Monday 12 September 2011

Stormy Weather

Here’s what it looks like today here on the South Coast of England:stormy sea 002stormy sea 005

The remains of Hurricane Katia have hit our shores.  It’s not too bad here on the South Coast, worse up north and in Scotland!  But thank goodness it waited until this morning and didn’t disrupt the fantastic concert we went to on Hyde Park yesterday afternoon and evening!  It was organised by BBC Radio 2, a ‘Festival in a Day’.  WOW!  What an amazing experience! 

We arrived in Hyde Park about 4.45pm, and sadly  missed the first 2 acts but managed to see most of  Beverly Knight's set (UK's greatest soul singer) Wow!

 R2 concert Hyde Park 004

Next up was Caro Emerald who had never played to such a big audience but did really well.

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Will Young had a bit of a sore throat so did a shorter set, but still wowed us! He is such a nice bloke!

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Jonathan Jeramiah played over our side of the stage, and he looks so cool with long floppy hair! Love his laid back almost surf dude style.

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Next up was Lenny Kravitz, and boy! Did he blow us away!!! I am ashamed to admit that I didn't really know who he was before, but of course knew his big hits. He was fantastic, and really got the audience going.

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Imelda May was brilliant, full of energy!

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James Blunt was awesome! I don't really like his voice, bit squeaky for me, but his show was absolutely brilliant, very impressive live act.

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I love the Pierces! They are from Alabama, USA, and a bit hippy, country, and very beautiful. I already have their CD. They too had not performed to such a big audience (about 40,00).

 

The headline act was due to be Lionel Ritchie, and to be honest it was because of him that I booked the tickets.  So imagine my disappointment when he pulled out due to ill health!  So instead we were treated to Chic, who absolutely blew us away with 'Everybody Dance', 'Le Freak', 'We are Family' and 'Good Times', such great dance numbers! They were on the other side of the stage, so no pics from me I am afraid.  But DH took some fabulous photos with his much longer zoom, so I’ll post some more later.

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Finally Gary Barlow wowed us with singing Lionel Ritchie's 'Hello' plus lots of Take That songs.
So although I still feel disappointed that we didn't see Lionel Ritchie, we had a fabulous time!

Each act was introduced by a different DJ from my favourite radio station (I listen throughout the day).  So it was great to see them too!  As you can tell from these pictures, we were pretty close to the stage, only about 6 people back, but over to one side.  Nevertheless it was a good position and as DH said, it was nice to actually ‘see’ the real people! 

Mostly people were having a great time, the atmosphere was brilliant!  But 2 small things that irritated: The number of really drunk people!  This was a Radio 2 concert not Glastonbury!  And the amount of litter people left behind!

The concert finished on the dot at 10pm, with an encore from Gary Barlow.  Unfortunately our train wasn’t leaving until 11.17pm, so we had a bit of a wait, and we didn’t get home until 1.30am!!  EEK!  That’s very late for us!  This morning my legs and feet ache from 7 hours dancing, and my voice is croaky from singing!  Woohoo!

7 comments:

scrappysue said...

How lovely to see your day in pictures Linda, glad you enjoyed the event! Not liking the look of that storm though, hope it doesn't get any worse! x

Melissa said...

Wow, sounds like a fabulous concert with so many performers in one evening.

Alison said...

Looks and sounds like a fab concert...hope the weather has settled!
Alison xx

alexa said...

Sounds like an amazing concert! (I'd get cross about drink and litter too.) Glad you all enjoyed it.

Shari said...

Sounds like an amazing concert Linda - so many performers. I hope you have caught up on your sleep.

Chicken Licken said...

Oooo I wish I had just said sod it and gone now! And I heard Gary Barlow sing Hello on the radio....sent shivers down my spine it was great.

Helen said...

Looks like you had a great day out in the Smoke and you got some good shots .. shame about Lionel!