Songs at the Scala Cherry Tree

From Diana Vickers 2010

On the fourth night, in five I found myself enjoying the variety of live music to be found in London and another new venue for me - Scala Tonight it was the owner of the current UK number one album – Diana Vickers. I’m not sure what I expected – X factor finalists have a reputation for being highly manufactured and without the supporting X factor circus failing to deliver. Diana over turned that reputation completely – reviving an audience that had been subdue by the mellow tones of Jamie Cullum over the sound system, and the chill of air conditioning! Every song of the hour long set had the whole audience enjoying themselves – with no exceptions. My next evening of live music is due to be on the 25th May – I’m sure I can find something between then an now to continue my musical adventure.

Sunset at Borderline

From Sandi Thom 2010

Sandi Thom failed to be clichéd by reprising Sunset Borderline during her appearance at a venue that might have made it difficult to resist! This was my third night of live music in four nights – with a further evening to come. Borderline was a new venue for me – a nice contrast to the scale of the two O2 sponsored venues of the previous evenings. I was lucky enough to get there early enough to grab a prime spot right next to the stage – the pillar in the middle of the floor could have spoilt the view had the venue been packed. The music was rather more bluesy than the two albums I’ve enjoyed listening to for a while – but that was done very well – and anything guitar based ticks the boxes for me. The acapella duet with Lindsey Cleary that was left to the encore was a revelation.

99 Luftballoons Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont

From Nena 2010

I only knew one track from Nena - 99 Red Balloons, but that is one of the songs from 80’s Top of the Pops that I clearly recall – looking back the staging of the song with a singer in the middle of I presume 99 balloons of the colour red wasn’t exactly creative! This is the first time I’ve been to a gig where none of the lyrics where in English – most of the audience was German. But despite not understanding any of the lyrics – other than the German for 99 red balloons, it was a great evening of rock! The only disappointment was, apparently at the instruction of Nena herself, a fairly rigorously enforced ban on photography – stealth had to be used to avoid a flash light being pointed towards you by the bouncers who where eagerly enforcing the policy! At least the policy didn’t discriminate – even use of camera phones induced a wave of the flash lights!

Cricket on a hot evening in Mumbai

From IPL Match

It takes dedication to watch Cricket in India – the IPL match started long after the heat of day – but even so it was still 36C according to the display on the top of a near by tower block – and that was without the extra heat from the flood lights! I can’t imaging what watching a five day test match would be like… IPL is like the highlights from a normal one day match – but live without the need to cut any of the play. Add the cheerleaders whenever there was a pause for TV adverts – or to recover the ball from the bound – which it reached with great regularity – to increase the entertainment.  It was a great experience – only slightly marred by the fact that the modern world still hasn’t excepted that the public want to take pictures of events – I gave up the memory card of my camera to get it in – and was limited to the 15MB internal memory…

Motorbikes replace the musicians

From British Supercross 2010

After an incredible engineering effort, the O2 arena was transformed into a Super Cross track by adding hundreds of tons of earth where normally there would be a mush pit or rows of seated concert goers. The riders provided as big a spectacular as many of the other performers I’ve seen at the O2. The height of the jumps and the speed between the bumps was amazing. How the evening finished without at least one person in an ambulance I’m not sure. Every age group fearlessly charged round the track on ever large and more powerful bikes. The larger struggled in the confined space to over take each other – leading to a number of spectacular collisions! The only downside was the requirement for one end of the arena to be open to allow the exhaust fumes out and the bikes in and out resulted in the normally warm location to take on the near freezing outside temperatures!