Subject: NETAID !! (and more teeth-scapades [sic]) 9th October 1999 
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 11:41:06 PDT 

Hi all 

thanks for your feedback about the "teeth" episode, this Wednesday I'll go 
back in to get the stitches out. Looking into the mirror the bruise on my 
left jaw is yellowing now. I get a bit of throbbing pain now and then which 
is bearable, my fault for trying to eat food that requires me to open my 
mouth more than one inch. 

One thing I forgot to mention after the operation was the fun I had 
sticking my finger into my ear. The anaesthetic of course had taken over my 
whole left side and very slightly affected my left eye, and how I tested 
when anaesthetic was wearing off was sticking my little finger in my ear and 
getting a funny sensation. My finger had feeling but not my ear. I got Sky 
to do it and she went 'eeeewww' especially after she pulled out the contents 
of her ear.  Pretty soon everyone else was joining in with the gusto you 
would pick your bellybutton lint with. 

Anyway resuming the past few days' events, on Friday I worked late and 
wanting to get an early night found a party in full swing so I sat down and 
had a little to drink and eat. Got to bed quite late so wasn't looking 
forward to the concert as I knew I'd be tired. 

Got up early at 7am and helped open up the hostel, strangely enough I felt 
pretty good, I had a stash of current cds I'm listening to : 

Black - The Accused 
Kate Jacobs - Hydrangea 
Dove - Don't Dream It's Over 
Groove Armada - At The River 
Abba Teens cd 
Gay Dad - Joy! 
... 

Today there was an all day acoustic festival at Spitalfields which amongst 
a multitude of other artists Black and Kate would be performing, hoe 
annoying !  Also I knew I would miss Donna Summer as well. She was in town 
to promote her new single as well as appearing at the MOBO (Music Of Black 
Origin) Awards which was actually bringing in a lot of r'n'b artists into 
town. 

At 11am I took off to have a shower, popped a painkiller just in case, 
went to Portobello Markets to get a present for someone, I cutit fine, and 
the item wasn't there, rushed to the staion and met up with Emma and her 
friends Simone and Jess. It was at 1:30pm that we got to Wembley Stadium and 
met up the girls other friends Maxine and a south-african girl who I'll 
refer to as Sag. 

Doors opened at 3pm so we headed down Olympic Way with 1000s of othesr, I 
pointed out my workplace to the side. The sky was light grey but I wasn't 
too worried if it was going to rain for some reason, must be the painkiller 
or something. Oh yes I also drank plenty and ate a lot before coming as I 
knew that if all worked out well I'd be in the middle of a big crowd and not 
able to leave my place to satisfy my thirst, bladder or my stomach without 
difficulty. 

At the stadium which has a capacity of 72,000 there are about 10 
entrances. The girls went to turnstile D and Emma and I got to B. We waited 
in line sitting on the conrete with about 300 people ahead of us, in this 
time I went to go to the loo and passed 2 banks of portaloos which were 
inundated with women. At the end I found one that the women were using as 
well but all the guys were just walking in anyway so it was all fine - I 
thought it was good for the women to see how bad male toilets are as well ! 
(Though with men it is normally self-inflicted). 

Eventually we all got in ok, piped music kept everyone's hopes up and 
recurrent announces of the acts produced squeals from the crowd for George 
Michael and Robbie Williams (of course). 

We got in real quickly at 3pm but then had to wait for the others girls to 
get through their door so we wait twenty anxious minutes while 1000s of 
people came through the doors. I couldn't resist. our door was at the back 
of the stadium so when we got in I walked onto the pitch and looked the 
whole length and breath of the stadium and it was an amazing site. Though 
I'd always imagined it had a bigger field but in fact it is just a soccer 
field with a large dirt border around it with a width of perhaps ten metres. 
Naturally there is an amazing amount of seating, starting low and reaching 
high into the heavens. 

When the girls catch up with us, the three aussie girls seem to be bushed 
so sit down in the back left corner of the stadium, a bit far from stage cos 
they could've got closer, but oh well ! Luckily Maxine wants to get way up 
front as well so we talk Sag which is short up with us. 

When I first go in I could look down and see the front stage barrier so 
could've got right up front. Now it was impossible but we managed to find a 
great place almost right in front. If you see the concert, we are twenty 
metres in front of the left big picture screen. With my height I was able to 
see the whole concert comfortably barring the odd drunk englishman walking 
by. 

