Sunday, June 24, 2007

A visit from Czech

My brother-in-law and his girlfriend from the Czech Republic is visiting us in London for a few days. Here is what we have been up to.

At home, Thursday evening.
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Pub lunch and some sightseeing in Windsor on Saturday.
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Horrible cocktail bar near Clapham, Saturday.

Our flat

I have been promising family members in South Africa that I'll take some photos of the flat we're renting at the moment, and post them here. Well, it's finally done. Comments here.



Front room
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Bedroom
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HallwayStorage
Bathroom
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Kitchen
Kitchen
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Back yardFront view
RoadFront door

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Pearl Jam - Wembley Arena, London (18/06/2007)

Lenka and me before the show (The only photos I have).

Took this one with my mobile.

I scanned a newspaper article.

Ticket and Tenclub wristband.



The bastards confiscated my camera! Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Security at the door at the Wembley arena, where we went to see Pearl Jam last night, told me my camera's lens is too big and it has to be signed in at the security desk and could be collected afterwards. So I have two photos of Lenka and me before the show, and that's it. There are links to photos from several other shows in this blog and they were all taken with this camera. :(

The setlist was brilliant and Ed had a couple of speeches that I enjoyed, especially the one about George bush being the drunk driver type and that we should not allow him to drive and take off his keys. I expect a little political rant at each Pearl Jam show, and this one was quite funny.

I normally post on two Pearl Jam forums under the name "mook" (
click here for a link) and I was on a rant of my own this morning about the sound at the show and how terrible it was. Read for yourself if you have not seen it yet. My conclusion is that I was too close to the main speakers (that explains the ringing I still have in my ears), and that the swimming pool underneath the floor section made the sound FUBAR in my view. I think I need to invest in soft earplugs for future shows.

To the Australian girl that stood in front of me, thanks for the beer and to the "American-slang-loving" Swedish guy and his girlfriend (?) that stood behind us, it was nice to meet you, stay in touch if you read this.

And to the father and son from Birminham we met in line at the Prague show and again in London, keep in touch. All the best with your exams today (you with the Boom T-shirt). Hope you get back in time.



The photos below were taken by Joe Goodwin and can also be found here.



Soundcheck: Ghost, Nothing As it Seems, Marker In the Sand, Parachutes and Wash (not confirmed).

Set List:
01. Long Road (Absolutely what I was hoping for as an opening song.)

02. Severed Hand (Good as always.)
03. Grievance
04. Comatose
05. Given To Fly
06. Low Light (Most Yield songs are great to sing along to, as was this one.)
07. I Got Shit (Was hoping to hear it, but didn't think they'd play it.)
08. Faithful (I was happy to hear this after Low Light.)
09. Green Disease (The song about money.)
10. Marker In The Sand (The song about religion and America and the connection between them.)
11. Immortality (I think it was on this one that Ed played a different intro, very cool.)
12. Down
13. Present Tense (Finally, my first No Code song!!!)
14. State of Love and Trust
15. Why Go
16. Save You
17. Porch

1st encore:
18. Inside Job (I wanted to hear this and Come Back, well one is good enough.)
19. Parachutes
20. Crazy Mary (by Victoria Williams) (Absolutely brilliant to sing along to.)
21. Do The Evolution
22. Alive (This one was dedicated to Marky Ramone, who was in the audience.)

2nd encore:
23. No More (Felt almost privileged to hear this one)
24. Bu$hleaguer (great song, but not as good as the Prague version)
25. World Wide Suicide
26. Rockin' In The Free World (by Neil Young)
27. Indifference (A great substitute to Yellow Ledbetter)

If anybody has any decent photos from the show, please leave a comment below with your e-mail address or a link to a website. I would like to host them here, I'll mention you alongside them.