Queen history at Hammersmith continued last night and now Adam can add his name to that. After an amazing first night in London, Adam and Queen continue their mini-tour with the second of three shows at HMV Hammersmith Apollo. The final concert will be this Saturday. Scheduled to begin at 8 PM London time (3 PM Eastern time, 12 PM Pacific time), let’s see how they change things up tonight.
To all of the wonderful folks from this site attending one or more of the London Queen + Adam shows – remember these very special events and have a blast!
Twitter list: http://twitter.com/#!/LambertUK/adamlambert-queen-12july
Dinner: Queen+Adam
Setlist: http://www.facebook.com/Queen/posts/10150960414477362
Flash (intro), Seven Seas of Rhye, Keep Yourself Alive, We Will Rock You, Fat-Bottomed Girls, Don’t Stop Me Now, Under Pressure, I Want It All, Who Wants to Live Forever, A Kind of Magic (Roger), These Are the Days of Our Lives (Roger), Somebody to Love (part) (Brian), Love of My Life (Brian), ’39 (Brian/Roger), Dragon Attack, Drum Battle/Guitar Solo, I Want to Break Free, Another One Bites the Dust, Radio Ga Ga, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, The Show Must Go On, Bohemian Rhapsody
Encore – Tie Your Mother Down, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions
Brian’s Soapbox (Thoughts on the July 12th show): Queen and Adam…The Best Show?
Photos: @_MaiaJ, @_Lilzy, missy5around, TUKE18, Alix_and_Cats, Zara Lipstixx, HK fan, glediator, rs
Videos: TALCvids playlist
“Full concert-Part 1” London, UK 7/12/12 – jungpeter1958gmail, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
“Flash (Opening) / Seven Seas of Rhye / Keep Yourself Alive / We Will Rock You (Fast)” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Flash (Opening) / Seven Seas of Rhye / Keep Yourself Alive /We Will Rock You (Fast)” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“Fat-Bottomed Girls” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Fat-Bottomed Girls” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b
“Don’t Stop Me Now” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Don’t Stop Me Now” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b
“Under Pressure” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Under Pressure” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b
“I Want It All” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“I Want It All” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b
“Who Wants To Live Forever” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Who Wants To Live Forever” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“A Kind of Magic” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“These are the Days of our Lives” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“Somebody To Love / Love of My Life” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“’39” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“Dragon Attack” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Dragon Attack” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“Dragon Attack” London, UK 7/12/12 – MeghanEliseForPeace (close up GA crowd view)
“I Want To Break Free” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“I Want To Break Free” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“I Want To Break Free” London, UK 7/12/12 – MeghanEliseForPeace (close up GA crowd view)
“Another One Bites The Dust” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Another One Bites The Dust” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“Another One Bites The Dust” London, UK 7/12/12 – MeghanEliseForPeace (close up GA crowd view)
“Radio Ga Ga” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Radio Ga Ga” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b
“The Show Must Go On” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“The Show Must Go On” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b (close up)
“Bohemian Rhapsody” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
“Bohemian Rhapsody” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b
“Encore – Tie Your Mother Down” London, UK 7/12/12 – riddle601b
“Encore – We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions” London, UK 7/12/12 – suz526
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mils…no,no,no & no (as far as I know
had to bring the Elmo exit gif to the new page. I love it.
http://twitpic.com/a75qmh/full
More photos here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150960501222362.410105.17337462361&type=3
The Aftermath! http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/561241_10150960502012362_1186021235_n.jpg
See anyone you know? http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/487876_10150960502777362_1237399748_n.jpg
Last night I met up with a group from the queenonline fan club I am a member of at distillers arms not far from the theatre and of course it was 8 men and me. Anyway, as you can guess they have been less than supportive of the collaboration but since Kiev some have been softening. Still not sold. I have been very gentle of pushing Adam. Long story short by the middle of i want it all the clapping started. Then everything changed. After wwtlf one them said f$*k that dude is amazing. By the end only one was still not sure. As long as I have been part of the Queen fan site that was amazing. I was one right along with them that thought Paul Rodgers didn’t fit and nothing could change our minds so I was soooo happy. On another note I did not know that the CD’s at the concert didn’t count. I bought one as did a few others. But,when I saw Ron post that i ran out to HMV in Trafalgar Square and bought one and the guy said they just restocked this am and they had it in the very front of the store on top.