It was still an hour to go so we sat down and had a chat about what we 
were doing here and lots of talk about music. Maxine really liked 80s music, 
she is from Trinidad so I had her stereotyped as being into r'n'b - shame on 
me !  Everyone now and then people would step over, stand on our fingers, 
brush my hair as they walked by, we leered at the typical english blokes 
grinning like baboons with bottles of beer under their arms knowing that 
they would have to go 'pee pee' sooner of later. On stage Paul Oakenfold was 
playing tunes which were typical feelgood crowd fare: Primal Scream - 
Loaded, some perfecto label stuff, Marc Almond - Jacky, Bassomatic - 
Fascinating Rhythm, Massiva Attack, Dancing Queen, which all got the crowd 
into a good singalong mood, you know what I mean... 

On the screens there were netaid, amnesty etc ads, some were quite 
shocking and graphic so you'd never see then on television. One ad was about 
gun violence whose theme song was "he Ain't Heavy He's My Brother" which got 
the crowd singalong ok.  As we looked around the seating still looked a bit 
sparse which made me think it hadn't been soldout. Besides who would be 
extravagant enough to shell out for a $105 ticket !! 

Finally we all rose to our feet in "antici-pation" and then Iman and David 
Ginola came on to introduce : 

The Eurythmics 
They came out in combat gear and full band and started off with their new 
single 'I Saved The World Today'. Nice crisp guitar by Dave Stewart and 
Annie was in great voice.  Now we were all wondering which of their many 
hits they would play, I was hoping they would not play 'Sisters Are Doing It 
For Themselves' which to me is musically boring an I don't like 'message' 
songs too much. Luckily enough Annie sung the first few words of "Missionary 
Man" and we all went wild ! They've pretty much dropped their synth sound so 
everything had a rock and heavy guitar edge to it. Annie was in f**king fine 
voice !!! It was as if she never went away and left the music scene (which 
she did for a few years). The sound was crystal clear, her voice was as 
recognisable and strong as it ever was !! 

Next they did "There Must Be An Angel" then "Sweet Dreams". Both were 
great live. I've been getting sick of the latter as it's overplayed plus 
perhaps a bit too sequenced for me, but these versions really rocked, excuse 
the pun. 

This marked something that I would notice through the whole night -EVERY 
knew the bands and every knew the words; the teenage girls half my size to 
the chainsmoking 40ish ladies to the left of me. 

After a 15 minute break to setup up the next band was Catatonia. I was 
looking forward to this basically to hear "Road Rage". There are some big 
music sales at the moment so I picked up the album so knew the lyrics pretty 
well now. Cerys the lead singer came out dressed like a flower power child 
with a red/pink fishnet top as well as a big heart on her belt and a smaller 
one upon her heart. They would keep it safe so "The Ballad of Mulder and 
Scully". Like the other concert there were plenty of alien balloons in the 
audience as well as a smattering of welsh flags - a very proud people ! 

Then "Dead From The Waist Down", which Maxine and not many people like cos 
it's a very insipid limp song with weak sentiments but I couldn't help being 
carried away by the joke of it all and sang heartedly along. "Road Rage" was 
stunning, a great...no wonderful absolutely amazing song with an awesome 
chorus which everyone was singing loudly to. I was glad I could do so as 
well as I knew the lyrics this time round ;-) Looking around me I could see 
everyone was totally focused. I would've liked them to do "Londonium" 
('London never sleeps, it just sucks.....the life out of me...') but perhaps 
because of its reference to Paddington Station so they did the ballad 
"Strange Glue". 

By now it was getting dark and I was worried about my photos which would 
either be too dark or the stage lights would get in the way. 

Next up were The Corrs who were disappointing. They were announced by Gail 
Porter an irish tv persenter, the crowd reception was a bit cold for her, 
possibly because twice she's said she'll never 'get her kit off' for another 
mens/lads magazine but did it again anyway so lost a bit of respect. I don't 
like The Corrs' second album, too poppy. "Only When I Sleep" came first 
which prompted a big singalong as they are firm favourites. Next was cool, 
it was an instrumental jig whose name I can't recall off the first cohesive 
album, it was great ! Everyone was jumping up and down and dancing and 
smiling ! Then "What Can I Do" then "Everybody Hurts" (cover of REM song) 
which is an irritating song but everyone enjoys it. At this point I took 
time to admire Andrew Corr, everyone loves her and as you can see on their 
live performances on videos she always acts seductive and sexy but with her 
makeup tonight she looked almost skeletal. I woflwhistled anyway...couldn't 
help it, got caught up in the moment. They finished with another singalong 
"So Young" which I don't like. 

