Kurds and Waifs - Alanis Concert 1st March 1999


[some news : Chris Maslin who's 2 year working visa expires in the end 
of April is ummm...getting married soon..........]

Hi everyone !!

well this is my first email to you all for a very long time. I think 
I've been starting to feel the grind here. I get up at 7am to get ready 
for work, take the 40-60 min tube trip to work.

  Despite it being winter it is actually quite hot now so at work in the 
office I end up sweating a lot during the day. Work here is unlike 
XTRA's helpdesk in that it is more relaxed and not too many rules, plus 
it is much quieter ! I generally turn up late and take lunch whenever. 
As a result of tiredness I've not had the energy to write up those big 
emails - never fear as it is all in my head so I'm making sure it's kept 
safe until it can release all its sordid contents.....

  Anyway I have recovered enough to write this email and despite my 
original intentions it will not be of a sexually violent nature as I was 
pretty annoyed when I thought about what I was going to write....so no 
nasty words about german lesbians !

  Anyway let's see what's happened recently :

On Friday 26th February it was our monthly payday so as usual we planned 
to do a team-building activity. The plan was to go to do some 
ice-skating then go to a salsa bar. As it happened the company had a do 
so we all went to the pub and used up the bartab. I sampled a Hanleys 
and Hanson Ale which went down nicely though as I had not eaten much 
that day I was feeling a little sick and weighed down.

  To cut a long story short everyone got too jolly and happy at the pub 
so we ended up going to the salsa bar an hour late and the queue was too 
long and the door charge had gone from 0 to 8 pounds ! When I was going 
to make a bolt for it my boss grabbed me and said to wait another 15 
mins. 

  15 minutes later as I am at the front of the queue I dash off while 
everyone files into the venue ;-)  I wander around town from 
9:30pm-10:30pm, it's been a long time since I've been down here and I 
still love the atmosphere !

I pop into the HMV music store and pick up a few videos on sale :
Jason And The Argonauts
Face Off (widescreen)
Last Man Standing (widescreen)
Man Bites Dog (widescreen)
The Big Blue (162 minute version widescreen)

The weekend passed without much incidence but I also pick up some more 
videos :

Hard Boiled (widescreen)
Just Heroes (widescreen)
Marathon Man - which is one of my most favourite movies !

  Monday rolls around and I am euphoric as it is the concert. It'll be 
explained later on in an email but somehow we managed to secure tickets 
to the Alanis Morrisette concert at the Shepherds Bush Empire just down 
the road from us!  Tickets were a cheap 10 pounds for a venue with a 
capacity of 2600 as opposed to the large Wembley venue she'll be playing 
in a few months. So naturally we were all elated to be able to secure 
hard to get downstairs tickets !

  Doors open at 7pm and we get there at 7:30pm and there is a line 
several hundred deep to get in, great, when we get in we'll be at the 
back I thought. Mark had been in the line since 2:30pm.....dunno why !

I shudder when I see the sign saying no cameras or video equipment ! 

I decide to chance it.

 I put my camera in my right pocket and push it in towards my 
crotch.........so it is covered by my untucked shirt (and people said I 
was sloppy and scruffy on purpose!) and I also pull up my pants high. I 
have a cd in my left pocket as a red herring and I am carrying a 
magazine in a plastic bag to get signed. I walk up to the bouncers and 
instead of going to the side to get the bag checked I hand it to them to 
check there is nothing in there. I walk on acting like a concert greenie 
and when I come to the next wave of bouncers they are about to check me 
again but the first bouncer says that I have been checked already so I 
walk on with a big smirk on my face !

  We walk through the venue which I've been into so many times and am 
suprised that there is still a lot of free room. We make our way to the 
front as close as we can. With me are Leila and Emma. I am the tallest 
but we try to find a suitable place so the girls can see the stage. We 
end up about 8m from stage. Right at the front are Mark, DJ and two 
other hostellers.

  At about 8:00pm the support band STRAW come on. They are brit poppish 
with a Hammond organ and sound pretty good. They play probably the 
longest and most enjoyable support set I've ever heard for about 45 
minutes.

  We're then waiting around for 30 mins growing restless while the 
roadies set up the stage. Finally the lights lower and the band and then 
Alanis comes on !

