Red Hot Chili Peppers in Cape Town

What kind of a fangirl doesn't get concert tickets the day the things go on sale? A very, very bad fangirl. Or perhaps one who's just gotten off a plane from England, tired, aching and still bearing a sheen of residual mud from Reading Festival.

Yes, the day Big Concerts decided to announce RHCP, I was still in London, and the most excitement I could muster was an 'oh', followed by a collapse into my bed, where I stayed for the next 24 hours til I boarded the plane home. This put tickets on sale the day after I returned, and I couldn't give a damn. I don't even really remember the hype around getting tickets, I was still sleeping off Reading. And of course, reveling in the fact that Dave Grohl had been mere meters from me a few days before - who needs Chili Peppers when you have Foo Fighters, right? Plus, I after four days of Reading, I couldn't have faced another concert if you'd paid me. Maybe I'd get a ticket closer to the time, but I didn't really care at the time. What I wasn't anticipating was tickets selling out so quickly! Oh well, I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be going, and life moved on for five full months. About two weeks ago, however, I decided that I was absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable for me not to attend, and so I needed to make a plan.

Now, if you know me at all, you'll know that no matter how harebrained my schemes may sound, if I put my mind to something, I can usually get it right. It was easy enough to find a friend of a friend selling tickets, slightly more worrying to leave the poor things in the post, and even more worrying when internet banking decided that I simply could not pay for the them, but all worked out eventually. In my hand I held two seated tickets to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers live in Cape Town. Ha! I win.

Some people study really, really hard for exams, but I was never one of those people. Present me with a setlist, however, and it's a different story altogether. Yes, I compiled a list of most likely songs, and I've existed on nothing but a diet of these 20 songs for the past 10 days or so. It's getting a little ridiculous, I kind of want to rip my brain out whenever Snow gets stuck in it, but I shall refrain.

So, they day has finally arrived, I've checked and re-checked my tickets at least 25 times, I've still got my setlist on repeat and I'm all rearing to go. Sadly, seeing I have seats it would be a little daft to queue at 2pm for a concert that will probably only start after 8am, but I still feel uneasy sitting at home when there's a concert tonight. As I told a co-worker as I left the office about an hour ago "If I had standing tickets, I'd be there already!" He thought I was nuts. Oh well.

On my way home, I did a sneaky sneaky past the stadium to see quite a few fans already waiting in line to see the show tonight. I also had to resist the urge to don dark glasses and sit outside the One & Only hoping to catch a glimpse of Anthony and company (most of the big bands stay at this hotel), but let me not be creepy...

There is nothing like the thrill and elation of a concert to look forward to: as I make my way into that stadium, I'll experience the emotions normal people feel when they're in love or something. Go ahead and tell me to get a life... I'll teil you this is my life.

Getting Excited About KOL

I've had tickets for Kings of Leon since March this year, and trust me, that was a long time ago. This concert always seemed like something in the very, very distant future, not least because my university career would be almost over by the time it arrived. However, the time had finally come, and I can now officially say that I am seeing Kings of Leon this very Saturday night. 

I must give Lauren credit for convincing me to get tickets for this concert, though it really was not a very difficult task. She simply sent me a message saying 'KOL tickets. Now' and I responded 'OK'. Before we knew it, we were in the line to acquire some seated tickets for the show. Seated tickets! Oh the horror! Seats are not the way we usually roll, as we're the type of girls who queue for hours and then creep out way to the barrier of golden circle, meaning that Saturday night is likely to be a whole new experience for us. But we took what we could get, and the fact that we won't be able to reach out and touch Caleb has done little to diminish our excitement! 

For anyone attending these concerts, I highly recommend watching the band's documentary 'Talihina Sky'. I watched it a couple of weeks ago, and was completely entranced. I feel much more connected to the band, and the back story is extremely, well, enlightening is probably the appropriate word here.  

As for the setlist, I've done my fair share of creeping, and I'm pretty certain we'll get the old favourites such as 'Molly's Chambers', 'Taper Jean Girl', 'Sex On Fire', and 'Use Somebody', as well as my personal favourites 'Fans' and 'Back Down South'. I may squeal uncontrollably when I hear the country-style first chords of the latter.

Not the most dedicated to academics at the best of times, the fact that the band are now officially in the country means that my productivity will be low to zero for the rest of the day, and thus I have spent the past hour or so creating the photo's which follow. Sigh, I guess I am just a fangirl through and through! 