There was a bit of spit now and it was a big wait maybe 20-25 minutes. To 
entertain ourselves a lady next to us felt faint so had to be carried off, 
he friend who was in front of me whom I was leaning against and kept rubbing 
against...ermm...because her backpack was against my chest went off with 
her. 

Eventually the got back just in time for I think Ronan Keating to 
introduce George Michael... 

Without a doubt this was the most loudest collective female shriek I have 
ever heard !! M ears were bleeding. No matter what he's done or got up to in 
toilets and tabloids they still love him, the bag lady  in front of me was 
all giddy and held her palms to her cheeks basically the whole way through 
his set. 

After the announcement we chanted for 5 minutes, why was it taking so long 
?!?!?!  Eventually there was movement and we saw a lot of people crowd onto 
the stage, I guessed correctly that they were the London Community Gospel 
Choir. They were all dressed up in african and colourful clothes, the beat 
started and the eight or so dancers started dancing and they started singing 
"Outside". This went on for a while while the dancers made their way to the 
right of the stage in front of us and kept dancing under the large screen. 

The choir move away from the centre of the stage and took their places on 
the steps at the back, as they moved we could see behind them a black 
leather chair with its back to us. Of course it turned around and I screamed 
along with everyone (I am sure Freud, that screaming therapy guy [forgot the 
name] and various other psychologists would say something about it) ! 

The song segued into "Fast Love". George and black fly glasses on like 
Bono's, tight black leather pants and a black sheer shirt. His last album 
did so-so in New Zealand, I somehow gather it did better over here. Next he 
did "Brother can You Lend A Dime" which was a great black song. He did a 
wonderful rendition of "Father Figure" !! Totally faultless, once again I 
look around and everyone is swaying and singing along, especially vocal on 
the chorus. Sounded much more dynamic than on record. 

For the last song he asked us all to help singalong as the beginning beats 
of "Freedom 90" started. During his set George was very dynamic running 
across the stage and getting up to dance on a podium much to the delight of 
the crowd. He was the one everyone was waiting for !  Unfortunately I have 
heard that his performance won't be broadcast as he wasn't happy with it. 

As the roadies cleared away his stuff I recognised a hunched maori figure 
cross the stage, it was Allan my ex-roomie who'd just got back from New 
Zealand last week. 

After another fifteen minutes there was a scream of 
"WEEMMMBBBUUUUURRRRRRRLLLLEEEEEEEEE!!" as Goldie screeched along the stage 
to announce Bush. you could feel a collective ho-hum across the crowd but it 
was all very polite as we applauded and clapped to them, a vast contrast in 
volume compared to previously.  They are ok and I like 1-2 of their songs 
but it sort of broke the type of artists we'd already had on. 

The lightshow was faultless, Gavin the lead singer came down front and got 
a bouncer to carry him as he played above the crowd, normally this would 
cause people to make a grab for him but when you see this on tv you'll see a 
girl right next to him vigorously covering her ears !! 

They did "Machinehead" (?), "Swallowed",[another song], "Comedown" and new 
song "40 Miles from The Sun". 

The end couldn't come soon enough for most people, though there were a few 
moshing teens in our crowd. 


While waiting for the next act I saw a blonde girl pass me by with a 
concerned look on her face. She returned five minutes later with a bouncer 
pointing back the way she came. Pretty soon a medic was called. And we had 
to move aside for a stretcher. Not sure it was either a guy was drunk and 
being obnoxious or having an epiletic fit and being obnoxious or just a 
typical english white guy being an typical english guy - I couldn't tell 
just a lot of lolling around and flailing limbs ! 

Now this came to a crucial moment in any concert :  with the passing of 
the stretcher there was suddenly a vacuum in the crowd and in a fraction of 
a second we all quickly moved to fill it and in the process making new crowd 
mates. 

After two minutes of rustling we managed to settle ourselves comfortably 
when four metres in front of me I saw a girl go down probably due to 
exhaustion, everyone around got the bouncer's attention and pretty soon we 
had to make way again as they hauled her out. 

Once again another vacuum and this time after a minute we heard a shout of 
"move out of the way!!" and everyone instinctively moved apart as within a 
fraction of a second three more bouncers hauled out a drunk guy with limbs 
lolling about. 

Eventually after all this excitment Anjelica Huston came on (to no 
applause cos no one knew who she was) and introduced David Bowie. 

