Hey You, Don't Tell Me There's No Hope At All

So, for the second consecutive week I've had a three-day weekend and done precisely nothing with it, and that annoys me. And I mean precisely nothing - sleeping, reading Wikipedia, and that's about it. To tell you the truth, I've not been feeling particularly up to doing much else, but I still feel as though it's a bit of a waste. Particularly when I had ideas about doing stuff, perhaps with Groupie.

I have a week's vacation coming up, which just happens to be my birthday week (although "just happens" probably isn't the word to use, it was planned) There's been talk of me going to London for my birthday, and for me and Groupie to go off for a little trip somewhere (maybe Glasgow) - but I've organized nothing and now there's only about a couple of weeks left before my time off. And travelling at short notice in this country is usually difficult or expensive, or both...

Never mind, the weekend wasn't a total loss - Saturday night saw me watching a concert which I have been looking forward to seeing for months, and in the event Groupie paid for the ticket as part of my birthday present from her (and, she admitted, a peace offering to apologize for her side of the turmoil between us leading up to our "break apart")

I wouldn't call myself a huge Pink Floyd fan, but I do love their music - and I seem to appreciate it more as I grow older. Perhaps I'm learning to enjoy the finer things in life :) In any event, a show I would have loved to have seen if I'd been old enough and lived closer to London was their performance of "The Wall" in the early 1980s. So when I heard that the Australian Pink Floyd Show were coming here and re-enacting the performance I decided I just had to see it. Given that this band hold the distinction of being the only Pink Floyd tribute act to have actually performed for a member of the original band, I knew this was going to be something special.

I was proved spectacularly right. The show was really something else - theatrical effects, laser lights, giant inflatable kangaroos - and pigs (which, given the current swine flu scares, caused quite a laugh) and of course the visuals projected on a screen behind the band, with the occasional Aussie reference (the famous "hammers" having kangaroo-shaped heads, for example). You were almost unsure whether you were watching a concert, a film, or a theatrical play, and I loved the whole experience. Even Groupie was impressed - and she's not a fan of the Floyd at all, but the storyline of "The Wall" - alienation from one's peers - really struck a chord with her (and with me too, of course)

Unusually for me I took no pictures during the show. I, like many others, can't stand these people who seem to want to watch a concert through the viewfinder of their phone rather than enjoy the experience with their own eyes, but I usually take a few snapshots when I'm at a gig. But was this a gig, or a show? I decided it was a show, like in the theatre, and so the camera stayed away.

The only downers of the evening was someone (who I never identified) who had really bad B.O. offending my nostrils (seriously, is it too much to ask to put some deodorant on before you go to a gig?) and the latecomers wandering up and down the aisles trying to find their seats at the start of the second half, which really irked me as "Hey You" is the opening track and it's my favourite track on the album. Oh, and whoever soaked the arm of Groupie's coat with substances unknown during the performance. But they were minor inconveniences in the end, and didn't spoil an excellent night all that much.

The show lasted for two and a half hours (with a break half-way through) and then they came back for an encore consisting of some of the Floyd's greatest hits, including the excellent "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here", which are among my favourites in the Pink Floyd catalogue.

We left the venue slightly after 23.00 to find a large fire burning out near the coastline - which I never found out the cause of - and public transport having pretty much stopped running for the night, so rather than wait ages for the few night buses (and we'd have needed two of those) we ended up walking all the way home, nearly 6km across the city. Our legs hurt the following morning, but we seemed to manage OK, and it was a great opportunity to talk about things...and about us... and about how things would be different in the future. Shining down on us all the way home was the moon, and by coincidence, it was half lit up and half dark - a romantic stroll under the dark side of the moon.

PINK FLOYD - HEY YOU
(from the album "The Wall", 1979)