The guys(from the queen website) might not be transferred to full Adam fans but they have a hell of more respect for him and now support a bigger collaboration. I call that progress!
http://tv.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Flash-Adam-Lambert-Performs-UK-Concerts-With-QUEEN-20120713
From ChartShowTV
EXCELLENT vid of Another One Bites The Dust! Change quality to 1080p HD … clear as can be. It’s also a very different view from what I’ve seen so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hs4XRRCpjg
Yes but is it a “gem”?
Here are more EXCELLENT vids (“gems”) from the same account:
Dragon Attack: http://youtu.be/Q1P4qgGJw6Q
I Want to Break Free: http://youtu.be/fqlbNzDz27U (close up of ripped pants)
Posted this in the July thread but felt it should also be here.
Brian’s Soapbox – Queen and Adam…The Best Show?
http://brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbjul12a.html#13
AL, this ^^^^^^^ just leaves me speechless! Last night was truly a force to be reckoned with – it was like Adam was possessed by a rock gawd force, one that has not blessed this world in many, many years. I hate to say it, but I’m starting to think all the peeps who have been saying “Adam should be doing rock!” these past few years are right. Heck, he can do whatever genre he wants – at the same time, lol. Okay, I have to play catch-up from last night …
Texas, that’s why the Queen gigs are so perfect for Adam. There are songs that highlight all his different facets. Dramatic. Fierce. OTT. Soulful. Operatic. Balladeer. Sexaaay. Dancy. Emotional. Queenly. There’s a song for each facet.
Queen + Adam = perfect fit.
Mils, WORD.
TLKC you have fanmail
mils, I agree with you 100%!! These performances really highlight how simple today’s pop music really is.
Yes, ITA. Today’s pop music by and large just sucks.
More musings on Queenbert. Adam can be totally free to be as wild and crazy, as OTT with his vocals and costumes as he would ever want to be, and nobody, nowhere would diss him for it. In this context, he has Freddie as a precedent. Freddie was an original OTT vocally, OTT costumed outrageous performer. Adam will always have this as his backdrop.
If Adam gets even more OTT on Saturday, it will just be welcomed. As far as I’m concerned–bring it on baby. We can take it!!!!
And, I finally just watched BoRap. Oh my, dancy spinning Adam and a near floor mop!!!!! Just seeing his joy while spinning made me smile so big!!
mils, I just went back and rewatched BoRap. Several things I didn’t notice before.
1- When Adam was spinning around, the fireworks looked like a roman candle (cannon) coming out of his arm(s).
2- At the 5:20 mark on riddle601b’s video, he pulls up his pants with a flair.
3- At the end of this video, Bryan holds his arm out for Adam to join him as they walk off the stage. Adam starts to offer an escort arm (as he did in the Elmo jacket), but Brian takes him with his arm across Adam’s shoulder, and they lock arms that way and walk off. I hadn’t realized they walked off that one together too.
Did anyone doubt that from the moment he sang Bohemian Rhapsody at the Idol audition, that Adam would sing with Queen. And once he did at the finale, did anyone doubt that someday he would sing with them like this? AND does anyone doubt that Brian and Roger will write songs with Adam, and put out a great record? What fun they’ve been having…and bringing us right along with them. Watching the joy that’s happening on that stage is magnetic. It’s hard to look away. I can’t even imagine how awesome that would be to see in person and to experience that energy from the audience. It has to be addicting to stand there on stage and look out at that audience and feel that positive energy being focused on you. I’m excited that Adam has this opportunity.
Nicely done research Ceddies.
Boy was on fire yesterday.
Interesting, no paps pictures, nothing. Maybe he’s just hanging with his family and friends an having fun in his down time. Hope he’s sleeping well, drinking juice and relaxing. BB has a little show to do.
Interesting that he hasn’t seemed to have done any interviews this whole week.
Busy day but I have to say that the gif of Brian and Elmo Adam strutting off the stage together is completely adorbs!
I have an enormous list of bookmarked gifs. Does anyone know how to save them so they still move?
nkd: (I use Chrome.) I just richt-click the picture and use “save image as”, and it still moves
artistsupporter vids from 7/12 are showing up.
This is Fat-bottomed girls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51B7FbbXQ5w&feature=autoplay&list=UU6pSWxFvd6FQYQXJrXdVQ6g&playnext=1 LOL at 2:50. Not to mention 4:02
Adam Lambert @adamlambert
“The Show Must Go On’ http://youtu.be/5a6kzuhnEvs
The amazing HD videos (playlist) if you want.
Hope somebody make mp3 from this set .. very clear audio.