He came on to deserved applause with just a keyboardist in the back as he 
sung "Life On Mars". Very nice and slightly different intonation on some 
words. The rest of the band came on and to everyone's chagrin he plugged his 
new album and sung a new song "Survive", "China Girl" with a harder edge 
then old glam tracks "The Pretty Things are going to Hell", "Saturday 
Night". Ending with a driving "Rebel Rebel" which made up for the unknown 
songs, only just, though we could tell everyone was slightly peeved - 
something the media made note off. 

The then brought out a whole bank of white speakers and then Bryan Adams 
came on with his drummer and guitarist all in white and started the most 
blistering rock set - straight into "Summer of '69" then without pausing for 
breath going into "When You're Gone" (no Mel C joining him unfortunately) 
and "Cloud Nine" then finishing with "The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me 
is You". I hate the last song...well all of them...but the energy of 
performance was enough to put a smile on my face. On the big screen I 
noticed he had bags under his eyes, I originally put this down to tiredness 
but later I read that just hours earlier one of his roadies his committed 
suicide. 

During the next setup we got a simulcast from the Geneva concert and 
caught a bit of Bryan Ferry's set. When he did "Let's Stick Together" we all 
sangalong !!  Man it would be good to see him live. 

The bank of speakers left the stage and next up was the Stereophonics. 
Around me I saw lots of people with their tshirts and young girls screaming 
because I have to admit, the lead singer is very goodlooking in a rugged 
sort of way !-) 

They started with a new song I didn't know, then "The Bartender and The 
Thief" which reminds me of Deus in that the song just drives drives drives 
along and is great ! The last three songs were the singles :"Pick A Part 
That's New","I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio","I'm Just Looking". 

It was definitely a great set and as they left the stage a few people left 
as well. We then had a simulcast with New York which was just starting up to 
join in to the Wyclef Jean and Bono song which is quite catchy. 

Finally it was the headliner act that people wanted to see Robbie Williams 
!  As is normal they started with "Let Me Entertain You" which musically I 
hate. He is definitely a clown performer and had us all going and following 
his commands to jump on and down and bounce etc. Everyone went wild !  Emma 
sitting at the back said it was a sight to behold seeing thousands of people 
jumping in unison. Next he asked us to singalong with "Strong" which Emma I 
had heard on the radio a lot so knew it well. Instinctively during the 
chorus we all pointed to him (if ya know the song you'll understand). 

Next was "No Regrets", "Old Before I Die" then "Millennium", which I never 
liked too much as it jumped around a bit too much (!?) but seeing it live it 
really hit me right here. If you see it on tv you will see that during the 
chorus he got us all to wave our hands which certainly looked cool so I took 
a few photos. 

Finally it all ended at 10:30pm, we'd been on our feet and jostled for 5 
1/2 hours. Sag took off earlier as she had to get a train, so Maxine and I 
went against the flow of people and found the other girls who were content 
having been close to the snackbar and toilets and we took the long 1 1/2 
hour journey home. 

The concert was well worth it - I liked the cross section of age groups 
and the fact that all the youngums around me knew every band and sung their 
songs.  If you see it on tv you will see a sign that says "WE MISS YOU 
FREDDIE" we were about 3 metres to the left of it, also a sing that says "WE 
LOVE YOU ROBBIE" we were 4 metres behind it so you may see me very slightly 
;-) 

check out some other reviews : 

http://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews/19991011101022.html 

http://www.dotmusic.com/reviews/live/October1999/reviews11691.asp 

On Sunday slept in and while Emma went to a bookstore I went to Brick Lane 
and got some cheap batteries, bubble bags for cds, toothpaste. ALso checked 
out the new art gallery and shops and some indian sweets. Met up with Emma 
and took a shortcut through Carnaby street. On Oxford street I saw my very 
first skinheads and also some at Carnaby Street - though these ones had hair 
but had Skrewdriver tshirts on (I think I will risk life and limb one day 
and get one of those tshirts). I nervously walked us towards bustling Regent 
Street and headed to Wong Kei's as we hadn't been there for a long time. 

We chowed down, my mouth was hurting as I couldn't open my it very wide so 
I ate chinese porridge and won ton soup. There are music sales on so I went 
to HMV and got some videos. 

It was ABBA weekend on channel 5 so we rushed back in time to watch the 
ABBA movie which is based around their tour of Australia and a funny 
documentary of Bjorn Again. 

It was pure relief as I lay my head to rest that night...