Coldplay Concert In Johannesburg, South Africa

On Friday the 7th of October, I found myself sitting through a lecture that I could barely endure. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate university, it's simply that as soon as said lecture was over, I was off to the airport to board a flight to Johannesburg to see Coldplay. Now, I have been an obsessive Coldplay fan for about four years, and I'd been counting down the days to the concert ever since I'd gotten tickets, almost six months ago. Needless to say, I was rather excited. 

Lauren and I leave for the airport at around 10.30am, our flight is only at 2pm, but we have about a 90 minute drive ahead of us, and I am, of course, completely para-para-paranoid about missing out flight. We get to the airport at 12pm, and after face-planting into some food at the nearest restaurant, we make out way to the departures lounge, where I sit bouncing up and down for about an hour, and squealing "Chris" at frequent intervals, which quite possibly makes me sound like a mental patient. 

I am an impatient person by nature, and there is just so much waiting involved in this day! We board our flight, wait to take off, wait to arrive in Johannesburg, wait around the airport for assorted members of my family to join us, wait for the rental car, and finally wait until my mother figures out how to get to where we're sleeping, in Bryanston. All the way, I am sure that if I blink, I will open my eyes in a reality where I am back home, working on academics, and not seeing Coldplay in less than 24 hours. This is about the time when I stop blinking...

Eventually, Saturday morning dawns. I've been awake since about 5.30am, but only rise at 7am. I am trying to conserve energy. We head off to the shops to cram some Joburg shopping into our very short weekend, and then make our way to Gold Reef City, where we board the first park 'n' ride bus to FNB Stadium. My excitement has surpassed expression, so I am very cool, calm, and collected. After a short walk, we arrive at the golden circle queue, which already consists of about 50 or 60 people, but considering the fact that 62 000 tickets were sold, we are in the first 0.001% of people. 

We sit down and prepare for a long afternoon, as it is now about 1.20pm, and gates are set to open at 5pm. I also manage to buy a Coldplay t-shirt, as there are vendors walking around selling them, as well as having merchandise stands. Thus, queues are avoided. The fact that I am really going to see Coldplay becomes more and more real with every passing second. Around 3pm, we move forwards, and around 4pm, the security start handing out armbands. The golden circle armbands are bright pink, winning. Just before 5pm, a security man with a megaphone announces that they are about to open the gates, but that we are not to pass through the next checkpoint, the turnstiles that control entrance to the actual stadium. This is when the first disaster begins: it seems that the turnstiles had not been locked, and thus an appreciable number of people manage to slip into the stadium before security can stop them. But security is on top of things, and those who had entered prematurely are escorted back to the queue.  

My nerves are shot by now, I've been wanting barrier at the concert for six months, and will be positively heartbroken if I don't get it. Eventually, the turnstiles open, we make our way through and... encounter disaster number two: the lack of signposts. We do a run around the entire stadium, unable to find the entrance to golden circle, before a kind security guard points us in the correct direction, by which time the barrier has started to fill up. Anyway, we do manage to find a barrier slot near the end of the ramp which projects from the main stage. It's fine, Chris and company will still walk right past our faces when they head to the end of the ramp to perform. 

The stadium itself is absolutely spectacular, and the sight of 62 000  people beginning to filter in is nothing short of epic. Now the waiting begins again. It's about 5.30pm, and the opening act, SA's own Parlotones are scheduled to start at 7.45pm. I sit down on a very hard piece of metal attached to the barrier, but it's not very comfortable, and soon I stand up again. My legs and back are already sore from all the standing, and the brilliant sunshine has left me at least a few shades darker, but that's the last thing on my mind. 

Finally, the lights dim, the announcer introduces The Parlotones, and South Africa's biggest rock band burst onto the stage with "We Call This Dancing". I'm a huge fan of these guys, and have seen them live several times before, thus I know the words to almost every one of the ten songs which they perform. The Parlotones are brilliant live, but someone in the audience takes up a chant of "We want Coldplay! We want Coldplay!", and I'm very disappointed, no one is asking them to like the music, but at least have a little respect for the artists. 

And now we wait again. Luckily, we didn't have long to go. The road crew made some adjustments, and after about half an hour, the lights went down again, and we began to hear music from the stage. Then there were brightly coloured lights visible, and we watched Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Chris Martin arrive on stage. I attempt to video the beginning, but I'm shaking so much that my camera won't stay still, so I give up and just decide to scream, jump up and down and go crazy. The opening sound is 'Hurts Like Heaven', and before we know it, there are fireworks exploding from the top of the stadium, giving the term "explosive opener" a whole new meaning. Chris's vocals are perfect, and even though this is a new song, the crowd goes wild for it. Coldplay then launch straight into 'Yellow', during which the light the stage up with yellow lights. Once again, we go crazy. 

