Greetings from Hyde Park -
Just got back from seeing Macca close the show and it’s after midnight. He was incredible - “Helter Skelter” was an especially nice surprise considering the published set list here didn’t mention it earlier in the day. And, although there was a HUGE delay before Pink Floyd took the stage, “Money” sounded pretty darn good too.
The crowd got very crazy toward the end, mostly near the back (I went back to my original standing place when I returned later in the day) and folks started little miniature bonfires around Kensington Park. When the first fire truck arrived it was still daylight, they put the fire out (as people snapped photos) and all was well. Then, a few hours later, (when the beer set in) the drunken concertgoers began grabbing limbs/leaves off of beautiful old trees around the park to start more fires. Not cool.
Enter more fireman. Enter the cops. More fires started, more fires put out. A ridiculous cycle of immature, disrespectful behavior. How disappointing considering the rest of the day had been so ideal.
To top it off, right as Pink Floyd left the stage, more troublemakers started throwing their empty beer bottles at the cops on the other side of the fence. As you can imagine, the cops called in for backup and soon we were facing a potential riot. Deciding I’d traveled too far to get injured for the cause, I hightailed it out of there and saw Sir Paul from behind a fence many miles away. Not ideal, but better than getting hit with flying bottles. He was worth sticking around for.
All in all, the good outweighed the bad - but now I’m reading some messages from home and I hear that MTV didn’t even show all of U2’s performance? I’m mortified. The DVD better be out by Christmas. Everyone in the world deserves to see what I got to see today. And wasn’t that the point?
I need to stew over this a bit longer, and get some long overdue sleep. I’ll do my best to post photos tomorrow.
From London,
Goodnight!
