Well, I guess you have to join the technological revolution sometime and this seems to be a good a time as any...
I've just been to a Roger Waters concert. He is, apparently and according to my ticket, "the creative genius of Pink Floyd". And he played lots of Pink Floyd music. Which is great if you like Pink Floyd I guess, and the people in the crowd seemed very entusiastic about it all. However it tuens out that I don't like Pink Floyd very much and so it was all a bit boring. Much of the stuff was very political - anti bush and anti blair and anti war and all that. But even though I am pretty anti bush it all seemed a bit much and not very helpful. If the world was a simple place then there would be no war. But last time I checked the world is an extremely complicated place and no one has all the answers, especially not an old bass player who is cashing in on his kudos.
Anyway, they played the one that goes "we don't need no education" and that was really good. But 2 and a half hours is a long time to stand and listen to one song that you know and I have realised that standing up for any length of time is actually quite uncomfortable (must go to the osteopath when I get back...).
Going to a concert here in India was, rather disappointly, mush like going to a concert in the UK. The biggest difference was that there wasn't a load of stalls selling overpriced t-shirts and programmes and there was no really obvious bar with queues of people waiting to get served, oblivious that the band they have paid a large amount of money for the privilege of seeing are half way through their second song. However the pushing and jostling were the same, and there were the same quota of annoying people holding up their mobile phones to get photos and videos of the concert. I don't have any problem with this per se but you do find yourself looking at the phone that is right in the line of sight between you and whatever interesting thing that is happening, which isn't really the reason why you went in the first place. But on the plus side you can size up different models of mobile phones if you are in the market for a new one.
The other thing that was a bit different was the way they spit up the standing area. We were in the area closest to the stage with our Rs. 3,000 tickets (about £35). This is a lot of money out here so it's reasonable to assume that most of the people at the front were rich locals or foreigners like us. And at this concert I did see a higher concentration of westerners than I have almost anywhere in Mumbai. And it was generally ironic that everyone in the front bit was wildly cheering the song "Money" which I understand is about the evils of materialism (or something). Anyway, back to the standing arrangements. Behind where we were stood was the enclosure for the people with the Rs. 2,000 tickets and then (I presume) the Rs. 1,000 tickets at the back. I can't make up my mind if this is a good thing or a bad thing but on the whole it made being near the front somewhat easier as there was less surging forward when there was a good song. Having juest re-read this entry I realise that I sound like quite a miserable so-and-so, but I guess that's just a product of getting old :-)
So key learnings for the day?
- I think Pink Floyd is quite boring (controversial I know - please don't tell my Uncle David that I said this!)
- Pop / Rock concerts are pretty much the same in the UK and India
- Roger Waters looks a lot like Richard Gere
So there we go...
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