From taximanwayne’s youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XeJoe8z8io&feature=channel&list=UL
Thanks for posting this asif. They are great. Very clear picture and sound.
Guys: I wanted to post this to the Queen fans and don’t know where is the best place to put it.
Just to say how much I loved them and how they feel about Freddie and how moving they made the whole Hammersmith experience.
Glambert here! I just got back from the UK where I saw both the 11th & 12th performances.
Can I tell you how much I love! love! love! Queen and their fans?
When you all started to sing the chorus of “Who Wants to Live Forever?” I suddenly realized that I was in the middle of something truly amazing. When Brian sang “Love of my Life” on the first night, I felt a stitch in my heart. I actually did cry on the second night – the montage of Brian, Roger, Freddie and John as young rockers made me ache for their loss and the too-swift passing of time and my own life. What Queen have with their fans have is so special and, because their music is so rich and varied and expressive and brilliant, it speaks movingly to and of so many aspects of our human experience, especially the sense of loss.
You ALL know ALL the words to ALL the songs and you sang with a joy and love and cheek that left me wondering “How did I miss this? How did this magic go on for so long without me ever knowing or finding out about it?
Because the inter-fan dialogue has been so much about Adam’s suitability to fill Freddie’s shoes, we seem to have sat so completely on opposite sides of a fence.
The first night we were in the balcony and, when we looked down, stage right was full of short people with cameras; stage left was full of arm-pumping tall people. Guess who was on stage right and who was on stage left (next to Brian)?
The second night I was GA front-and-centre and being quizzed by Queen fans – was I a fan? How much of a fan? Well, I have 2 CD’s, which I do play on my iPod, I can sing all of the choruses, saw their sound-tracked version of Metropolis several times and spent a good part of early morning Live Aid worrying if Freddie, who was reportedly sore of throat, would be able to sing at full throttle (he was).
Let’s just say, I went in a stage right person and came out a stage left. Or, more accurately: front-and-centre.
I will be watching by live-stream tonight and will be thinking of the Glamberts still there but I will also be thinking of the 34-year-old Queen fan from Birmingham who knew all the words and is coming back tonight to sing them all over again and the two German Queen fans who commandeered the end of the catwalk and gave me the best view in the house over their shoulders (they turned to each other after Fat-Bottomed Girls and nodded affirmatively – Adam passed the test!) And the fan with his Queen 1975 T-shirt (before he was born, I think) who happily baited and bantered with us throughout the pre-show.
I always say of the Glamily that I came for Adam and stayed for the community. With Queen, I came for Adam and I am staying for Queen and all the amazing people who love them and will never leave them.
And no more chorus girl. I’m going to learn all the f*cking words so I can sing every one of them next time with Mr. Birmingham.
TLKC OMG. I Am smiling and laughing and have a lump in my throat from your beautiful post. TY for posting. This is from a long time Queen fan who has been going crazy not being able to flail with all my friends during all this epicness. I am able to enjoy dinner today if it is being served.
Well, we’ll watch together but I feel a little bit like that American in “Local Hero” who left the Scottish village at the end of the building project and then called them on the community telephone because he missed them.
Hi everyone —
Back home now and recovering. Amidst all of the laundry to be done today, I’m looking forward to checking in on what happens with tonight’s show. Should be epic. I’m sad that this run with Queen is coming to an end tonight. It has been so magical but went so fast. Surely Brian, Roger, and Adam will see the way forward for more collaborations together – live shows in the US, new recordings… they love each other so much and find such joy working together that it can’t end here.
TLKC – I love your post! I went into this a Queen fan to the extent that my hubby and I have a couple of greatest hits albums that we sing along to (loudly) together. But I didn’t know the more obscure songs, and I certainly didn’t know that a Queen concert was so much about audience participation. I agree with you – it was awesome how they ALL sang EVERY lyric to EVERY song! And all of the hand and arm choreography was a blast!
You could try posting your sentiments on queenonline.com. I think that might be the main place that Queen fans gather online. Am I right? There are some Freddie purists/Adam-haters there, but I think the more reasonable, accepting ones would really appreciate what you have to say.
