Back in 2009, I made ten Green Day shows in the space of around two weeks, so three in six days was going to be easy, right? Wrong!
Our first show was at The Emirates Stadium, London on Saturday 1st June. I had never been to the venue before, but a friend had been to see Muse the week before and she had sussed out the place, the best entrances, the nearest underground stations to use after the show and most important of all, the time of the last trains home. This was particularly important, as my house, the infamous Longview, was going to be home to at least two dozen souls that night, and the logistics of getting everyone back safe and sound was nearly driving me insane.
Getting to the show was easy. Some of our friends camped for two nights, some for one night, but the majority left early on Saturday morning, eager to secure those precious Front Pit wristbands. For myself and my long-suffering husband, Graham, the day was to be shorter, and we eventually left home at around 2.30 to reach the venue in time for the doors to open at 4.00. They were a few minutes late, but the system of multiple entrance turnstiles meant that the stadium filled very quickly and efficiently. With the exception of the two of us, every other Longview visitor had managed to get Golden Circle, and we stood on the side barrier, looking on with envious eyes.
The first band on were All Time Low, and just like in Munchengladbach and Berlin last August, they had the crowd bouncing nicely very early on in their set. They always engage the audience and sound good live – you cannot ask for more from a support band. Then came the Kaiser Chiefs, with a very svelte Ricky in top form, belting through their greatest hits whilst climbing the stage scaffolding like a denim-clad monkey. As soon as they left the stage, the playlist that Green Day choose to build up the atmosphere started playing, with songs by The Clash, Twisted Sister, and a complete inspiration, Queen. There are several videos on the internet of the crowd, all 60,000 of us (an Emirates attendance record), singing along and pogoing to Bohemian Rhapsody. As soon as that finished, a cheer went up to greet a man in a rabbit costume with a toilet-paper tail chugging beer to the sound of The Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop. I seriously love that Pink Bunny and all that he represents. His appearance means that Green Day are close enough to smell them! Then the stadium was blasted by the theme to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and my heroes were on stage.
I think the band were taken by complete surprise. If they had expected a lukewarm welcome, they couldn’t have been more wrong. They were bombarded by cheers and whistles, and Mike was seen to mouth “Holy fuck!” about twenty times during the first song. Billie got enthusiastic responses for his ‘Hey-o!s”, and also seemed surprised by the strength of the crowd’s reaction. They blasted through a set with a mix of old and new songs, calling up people to the stage at odd moments – a man in a skin tight union flag jumpsuit, a little boy with a sign that read “Green Day ROCK” and looked scared stiff, bless him, and the usual assortment of people who thought they could sing but proved that they couldn’t.
The full set was:
99 Revolutions, Know Your Enemy, Stay The Night, Stop When The Red Lights Flash, Letterbomb, Oh, Love, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Stray Heart, Nice Guys Finish Last, Waiting, Missing You (the first time this has been performed with the full band), Burnout, Sassafras Roots, Hitchin’ a Ride, Welcome to Paradise, Longview, Going to Pasalacqua, Knowledge, St Jimmy, When I Come Around, Basket Case, She, King For A Day/Shout (interestingly, Billie must have remembered the reaction at Shepherd’s Bush last August and left Hey, Jude out of this medley – it was there in Rome and Bologna!), X-Kid, and Minority. The pink bunny made a second appearance during the medley and made a nuisance of himself, much to everyone’s amusement (including the band). They then left the stage, and waited for the chants for an encore.
And what an encore.
The band blasted back with American Idiot and the crowd went wild. Billie has started doing a guitar solo in the middle of the song, and tonight’s was very good. From there, he went into Jesus of Suburbia, then almost silenced the huge crowd with the fabulous and heart-wrenching Brutal Love.
The song started with just Billie and an acoustic guitar, but when the whole band joined him, it seemed as if every one of the 60,000 fans held up cell phones or lighters until the whole stadium was a sea of flickering light. Billie closed his eyes for the rest of the song, the two giant screens clearly showing his tears, and then Mike nearly lost it, too, biting his lip and wiping his eyes repeatedly. If Green Day ever had doubts about how this comeback would be received, that incredible outpouring of love and support showed them just how much English fans care. I feel so proud to have been a part of that moment. I’m not sure if Billie intended to finish with Good Riddance or if he was simply too emotional to sing it, (again, he did include this song in the two Italian shows), but as a finale, Brutal Love is absolutely perfect.
And the magic worked again. Part way through the set, a steward pressed something into my hand – a front pit wristband. I thanked her and said I was with my husband – and she gave me another one for him, so we at least ended the show in that hallowed space nearest to the stage – and we even caught the last train home, as did our assortment of Idiot friends, despite the horrendous queues at the underground stations.
