The Gig !

Well tonight was the night ! I went to the SECC during the day and heard Simple Minds' soundcheck. No way of sneaking in though...

Went to the meetup before the gig where I just missed Mick McNeill. Damn! Said hi to familiar faces then had some food and off to the gig.

I thought I had a seat all the way back in the hall but it turned out my seat was on row 14 right in the middle of the stage. Nice ! The people I knew were mostly sitting in row 2, 3, or 4. So I went over there for a chat. We asked security if they'd allow people to stand at the front of the stage ? Yes, but only the people from the first 5 rows. Aha ! So I lingered around talking to peeps, pretending I was sitting in one the still vacant seats. (people were still coming in though). Music started and Viviane said (she had been to the previous concerts on this tour) "it`s starting!" I didn`t quite believe her as the lights were still on and the music wasn`t that loud. But people started rushing to the barriers in front of the stage so I followed suit. Security tried to check tickets to determine if you were really from the first rows, but all of a sudden the lights went out and BAM... "Waterfront" was set in !

So I was able to be on the second row for the whole 2 hours ! A good set was played with "I Travel" being the hightlight for me because I really love that track ! Ghostdancing... aaah I never get tired of hearing that one ! Chelsea Girl was great, Up On The Catwalk and all those other great songs ! They had the whole venue up on their feet and during "Alive & Kicking" I watched the audience and évery single person was waving. It was great.

Afterwards there was a gig by Four Good Men (with Derek Forbes on bass) back in the city centre of Glasgow. They played their set really late, especially for us ! The gig was fun, lots of old Simple Minds songs ! Brian McGee stopped by too (after the gig), that was a nice surprise !

A great evening, one I had been anticipating for for a long time. The Minds played and looked really good. Here`s to the next 30 years of live music lads !