TLKC, you amaze me. I can SO see how you and Ron have such a great friendship. Having met you, I already felt your warmth, but this “piece” that you just wrote left me crying for several obvious reasons. This 29 year old who just became eligible for Medicare this year has been out and about, clubbing, attending concerts, as musical as one can be without actually performing (or in the background of making performances known) for my entire earlier life. Queen was my favorite Rock Band, but I never had any idea that I would get to see them. I knew when Adam Lambert opened his mouth with “Mama” that he was special but don’t think I ever thought that he would be this closely allied with Queen. I now have the slightest feeling that I may actually get to see these guys one day along with Adam. Adam brought back my sense of youth from the very beginning of his time on Idol. Now, he’s done the same for Roger, Brian, and the guys and, I’m sure, many of their fans.
I love what you have written, and I hope that there is some way that Queen and their fans will see this.
My apologies… Am a latecomer…Just discover this cyberhangout and it felt good to read all your usernames that were so familiar to me during the GNT-tour in 2010.
Thank you so much for all your informative and soulful recaps… it is still different than reading all the favorable and not so favorable reviews of official media.
So grateful to Suz526 and her videos so I was able to see the difference in Adam Lambert’s performance between those 2 days. During the 2nd day Adam finally seemed to dare more to be himself while still respecting Queen’s material. Can’t imagine what will happen this saturday evening.
I only became a fan of TSMGO when Queen performed it with Adam Lambert at the EMA’s in Belfast last year. But when I saw Suz526’s video of the same song (12 July 2012), I was sold… already have the video on repeat and I think I found myself a new anthem. Thank you Queen and Adam Lambert and Suz526.
TLKC: Thanks for your report. It shows so clearly how moved you were by the whole experience.
Ceddies and cwm miss you already! I took your advice and just posted my recap on Queenonline under the “Queen + Adam Lambert” thread. Those guys are brutal but I don’t care – call me sentimental. That’s how I feel.
I hate fast food but the post-show meal at MacDonalds Hammersmith was a feast of joy because there were so many Glamberts hugging and swooning and saying Hi! and Goodbye!
Next time it will hopefully be closer to home and even more of us can go together. Start putting away a loonie a day.
And, Ron, get your passport.
mils Got the “fan mail”. Is that you or another person? I actually don’t go on to ALFC at all these days. If it’s you perhaps we can continue on email?
Thought I’d add a few additional tidbits about my experience before the new thread for tonight’s show goes up…
The first night (7/11), I went with my whole family and we had good seats in the balcony – 6th row, on the right. (Little Dutchess and the Duke were just a few rows behind us.) We had a perfect view of the entire stage and the sound was good. Everybody around us was sitting for most of the show, and when I stood up at one point, someone behind me gestured for me to sit down. Fortunately, everybody started standing up toward the end of the main set.
As a casual Queen fan and someone who respects Adam’s voice and his talents (but not necessarily a big fan like me), my husband loved the show. He thought that the music and spectacle were incredible and that Adam did a great job as frontman. My 18-y.o. daughter (who went to 3 GNT shows with me) loved it all and was happily bopping along and loving it the whole time. My 12-y.o. son thought the show was really good, but mostly was struck by how loud it was (acoustic earplugs notwithstanding). LOL
I got to meet chunkeymonkey and chatted with her briefly. She was sitting in my section and we found each other via twitter. Nice gal, down to earth, about 30 (for realz LOL).
I was also sitting in the same row as Eber, Leila, Neil, Sauli, Danielle, and maybe Neil’s girlfriend, but a couple of sections down. They stood the whole time and it was fun to peek at them now and again. Eber and Neil were rapt. Sauli was frequently smiling and laughing and chatting with Leila, Danielle, and Neil’s GF. He looked really happy. At the end of the show I moved toward their exit and was lucky in my timing in that I was standing at their exit when they went by. I briefly touched Leila, Eber, and Sauli on their arms as they went by and said “Congratulations; he was awesome” to each of them. They each looked very proud and said “thank you” in return. That was a nice moment. And might I add that Sauli looked beautiful. He is letting his hair grow out a bit more on the sides and is returning to a more natural blond color overall, and he’s growing a little facial hair. He looked great and there does seem to be some sort of warm sparkly aura about him.
The second night, I went back by myself and stood on the floor in GA. I was so glad that I got the opportunity to experience the concert both ways, because they really are two different ways to experience it and both have their advantages. On the floor, I had a great spot, on the right in front of Brian, and only about 1/3 of the way back from the stage. Fortunately I’m tall and had only short people in front of me so I was set! I was surrounded by Queen fans. They were all loving the show and giving Adam lots of love, and it was such a blast to be in that high-energy atmosphere, with the arms pumping, waving, and clapping, and everyone singing along at the tops of their lungs. It was insanely fun. And to be able to dance to those awesome funky beats in Dragon Attack and AOBTD was heaven for me!
