Snow Patrol at the O2 Arena

In my last entry I complained about not quite getting to the front for Inhaler. Well, for Snow Patrol I couldn't get standing tickets at all, so instead chose seats at the far end of the arena and at vertigo inducing height. But this had its upsides. If we had been at the front we would not have fully appreciated ed the light show, which was pretty spectacular. And James and I had basically come from a very long lunch at his club (doubt most of the audience would have come straight from a gentleman's club!) so we had come early and enjoyed a comfy seat rather more than we would have done standing at the front to await the gig starting.

The cavernous O2 early doors

On the other hand I did feel a bit grumpy at there only being one support for what was quite a long evening, and, in my personal opinion, a very drippy folk act at that. (James liked her, but then I don't like folk music, so ultimately all this is subjective. Of course it is.) Anyway, one thing not subjective is that in Nina Nesbitt there was nothing really to see. She was entirely static apart from being given a different acoustic guitar from song to song. She also kept introducing songs from her new album, although no doubt for most of the audience, every song was new. You would expect a support act to be showcasing their best work from career so far rather than plugging a new album to an audience that hadn't come to see her in the first place. 

The other problem for me is that when faced with output from a Scottish folk singer, every song sounded much like the last one, and with nothing to see either (the fabulous lighting was reserved for Snow Patrol) it was all very dull.

Wonders of a telephoto lens. Not sharp image but surprisingly decent given my vantage point!

Cavernous O2, but now full and awaiting the arrival of main course

Now if I am honest I didn't have amazingly high expectations for Snow Patrol. I quite liked their new album after a number of plays, and thought they would play a lot from it, but they didn't, largely sticking to old hits. And I feared this would be a band getting back together for big money spinning tour and going through the motions. But this had a nostalgia element for James and I as we had seen a young Snow Patrol as unknown support act to Athlete, thought they were terrific and went off next week to buy their re-released album The Final Straw (which went on to be a mega selling album). So I was ok with spending the remarkably high entrance fee for a seat in the Gods.

However, as it turned out they were superb. Was a great concert, and seen in a comfy seat with perfect, if distant view. Gary Lightbody is an excellent front man, and as I say, the light show was well worth seeing. Also a great feeling being in a huge crowd singing along to Chasing Cars. A goosebumps moment. 

So interesting contrast - above photo shows where we were sat with stage in far distance, and below Gary Lightbody with maximum zoom.