July 20, 2011

Insecure, attention-seeking rock stars

I’m wondering if rock stars aren’t actually some of the most insecure people around. Probably worse than most of us.

I was tempted to mention names when I started writing this, but I won’t since it’s not really about a specific person – it’s about the phenomenon as such.
So… Let’s call Rockstar number 1 for, say, “John”.

John likes to update his status on Facebook every five minutes and is constantly fishing for compliments or backup in any subject.
Most recently was there a fan who complained about people who complained about John’s band splashing “blood” and spit on their audience during their shows.

The fan in question reckoned that if people didn’t tolerate the blood and the spit, they should stay at home. The fact that John even reposted that on his Facebook indicates that he wants/needs others to agree.
And of COURSE he gets what he wants. There are thousands of dweebs out there who are ONLY going to tell him what he wants to hear.
Mission accomplished.

John gets to hear that he indeed is the best rockstar in the world and he should not bother with stupid people who criticize him and blah blah blah.

He comes across as a five-year-old who needs people’s approval and other people to cheer him on all the time. Why else would a man in his 50’s give a rat’s ass about what “people” think?! What difference does it make what faceless strangers think?

He’s sold millions of records, his band fills arenas, he’s got a big, fat bank-account and chicks everywhere willing to do anything for him at any time – you know what I mean. He is living the rockstar dream. YET he isn’t content with who he is. If he was, he wouldn’t be updating his status on Twitter and Facebook around the clock – steering the comments to be about what he needs and wants to hear.

A person who is stable and content with his life and who he is, doesn’t need that kind of constant attention.
I guess that in our modern internet-world COMMENTS can be a drug like heroin since people like John crave it so much. When does it end?

Does it ever end? Is it ever enough? WHEN do you realize that maybe you ARE appreciated and can be satisfied just knowing that?
Seems like you can never get a man like that to be happy about who he is and secure in his role as the object for adoration. In a way it’s very sad.

Anyone who has such a strong desire to get constant CONSTANT backup for every bullshit little thing, has the world’s worst self-confidence. It just amazes me how this man dispite his “dream life” can be like a lost child who needs the love and admiration of perfect strangers whose opinions shouldn’t really matter one bit.

There is another rock star who is even worse. Let’s call him Bill.
His attention needs are so enormous that he needs his own scale for it. I know – because I used to hang with him and with his band during their heyday. All of us who have kept up with Bill and the gang will know exactly what that means.

He can’t even go out for a simple jog without sending a freaking MAP via Twitter, letting people know exactly where is is, in case anyone would like to “come by and say hi”. Oh, Jesus, man. You’re out JOGGING for god’s sake?!

If he’s in a café or pub, he lets everyone know that he’s there in that very moment. Name of place, map, email, phone number, fax, website, whatever the hell….
Cause GOD FORBID he would have to sit there alone for five minutes without someone admiring him.

So … Labile rock stars. And these are the people who I have been looking up my whole life. Their self-esteem and confidence’re WAY worse than mine – and mine pretty much sucks to be honest.

Compared to them though, I’m the most self-confident person alive. Then again … maybe that’s what rock stars are for. To make you realize that in some respects, maybe and probably you are much better off than they are.

You shouldn’t have to feel that your life is meaningless just because someone isn’t carrying a spotlight everywhere you go and doesn’t “like” everything you do on Facebook or comment on everything you say.

It’s nice to get those “likes” and comments every now and then, but it seems that with a lot of “stars”, their thirst for love and attention gets WAY out of hand.

Just my two cents.

July 18, 2011

Another (concert-) day

Had a rather rough awakening Saturday morning. Although I love hotels and hotel-beds, I sometimes wake up not knowing exactly where I am, and most importantly, I don’t know the size of the bed – cause it’s always different.

Basically, I thought I was just rolling over to a less warm part of the bed, but…. ended up rolling RIGHT down on the floor – landing between the bed and the wall, almost knocking my head in the bedside table, BAM!!! What the f…..?! GOOD MORNING to me. Ouch!

But the questionably wonderful morning didn’t stop there. When I opened the drapes, it was raining cats and dogs…! Of course. It’s Britain. :) I waited for a while but then I decided to go out anyway, I couldn’t just sit in a hotel room all day. After all, I was prepared – had my raincoat and all.

