New Year's Eve
On Wednesday evening we went to London's O2 Arena for Elton John's New Year's Eve Party. Neither of us had been to the O2 before, so we were very impressed by how awesome it is! There are about 20-30 bars and restaurants outside the actual arena where fans can have drinks and dinner before the event. Unfortunately for us, they all seemed to be full by the time we arrived, so we went to straight to the queue to get into the arena.
Some sneaky Europeans thought that the massive lines that people were patiently waiting in were not for them, so they sifted around in between two lines for a few minutes and then tried to merge into our line right in front of us. Tim was not having any of that carry on, so he politely asked the guy which line he thought he was standing in. The guy claimed he could not see any lines and that he was just heading for the entry door, so Tim showed him where the lines were and told him that shoving in from the side would not be working today. They disappeared.
Once inside the arena, we were presented with more food and beverage outlets. We grabbed some dinner and a drink and then went in and found out seats. We had really good seats, on the lower level, near the back but looking at the stage straight on rather than from the side. Apparently it was not quite a sell-out crowd, but it must have been close to the 17,000 capacity.
Elton had brought some of his mates along for the show and the first opening act (which we did not see, as we were eating our dinner outside) was a band called Sealife. Next up was a 1960's cover band called The Overtures, who were really good. They played a couple of songs by The Kinks and also a Rolling Stones number! Apparently Elton John is a big fan of The Overtures and they even played at his wedding. The winner of the X Factor TV show, Alexandra Burke, also came out for one song before Sir Elton arrived.
Elton was brilliant. He walked out, welcomed us, sat down at his enormous red grand piano and belted out Bennie and the Jets. Straight into it. And for the next two hours or so he hardly stopped. Two things struck us about the quality of Elton - one was that basically every single song he played was a classic and the other was that the sound was pretty much CD-quality (not rough and scratchy like you often get at a live event).
He played all of our favourites (except for Crocodile Rock) and he paused at midnight for a countdown and then a bit of Auld Lang Syne before continuing with his show. The stage show was amazing too - they had a massive screen behind the stage that showed video clips that followed Elton throughout his career. At midnight a whole lot of streamers, confetti and balloons fell from the roof down on to the crowd.
After the concert, we decided to have a couple of drinks in one of the bars at the O2 while the crowds cleared away on the tube. There were a lot of very drunk people in the bar and there were some crazy dance moves coming out. One couple were obviously big fans of the Beach Boys and when "Surfing Safari" came on, they jumped up on to their chairs and pretended they were surfing - hilarious. It was a brilliant night out and a New Year's we will remember forever. And I think we are both slightly bigger fans of Elton now than we were before!
Outside
the O2
Alexandra
Burke
And again
