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A day in the life
We are not ones given easily to surprise but on Saturday night you could have knocked us over with a feather. After a full day's music at the Hard Rock Calling concert in London's Hyde Park, Neil Young returned to the stage and ripped in to a grungy encore version of the Beatles song A Day In The Life, then a few minutes in who walks on stage and joins in but Paul McCartney himself. Together they belted out the remainder of the song, just getting louder and more frenetic until there were no strings left unbroken on Young's guitar. For a moment he looked like he was going to break into a Pete Townshend windmill routine and smash the guitar completely, instead he just abandoned it and, with Sir Paul, wandered off and the pair played a funny little piece on the xylophone before leaving arm in arm. Now normally, we wouldn't' cross the road to see Paul McCartney, but this was completely unexpected and we will admit that it was pretty exciting to see him in the flesh, or should we say the plastic and botox.
This is concert season the England. The Isle of Wight, Glastonbury and about ten other outdoor festivals and it means the country is crawling with good bands, and it would only be proper to comment on how well organised the London event was. Entry was a breeze, the queues moved quickly and without hassle from over-zealous security, inside there was plenty of room to stretch out and there were sufficient food and drink facilities that meant people didn't have to jostle and queue for sustenance. And then there was the concert itself which ran according to the minute of a detailed schedule emailed out the day before. It just goes to show that improvisation at rock and roll concerts just ain't what it used to be.
Hard Rock Calling is a three day affair, on our day nineteen bands on three stages. We arrived just before 3.00pm for the Pretenders and stayed for Seasick Steve (check him out), Ben Harper, the Fleet Foxes and then Young's two hour spot starting at 8.15. For the sake of review, the man dubbed the godfather of grunge was in superb form, starting with Into the Black, his anthem to Johnny Rotten, and then a set list including The Needle and the Damage Done, Cinnamon Girl, Heart of Gold and about a fifteen minute version of Rockin' in the Free World with at least four endings. Each time he stopped playing and the crowd cheered, he teased them by breaking into another last, louder and raunchier verse.
But as well as the bands, there are other things that kept us amused. As the hot, sunny day greyed over and turned to lightening and thunderstorms, it must have been the low cloud that kept the haze of marijuana smoke hanging low, or could it have been just the quantity consumed by the tangata whenua behind us? There were the old hippes and the young punks, those who flaked out well before Neil Young came on stage and the old rockers who wore a path in the grass to the bar and then toilet so frequent were their trips. Then there were those who didn't appear to know why they were there, such as the man in front who clearly had paid his 45 quid to bring his foldable seat and read the business section of the Weekend Guardian. Still, at one stage we caught his foot inadvertently tapping to the music.
Such is the number of bands in town that, while Bruce Springsteen is playing the Hard Rock gig tonight, BB King along with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers are playing Wembley. We'll be there.