She came, I saw, she conquered...

I had been so preoccupied with my unemployed state and Owen's back op that I had purposefully not been thinking about September 11th... Madonna Day! What... you thought I meant something else?

It looked like I was going alone as Owen was only out of the hospital on Tuesday but he reinvented himself as an action hero and managed to get to Wembley by cab so we could see Herself together as planned.

We have been spoiled with the stadium taking so long to be rebuilt. That has meant M has played the Arena instead, giving more intimate - yes Arena and intimate used in the same sentence - shows, and more of them. Now I guess normal diva status has been resumed and she will be playing the stadium again....sigh.
Still the Icon pre-sale tickets were not too bad - halfway down on the side looking across onto the stage and runway. As usual I had the Mad Cow magnet on and was next to a creature who before it started apologised for all the times she was going to bump into me while she danced. "That's ok" sez I "I was just building up to saying the same to you". And sure enough, everytime she banged into me I banged into her.

They announced at 8:25pm the show was about to start. Yeah right... it's a Madonna show - sure enough we had a 9:10 kick-off. There's been bitching in the press today about this but I guess these people didn't go to any of her previous shows. I have been spoilt with the last two tours by having the chance to see them a couple of times but this was the only chance on this one so I was concentrating on the stage as soon as the lights went down!

Although it wasn't as good as the Confessions tour the show was still a vibrant, pulsing, colourful, extravaganza punched over with wit, thumping beats and vision. They can bitch about the prices... but I have never felt short-changed.
Kicking off, like the showcase gigs recently, was CANDY SHOP but that kinda whizzed past in the thrill of seeing her there - in the flesh - as big as a thumbnail! That slammed into BEAT GOES ON featuring a big white cadillac that drove down the runway while Kanye West rapped on the big screens. Next up was a bump'n'grinding version of HUMAN NATURE backed by CCTV footage of a hoodied-blonde trapped in a lift who answered Madonna's last "I'm not your bitch" with "It's Britany bitch" and it was! The Pimp section was rounded off with a delicious VOGUE deeply mashed up with the parping brass and ticking clocks of 4 MINUTES.

The Old School section was my fave - a wonderfully hip-hopped INTO THE GROOVE featured M rocking a go-go pole against a lovely vivid animated backdrop of Keith Haring's figures. As the song morphed into JUMP Maddy even showed us she is a Double Dutch champion! After HEARTBEAT she gave us a delicious surprise - BORDERLINE reinvented as a guitar anthem - and it worked! SHE'S NOT ME ended up with the coup-de-theatre of M confronting four dancers dressed in iconic outfits from the videos of Material Girl, Like A Virgin, Express Yourself and Vogue. She roughed them up and staggered back to the stage in time for MUSIC steeped in early 80s street beats with track-suited bodypopping dancers.
After a powerful DEVIL WOULDN'T RECOGNISE YOU - the latest of her great anthemic ballads - came SPANISH LESSON (still don't like the song) but then we got a great MILES AWAY. I take it back... *this* is her latest great anthem ballad! LA ISLA BONITA followed in the Romany style she previewed at the Live Earth show which was enormous fun, whirling and swirling with a gypsy band and dancers. This segment ended with the surprising inclusion of YOU MUST LOVE ME from 'Evita' which again found the audience stilled by another great vocal - needless to say at the end when she paused before the last word she got affirmation from us. By the way her outfit for this segment was my favourite of the evening,

A remix video of GIVE IT 2 ME came next with 'get stupid' sung over footage of Hitler, Mugabe... and John McCain - can't wait to see how that goes down in the US - especially as the forces of good include Obama... and Oprah!

The last segment started with an oddly lacklustre 4 MINUTES swiftly eclipsed by a stunning LIKE A PRAYER here transformed into a rave anthem. Madonna then strapped on the guitar again for RAY OF LIGHT and HUNG UP and the whole show was rounded off with a thumping, impassioned GIVE IT 2 ME.

I was left on such a high I didn't even mind having to wait an hour for the cab Owen had booked for 11.40 to crawl around the Stadium due to the total logjam of cars.

With a day to reflect on the experience I do have only two criticisms: my main problem with the show was I would have liked a little more engagement from Madonna. At times the show felt a bit soulless - true she did a little chat between RAY OF LIGHT and HUNG UP while giving us a quick version of EXPRESS YOURSELF to sing along to but it would have been nice for the tightly-scripted show to have been deviated from a bit - it's her adopted home town after all! I could also do with less of the rock goddess shtick now - it's ok for a couple of songs but each segment of the show featured a moment when the guitar was strapped on. It's odd that while the last two albums have been more dance-orientated that her concerts are featuring the axe more and more. Oh and this was the first Madonna gig that will not be represented in my t-shirt collection - they were all a bit blah.

But these niggles aside she still gave a fantastic show and she's still my idol. When's the dvd out?