As if I wasn't on enough of a high, the opening bars of 'In My Place' are practically enough to send me over the edge. This is when Chris walks down the ramp, about 2 meters from me, and sings on the end of the platform, joined by Jonny. This is also around the time when dozens of beach balls miraculously make their way into the audience,  we hit them and watch them fly over our heads, in wonder. Oh. My. Word. Three songs in, and my mind has already been blown. Lauren and I exchange a glance that clearly says "is this real?" is it really possible that this band and this concert is so perfect in every single way? 

Just when I think it can't get any better, Chris sits down at the brightly-coloured piano, and I hear the opening bars of 'The Scientist'. I was expecting this one during the encore, so it takes me completely by surprise. I manage not to cry or faint, only because I'm on such an adrenaline high. This song is utter perfection. The audience sings along in perfect unison, and Chris seems delighted. "You all sound beautiful", he says, "let's do it one more time then... nobody said it was easy...". "no one every said it would be so hard....". I cannot imagine what it must feel like to hear 62 000 people sing a song that you wrote. I was one of those 62 000, and was completely moved. It was extremely beautiful to watch. 

The amazing songs just kept on coming, 'Lost!', 'Shiver', 'Violet Hill' (cue scream of note, and four minutes of jumping), a handful of new songs such as 'Major Minus' and 'Charlie Brown', and one of my favourite new songs, 'Paradise'. Chris tells us that after seeing how lovely and sunny South Africa is, Will had suggested that they film a video here, and thus they'd set off into the desert to start filming the video for 'Paradise'. "And we wondered", says Chris, "if you wanted to be in the last minute of our new video? Unless you don't want to, of course, then just hide your face." He also says that they'll be parading around in ridiculous outfits, however he neglected to mention just how ridiculous said outfits were. If I was expecting flowing robes adorned with 'MX' and bright colours, I was wrong. Chris and the boys left the stage for a split second and returned wearing huge elephant heads. Yes, as in large furry elephant heads. Because that is completely normal. "When you're not as good-looking as Beyonce, you have to do what you can for videos", says Chris. His self-depreciation breaks my heart a bit, doesn't he know how amazing he is? Between giggles, I managed to get a photo of this oddity, and sing along to, in my humble opinion, one of Coldplay's best lyrics: "so lying underneath those stormy skies, she said 'oh, I know the sun must set to rise', this could be para-para-paradise". Wow. Again, wow. 

The acoustic version of 'The Hardest Part' was beautiful, Chris was just meters away from us, seated at another piano, and then he was joined by Jonny, Will and Guy for 'Til Kingdom Come', which was breathtaking. Clearly not wanting to quieten things down too much, they then ran back to the main stage and launched into 'Politik', which sounded absolutely amazing live. Beyond amazing. 

Next up was 'Viva La Vida', which threw the crowd into an absolute frenzy. The viva chant was sung by the entire audience, before, during, and after the band sang the song. Mind-blowing. A few more songs and then the band left the stage, thanking us for being there, and promising to see us again soon. Wait, what? Where was 'Fix You' and that Amy Winehouse tribute I'd heard so much about? But I'm no novice when it comes to concerts, and didn't move from my spot, instead joining int he rest of the crowd, as we took up the Viva chant once again. 

The intro of 'Clocks' got the crowd going once again. I started jumping and squealing again. 'Clocks', like all of Coldplay's songs is 100 times better live, and I was blown away! After this came a short version of Amy's 'Rehab', which fed directly into 'Fix You', which was also sung by 62 000 voices. Amazing. Have I said that before? I'll say it again: Amazing. The final song was 'Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall', which ended the night on a hugely high note. The band took a bow, and left the stage for the last time. 

The concert may have ended before 11pm, but for the 62 000 fans, the show lives on. The Viva chant continued all the way down the road, onto the park 'n' ride bus, in my sleep, and in the airport. I had never been to a concert like that in my entire life, it was perfect in every way. Setlist, vocals and instruments, audience interaction, the video shoot, the fireworks, the effects on the big screens, the lights, the confetti, the huge balloons that came down during 'Lost!', all combined to produce an absolutely fantastic show that I will never in my life forget. I cannot describe how amazing Coldplay are live, and how energetic the performance was. To anyone who believes Coldplay to be a calm band, or thinks of their music as depressing, think again! Chris, Jonny, Will and Guy are true showmen, they are on stage because they love it, and they are brilliant at what they do. I am not exaggerating when I say that this may have been the best concert that this country has ever seen. 

