August 12th, 2006

What a treat!  Morrissey in Iceland 🙂  I could hardly believe my ears when I first heard about it but this was one concert I would not miss for the world.  I was young when I found out about The Smiths from my older sister.  It was quite a revelation after being surrounded by brit-pop from all angles.  Morrissey fascinated me from the beginning and therefore I just had to see him when he finally made his way to Iceland.

My sister’s boyfriend and I did play groupies and were by the arena when Morrissey arrived.  We got into the line early and managed to get seats in the 2nd row in the middle.  Great seats.  But as soon as the lights turned down, everyone from the 1st row went up to the barrier by the stage anyway, so we headed that way too.  I might also mention that the warm-up artist was awful.  Simply horrible.  I think her name is Kristina Young and no, she did not deserve warming up for Morrissey.

The man himself was totally completely and utterly awesome.  I loved his play with the mic cord, he was stomping around it like a bull fighter with his red cape.  His voice was perfect, he gets better as he ages!  His raw jokes “Oh you music lovers you” “I was once in a band…” were excellent and I really had a brilliant time.  New songs and old, they were all perfectly delivered.  The crowd went wild with the old Smiths songs and some of the audience (mostly the foreigners) knew his new ones.  I was thrilled to get the chance to see Morrissey live.  He’s certainly one of the best performers I’ve seen wrt audience participation.

5 stars for sheer brilliance from beginning to end.

April 3rd, 2006

Wembley Arena in London.  Depeche Mode was out and about after a long time away.  I had bought the tickets 9 months in advance and prepared well by getting to know their new album from beginning to end.

Let’s just begin by saying that Dave Gahan is one of the coolest dudes on earth.  It was great to see him sober and so full of energy and vibe and feeling for the crowd!  I had watched a recording of the “Songs of faith and devotion” tour where he was drugged/drunk/both, his speech was slurred at times and there wasn’t much contact with the audience.  I was so glad to see that on this evening in London he was in perfect shape.  He danced the whole time, swung his hips quite a lot and got really sweaty which was nice 😉  He played with the audience, craving participation and he got it!  The crowd was perfect.  Old songs and new, everyone sang along and we had so much fun.  It’s also a great surprise to be up front by the barrier and not be squashed to death, like almost always happens in concerts in Iceland.

Anyway, the other two members of the band, Martin and Fletch were perfect too.  Martin is always the shy and sensitive one and his voice was perfect in his solos.  Fletch, who usually just hangs back by the synth and doesn’t do anything but press buttons, was jumping up and down clapping and singing by the end!

I loved it.  I’ll splurge on a trip to see them again whenever they get back into gear.

5 stars for being fantastic from beginning to end.  The tears Martin shed at the end were the perfect prop!

June 30th, 2005 OMG2 OMG2 OMG2 OMG2 OMG2

My dearly beloved Duran Duran decided to come to Iceland.. only about 20 years after I really really really wanted them to come to Iceland.  I still wanted them to though and splurged on VIP passes for hubby and myself.  Brilliance, just because it was happening.

I thought I was going to be dying of excitement the few days before the concert but managed to get myself together and act like an almost normal 32 year old, which I never was so why did I bother?

The concert was awesome from beginning to end.  I was up front, right in front of John, the bass player, and loved it.  There were moments when I thought I was bursting from happiness but I managed to cope through my adrenalin rush by singing loudly with every single song.  There were quite a lot of people who didn’t know the new songs they played but hey, I did!  Fantastic show and I cannot thank them enough, ever, for making *this* dream of mine come true too! 

I won a Meet&Greet through a local radio station which only upped the experience by about 500% or so.  I prepared a bit, selected Icelandic CDs to give to each of the members and wrote them all short notes.  The m&g took place right after the concert.  The guys had just stepped off stage and came to us, a group of 12, all sweaty and tired and nice 🙂  I had 2 missions: Get photos of me with each member of the band AND give them the CDs I’d bought for them.  I managed to get through my missions and forgot all about having them sign something for me 😉  I chatted with all of them, except Simon, who was tipsy and had his nose down some girls top most of the time.  I loved talking with Nick, Andy, Roger and John.  They were all really really nice and thanked me for the CDs.  John actually tore open the package right away and said: What’s this then? and we talked about the artist who made the CD I gave him (Emiliana Torrini, an italian/icelandic girl) for a while and then when I asked him for a photo op I had to complain he was too tall and had him bend a bit so I could fit him in the frame 😉  Lovely memories.  It’s not every day that you actually get to meet and chat with your idols of 20+ years!