The queue system at The Emirates was such a contrast to what we found in Rome on Wednesday. Again, some of our friends had been at the venue since very early on the day of the show, wanting Golden Circle. They had no shade, scant access to water or food, and there were apparently two portable toilets to serve all 50,000 concert – goers before the gates opened. What didn’t help was that the venue wasn’t allowed to open at the promised time of 4.00 – it was after 6.30 that the first fans got in, through one turnstile, a block of 250 or so at a time. An Italian friend that spotted us scared me with stories of a show she had been to at the same venue where people were being let in without tickets, and when barriers were moved to stop us from going in when our turn finally arrived nearly two hours later, I feared the worst. There were only a few dozen of us left on the pavement, and I was convinced that the event had been oversold, and that we were going to be refused entry.
But remember that magic thing I mentioned before? It happened again. Whilst we watched the tail end of the huge queue go in through the solitary gate to our left, we were marched along the road to the right of the venue, to another turnstile. Through the fence and hedge we could see a long line of fans walking in the same direction as us, where they would be fed into the back of the crowd. Not us. We went in through a gate a handful of meters behind the stage, and were led to an area five or six rows back from the Golden Circle, very much closer than we would have been if we had gone in the other way!
This time there was only one support act – All Time Low – and the set list was the same as for London, with the exception of the exclusion of Sassafras Roots. Instead, Rome got Good Riddance tacked onto the end of the show. The lighters were out in force again, but not as much as at the Emirates, and despite the huge crowd, there were no big screens so the band’s reactions could not be seen except by those lucky few up really close to the stage. I wouldn’t mind betting that they were moved again by the enthusiasm and encouragement screamed at them throughout the show.
Afterwards, chaos resumed. Apparently, the same police who had delayed the venue’s opening earlier in the say also failed to turn up to regulate traffic in this city which seems like a motorist’s free for all at the best of times. We sat in a car park looking up the tail pipe of the car in front of us for almost an hour before we could escape to our hotel for a few hours, right next to the station where we needed to catch the early train to Bologna. We managed to catch it, after having to get somebody to let us out of the fifth floor hotel – we had apparently been locked in. If I had known that the night before, I would not have stayed there. Scary stuff.
The 6.30am train was pretty busy, and we had to dislodge a man from one of our pre-booked seats before we could settle down and try to catch up with sleep. Four hours between Green Day shows is not enough! A little way into the journey, the man we had asked to move took another look at our tickets and we discovered that my dopey old man had actually booked the train for the wrong day! One inspector, a fine and two valid tickets later, we were the ones that had to move. Our hotel in Bologna was everything the one in Rome wasn’t – clean, safe and comfortable, with free wi-fi – and we were able to get into our rooms early for a nap, a shower and some internet catching – up. A short bus ride into town, and we found a great pavement cafe for dinner before hailing a taxi and heading to the venue.
If the Rome show had been extremely hot outside, this one was like a sauna inside! It was the smallest venue I have seen the band in recently (with the exception of Shepherd’s Bush) and it was packed. Again, we only had All Time Low as support, and the set was identical to Rome, but it was good. Let’s face it, even a bad Green Day show is better than a lot of bands’ best efforts! The scream that greeted the band was, I think, much louder than the one the night before with more than three times the audience, but this show was long-awaited, a replacement for the two that were cancelled in 2010 due to a huge electrical storm which wrecked the stage, and last year because of Billie’s hospitalisation due to severe food poisoning and dehydration. By the time we got to Brutal Love, I was boiling hot, and I was in danger of losing my hearing.
Outside, the fans disappeared quickly, although there seemed to be a smaller version of the traffic jam that had happened in Rome, with cars in the tiny parking lot sitting around for a fair time after the concert. We hung around, as I wanted to catch up with one particular crew member to give him a birthday hug, but he was tied up inside and we spoke to a couple of other members of Green Day’s permanent staff that we knew. From them, we learned that they had been disgusted by the organisation in Rome, too. There were apparently no toilets for any of the backstage workers, and no hot water, either, and on such a sunny and busy day, both would have been appreciated. I am not sure that Green Day will play that venue again in a hurry.
To sum up, the band are bigger and better than ever. Billie looks very healthy, happy and full of energy, Mike has stopped watching his every move and reaction, and the new songs sound awesome live. I love the way they are mixing the old stuff in with tracks from The Trilogy (although I would have liked more than just Know Your Enemy from 21st Century Breakdown). It is very noticeable that Billie is avoiding singing anything that reminds him of that dark place he was in last year, and he was visibly upset when one thoughtless moron in Rome held up a sign referring to the incident at the iHeart Radio event. It was quickly removed after Billie spoke to one of their crew members at the side of the stage.
He’s moved on, and we, the fans, are almost without exception, right behind him.
sounds like you had fun!!
sooo jealous
Nice shows!