, with most of the men having taken that "I'm going bald so I might as well shave it all off" decision! Quite sad...

After a couple of beers, we went into the Empire, which was pretty busy by now. We had stalls tickets this time; on all other occasions at The Empire (except one) we have sat upstairs in one of the circles. It wasn't so bad getting served at the bar, and we stood chatting and people watching while support band L20 played a good set.

When the Bunnies came on, we moved down to the stalls floor from the at-the-back bar area. Here it was pretty full, so using experience gained over many years, we stood our ground and watched, then took any and every opportunity to move forward when somebody in front of us left for a refill or toilet break. What surprised me was that after people had left the floor to do whatever they had to do, they seemed to insist on trying to get back to exactly the same spot they had occupied before...not a good idea! Especially if someone else is standing there now!

I also didn't really appreciate having a guy singing loudly at the top of his voice in my ear; I mouth the words (when I can remember them) but I would have prefered to listen to Mac actually (he has the better voice I can guarantee)!

My final whinge was about the number of people filming the event on their video-mobiles. I always thought this was strictly off-limits, as bootlegging does the band no favours at all. I think it's OK to take the odd-fuzzy picture at a live event, but taping holds a lot of bad karma for me. It didn't seem to matter to many though, as they held up their brand new mobiles, blocking peoples views, gathering up the sound and vision, then sending the footage to their less-fortunate friends elsewhere.

An aside: Why do men insist on taking their beer into the toilets, and then leaving them in there when they have finished precariously placed above the urinal? I saw loads of unfinished pints (some cups up to half full) standing there, left behind, waiting to fall. Crazy!

So the gig finished; the band were very good but the crowd got on my nerves big-time. At least Mac hadn't resorted to a football-related slanging match with them, winding them up - I guess he didn't need to as Liverpool had won.

We jumped on the tube back into London, and tried to catch a train home but just missed it by 15 seconds or so (watching it close it's doors and pull away...), so we caught the next one ten minutes later and decided to take a cab home from Hither Green. The cab driver was a nice guy, waiting while my girlfriend walked down from the station in the rain (I had run to ensure getting the taxi); as we drove home, he played an old Madness album which was fun, while I chatted to my girlfriend about seeing them play live back in the late seventies and early eighties. My girlfriend gave me some money (a note) which I handed to the driver for the £10 fare, plus a quid tip. We got out, the cab drove off, and she says to me "did you get the change?". I say no, I didn't even know it was a twenty!!! Oh well, we agreed, the driver had a good tip that time! Just as we were closing the front door of our house, I heard the cab reverse and the driver roll down the window. He asked if I knew what I'd handed over and gave me ten quid back - what a nice, honest, man. My faith in human kind restored. A big-up for the taxi firm on the corner of Leahurst and Staplehurst Roads, Hither Green (the Lee side of the station)!

The gig was filmed (I think for a BBC4 programme), so you can check out most of the above for yourself...