Categories: uncategorized
Date: 15 July 2012 17:37:24
So the story goes something like this. During the day Thursday in between the job hunting I was messing around on Facebook and I see a post saying that somebody is looking to get rid of Hard Rock Calling tickets for the Saturday which was when Bruce Springsteen amongst others was playing. I follow this up and end up picking the tickets up, (at an affordable price), outside the station on Saturday morning - going on a very unexpected adventure. It was particularly pleasurable because I'd really wanted to go but the tour tickets were well beyond my price range.
When I got to Hyde Park I was immediately struck by quite how corporate it all was. I haven't been to a corporately sponsored event like that for some time and this was all a bit of a culture shock - not necessarily all bad - but still a strange experience for me. The audience were also somewhat different to that I am used to seeing at festivals, a large - if not the largest - percentage being men whose hair was greying if not totally grey. It looked to be an audience made up of bankers, software experts and so forth. Now, I know this reflects the headliners audience to some extent but still a bit different to what I am used to seeing at mainstream music festivals.
The first act I caught up with was The Nightwatchman aka Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine. He was playing post-punk anarcho folk which was wonderful to listen to. He was also the first, but certainly not the last, to acknowledge the Woody Guthrie centenary. Watching this man, who got some of the striking Essex fire fighters in their cuts cost lives t-shirts up on stage with him at one point, I was struck by the irony of the day and of modern life in many ways. Tom Morello was playing rebel songs which talked about collective action and the problems with corporate capitalism. Yet, this was an event which only the well off could afford to buy tickets for, an event which was entirely corporate with it's Pepsi Max and American Express fenced off areas to relax in and Vodaphone sponsored grandstand. It was as opposite to an anti-capitalist event as you could get to. It was perhaps not surprising that Morello failed to get many, (if any), political salutes of solidarity from his audience and the sing-a-longs he instigated appeared to be sung in a similar way to that young people sing at a school assembly, (i.e. through a sense of obligation rather than an ideological agreement). Being used to the Guardianista style audiences of Billy Bragg and the Levellers I noticed a difference in the audience reaction which was very subtle but still quite palpable and I realised I was gaining an insight into the uncommitted middle Britain which controls the balance of power.
After he went off stage I wandered off to a small stage where I sat in an American Express deckchair at the front of a crowd listening to Alistair Griffin whilst reading Charlaine Harris' Dead Until Dark which I needed to finish for book group today. It was all very "nice" and a far cry from the world Morello had been singing about just a few minutes before.
Next it was back to main stage to see Lady Antebellum. Comparing them to The Nightwatchman who'd gone before and John Fogerty and Bruce Springsteen who went afterwards was interesting. They were on stage playing their music and talking to audience in between. It sounded technically good and was performed well but there was a real lack of engagement and stage presence compared to the others.
John Fogerty was somebody whose music I was not particularly familiar with but he was one of those musicians who went on stage and gave the audience a party. The set ended with Springsteen coming on stage and singing Rocking All Over the World with him. That was one of the most wonderful moments I have witnessed at a concert, these were two friends clearly enjoying it and inviting us to party with them. They weren't simply entertaining us (which is what Lady Antebellum had been seeking to do) - these guys were partying with us....something quite different.
Then it was time for the Boss. Springsteen's new album Wrecking Ball has a bit of a Steve Earle feel to it and is folk rock at it's best but this concert whilst including this went well beyond. Playing with the E Street Band Bruce had come to throw a party for his fans and that's what happened. Quite wonderful. Again there were a few moments of irony when I wondered how many of the types of working men and women in blue collar jobs that Springsteen sings about could afford the tickets for a gig like this.