The show was truly incredible the first night, and I thought it could not be topped. But lo and behold, Adam and Queen blew me away even more the second night. The chemistry, the energy they brought onstage, especially Adam, the way he connected to each song, the way he let himself be himself a little more, and the way he pushed his voice to these unreal notes – it was just amazing. I’ve thrown around so many superlatives about these shows that it starts to feel silly, but they really were superb.
Queen and Adam made magic together, and I just hope that they continue to find a way to collaborate because I’d love for that magic to continue and be brought to more people, in one form or another.
New thread is up! See you there!
http://www.adamlambertlive.org/2012/live-queen-adam-lambert-london-uk-71412
Thanks for the great recaps!
And welcome to Axxxel! Glad that you found us here!
Just to reiterate cwm’s comment: the 11th was amazing but the 12th was transcendent. I am afraid that everyone will be in tears tonight. So brief and so beautiful.
Thank you AL for your welcome !!
Great photos and review from a Queen fan
http://www.blakemore-noble.net/gigs/queen-adam-lambert-hammersmith-apollo-london/
Welcome, Axxxel. Glad to have you over here with us. Many of us do not go to the “old” hangout anymore. Some do, but others (like myself) just lurk there occasionally.
Thank you TLKC and cwm for your great recaps. We appreciate the personal first-hand accounts of these amazing concerts.
Here are the photos I took of the July 12th concert
https://picasaweb.google.com/101601923663806332950/QueenAndAdamLambertHammersnithApollo1272012?authkey=Gv1sRgCML48OP-1ZLO1gE#5766059404092100706
Some of the TALC vids
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC3CB865B96E8D9E8
Some great HD videos here (great sound and visual):
http://www.youtube.com/user/taximanwayne?feature=watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_VOi7hCblc&feature=channel&list=UL
I know I promised to write a recap of my experience at the London shows with Adam and Queen but it would probably take a book….You have all seen the vids and read the reviews, so you know how absolutely awesome (in the literal, not the popular, sense of the word) they were.. So I will just try and recall some of the highlights for me to give you all a sense of what made this almost two weeks so very special for me.
I got off the cruise ship on July 2nd and on the train back to London, a fellow passenger who was also staying on in London was telling us about all her plans for spending mornings in the British Museum and the V&A Museum and all the shows she had tickets for in the evenings. I was sitting there thinking, because of Adam F Lambert, I am going to spend the next two weeks surrounded by friends and living it up. True, I got to a couple of museums (knowing me, how could I not?) but it just showed how much my life has changed since AFL.
Anyway, at the B&B I met riskylady and cher and her entourage and one of the first things we did was go to the nearby Mall. Cher brought her laptop so that I could see the vids from Kiev. You have to remember that for two weeks I had been in an Adam desert, so people must have thought me very strange sitting there with headphones on flailing away at a computer screen.
Riskylady and I spent the week exploring London and the south and met up with cher and her friends again in Stevenage. It is soooooooooooooo good that the festival was cancelled and the less said about Stevenage the better, but we did meet paulanation and M (lurker, you really have to get on here and get a name) and P, and had a lovely dinner with peeps from A-top. We were all like old friends the minute we met. We did see the Olympic torch go by, so that was cool.
Back to London and cher just happened to bump into suz526 and tchrsd in the Mall and then riskylady and I joined them. Then ovationimpact happened by and joined us for a while. We sat talking just like old times at the Pizza place till long after it had closed. The waiter must have realized how important it was for us to be together because he just said goodnight and left us with all the stuff still on the table.
The dinner on Tuesday night that we had planned for ALLers had grown to over 40 people and it was a crowded, noisy, and joyful affair. I had a chance to spend some time with some of you but it was rather overwhelming and I am sorry that I didn’t get the chance to say more than “hello”, if that, to others. I am not mentioning any names because I just know that I will forget somebody, so forgive me.
I am not even going to begin to talk about going to see We Will Rock You with a big group of ALLers or going for a birthday tea at the Ritz with cher, riskylady, suz526, and tchrsd. All just such fun.
Meeting the other peeps is such a special thing. The people who love me here think that this “thing” I have is great, but I have to explain things, they don’t feel it themselves. Suddenly I am surrounded with people who don’t just “get” me, they feel the same. We share something that brings us so close together even though in RL we may be worlds apart. (When I went to the HMV store to buy the album the morning it was released, there was a woman in a bright yellow scarf leaving the store just as I went in. I said to her: You just bought Trespassing! She said Six copies! And gave me a big hug. We never met before and never will again, but there was that very real connection).