I cannot even begin to think of the number of stars this evening deserves.  Let’s just say it was the best.  Ever.

April 24th, 2005

Robert Plant and the Mighty Rearrangers played in Laugardalsholl, Reykjavik.  I decided to go half an hour before the concert started and I certainly didn’t regret that!  Robert was in fantastic form, delivering new music with lots of indian influence, as well as doing new versions of a few old Led Zeppelin tunes.  It was an honour to get the opportunity to see this man on stage.  He’s such a legend in my eyes 🙂

4 stars for pure entertainment and loads of good playing and singing!

October 2nd, 2004

Reykjavik Jazz Festival.  Van Morrison.  I got my sister to go with me and she doesn’t even remember the concert!!!  I just think she wasn’t into it but I thoroughly enjoyed good old Van Morrison.  His voice, so special, was perfect the whole concert and it was brilliant seeing him rock on in “Gloria”.  He did a very special version of “Have I told you lately” which was awesome but I think a lot of people there didn’t even recognise the song until the end.

4 stars for jazzy brilliance.

July 4th, 2004

Metallica came to Iceland and wanted to be utterly cool and shut down the air conditioning in the arena where the concert was held.  Well, that pretty much killed the concert for me.  I think there were about 15.000 people crammed into the arena (no seating) and it just got much much much too hot.  The band was great and I loved James’ grunting “yeah”s.  But I got way too hot and never since or before have I almost fainted at a concert.  And I wasn’t even in the mosh pit!!!  My hubby carried me out before the end so I missed the whole reason to go to this concert: listening to “One” live.  So.  Yeah, I missed it.  All because of the stupid air conditioning.  I don’t know if I’d like to see them again, perhaps if there was a better arrangement in *room* for the people actually there and the air conditioning being on full blast the whole time 😉

2 stars for YEAHs

April 14th, 2004 OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Finally, after all these years, my dream of seeing the 5 original members of Duran Duran together on stage, came true.  Tickets booked months in advance and only found out way too late that there were VIP packages available!!!  Anyway.  Was way back and up in the tier but I had my binoculars and I LOVED IT from beginning to the end.  The darkness, the heartbeat, them coming out on stage one by one.  Just thinking about it makes me shiver.  I don’t think I’ve ever sung so loudly or screamed so high before or after.  The awesome experience of getting a LOT of my old favourites played live was simply perfect.  This concert was made for me.  I have no doubt about it.  “Tiger Tiger”, “New Religion”, “The Chauffeur” and “New Moon on Monday” made this *my* concert.  The rest was good but those 4 songs were what made it the best.

My first thought after the concert was something like: “Darn, now I have to find a new dream to live for!”

A gazillion stars for getting together again!

June 1st, 2000

Elton John played a weird little concert on a cold June evening in 2000.  It was an outdoors concert and it was *just* Elton John.  No band, just Elton and his piano.  It wasn’t crowded so I managed a good look right up by the stage and enjoyed his playing and singing.  It was short though and just plain weird.  There was hardly a real stage… just a big box with his piano in it, and he was driven up to the back of the box (and back again after the concert) in a big black limo.  Weird, but nice to have seen him play.

2 stars.  Good songs but not much more.

September 17th, 1999

Robbie Williams came to Iceland before he got hugely famous all over the world.  He was fun, sang well and the tiny little crowd that actually appreciated him was well received.  But.  Someone threw a plastic bottle on to stage after just over an hour and Mr. Williams stormed off.

Fun but short.

3 stars for being cute.

June 25th, 1997

Sting.  Sting.  Sting.  Sting.

 I adore the man.  Getting him to play in Iceland was probably one of the best things anyone has done for me yet!  What a beautiful concert.  Lovely music, mostly from Mercury Falling, but also a lot of his biggest hits.  Brilliant, brilliant moment when he so softly sang one of my favourites, “Fragile”.  If you haven’t heard it, pick it up right now and listen closely.  It’s pure beauty.

5 stars for sensitivity and creativity.