Bucket List

[BroadAmbition]

Ticking off another one this evening.  Shortly leaving home with MrsG bound for Manchester.  Check into hotel, then walk over to Manchester Arena to be entertained by Jeff Lynne ELO.  Then out for dinner, back to hotel to behave like newlyweds (Highly unlikely)

I've been looking forward to this one for an age

Griff

[Gracie]

Have a lovely time, as for back at the hotel, dinner, champagne and a new pair of shoes should do the trick

Grace

[riyadhcrew]

ELO - they bring back some happy memories. Enjoy Griff.

[Paul]

Enjoy Griff. I saw ELO part 2, the Jeff Lynne-less incarnation back in the early nineties and have to say I was a little disappointed. I had seen Lynne in concert a little while earlier with Tom Petty and George Harrison and that was incredible. It was always on my bucket list to see the Travelling Wilbury's, I was a huge fan but they didn't "tour" as such so it was always unlikely and Orbison's premature death ended that dream.

Still, I did get to fly on Concorde, saw Montserrat Caballe in concert and attened the opera at Verona. I've seen the northern lights and climbed Kilimanjaro. I've driven an F1 car and watched Queen at Wembley, and more than all of those witness the birth of my son, so all in all not too bad. One or two things left but I doubt that ABBA will ever reform and I no longer have any inclination for overseas travel so I guess Machu Pichu and the Pyramids of Giza will slip me by.

[Wildfuzz]

Last concert I went to was Michael JACKSON on the Thriller tour, bit past all that now.......

[riyadhcrew]

Stuart,

A little story about MJ and all true - for I was there and part of it.

When he came to London, he stayed at The Mayfair Hotel and I was the Director of Engineering. He took the 2 bedroom Penthouse Suite and I was asked to remove the bed from the second room and put in a wooden floor. I naturally presumed that he wanted to hone his dancing skills, but I was wrong. His remote controlled toy cars would not work on the carpet.

Anyways, his personal minder was called Bill Beaumont and was a retired Los Angeles policeman. He gave me 2 tickets to his Wembley concert, but unfortunately, I could not go on that night, so I gave the tickets away. I was asked to go the second night and ended up on the sound stage.

Still, to this day, the most professional concert I have ever seen and MJ was amazing.

[BroadScot]

Well for me I had the pleasure of being at a Andrea Bocelli concert at the NIC. I was booked to go to the Pavarotti concert at The Ageos Bowl, Southampton, sadly that was when he became gravely ill. Still, one out of two of finest tenors aint bad!

Been to Verona Coliseum, sadly no concert on, but VERY hot just sitting in the arena for all of five minutes, any longer the camera and I would have melted !

Iain

[riyadhcrew]

Iain,

My time at the Mayfair (5 years) saw me meet many stars. Not something I can post on here, but to be laughed at over a pint or three. An example is 25,000 pounds worth of damage to a suite by a well known band and a shrug of the shoulders with a credit card was all that was required.

[BroadScot]

Hi Eric,

The nearest I have been to that hotel is passing in a Taxi !  

Iain

[grendel]

II have been to a hawkwind concert (where I got tinetus - all the way home I couldnt even hear the bike engine) I have travelled on the orient express (and very posh it was too, the chairs arent even fixed to the floor, so if the train stops hard you slide a bit - the head waiter was complaining the driver was taking things too fast on the way back, and was even thrown off his feet as we pulled into kings cross- words were had with the driver). I cant wait until my next event - out with Griff in a few weeks- I am really looking forward to that one (and my dad wants lots of pictures)

[BroadScot]

4 minutes ago, grendel said:

cant wait until my next event - out with Griff in a few weeks- I am really looking forward to that one (and my dad wants lots of pictures)

Is that with or without a big blue bow fender in the pics ?

[grendel]

I have shared a toilet block with Jeff Capes, had my trousers split by Ainsly Harriot when he (borrowed them for filming), and bumped into Frank Bruno at work (didnt realise he was shorter than me) shaken hands with Prince Charles and Boris Johnson (sorry I should rephrase that last one - Boris grabbed my hand and tried to flap me up and down). filmed with Edward Fox, Michael York and Joanna Lumley, and appeared on Blue Peter twice. (and got the badges somewhere to prove it).

And visited Al Fayads country home too.

[Vaughan]

14 minutes ago, grendel said:

I have shared a toilet block with Jeff Capes, had my trousers split by Ainsly Harriot when he (borrowed them for filming), and bumped into Frank Bruno at work (didnt realise he was shorter than me) shaken hands with Prince Charles and Boris Johnson (sorry I should rephrase that last one - Boris grabbed my hand and tried to flap me up and down). filmed with Edward Fox, Michael York and Joanna Lumley, and appeared on Blue Peter twice. (and got the badges somewhere to prove it)

I'd love to share a pint with you, when you're next in Norfolk, and hear some more!

Music and me, well I have been 1st drum in a military band at the Royal Tournament and I have sung in Handel's Messiah more than once but for me, the high point of all was when I was still at school, and went to see Mannfred Mann perform in Earlham Park, near Norwich, where the university is now built. This was probably the first ever open air pop concert in the British Isles and there were thousands of us.

The warm-up act, on an upright piano, was "Black Anna", the landlady of the Jolly Butchers in Ber St., Norwich. If you've never heard of her, that's another story!

The band's stage performance was gripping and the rain came down in stair rods all night but we didn't care - we just yelled as Paul Jones sang "The people of the town came just to stand around, and see the singer looking sweet".

 

[ExSurveyor]

I had a wee at a urinal with Darth Vader one side and John Inman the other,  not sure who I was more nervous of 

[Bound2Please]

59 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

This was probably the first ever open air pop concert in the British Isles and there were thousands of us.

 

Was that before Weeley then?

[TheQ]

Errr .... Paul

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/abba-sing-together-for-first-time-in-more-than-30-years/

https://concertwith.me/en_us/tour-dates/ABBA

 

[BroadAmbition]

Back home after a day to remember.  It was exciting, emotional, jaw dropping all rolled into one.  So pleased we have ticked this one off.  It'll take something very special to equal it.  Rod Stewart is next in December down in Birmingham

Griff