MTV GR Day

10 years ago, MTV Greece was launched. And this was done with a free concert at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens (which had been the venue for the Rock In Athens festival back in 1985). The line-up was quite impressive: REM, Kaiser Chiefs, Gabriella Cilmi and C-Real (a Greek band).
You will notice, at the end of this post, that there was a ticket issued. How come, you may wonder, since this was a free concert? Well, what happened was this: As people were approaching the stadium, they were handed this particular ticket which had a "nominal value" of €0.20 (of course, no one paid that amount). And then, they were let in. And it's great as a souvenir, 10 years after the event.

The concert was broadcast live at various MTV channels around the world so the sets had to comply to the TV format, meaning that C-Real, Gabriella Cilmi and Kaiser chiefs played 30 minute sets with enough time left over after each one ended for commercials, interviews etc. REM, on the other hand, played a full 90-minute set, and although that might have been a bit shorter than their usual sets, they still managed to overrun its intended duration with an encore. 

And between sets, we were treated to different happenings such as the debut of the Greek MTV presenters who were selected after an audition, presenters from other MTV channels, plus a guide to Athens and an REM interview that were also broadcast through the big screens that were set up in the stadium on that day. 

 

But what I mostly remember among all these and several commercials was the repeated screening of Kid Rock's video "All Summer Long" which sampled Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" and its lyrics invoked good feelings, nostalgia and the simple things in life back in 1989 when "we didn't have no internet" (that's a double negative, by the way, Kid) and...

"we were trying different things
We were smoking funny things
Making love out by the lake to our favorite song
Sipping whiskey out the bottle
Not thinking 'bout tomorrow
Singing Sweet home Alabama all summer long"

First on stage where C-Real whom I had seen two years before at the Olympic Stadium supporting Shakira. People argued about whether they were suitable for this event, but this was MTV Greece after all, and a Greek band had to be featured.

Next up was Gabriella Cilmi, from Australia with Italian origins. She had a big hit at the time "Sweet About Me". She also treated us to a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" at the end of her set.

Then, it was time for Kaiser Chiefs, a band that a lot of people in the audience had come to see. Their singer kept prancing about the stage even climbing up towards the stage lights (surely, that had to be dangerous) and before each song announced that "we are the Kaiser Chiefs" (I mean, I'm sure we already knew that by then).

And finally, it was time for REM. I had seen already seen them nine years before when they had come to Athens (that is Athens, Greece, not their native Athens, Georgia). Nothing could beat that performance of course with its epic 7 minute version of "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" at the end and Michael Stipe singing "Happy Birthday" to everyone who had their birthday on that day, but it was still pretty good and a very lucky chance to see them for a second time, especially considering that a few years later they disbanded.

And so it was that MTV GR Day was finally over and we went home where we had the chance to watch it again and again on MTV Greece which repeated it a few times. I had set my DVD Recorder for it and I'm, sure I have the DVD somewhere.

Sadly, like REM, MTV Greece is no more. It was closed a few years ago. But we will always remember the day we got to watch - for free - REM and Kaiser Chiefs and discovered Gabriella Cilmi.

SETLISTS
 

Gabriella Cilmi

01. Got No Place To Go
02. Sanctuary
03. Cry Me A River
04. Sweet About Me
05. Don't Want To Go To Bed Now
06. Terrifying
07. Save The Lies
08. Whole Lotta Love
 

Kaiser Chiefs

01. Never Miss A Beat
02. Everyday I Love You Less And Less
03. You Want History
04. Ruby
05. Half The Truth
06. I Predict A Riot
07. The Angry Mob

REM
01. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
02. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
03. Drive
04. Man-Sized Wreath
05. Ignoreland
06. Bad Day
07. Hollow Man
08. Electrolite
09. (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
10. The Great Beyond
11. The One I Love
12. She Just Wants To Be
13. Losing My Religion
14. Let Me In
15. Horse To Water
16. Orange Crush
17. Imitation Of Life
Encore:
18. Supernatural Superserious
19. It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
20. Man on the Moon

Throwback Thursday - Shakira Live in Athens 10 years ago

It was 10 years ago when I went to another concert in Athens with my then new Sony Cybershot digital camera. In fact it was one of those very rare occasions where I also took my video camera along. As you will be able to see I was not close enough for that particular camera to take close up pictures of the artists, but the video camera had (as it was the case back then) a much bigger zoom so I was able to get lots of good footage. I haven't gotten round to processing it yet so this will have to wait for another post.
Anyway, why Shakira? As I used to say back in the day "I had discovered Shakira". Let me explain: Back in late 2001 I was working in a small record shop in Oxford Street. We used to stock some imports from the States. One of these was "Laundry Service" before it was released in the UK. "Listen to this" my colleague told me "she is really good". So I got the album, listened to all of it, decided it was great and yet nobody in the UK knew who Shakira was... yet! (Except those customers who were asking for a recommendation and I told them about it, or those who heard it being played in the shop's sound system, asked me what it was... and then bought it!). About two months after I had bought the album, BBC Radio 1 started playing "Whenever Wherever" which was released as the first single (the album still wasn't out in the UK then) and FHM did a cover story "Shakira's hot!". The single was released, became a hit, then the album was finally released a few weeks later and the rest is, as they say, history. So, if there was one person in Greece who had to see Shakira live, that was me!

The Olympic Stadium arrangement was a bit strange, but logical, since Shakira wasn't expected to fetch the crowds rock acts do in Greece. The stage was placed in the middle of the pitch and only one half of the arena and stands were used.

The two opening acts were local artists. The first one, Rallia Christidou was a female singer who had took part in one of the first Greek TV talent shows. If I remember correctly she withdrew from the show claiming she wasn't expecting to win it, but took part in order to gain some exposure (a plan which apparently worked). Frankly I did not remember seeing her set, and only realized she took part after watching the videos from the day stored on my hard disk.

The second act was C:Real, a Greek pop band that had been around since 1996 (they recently celebrated their 20th anniversary)

Finally around 10 o' clock Shakira came on stage with a set that featured not only songs from her "Oral Fixation" and "Laundry Service" albums but also from the earlier ones when she was only singing in Spanish (My favourite songs from that era were "Ojos Asi" and "Ciega Sordomuda" which she did play.)

I hope that I will finally get down to transfer the footage from my Mini-DV tape to my computer so that you can get a better idea of what it was like on the night. So, watch this space and there will (probably) be an update post on this one!

Setlist
01. Estoy Aqui
02. Don't Bother
03. Te Dejo Madrid
04. Illegal
05. Antologia
06. Inevitable
07. Si Te Vas
08. La Tortura
09. No
10. Whenever, Wherever
11. La Pared
12. Underneath Your Clothes
13. Dia De Enero
14. Pies descalzos, sueños blancos
15. Ciega, Sordomuda
ENCORE:
16. Ojos Asi
17. Hips Don't Lie