Just before I left the room, I saw that Ronnie (who’s one of the few people who’s been reading my stuff online since the very beginning, my first ever website, then MySpace and now this) left a message saying that I was apparently in his “hood” so to speak. Always nice to actually meet people in real life after having talked a bit back and forth for a few years. :)

So, he was already in Manchester when I texted to say where I was at. Before I even had time to open the text-reply, the guy had already found his way to Boots where I had just been shopping a few things! :)

I ended up having my personal Manchester-guide! Took a long walk, had a burger on the way, and then when we finally got to Manchester Apollo, he was going to show me how to find my way back to my hotel after the show. Picadilly station was close, so I figured I’d take the train just one station – at least I knew how to find my way back from there. Once we were at the station, I saw there was a STARBUCKS!

Sooo – of COURSE I HAD to have my Mocha Frappucino. :)) I should start writing down how many different countries I’ve enjoyed a Mocha Frappucino in. Ronnie was very british with his cup of tea (what else?) haha.

Went back to the Apollo and got in line. Ronnie kept me company a while, until the line started filling up and he hadn’t planned on going to the show anyway.

Like I said to my friend Mari earlier today, this is one of the best things about travelling alone – you get to meet new people. If you’re travelling with friends, you don’t get the same natural opportunity, so this is great.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Once again I experienced the polite british crowd. I stood there, front row – ALWAYS front row – and there was a little bit of space between me and the girl next to me. Had this been in Sweden – you would have had some drunk asshole pushing his way to get that spot, regardless who he might end up hitting or shoving in the process. HERE it was more like…. first there was a hand on the barrier – then I heard this male voice saying: “Excuse me…. is it okay if I hold my hand here?”

Uh – what? I’m not used to people asking, they usually just act like Terminators, moving (or re-moving….) everything that gets in their way…! It felt almost like a private show, I didnt notice anyone really – nobody headbanging, flapping his/her hair in my face, nobody jumping on my toes, nobody going bezerk at the barriers, it was so civilized I could barely believe it!

The show? That was described in the blog from yesterday, but here are some more videos! :-)

After the show I went to the station and guess what – trains were NOT running anymore! What the f….?! I specifically ASKED when I was there earlier that day, and now I had a ticket that I wouldn’t be able to use.

One of the station employees offered to show me the way to Oxford road. It was the sweetest, nicest thing. I thought he would just go to the entrance and then point me in the right direction, but he walked with me for a good five-ten minutes until we got to a street that led STRAIGHT to Oxford Rd! Another good reason to travel alone – you get to meet nice people like that.

Can’t believe Ronnie spent half his day walking me around Manchester too, so its very cool to get to know all these great people!

Well…. sleepy time here. Next trip is High Voltage. I think. Something might prevent me from going but I still don’t know for sure. I hope I will be able to go, I really want to. Would want to see Thunder and Skin, two bands that we are not likely to see in Sweden anytime soon.

One of my favorite songs by Thunder…:

We’ll see what happens.

July 17, 2011

Judas Priest ROCKED Manchester!

At Manchester airport, got here way too early because the cellphone clock somehow changed BACK to Swedish time (WTF???!) so now I’ve got some time to kill.

I will write more about my journey when I get home, with this limited internet time you get at airports, it feels like you have to hurrrryyy to get anything done.

But to just say something about last night’s concert…. GOD how it was worth coming here!! I didn’t have any expecations at all, cause like I said before, Queensryche were terrible at Sweden Rock, Judas Priest sucked big time at Sweden Rock and Graspop in Belgium. They got their energy back in Thessaloniki, Greece, but I didn’t dare to hope that they would KEEP that energy throughout the rest of the tour.

[Queensryche last night at Manchester Apollo]

See the full gallery on Posterous

So I went there yesterday thinking “…what the hell… It’s better than staying at home watching TV…”. But then Queensryche did their thing and although they’ve never really been an entertaining live band, at least they didn’t suck. It sounded good, and Geoff Tate was in a much better vocal shape than he was at Sweden Rock – thank god. Technically, they have always been impressive, so I’m not surprised about that, but all in all, I was pleasently surprised.

