The Specials live in Athens June 2010

Having seen Madness live at Ejekt Festival 2007 (who managed to complete their set before the riots started) I learned that The Specials, the other great band of the 2-Tone scene had reformed the following year. They started playing gigs first in Britain and then in the rest of Europe with great success and then on Friday, the 11th of June 2010, came to Greece in order to appear at the Kosmos Festival where they headlined its first night.

At the festival entrance, there were stands selling books, jewellery and even food from different countries of the world.

The two bands that performed before them were Staff Benda Bilili and Dub Inc.

And finally, 3 years after Madness, The Specials came on stage for another night of fun and dance, even though they were never as "mad" as Madness.

 

 

Our only complaint was that they didn't do an encore and the reason for that, as I've learned in the following days was this young lady, who not only came onto the stage and started dancing, but in the end, grabbed the microphone and started singing as well!

All in all, it was a wonderful night, but I had to go back home because the following morning I had to catch a flight to Istanbul...

Paul Weller in Athens 2009

As I mentioned on my previous post, I had gone to see Santana in Athens on a Wednesday night and the weekend after that I went to London to see Oasis. On Tuesday after my return from London I went to see Paul Weller for the second time that year, this time in Athens. Meanwhile, I had been out both on Monday night and on the previous Thursday while also working during the day. So when I started feeling a bit poorly while waiting for Paul Weller to start his set at Vrachon Theatre I assumed that it was just tiredness. I did not for a moment think that while in London I had contacted a serious flu that was going around at the time. I managed to enjoy the Paul Weller gig, but after it finished, I went straight home and jumped into my bed. I attempted going to work the following day but after a couple of hours I had to go back home. The problem was that on the following weekend I was due to go to Italy not for one, not for two, but for three Bruce Springsteen concerts. Would I be able to recover in time?

Back to the Weller concert now. I did not regret having seen him in London earlier that year because back then, at the O2 Arena he had a whole string section with him (comprised only of women), as can be seen on his Just A Dream DVD. Now he had come with just a basic band. 

Moreover, when I arrived at the theatre I realized the reason that I had never expected him to come to Athens and why he would probably never come again (He still hasn't and it's 2020 now): There were only a handful of people who had come to see him (although one of them had the exact same haircut and sunglasses that Weller was sporting back in his Jam days). Thus, I was able to get on the first row and grab "the railing". Minutes before he appeared one of the organizers came on stage to announce that Paul was going to play only six songs from his then latest album "22 Dreams" and all the rest would be old favourites. And that's indeed what happened. Although he started with one of his solo songs that had only been released as a single ("Wild Blue Yonder"), we then got Jam songs ("The Eton Rifles", "A Town Called Malice"), Style Council songs ("Shout To The Top") and a lot of his solo favourites ("You Do Something To Me", "From The Floorboards Up" and "Wild Wood" among them).

So yes, I enjoyed seeing Paul Weller one more time and I realized that I had to go and see From The Jam now (Bruce Foxton's band) in order to complete the experience. But that was to come in December. Meanwhile I had to go back home and recover from the flu in time for the following weekend's Bruce Springsteen experience. Thankfully, the fever finally subsided the day before my trip...

SETLIST:

01. Wild Blue Yonder

02. Out Of The Sinking

03. 22 Dreams

04. The Changingman

05. All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You)

06. From The Floorboards Up

07. Sea Spray

08. Shout To The Top!

09. The Eton Rifles

10. Porcelain Gods

11. You Do Something To Me

12. One Bright Star

13. Empty Ring

14. Push It Along

15. That's Entertainment

16. Wild Wood

17. Echoes Round The Sun

18. Come On/Let's Go

Encore:

19. Broken Stones

20. Whirlpool's End

Encore 2:

21. Town Called Malice

Cranberries, live in Athens in 2010

Most people who read my blog are probably familiar with the reviews of gigs I went to 10 years ago. In fact my last post was one that falls into that category. However, this is a review of a gig I went to 8 years ago. The reason I chose to revisit it now was Dolores's (the lead singer of Cranberries) untimely departure earlier this year.
So, 8 years ago (on July 14 2010), the Cranberries were in Athens and I decided to go and see them.

I arrived at the theatre at the last minute and managed to buy one of the 3 remaining tickets. The theatre was filled to capacity, in fact I suspect that it was filled beyond its capacity, but there were quite a few places reserved for "VIP" guests. Most of these seats were probably allocated free to executives of a mobile telephony company which was one of the sponsors of this event. As these people probably didn't know who the Cranberries were, the seats were regrettably left empty.

As far as the gig was concerned, it was pretty much a "Greatest Hits" affair plus a few tracks from Dolores's solo album. And this is why it was, in my opinion, successful. It was one of a handful of times when I came back from a gig where the band had played all the songs I wanted to hear. (In my case these were "Linger", "Zombie", "Dreams" and "Ode To My Family". Everything else was a bonus for me.)

Of course I heard some complaints from other people in the audience like "they didn't play No Need To Argue" which I heard somebody say as we were leaving the theatre. Of course, if we start talking about album tracks I could also mention that I would like Bruce Springsteen to play "Man's Job" during one of his concerts that I regularly attend, but I don't think that this is very likely to happen. Everybody was expecting "Zombie" (they played this as the last song before the encore), while I was expecting "Dreams" (they played this as the last song of the considerably lengthy encore.)

SETLIST:
01. Analyse
02. Animal Instinct
03. How
04. Dreaming My Dreams
05. Linger
06. Wanted
07. Just My Imagination
08. When You're Gone
09. Switch Off the Moment (Dolores O’Riordan song)
10. Desperate Andy
11. Time Is Ticking Out
12. I Can't Be With You
13. Ode to My Family
14. Free to Decide
15. Salvation
16. Ridiculous Thoughts
17. Zombie
Encore:
18. Shattered
19. Still Can't...
20. Promises
21. Dreams