I have to say well done to organisers Big Concerts, personally I had no real troubles before, during, or after the show, and traffic was barely a problem when leaving. To Coldplay, I say thank you for an unforgetable experience, and please do visit us again soon, South Africa loves you. A lot. 

Let's Play A Guessing - Or Wishing- Game

Alright, so Big Concerts announced this morning that Julio Iglesias would be performing a couple of shows in SA  in November. This brings that month's number of international acts up to two: Josh Groban, and good old Julio. Thank Heavens that it's not his son was all that went through my mind when I heard the announcement. 

So basically, my hopes for December concerts have just gone through the roof: after all, December was the month that I saw The Killers. This year, I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for bands such as Paramore, My Chemical Romance and my guilty pleasure, Miss Taylor Swift. I also wouldn't say no to Muse, Owl City, Jason Mraz and about a million others, sigh, the life of a fangirl! 

The Process of Getting Coldplay Tickets

One fine Friday evening, whilst normal people my age began their weekly binge-drinking session, yours truly sat drinking a cup of tea and creeping the Big Concerts Facebook page. I did this often, but tonight one word that appeared in several posts jumped out at me, as I skimmed through the page: COLDPLAY. I slowed down and re-read the posts, many of which said something along the lines of “are you bringing Coldplay to SA this year?”. I wondered why everyone was suddenly asking this, and my question  was answered seconds later, when I read a post that indicated that Highveld Stereo claimed to be making an announcement about a Major Rock Band that would be coming to SA within the next few months. Hmm. A normal person may have cast this out of their mind, and simply waited for Big Concerts to announce the show, but not me. I think that this is the time when I declare my love for Coldplay. I became absolutely obsessed with them in June of 2008, and I’ve stayed that way ever since. Although I consider The Killers to be my Favourite Band Ever, Coldplay come a close second, I absolutely adore them. I had held no hope that they would ever come to South Africa, and thus earlier in the year I had been at the point of looking up flights to Scotland, as Coldplay were playing at T In The Park music festival, which just happened to fall perfectly within my university holidays… I’d eventually given up on the Scotland plan, getting tickets seemed like an almost impossible task, and so I’d decided that next year I would attend a major overseas festival and see Coldplay.

Anyway, back to that fine Friday evening. I set up a live stream of Highveld Stereo on my laptop, and began to listen out for any mention of the Announcement. I didn’t have to wait long. Soon, the DJ’s began talking about the announcement, which was going to be made on Tuesday. They hinted that it was a British band composed of four men, one of whom being married to a famous blonde. Hmm. This was the first time that I allowed myself to freak out a tad. This was also the time when I sent my mother a message, telling her that Coldplay may be coming. After I’d explained the story, she told me to calm down, not wanting me to get my hopes up in case it wasn’t them at all. This was also around the time that I started messaging Lauren saying things along the lines of “LAUREN, COLDPLAY ADHSHFGUIDGJIOERGJRTKLJG COLDPLAY!!!!!!’. Her first reaction was to ask if I was drunk. By now, I was completely distracted, I’d left my two friends who were at my house to their own devices, while I continued my online creeping, pausing occasionally to whisper “Coldplay” in a voice that must have sounded rather manic. After a long while, I managed to rip myself away from the open tabs of Big Concerts, Coldplay and Highveld Stereo websites, and I went out to enjoy my evening. But I never stopped thinking about the announcement.

The next day, my Highveld stream went on again, and by now the adverts were becoming more and more obvious. My favourite one went something like this: “We’ve seen the best bands in the world…” Human by The Killers plays in the background, cue fangirl scream “..but one has eluded us…until now!” And then Viva La Vida began to play. I literally screamed out loud. Still, however, I would not allow myself to believe that it was really them. Surely they wouldn’t be making it so obvious if it was? Plus, it was Coldplay, I cannot even express how much I wanted it to be them, but it just seemed unreal. The announcement was then going to be moved to Monday anytime from 6am, as opposed to Tuesday. I began to count hours, and became much too distracted to concentrate on work for the rest of the weekend. Now the stress set in, it was all very well that my favourite band might be coming, but I do have commitments to my studies, if the shows were during the week, I wouldn’t be able to go at all, unable to miss lectures of practicals, plus the little issue of exams was ever present.