Then – PRIEST time…..

All I can say is that they blew me away. Holy shit. I guess that FESTIVALS are not their thing. When it was THEIR stage, THEIR show – they certainly knew how to work it!
I realized that I’d been smiling the whole time, when my facial muscles began to ache! Crazy! :)) But I was enjoying it 100%.

Rob sounded way better than he did at the earlier shows – and not only that, he was in a fantastic mood, was smiling, communicating with the crowd – it was just such a pleasure to see! Same thing goes for the rest of the band.

Glenn was jumping around, smiling, just simply having fun and it was so evident. Scott also. I was zooming in on him to take a photo, and just when I saw him perfectly through my lens, he did this funny gesture to let me know that he had seen me and I started laughing so much that I forgot to take the damn picture! He just looked so funny in that particular moment, then when he saw me laugh, he started laughing too. :)

[Ha! Looks like I did take a pic of Scott after all, without realizing it, must have been his first attempt to get me to realize that he saw my “paparazzi”-ing…!]

I think maybe this was the perfect venue for Priest. It was just the right size and close enough to the crowd to create that exchange of energy that makes a good show. When the band and their crowd actually get to interact, when they SEE eachother – not just from FAR away from a huge festival stage. This was totally different.

For the first time this summer, it actually looked like the band was enjoying playing together and they just loved being at Manchester Apollo. I haven’t felt that at ALL at the other shows.

Well, so much more to be said, but I’ll leave it at that for now and continue when I get home. And I got to meet one of those guys who’s been reading my stuff for YEARS, cool to meet in person as well! :) Well,,, as usual: I’ll be back!

July 16, 2011

At Manchester Apollo

Front row waiting for Priest! :-) Queensryche just finished their set. More later…..:-)

July 16, 2011

Day of decadence

Made it to Manchester, UK. I honestly didn’t even know if I’d been here before. But everything was effortless for a change – no drama like in Greece or the Sonisphere/Heathrow experience. :

Bought a train ticket at the airport, was going to Oxford Road, and didn’t know what to choose “off peak”? “Regular”? What’s the difference? I took the most expensive one for £5 just to be sure not to have any problems, and £5 pounds wasn’t so bad. Turns out I had bought a First Class ticket, so the lady that checked my ticket said I was welcome to go and sit in the First Class section if I wanted to. Nah. Didn’t feel like moving, I had a good seat right where I was.

And Ronnie – if you’re reading this – the trains are STILL clean and they are running on time, so I guess that your “alternate universe Britain” is still alive and kicking, lol!

Had no idea what to expect of Manchester. I don’t have any references that I can think of, no particular memories, people I know that are from there or anything… So when I finally arrived, right in the heart of the city, it was like a mini-New York! :-)

My first impression was that it had a very young and modern vibe, people everywhere, theaters, casinos, restaurants, just a high tempo. Really nice city, I can’t wait to explore it further today. It was raining when I got here, and I was tired so I had no plans to go anywhere yesterday. It was late in the evening anyway.

My plan was to just treat myself like a queen and create my own little luxury den in my hotel room. :) THIS was plan number one:

Red wine (got two cause it was 2 for the price of 1) a few snacks…. Not exactly WeightWatchers-evening, but sometimes you’ve got to just LIVE…! :-)

Plan number two was this:

And plan number 3 was plain and simple:

The hotel is great. My room is the cleanest, most spotless hotel room I’ve ever seen! It’s as if it was built yesterday! I couldn’t find anything dirty in here if I TRIED – even the bath tub and sink were perfectly clean, brand new. Bed was ridiculously comfortable. :-)

Had tea right before bedtime, there’s a kettle in here – even THAT is brand new! You know what they usually look like after a year or so… Yeah. I would recommend this place to anyone, great location, great value for the money, clean, easy check-in…! And no, nobody paid me to say that, lol! Oh, it’s Premier Inn by the way.

It’s still pissing down. Sigh… Well, I knew it might, after all, this is England. So I’m prepared – brought my raincoat. :) I AM going sightseeing! And later this evening… JUDAS PRIEST! :))