Day 31 (part 3): From Krakow to Peter Gabriel
As I was sitting in the O2 I had a moment. The same time the night before I'd been sitting in the Krakow Philharmonic listening to abstract, avant-garde pieces for Unsound and now, only 24 hours later, I was in the massive O2 London waiting to watch and hear Peter Gabriel. Not bad. I feel very privileged. And I feel proud of myself for getting off my bum and pulling this all together. So, back to the beginning.
I left Krakow quite early yesterday and made my way to the station to catch the airport train. I was flying back to London. My swollen luggage was a challenge and I thought I'd injured myself. Luckily I've recovered.
I got to the airport in plenty of time and had to wait until I could offload my bags. That done it was just a matter of waiting. I noticed a couple of fellow Unsound-ians in the queue.
Krakow airport is quite small for such a large city. Seemed much smaller than Adelaide. They are doing a massive development though, so that probably won't be for long. A bus took us to our plane. I had paid a little extra to get a good seat near the front and had both a window seat and no one else in the row!
Taking off I could see all the small hamlets of houses in the outskirts of Krakow. They were clustered in the small valleys and depressions. Large roofs and timber. I wish I could have taken photos. By the time I could get my camera we were up in the air going over another Polish city. Not sure which one it would be.
The middle of the flight was over clouds so there wasn't much to see. However, I was amazed how many other planes were in the skies. You don't often see others when flying in Australia.
I flew easyJet and I'd been nervous because of the TV show. Thought they might be a bit rough. They were wonderful. I would definitely fly with them again.
As we approached the English Channel the skies cleared a little. That made me happy. As we approached the English coast I noticed farms of wind turbines in the sea.
Unfortunately when we got to the coast I needed to turn my camera off. Damn! Because the countryside was absolutely stunning! Green fields, hedges, small towns with stone cottages, farms, everything you imagine the south of England to look like. I've missed that on previous flights so I was so pleased to see it this time.
By the time I cleared border control, caught the Gatwick Express to Victoria station then a taxi to the hotel it was already 4:00. Time to clean up and work out how my plan of attack for the evening. The last few days I'm staying in a small boutique hotel around the corner from Soho square. The room is tiny but really well appointed. The hotel is very recent and it feels clean and fresh. It will be perfect for the end of my trip.
After a shower I worked out which tubes to take to get there. I decided to go straight away and get dinner there. Yay, travel on the underground again. Don't know why but I've really enjoyed making my way around here. Last night was very busy though. But that's all part of it I guess.
I made it to the O2 while it was still light so I could take some pictures. The website made a big deal about cameras so I had to make do with my phone.
I had dinner at one of the restaurants. One of the very few times I've dined out alone this trip and now I know why. Boring and the odd one out. Plus I'd left my reading glasses behind so I couldn't even occupy myself reading the program. So glad I hadn't tried to do this more. I have to say, though, it's been so nice to be able to speak in English and ask for things, respond, etc confidently. Having said that, my waiter had such a broad South American accent I still struggled to understand him a little. Hilarious.
Inside it was a long wait but the venue filled slowly.
All the equipment is from sound plus a film crew. They would film the two London nights and there will hopefully be a DVD coming out.
As support act, Peter Gabriel introduced his two backup singers who performed some of their own music. I thought Jennie Abrahamson in particular was amazing and I'll be checking her music out online.
Before Peter came on to play the film director addressed the audience. Firstly he needed to explain that there was one song they wanted us to film on our mobiles and upload to the website. They plan to use the footage in the film. Secondly they needed to film some audience participation scenes so we all got to be actors for a few minutes. My only slight criticism of the evening was actually that you could almost feel you'd paid to come and be an extra on Peter Gabriel's movie set. The film crew were a little invasive at times. But, I'd pay to be an extra on a Peter Gabriel movie set, so I guess I shouldn't complain!
The show was amazing. He started playing some acoustic numbers before getting into darker and more electronic territory which is when the amazing visuals started to kick in. A benefit of having a film crew on site was that it was clear the show was being staged for film and the side screens and back screens had amazing live visuals built from the vision being taken at the time. It was almost like looking at a finished, edited movie ... but live.
The last part was the band playing the entire "So" album start to finish. Brilliant! They put in an amazing performance with no break. Here are some quick snaps from the program just to give a taste for what the staging looked like. I'll be keeping my eyes out for the DVD for sure.
I had considered going out afterwards, but by the time I took 2 tube lines back to the hotel it was getting late. There will be time another night.