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MONTHLY ARCHIVES
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13/11/2008 - London 31/08/08 London…. Home to the Queen, The Millennium Dome, Big Ben and jellied eels, the host city to the next Olympics, the financial and governmental hub of the UK and of course, famous for red buses, beefeaters and the worlds first underground….. I hate this city. I don’t know what it is about London but I just can’t stand the place. Out of all the cities and towns I have been to there is something about this place that makes us not get on. So spending two days in the place was not an appealing prospect. Thankfully though there was an Editors gig to go to so it wasn’t all bad. Like the week before in Manchester it was as support for REM. This time is wasn’t at a cricket ground, it was at Twickenham, the home of English rugby. Thankfully though, there was no low swinging chariots, or green and pleasant lands to be heard, just the joyful noise of Editors and REM. Also, like the week before, it was sunny. Well I say sunny, it was more like flipping scorching!!! Fortunately we had brought the sun screen with us and short walk round to a nearby Tesco’s meant that my head didn’t suffer further sunburn thanks to the purchasing of a £1 baseball cap. Which was a blessing given that we started queuing from 9.45am. The time thankfully went by quite easily despite the suns best efforts to boil my internal organs. Why anyone pays to go abroad and spend prolonged periods of time in such heat in the name of enjoyable times is beyond me. A couple of conversations with multi-show goers proved a nice surprise in that they seemed to be enjoying seeing Editors. And there was even a few Editors t-shirts spotted further back down the line. Dinosaurtastic. Speaking of t-shirts, a visit to the merchandise stall brought another nice surprise. Out of the two t-shirts they had, one of them, I hadn’t seen before. It was plain black with the words ‘The Editors’ printed on it in white. Blasphemers… I here you cry. But fear not. Over the offend T word was a red cross. Now it was not quite pea and ham from the chicken, but it is very clever. So needless to say I bought one. I might add as well that they are not available in the official online store bizarrely. The best sight of the day though was that of the fabby Peter wandering down to join the queue. It was great to see a familiar face from Editors sides of things and to know that we would not be alone when it came to singing and cheering time. After a very stressful dash to the front barrier, we luckily managed to secure our usual spot on Russell’s side and settled in for the evening. Peter wandered up early on and had a natter before retiring to the sound desk until the band game on. It was also a joy to finally be out of the suns vicious glare and in the relative coolness of the shade, mercifully supplied by the stand to our right. The hoisting of the black banner brought an almighty cheer from us as the crew started to get the stage ready. A tap was felt on my shoulder and when I turned round there was Peter, beaming away. And he smile was justified, at having just scythed his way to the front through the throbbing sweaty masses. A feat of epic proportions, the likes of which has not been seen since the Red Sea was allegedly parted by some dodgy looking bearded bloke. This time though, the tattoos gave the miracle worker an airness of cool about him. The set, the same as the previous week in Manchester, flew past like you wouldn’t believe. It felt that no sooner had the first few chords of Bones boomed out from the speakers, that the looping guitar sound at the end of Fingers hummed to a fade, as the band left the stage. Needless to say the three of us jumped, sang and whooped like maniacs all the way through. Mrs GaryUK was particularly delighted when, as Fading started up and we all went totally ape, Tom looked at her and blew her a kiss. So a big hug of thanks from her for that Mr Smith. It really made her night. As well as getting to touch Mr Stipe of course lol. One of the many highlights was the now quiet frequent practice of Tom singing a few bars of another song as way of an intro to Rats. Was the first time we had witnessed it first hand and it really was wonderful. Kind of like how the Peter Gabriel ad-lib in Spiders just adds so much to the song in a live environment. A few sweaty hugs marked the departure of Peter as he made his way back to the sound desk to enjoy the rest of the night. REM, were of course, superb as always. A beautiful Country Feedback was the stand out moment for me. It really is the most gorgeous sounding song with an epic solo from Mr Buck. And there was a pleasant surprise during It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, as Tom came on stage to sing backing on the chorus. That was then this is now, a few days later. The onset of the post gig blues hasn’t been as quick to descend as it normally does. As there was still a slight hope of going to the bands last show for some time in Helsinki but alas, the costs are too high. So now it is in full swing and like Oliver, I so want some more. Editors live is something incredible, and something you just want to experience again and again, the more you see them. All the usual thanks to everyone and can’t wait to see you all again the next time. Gary 
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