2001. Eight years on... and I was seeing Madonna alone at Earls Court. OI THE TSOURIS.... had a nice seat halfway back on the floor in the block behind the mixing desk, sat there gawping about... 5 minutes before startime a steward showed up asking to check my ticket! 5 minutes later there I was in the front office having my tickets checked with about 5 other people whose seats were double-booked - bloody Ticketmaster!!! I stood there, the last to have a new seat allocated - as I heard the muffled screams of the audience as the gig started. I was freaking out - demanding to be seated *hand arcs above the head and finger snaps* NOW.
FINALLY I had a seat allocated and raced to my new seat - nearly halfway down at the side with a great view across onto the stage so actually all worked out in the end! A wonderous theatrical spectacle which managed to be intimate and barnsorming... I screamed myself stoopid!
1993, last time at the stadium and the last time seeing Madonna with Steve. THE GIRLIE SHOW was a bit of a comedown after the glorious excess of the BLONDE AMBITION tour but it still had it's highpoints although ultimately it all seemed a bit remote. The tour was subsequently released on the LIVE DOWN UNDER dvd. 
1990, back to the Stadium for the BLONDE AMBITION tour, this time was Ann Molloy and - ahem - Valerie Singleton. Loved this much more than the WTG? tour... Gautier's conical bras. the BEWITCHED top-knot and fall, the LIKE A VIRGIN harem scene, the FAMILY AFFAIR/KEEP IT TOGETHER medley... The tour was sponsored by Pioneer so the concert could be released on Laserdisc - remember them? I wonder if that's why it's never been released on dvd. Maybe they think there's enough of the concert footage in the documentary IN BED WITH MADONNA? 
This was the brochure for the WHO'S THAT GIRL? tour in 1987, the first time I saw Madonna on stage when she played Wembley Stadium. I went with my mate Steve who sadly died ten years ago. It was her first appearance in the UK as her Virgin tour two years previously had only toured the States. 
The tour is available now on the CIAO ITALIA! dvd.
So here's a lovely little item again from Barcelona. I bought this 'desktop centre' in Poble Espanyol at the workshop/gallery of glass designer Luesma Vega. Poble Espanyol is a strange place, built in 1929 for the International Exhibition on the road up the side of Montjuic mountain, it was laid out like a small Spanish village with buildings designed to represent the different regional architecture of Spain. Since it opened it has had a chequered existence - you won't find too many references in it's literature to the fact it was an internment camp during the Civil War - but in 1997 it started to regenerate itself into a large centre for Catalan arts and crafts which is what sustains it today. Not bad for a project originally meant to stand for the exhibition's span of 6 months. We walked around Poble Espanyol late one afternoon, Owen found some small handmade cards of the Gaudi Chimneys of Palau Guell and Casa Mila which he has since had framed and I found a small shop run by a nice old lady who made figures out of straw, Yes I bought some donkeys! After this we found Vega's gallery and were struck by the originality of his designs. My frosted glass dish with the glittery green and yellow inset centre has yet to find it's right place in the house but I'll keep it safe in it's box for now.
WOTCHA MATES!
I remember me and my Ma went to see his show DANNY AT THE PALACE at - no, honest - the Palace Theatre where it ran an astonishing two years in the early 1970s and have two abiding memories: the sheer glamour of it all with outlandish frocks - all trains and feathers - and that the jokes were even ruder - and I still got 'em. Obviously bred in the bone. Danny La Rue ruled that stage.. holding the audience like a true star and managed to bring the house down with a look. He kinda disappeared off the tv in the late 70s when his shtick of poking fun at Dietrich, Bassey etc. appeared hackneyed but never stopped touring - he even appeared as Dolly in HELLO DOLLY in the west end in the 1980s.
On Friday I went with Angela to the Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre to see the London debut of Jason Robert Brown's off-Broadway musical THE LAST 5 YEARS. I remembered how small the theatre was - seating only 150 - from when O and I saw the sensational production of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE there in December... but we ain't in December now.... it was quite an ordeal. The sweat was rolling off me from the get-go and being so closely packed in on the bench seats made it ultimately an uncomfortable 80 minutes. 
Oi Gevalt Productions... the heat. 
Went with Owen to see X-MEN:THE FINAL STAND this afternoon. One of his must-see films of the year, I was happy to tag along as I must admit to having liked the last two - although the big action fantasy picture is a genre that usually leaves me cold. The previous films were directed by Bryan Singer who brought an interesting brooding quality to them. The eclectic cast have always made their odd characters interesting, imbuing them with more watchability than usual for this kind of film and the underlying thread of the place of the misfit in normal society is mined for all it's worth.
BEDROOM MEMORABILIA #1
bit trepeditious about the evening. I was expecting it to be a supperclub performance plus orchestra with maybe a toe-curling "I wanna take you back with a medley of my hits" segment with a mid-tempo skip through her deep soul classics from her Motown and Buddah years. It didn't bode well from the start when her support act was a comedian. We sat it out in the bar which soon filled with bemused punters who had expected a soul singer. This of course meant that the bar staff of two had no time to fill the interval drinks orders so when the interval soon arrived, the bar was bedlam. I know this as I was trying to be served at the time.
were 3 rows from the stage! Owen had told me we were towards the back so I hadn't bothered checking. Needless to say thanks to the RAH's low stage we had a great view of Gladys and her on-stage band: conductor, 3 backing singers, 7 travelling band members and a London string section. She walked out to a standing ovary (me included) and launched into a frantic "Friendship Train" - a lesser-known Motown hit - followed quickly by the 1988 hit "Love Overboard". It was great, lights were flashing, the band was tight and Gladys' white flowing diamante-flecked outfit was loose! She was in glorious voice all evening, effortless in range and power. She mined the depths of soul for "If I Were Your Woman" and "Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)", maintained the tense vocal for "Licence To Kill" with ease (a surprising appearance in the set), earned a standing ovation for a lovely "The Way We Were" - owning the song now as much as Streisand - and jazzing it up with 5 selections from her new Verve cd BEFORE ME of classics from earlier singers who inspired her. 
The show ended when she was joined onstage by older brother Bubba who was also one of the Pips! They dueted on a funky cover of Al Green's "Love And Happiness" then managed to bring the house down and the audience to it's feet with "Midnight Train To Georgia". They encored with a downhome rendition of their version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", a hit for them before Marvin Gaye. 