My alarm was set for 5.55am on Monday morning, I had to be awake in time for the announcement. I even got a message from Lauren at 6.58am: “2 mins til the announcement!”. The actual announcement was anti-climatic- DJ Ryan O’Connor of Highveld’s Cape Town sister station, KFM tweeted “COLDPLAY heading to SA in October.” The dates were Wednesday the 5^th in Cape Town and Saturday the 8^th in Johannesburg. That meant that I would be able to go to the Joburg show, no problem. I had thought that once it was confirmed, I would be jumping up and down and squealing my head off, but I wasn’t. I was completely calm, and texted my mother to tell her the news, then ate breakfast and headed off to my lecture.

My next mission was to convince Lauren that the trip across the country was worth it, as were Golden Circle tickets. This wasn’t very difficult, one play of a live version of ‘The Scientist’ later, we were planning our strategy to acquire tickets. Tickets were to go on sale on Thursday at 9am, and the next worry in our lives was that tickets would sell out before we could get them. Luckily, neither of us had early lectures, so we would be able to queue at the outlet to purchase tickets. Attempting to buy tickets online would have been a bad idea, as the system is known to crash when it becomes overloaded. At 8.20am, I was at the Computicket outlet, and Lauren joined me after a few minutes. We were third in a line which had snaked its way out of the door by 8.55am, and we’re from a tiny town. Later, I gasped in horror at the photographs of the lines in larger towns, and breathed my first and last sigh of relief at the fact that I didn’t live in Cape Town. The people who were first in our line purchased seven tickets for the Cape Town show, the girls second in line bought two seated tickets for Joburg, and then we were up. I had never been so relieved to see the tickets begin to print out of the machine. I checked and double-checked that these were Golden Circle tickets for Johannesburg, and then Lauren and I spent about ten minutes standing in the street outside the shop, screaming. However, I still couldn’t quite get my head around the fact that I was really seeing Coldplay! Upon logging onto Facebook, we saw that Golden Circle tickets for Joburg had already sold out. It was now 9.35am…we had gotten our tickets 20 minutes before they had sold out!

Of course, I talked off the ears of anyone who would listen for the next few days, going on and on about Coldplay and how I was seeing them. I’m sure my friends wished I would shut up, and I’m sure they’ll be wishing the same thing when I return from the concert. My outfit is ready, my flights are booked, I have park-and-ride tickets, I have a place to stay, everything is in place, now bring on the 8^th of October!  

Being Excited For A Concert I'm Not Going To

Big ups to Big Concerts for organising an international act almost every single month this year! U2, Neil Diamond, Roxette, The Script, James Blunt, Coldplay, Kings Of Leon, and now Josh Groban have or will have all graced our shores by the end of 2011. 

Though I may not be the biggest fan of all of these acts, I still think it's great exposure for the country, and promotes the fact that yes, we are able to handle huge shows such as the U2 360 Tour. I was lucky enough to see The Script, and to currently possess tickets for both Coldplay and Kings Of Leon. Sadly, James Blunt tickets sold out before I managed to make a sneaky enough plan make a roadtrip to the nearest concert venue.

It's been a while since the Coldplay announcement, and thus I thought that it was about time for the next big act to be announced, in fact, I'm not lying when I say that when I woke up this morning I thought that we might get an announcement today, and I was not wrong. In November, Josh Groban will return to the country for shows at Sun City and at the Grandwest in Cape Town. Now, if Josh was going to Durban, I wouldn't have hesitated to get tickets. What, a rock fan such as myself can't like Josh? I beg to differ. While I may not listen to his music on repeat all day every day (with the exception, perhaps, of "Weeping"), I think his concert would provide some relaxed enjoyment, and be a good chance of pace from the screaming, fangirling, barrier crowds that I've grown to accustomed to. 

Anyway, regardless of the fact that I'm not going, I'm still excited for these concerts, and it seems I'm not the only one. When pursuing Big Concerts' Facebook wall - as I do more often than I'd like to admit- one sees a lot of people begging for the promoters to bring out their personal favourite band or artist. Now, I'm not one to judge these people, I spammed Big Concerts constantly about Coldplay for what was probably almost a year, however, when someone who isn't quite my cup of tea comes to the country, I prefer to keep my distaste to myself. Some people, however, feel the need to ruin it for the rest of the fans by posting comments along the lines of "dey suck", "w0rst band eva", and, well, you get the picture. However, I've hardly seen any negative comments on the Josh Groban announcement! Those who haven't said that they have their tickets already have said that it's great for his fans. This leads me to the conclusion that there is just something to downright likable about Josh that even the meanest of metalheads have trouble finding an insult to throw his way!

So, now that we concerts taking place in both October (Coldplay and KOL) and November (Josh), the big question is whether or not we'll get someone in December. Personally, I'm still holding thumbs for The Killers... (but not really)