So I bought 4 tickets with the intention of inviting my sister to come with me and my mum and also my fiancé, Mike as a treat for his recent 40th birthday. In the end my sister declined but given that she will be home later this month (March 17th) I guess asking her to fly over from Gibraltar was pushing it! Anyway, my brother, Chris (who isn’t a fan) said he would come if I couldn’t get someone to take my spare ticket – when I said he could have it for free – he jumped at the chance to come (I think mainly to satisfy his curiosity as to what they were like as a live band more than anything) – fortunately, the tickets weren’t expensive!
I took the afternoon off work so that I could get home, have a shower, decide what to wear etc… without the worry of trying to get home from work, have tea and then go back to Manchester (which is a 50 mile round trip from where I live). My fiancé had agreed to drive and so with Sat Nav programmed up we set off, stopping at my mum’s house to pick up my mum and my brother.
Sat Nav’s can be notoriously unpredictable, but thankfully, it got us the Academy 2’s car park without any misdirection whatsoever. It was just before 7.30pm. We paid the parking fee and then went to join the queue that was forming round the corner.
The Manchester Academy 2 is part of the student union at Manchester University. I had only been there once before (whilst trying to an exam venue) and was surprised that one building can actually hold 3 concert venues under one roof!
It was almost quarter to eight when the doors open and they let us in. As there were a few concerts on that night when we showed our tickets they were saying ‘floor 1’ or ‘floor 2’, it was bizarre!
The Academy 2 is on the first floor so after a quick pit stop we headed up to the bar area. Chris went to buy some drinks and mum and I made a beeline for the goodies corner! I bought a t-shirt (always a must at a concert) and I also bought a limited edition orange vinyl 12” record of a live show they did acoustically in Sweden in 2008 – very nice!!
Goodies:
Of course, I had to change into my new t-shirt and after finishing our drinks we headed into the concert hall. Support act, Diamond Head, were playing. They sounded really good. I Google’d them afterwards and was surprised to see that they’ve been going since the mid-70’s!!!! I think they may have had a few line up changes because some of the band members didn’t look old enough to have been playing rock gigs in the 70’s…LOL!!!!
So onto the main event…
Europe were due on at 9.15pm and during the set change mum and I managed to get as close to the front as wee possibly could – this is one of the benefits of being at all standing gigs! Chris and Mike stayed near the back of the hall (so Chris could get to the bar easily) and cheekily I asked Mike to look after my swag!!!!
We passed the time stamping our feet (I get achy knees if I stand too long) and we took silly pictures. Eventually, the lights dimmed and the resounding beats of ‘Prelude’ boomed out through the speakers. The band came on the stage while the lights were down, and then as the first beats of ‘Last Look at Eden’ kicked out the lights blared, and the crowd went nuts (including me – singing and cheering, and trying to take pictures).
Here are some of my best pics:
In between songs there was some great banter, Joey referred to Manchester exports such as ‘Oasis’ and ‘Coronation Street’ and, in reference to the latter, asked the crowd ‘Is Deirdre going to prison?’ LOL!!!
As Joey went to get his camcorder, the mic stand fell over and the look on John Leven’s face was a classic!!!
Later on when Joey said they were going way, way back with their next song, someone who wasn’t stood not that far away from me screamed, ‘yes, yes, yes!’ Joey glanced to his left and then said ‘I want whatever he’s on!’ ^___^ LOL!!!
They played a great set list. The songs weren’t restricted to their latest album (in fact, they only played 5 songs from the latest album). Only one album didn’t get a mention, the first one!
It seemed to me that the night ended far too quick, but isn’t that just the way when you’re having fun. All too soon the show was coming to an end, but wait, there’s still the encore to do!!!
After a five minute break, dark lights and much stamping of feet, the band came back on and then played a new song…‘The Beast’ (which is my favourite from the new album). And…well they had to play it didn’t they…the lights went down and the familiar intro of ‘The Final Countdown’ started up and the crowd went mad…for one last encore!
After that, it was over, the house lights went on and there would be no more Europe tonight :-(
We filed out of the concert hall, regrouped and headed back to the car. Mum and I were on a high for the whole journey home – even my brother said he had enjoyed the show!
We got home at 11.50pm but we didn’t go to bed straight away – one more blast of Last Look at Eden? Ahhh, what a night, I loved every minute of it, and I hope I don’t have to wait 18 years to do it again!!!
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If you’re interested, here’s the set-list. For those of you not familiar with Europe’s back catalogue, I have included the name of the album each song comes from in brackets:
Last Look at Eden (Last Look at Eden)
Love is Not the Enemy (Secret Society)
Superstitious (Out of this World)
Gonna Get Ready (Last Look at Eden)
Scream of Anger (Wings of Tomorrow)
Let the Good Times Rock (Out of this World)
No Stone Unturned (Last Look at Eden)
Carrie (acoustic/electric) (The Final Countdown)
Sign of the Times (Out of this World)
Optimus – musical interval
Seventh Sign (Prisoners in Paradise)
New Love in Town (Last Look at Eden)
Start from the Dark (Start from the Dark)
Cherokee (The Final Countdown)
Rock the Night (The Final Countdown)
** encore **
The Beast (Last Look at Eden)
The Final Countdown (The Final Countdown)
Here are some online reviews I found:
http://www.shakenstir.co.uk/index.php/live/europe-diamond-head-live/live/15304/
http://love-manchester.com/gigs/review/49
And to finish, here is a video of the latter half of ‘The Final Countdown’ that I filmed (apologies if it’s a little unsteady and any dodgy singing from yours truly…LOL!!!):
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