Bloody Millenium Dome

It’s 2am and we’re still on the train home, thanks to the dome being in the middle of bloody nowhere and the Foo Fighters doing a 2hr 15min set. I’m all for value for money, but they could at least have started earlier instead of finishing late. Bastards. I didn’t even enjoy it that much, good fun, good live act, but only 4 or 5 really great songs so easily 40mins too long anyway.

I wouldn’t mind, but they were free tickets. That cost up a train fare, an expensive meal and three unpleasant hours on a couple of trains.

The O2 Millenium Dome

Here is my full and frank review:

Going to a show at the O2 is a bit like going to to a gig in a shopping centre. A really, really nice shopping centre, I’ll grant you. But a shopping centre nonetheless. One of those pleasantly-designed, yet ultimately bland ones. That have a cinema on the top floor and restaurants and stuff. If you’re of a London disposition, think Whiteley’s in Bayswater.

Having said that, I applaud them for finally creating a relatively pleasant large arena that has remarkably good sound. And by building up instead of out, putting a top tier of seating on, they keep it feeling pretty intimate for a 20,000-strong crowd. Not that I’d want to sit up there, it looked scary.

I just wish they’d use a bit of imagination or flair when designing the rest of it.

The restaurants and bars on offer included: Ha Ha, Las Iguanas, Starbucks. Slightly shit upmarket high-street chains, in other words. You get the idea. Trying desperately to be cool, but being McDonalds with a swanky interior: souless, characterless, moribund.

All in all, 100 times better than Wembley Arena but if you go for any other reason than an event you’re a soul-less idiot.