The story...
All things considered, not a classic by any means but am pleased with what I got.
Decided to "position" all of my recording equipment before setting off for Hyde Park, in an attempt to avoid any difficulties prior to going in on arrival. This made for a rather uncomfortable 3 mile walk on the way there on a very warm sunny day! It took an age to get there and on the way there, walked past a Free Palestine demo (a good cause) outside an embassy so this held me up somewhat as it was jam packed with protesters and police.
Eventually arrived at Hyde Park (the opposite end to where I wanted to be) and the park was much bigger than I thought. Anyway, finally got to the venue, and walked passed the general admission entrance, noting that security was very lax, which was good to see. However my relaxed mood quickly changed when we got to the premium view entrance (my tickets). I was horrified to see that everyone was getting a no holds barred individual search before getting in. I'm usually very cool in these situations, am an old experienced campaigner now
but I had a lot of extra gadgets with me, including an additional recorder. There's a few tricks I've learned over the years, but not going to lie I was seriously shi**ing myself I was going to get rumbled! And I obviously really wanted to get in to the gig as well as not losing my stuff.
Quick aside, in the queue on the way in, I was listening to 2 guys (in their 20's) standing behind me talking about the bands on the bill - neither of them had ever heard of Spiritualized. A shame really, but then you forget that the tail end of Spacemen 3 was 25 years ago and Spz have been around for 20+ years so for many in the crowd of a certain age it's no surprise they've never heard of them.
Back to the story, I got in! (obviously : ) - but I was very lucky. Decided to have a celebratory pint or 2 (or 3) was so relieved at getting in. It was around 4pm and I knew Spz were on at 5.25. Got my drinkies and positioned myself at the right hand side of the stage, probably about 15 from the front. It was fairly busy (not rammed) but 2bh the majority of the crowd had no real interest in the band when they came on - most continued chatting, which I totally expected to be fair, but I tried my best to avoid the worse of them. You can hear some talking during quieter songs but thankfully not as bad on the recording as I expected it to be. Reminded me of seeing Spz at the short lived Indian Summer festival in Glasgow many years ago when they played outdoors during the day.
Spz were great, but then I am biased. I was initially trying to do a 2nd recording but gave up on this as it wasn't happening, and decided to enjoy the band man!
Personal highlights for me was Shine A Light (my favourite song) and the trippy black and white circle effect on the big screens worked really well.
More personal trauma however, starting in or around Cheapster....I seriously needed the toilet and it was beginning to hurt! Am usually so careful to avoid this, especially if I'm taping one of my favourite bands, but I wasn't thinking, after the nightmare of getting in. I've never given up on a recording before but wasn't sure how much longer I could last. I made myself stay though as I was determined to finish the job. I suffer for my art. And a 10 minute version of Take Your Time I will never forget - thanks Jason! Seriously though, it was great to hear him saying Thank you near the end. Wasn't sure if he would or not. It always gets me when he does, every time.
One final scare when I made it to the charming restrooms, I noticed my recorder was set to zero, so mild panic ensured that I had completely fuct recording up, though thankfully I hadn't. I would also like to say thanks to the lovely girl who pointed out to me later on that my rucksack wasn't closed and zipped it up for me. Could easily have lost my stuff and recordings thank you!
Bza, there was a recording earlier this year, a L+G show at LA on 14/2/14 - I can upload it here if you didn't get it, it's good.