  The crowd goes wild and she launches into 2 great songs off the new 
album. What has always struck me is that at a concert the lights are so 
bright on the performers that it almost seems unreal that you are really 
watching them in real life !

  When she came on she walked right in front of Mark (1 metre away on a 
low stage) and the others and I wondered if they'd be able to take a 
good photo from there.... Alanis was great to watch a lot of energy and 
she moved around the stage a lot but very little on the between song 
banter ! The lighting show was the best I've ever seen, very evocative 
of the songs, for example the wonderful "Uninvited". The third song was 
"Hand In My Pocket" which naturally got the whole audience singing and 
hyperactive.

  I always seem to end up near the assholes as a whole group of young 
spanish guys and girls move in and start jumping around which is a pain 
but still bearable. Though I had to laugh as a group of south african or 
aussie louts muscled in on their area and tried desperately to do a 
crowd surf which ended in one of them being surfed towards the front 
into the hands of a bouncer.

  Suffice to say the best crowd reaction were for the songs from Jagged 
Little Pill. "You Outta Know" was a bass/dub driven track until the 
final part where it becomes very rocky !

  During all this I got up the gumption to take a few photos making sure 
the bouncers could not see me. I had positioned myself pretty much in 
the middle and surrounded by people. A few other people have photos and 
they dared to take some as well. Every now and then someone close to 
stage fires one off and quickly darts back into the crowd away from the 
bouncers trying to grab the camera !

  Mark told me of a girl in their area right up front of the stage and 
had an amazing zoom camera who always hid behind the tall big guy next 
to her so she was hidden from view from the bouncers at the side of the 
stage !

  I cooled it off after a while with the camera as I could see the 
bouncers on either side of the hall looking deep into the crowd.

  When things started getting heated Emma and Leila got separated from 
me and it was later I heard about their run in with some german lesbians 
! (nuff said okay)

  The last song was "Uninvited" then she came on for 3 more songs in the 
encore including "Ironic" and "Thank You". And for the final encore she 
did 2 more songs from the new album and that was it !

 WOW ! I thought along with everyone else, we surely got our money's 
worth with the 2 hour concert ! I hung up front for a copy of the 
setlist but they were very unforthcoming.

 We went outside and there was plenty of bootleg tshirts on sale etc. I 
head to the stagedoor with Mark and others in tow to try to get an 
autograph. There is a concert security guy who won't let us down the 
alleyway. Mark asks if we can go past and the answer is naturally no



...............though he mentions that he'll be finishing in 5 minutes !

 So we hang around and he goes off, but we decide to stay on the right 
side of the barrier.

  Now it was a time to catch up with the others and discuss the concert 
! Jeremy who is a bouncer at the Walkabout pub next door comes and talks 
to us, he's just returned from Los Angeles. At the end I lead the way 
and the 10 of us walk on down to the stagedoor. Already there are 3-4 
oldish guys and Jeremy said that one of them was her driver.

  So we hang with them. Among us is a very talkative canadian girl, a 
large indian girl who heard about the concert too late so had to buy one 
from the touts for 40 pounds !  There is an italian guy who did not go 
to the concert but is picking up some momentos for his sister. There is 
also an old autograph hound there who I remember from the Ronnie Spector 
concert.

  After what seemed like a short time but if our clocks are correct we 
were out there for over an hour a big bouncer comes out whom I recognise 
and a short girl holding a bouquet walks out. She walks right past me as 
I am beside the door and it takes a moment to realise that it is Alanis, 
it is the nose that gives here away !

  She just keeps walking to the car and signs only about 2-3 autographs 
before getting into the car. It's a great laugh as Mark trips over some 
bushes on the ground in his haste.

  We head back home and all crash : work tomorrow and it is around 2am 
(?) when I hit the sack !  Stil buzzing from the concert but very 
annoyed that she didn't not stay to talk with us. Mark King had about 30 
people there and he stayed on to do at least half of us !
Nevertheless we were happy we stayed on as we would never get a chance 
to get so close again as she'll be playing big Wembley gigs from now on.

  On a similar note the Cranberries are playing at the same venue next 
month but we can't be bothered getting tickets early. The girls would 
prefer seated tickets are being in the crowd was a bit too hairy ! So 
we're gonna turn up to the concert late and try to get cheap cheap 
tickets.

love
darryl