Sunday, December 30, 2012

Madness at the the O2

O2 Arena, London. Saturday 22-December-12.

From one extreme venue to another: from the hyper-intimate Green Note cafe to the stadium rock of the O2 Arena.

These Madness tickets were bought a while ago before Mary knew she had another bunion screw loose and would need it removed. She had the screw removed the evening before so public transport was not a good idea. She did not want to risk the jostling throngs stepping on her toe nor could she walk far. We did consider taxi both ways but that was getting expensive.

Instead I drove and we used the valet parking which I can highly recommend. You get to drive right up to the arena VIP entrance so minimal walking for Mary. They park your car close by and you walk in the VIP entrance - no jostling crowds here. A short stroll brings you right to the main internal gate. Money well spent in the circumstances.


Going inside, our seats were in the middle of a row so we lurked at the end of the row opposite to postpone taking our seats till the last minute. When the occupants of those seats arrived we relocated to a wheelchair platform which had a reasonable view. Given the peril to Mary's foot I spoke to customer services about staying where we were. Initially they said no, space reserved, but just before the concert started they came and swapped our tickets for a "limited mobility" allocation. Well done O2 customer service!

It Must Be Love

The concert was the expected collection of greatest hits which got the crowds dancing in the aisles. See reviews in The Standard (4 stars) and The Independent.

Reversing our route through the VIP exit we made good time as we get a head start on the normal parking getting home in under an hour. And so to bed.

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