This is getting much too long already, and I haven’t really said anything, so I will stop now and later I will write something about the concerts themselves.
rs, what a wonderful and heartfelt post! Thanks for sharing,. and I look forward to your next post!
Part two;
I am finally getting to the reason why we were all there, the concerts. I stood on the 11th and sat in the first row balcony (thanks to the generosity of riskylady) on the 12th. cwm and others have very eloquently written about what it was like standing in the middle of the crowd on the floor, so I won’t go into much detail about it. I was standing about ¾ of the way back and could see between heads fairly well for most of the concert but can’t say I had a great view. Except for one A-top’er near me and the peeps I came with, I was pretty much surrounded by Queen fans. I loved the fact that there were so many men there. It gave such a different vibe than the Adam shows I have been to. They were impatient for the show to start and happy to see their guys, and I felt no negativity toward Adam at the beginning. With the first chord of each song, they recognized it and got so excited, beginning to sing along. (This was no GNT where we knew the set list by heart). They seemed to accept Adam from the beginning, but you could feel the energy and their willingness to be swept away by him growing with every song. Of course, the biggest cheers came when the images of Freddie lit up the backdrop, but they loved Adam, too. He wasn’t trying to compete with Freddie, he was just trying to sing these great songs to the best of his ability (which is pretty fabulous) and he was showing the perfect combination of swagger and humility in the face of his Rock Idols Brian and Roger. Anyone who cares about them had to see how good Adam was for them and love him for it. And of course, the pure joy on the faces of Adam, Brian, and Roger was totally infectious. It was a great feeling being there doing the hand movements to Radio GaGa and trying to keep my hands swaying in the right direction in We Are the Champions (is that the right song?) in the midst of that crowd.
There is a vid from the 14th, I can’t find it now, that shows a big guy, with huge biceps standing in the front row before the catwalk, with his arms raised and getting so into the concert….I loved seeing that and wish we could see a fraction of that in the American audiences.
The second night, as I said, I had a front row seat. Needless to say, the view was perfect and I have never heard Adam’s voice soar like that. I was just so overcome by it I didn’t know what to do with myself. I couldn’t sit still and I kept wanting to stand up, but since the people around me were sitting (further back most people were standing) and I didn’t want to block their view, I kept sitting down again. Someone did send cher a pic that clearly shows me standing and waving my arms while people on every side of me were sitting. Lol. And seeing below me that sea of arms raised, waving for Adam was thrilling beyond words.
I just want to mention two more things and then I won’t subject you to any more reading. Tommy was there with the family and throughout the whole show he stood with his arms crossed looking straight ahead, rather sternly, it seemed. At first I thought that he was annoyed at the audience for walking around during the performance or for not standing or cheering enough. They were Brits, after all. I just caught a glimpse of Sauli when they came in but in the low lights, I couldn’t see anyone else in the family. Every time I looked back I could see Tommy’s pink hair standing out from the crowd. Upon reflection, I realized that he was functioning like a beacon for Adam down on the stage so that he could find his loved ones when he looked up. Even from the stage, with all the lights, that hair would stand out and Adam could focus in on them when he needed to. And when the show was over Tommy clapped loud and long with his arms over his head. He is a true and loyal friend to Adam.
As I was leaving the balcony, in the hall, I saw someone speaking to one of the security women who had been lurking about, looking for people trying to take videos. I assumed that he worked in the venue and I was curious what he thought of the show. So when he was walking near me we had this short conversation:
“So what did you think of the singer, Adam Lambert?”
“He is a phenomenal singer, but more than that , he is a really, really nice, sweet, guy.”
“Oh, you met him?”
“Yes, I work for Brian”
“Oh! Yes, he is a really nice guy (or something to that effect) and that is why we love him. If you see him again…
“Oh,I’ll see him. (laughs)”
“ Tell him that we are here and that we love him.”
Lolololololol.I have no idea who he was, or if he gave Adam my message, but there you have it.
I could go on and on and on, but you have read too much already.
rs, love it. Love it. You did not say too much. I could read recaps like yours all day!
rs Beautiful. It sounds like so much fun. Love the woman hugging you outside HMV and the conversation with the man who works for Brian. Also so special to be with others of like minds.
rs beautiful recaps. all those small things are as important as the concert itself. Really gives us a feel of the whole experience. It was lovely meeting you, albeit briefly
rs: I loved reading your recap.