I spent a most pleasant Saturday evening in Malahide Castle attending the Radiohead gig last weekend. I was accompanied by my darling wife, Daragh/ Rosemany , Garrath & Lisa. Dedicating most of the show to their latest “In Rainbows” album I must say it was a great experience. I would have loved to hear “High and dry” but I suppose they must be sick to the eye teeth of playing it at this stage.
Before I have to listen to an onslaught from Garrath, I must come clean and admit that a number of us did escape before the end as we were worried about the consequences of 40,000 fans simultaneously being dumped into a small village and more specifically how they would impede our charge home. This most un-Rock & Roll like behaviour has caused him to insist that I don’t even claim to have attended the gig!
If there is one thing to be learned from this event by all you budding concert promoters it’s “never put the stage directly in line with the setting sun”. Although this important concept would not apply 99% of the time in this country, the weather has been so uncannily kind for the last few weeks, things of this nature must be taken into account. It was a glorious warm evening with not a cloud in the sky. However this meant that the crowd was blinded by the sun slowly sinking directly behind the stage. The unfortunate support act “Bat for lashes” was barely visible even through the tightest squint. The main act started at about 21:00 but I couldn’t make them out for the first half an hour until the rarely witnessed bright orb eventually disappeared. This also meant that their impressive light show couldn’t be seen against the glare for half the gig.
I don’t want to take away from what was on the whole an extremely well organised event with plenty of watering holes accommodating both input and output. However there was something ironic about the fact that this was heralded as “eco-friendly” to which the patrons were asked to cycle or use public transport (as we did). However, scattered all the way around the park there were thousands of watts of pole mounted lighting blazing away in the middle of the blistering sunshine. Totally unnecessary and a complete waste of energy. By all means light up when its dark but before then the old phrase, practice what you preach springs to mind!
3 comments:
I have to say I'm with you Conor get out before the rush home, 40000 people and Malahide is not a good mix....
Hi Conor maybe you could defend yourself to Gareth by saying it's a McCarthy thing to leave the gig a little early to avoid the rush. I completely agree with the small village, large crowd not a good mix idea!!
A “Small Village, Large Crowd not a good mix idea” I think Fiona has been living away from people for too long, what kind of hermit attitude is that. Where is the feeling of community, the sense that everything could be so much better if we just stayed the course and waited till the end?
Well I stayed and had a magical night, strolled into the “Small Village” (with it’s quaint 350 berth marina and dotey 3,000 apartments built in the last five years) and into the Grand Hotel ordered a beer or two. Rambled outside and hopped in a taxi and was home by 1am. And by the way “Conor and the Damp Squids” didn’t leave the gig a little early; they left half way through it. But if they survive that long at Eric Clapton tonight before being washed away I’ll be very impressed.
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