Subject: The Phantom Menace and Marc Almond Concert 16th July 1999 Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 08:59:03 PDT On Wednesday it was my day off ! I was supposed to catch up with Nina but caught up in a game of multiplayer UNREAL so missed her call whilst I was running round shooting baddies in a maze. Got my UK tax rebate back as I'd only been working 4 months in the last tax year so I have 592 UKP to save up here for expenses and debts etc !-) Checking the daily muck er...tabloid I see tonight is the royal premiere of The Phantom Menace so being the star spotter that I am I decide to head down to Leicester Square, home of all the major cinemas. I want to catch The Matrix (at long last) at 4:40pm so I take a leisurely relaxed trip down to the cinema to find it was actually at 2pm and then next at 8pm ! Walk a few seconds and I can see the barriers being put up for Star Wars, walk a little further and I can see about 600 people waiting outside already, lotsof camera, film crews, darth Maul facemasks, light sabres, lotsof dressed up fans hamming it up for the media ! Sheeshkebab ! I had planned to meet with Emma at 7pm but I grab a phone and tell her to meet me in town asap. I grab a "spicey meatball" subway sandwich (my first in about a year) and a drink to hold me in stead for the hours of standing we would be doing. Coming down the restaurant stairs Emma is looking in as we'd planned to meet at Tottenham Court Station next door.... Head back to Leicester Square and the crowd has ballooned to a couple of thousand, the movie is supposed to start 7-8pm. We manage to get up close to the entrance though not that good a spot..... At 6:30pm the stars start arriving. Funnily enough I find it hard to recognise some of the stars, luckily next to us is a beatnik who seems to know every celebrity under the sun as well as being quite tall so he could tell us who was coming. The first people up the red carpet were very tall guy with a lot of brown hair and a dwarf : Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker. Chewbacca and R2D2. They hang around and the place is lit with camera flashes and the meet the fans near the main entrance. My memory gets all a bit hazy now but after a drought of 10-15 minutes all the Uk stars and celebs turn up. Queen guitarist Brian May and family, Brian Blessed who has a part in the movie, various UK celebs that you may not have heard of including Ronan Keating from Boyzone, some news readers, Julie Swahala, Anthony Daniels (C3PO)... Some stars walked but those that came in limos you could tell were big, one major star who walked the stretch was Samuel L Jackson so I got a photo of him as he passed in front of me. Those that we caught a glimpse of were Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, George Lucas, Jake Lloyd, Ahmed Best (voice of Jar Jar Binks)....... Anyway it was pretty well worth it to be part of such an occasion and the reported 6000 people agree with me...... heh heh heh spot the fanboy.... On Friday it was a night I was looking forward to, Marc Almond's concert at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank. It was a bit of an anxiety rush as I left work late and left myself to get to The South Bank from Wembley with only 45 minutes to spare ! As would be expected I missed the trains I normally use to cut down on time and with a showtime of 7:30pm I got out at embankment station at 7:15pm and ran across the bridge over the Thames passing other concert attendees dressed in obvious black. I rush in and head for the toilet straight away, everyone is still milling around so that reassures me, I catch Nina so we head on up and grab our seats, we are about 50 metres from the stage, the venue is different in that even though we are far from the stage the balcony on begins about 10 metres behind us so I don't have a sense of shadow over me which I find quite disconcerting. The venue is very seventies design with multiple balconies alining the walls, the leg room is very very small, to get to my seat I need to walk over a old french woman. We're far but the view is still good from here. A little after time Marc and his band comes out to tumultuous applause, all his major major fans are here for possibly his only concert in London in such a large venue. Here is the setlist and my comments, as with his other concerts he sings some songs all the time with extras thrown inbetween : Night And Dark Open All Night The 2 songs are from the new album and Marc is dressed in black as usual, Open All Night is an upbeat track but Marc looked a bit stilted and not quite warmed up yet as his movements were wooden. Untitled There Is A Bed I've Never Seen Your Face At this point the inbetween banter is very good and he chastises latecomers -- this is a bit of a problem as the english culture loves to drink and there is constant movement throughout the whole of the show as people answer their calls of nature and to get more alcohol. This is fustrating to say the least, but I'll spare you the bad language that Nina used.....;-) Sleepwalker Blackheart Catch A Falling Star Follow Me You - poem For this he removed his microphone and walked amongst the first block so ended up walking slightly in front of us, reciting a poem about a prostitute who falls in love with a client, after this intimate display he was given a standing ovation. Stories Of Johnny Tenderness Is A Weakness As with every other concert he has a planned adlid and false starts for this song which is getting a bit tiring now but the crowd loves it. A Taste Of Champagne Childstar yay ! great song which I hadn't seen before. When Bad People Kiss On The Prowl A Lover Spurned Around here he announces he'll do some better known songs for those "managers and their secretaries who've decided to turn up for the concert because that singer's name sounds familiar...." The Days Of Pearly Spencer Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart I was wishing he would sing this song, unfortunately the high notes he sings aren't here as he tried to engage us all in a singalong. My Love He got a girl's handbag from the audience and danced around it to put him into a disco mood, everyone was hoping he was going to sing "Tainted Love" now...... [for those not in the know, 'handbag music', 'handbag house' etc is a term describing cheesy and easily accessible dance music that everyone likes, including girls who will then hit the dancefloor and put all their handbags in the middle and dancearound it] Black Kiss Saint Judy Tragedy This has turned into one of my favourite songs ! nice and uplifting etc etc ! At the end he walked off and everyone stood and clapped except me. Nina being upstanding can see some people head to the front of the stage so we leave our stuff behind and run down the stairs, so close that Nina is right up front in the centre and can touch his boot if he didn't stop moving around ! I was behind her and got great snaps of Marc up close, to the side of us is a guy with typical black makeup, looking backup everyone looks like ordinary people, a mild smattering of asians and oldies. Encore: Le Diable (ca va) Jacky Seedy Films Say Hello Wave Goodbye Basically the same encores he did for the final concert in 1998 at the Almeida (in which Cate Blanchett is still treading the boards in the show called Plenty). For the final song everyone joined in and sung, a big white thuggish guy next to me looked like a bigger beefier version of John Malkovich with a definite furrowed brow was singing along heartily as well. Marc came off the stage and walked through us and through a few rows before returning safely back to the stage where he belongs. And that was that, the other shows were in smaller venues where it was more intimate and more theatrical but Marc did his best. Afterwards Nina and I hung around getting some photos, I missed getting the setlist and someone grabbed the feather boa on stage much to Nina's chagrin. When we returned to our seats my shabby supermarket plastic bag was still there but Nina's bag was gone !!!!! cue a few seconds high anxiety, but as it happened a fellow was worried someone may take it so he handed it into the steward. He came up and told us so later on so we gave him generous thank yous and talked about the concert. You can always trust a Marc Almond fan.