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Saw this on a billboard today...

London. The World in One City. Enough said.

posted by keith @ 21:48 Comments: 0  

Still hectic

Work is still very busy. It's going to get worse before it gets better but we can handle it. There is a glint of light far off in the distance that we will get to.

We have the company's summer party on Thuraday. Champage reception followed by waffle from the management and then drinks (hopefully free) and dancing. Looks like a nice venue too - Alibi Bar .

Just booked a week off in August too - may just stick my tent and a sleeping bag in the boot of my car and bugger off for a few days - spend the rest exploring this fine city.

posted by keith @ 16:50 Comments: 0  

Busy week

Very hectic week at work and I am now shattered. I think I'm having a weekend in to recover - it doesn't happen very often.

The city seems to have been galvanised by what happened last week. People are determined to not let this affect them. It has given the city a new resolve. Walking through Canary Wharf on Friday evening it was without doubt the busiest I have ever seen it. I think that proves a point.

Went to see Batman Begins last night. Thoroughly enjoyable but as soon as he puts the mask on Christian Bale starts speaking as though he's had 200 cigs. That's the only criticism I have.

posted by keith @ 09:00 Comments: 3  

Shock...

...no other word to describe it. I arrived at work at around 08:45 this morning and then it all kicked off. The sound of emergency services, helicopters. Some of the guys were outside and heard the explosion of the bus. We were all evacuated because of a bomb threat close to our building. We were allowed back in shortly after but I told people to go home if they could get home. I was lucky, I managed to get a boat.

All I will say is that these people will never get the better of us. This will not stop me doing anything that I would normally do. When your time comes, that's it and I refuse to live my life in fear as these monsters want us to. I challenge all Londoners and all vistors to London to do exactly the same thing. Let's show these people that we are bigger than them, they can't get us down.

Tony Blair described us as stoic today. This is so true. We are all hurting on the inside but will not show it. We will puff our chests out and get on with life. If the tube is running tomorrow morning I will get on it as usual and get on with my life.

posted by keith @ 20:28 Comments: 1  

Zut alors!

We got the olympics - truly excellent news. Have Monsieur Chirac concentrated on the Olympic bid rather than slagging off our food etc. Sorry to say it but it's typical French arrogance. They were so sure they had it amd our boys kept plugging away 'til the last minute. Apparantly it was swung our way by continued hard work over the last couple of weeks.

posted by keith @ 15:30 Comments: 1  

Report on the gig from U2.com

04.07.2005
'We hope you will enjoy the show..'

After racing off from Live 8 in London, the band made it to Vienna and a pumped night in Austria.

Arriving a bit later than normal, due to the unusual circumstances (plane dash from London, biggest rock and roll show in history etc etc), for the first time on the European tour to date, the show opened in darkness.

'Larry Mullen Jnr' shouted Bono and with that the band were blasting out Vertigo for the second time in a matter of hours, this time to 50,000 Austrians. OK, so the audience was a few billion fewer than earlier in the day, but these Viennese know how to party: with I Will Follow it was clear that they were wired tonight and it was mutual. Witness the joy in Edge's eyes as he weaved his way along the b-stage playing up a storm.

As if there was any doubt in the singers mind, at the beginning of Elevation Bono wondered out loud if it would be ok to flirt with the crowd. (The decision seemed to be unanimous.) And with the Live 8 vibe permeating the proceedings, Beautiful Day was updated to mark the moment. 'A beautiful day
Live 8 right in front of you'

It finished with a timely snatch of Sgt Pepper:
'We hope you will enjoy the show
Sit back and let the evening go.'

In fact, no-one was sitting back tonight, the band didn't really need to be in the stadium for Still Haven't Found - the audience sang the whole thing, lighters aloft. And tonight it was All I Want Is You (which seems to view with Wild Horses) to follow, the stadium bathed in a stunning yellow light -
and half the audience apparently on the shoulders of the other half!

Cardiff had a special atmosphere for being in the dark from the beginning, but that was because the roof kept out the daylight. Tonight was unique on the tour to date because from the off, there was the big, dark open sky above. Bono made friends with a young woman near the front, who, it turned
out, was not travelling lightly. She came onto the stage accompanied with the biggest backpack in the history of travel, suggesting she was about to set up camp for the rest of the show. It made no difference as she and Bono sang to each other: 'All I Want Is you...

'Thank you for coming out tonight, thank you for giving us a great life,' Bono said, taking a break after City of Blinding Lights. 'Through the miracle of flight, to the miracle of television we can be in two places at the same time.'

With Larry at the tip of one b-stage and Adam at the tip of the other for the opening of Love and Peace, wherever you are in the stadium on this tour you feel that one member of the band is playing just for you. And for this blistering quartet of songs - Love and Peace, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet
The Blue Sky, Running to Standstill - the only way to finish is with the reminder of the human rights that most of us take for granted and so many are still denied. The 60th birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk is again lauded and the wailing harmonica ahead of Running To Stand Still sounds eerily poignant in the night.

Has Bono's speechifying for Africa ever sounded so potent as today, when a series of rock shows managed to get half the planet to stop and take notice ?

'From the charity of the old Live Aid
To the justice of the new live 8
From Charity to Justice
...so this is our year, this is our moment
To make poverty history
It's a t-shirt, it's a slogan but behind the t-shirt and the slogan is a very achievable dream.
We've come from Live 8 in London to play tonight in Vienna. A quarter of a million people there - and all of you here tonight - share our dream. That's the idea that we can stop dreaming and start doing - in 2005 that's what we're gonna do...'

Another great night of Vertigo. Here's the set list in full:

Vertigo
I Will Follow
Electric Co.
Elevation
New Year's Day
Beautiful Day
Still Haven't Found
All I Want is You
City of Blinding Lights
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Standstill
Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have No Name
One

Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You

All Because of You
Yahweh
Vertigo

posted by keith @ 12:53 Comments: 2  

Awesome

U2 blew my mind on Saturday night. They travelled from Live 8 in London so by the time they arrived it was pitch black in the Ernst Happel Stadion. 50,000 Austrian's went crazy when U2 came on stage and the entire night was just a massive party with everyone singing along, clapping, dancing - it was just fantastic. Bono is a bit mental but knows how to sing a song and The Edge is just a magnificent guitar player. The whole night was one of the best of my life - live music just doesn't get any better than this!

posted by keith @ 11:36 Comments: 1  

It means nothing to me...

...oh, Vienna! Cheesy I know but I leave tomorrow morning. Very much looking forward to it - looks like the weather will be nice too - not too hot and not too cold. Who cares to be honest!

posted by keith @ 15:34 Comments: 1