London-March 24th 2024

After such an amazing show and night, it was hard to unwind and fall asleep LOL. My friend Lara and I chatted for a good hour but I was still wound up (in a good way) so…not as much sleep catch up as I had hoped but ah well. 😉 Got to have a nice few hours visit before getting on a train into London, checking into my hotel and getting ready.   On my way to the O2, I was lucky I took the tube because I got to see the REALLY creative sign that was up outside the North Greenwich tube station (tho I have to say, I had a quick “oh NO, not something ELSE” moment when I saw the “service information” bit. I thought OMG, is there a problem. NOPE, just some laughs with great usage of OMD titles 😀   Also got to see the big Marque with the OMD/Howard Jones announcement (yes I stood and waited TWICE for it to return so I could get pics of it plus with me LOL).

I was relieved that I had no issues with the box office agent as she reacted to my dilemma like she had seen it before. Just asked what exact seat I was, looked at my ID and printed me off a REAL LIFE TICKET! (Yay!) 😀 I was excited because I was going to be seeing friends again, including a couple I hadn’t seen the night before. Kathryn and Tony were meeting me prior to the gig so tho we didn’t have a ton of time to chat, it was SO nice to see them! I was bummed I forgot to get a picture with them but as it turned out, they were front row of first balcony on the side my floor seat was so I saw Kathryn on my way to the toilet and grabbed a pic of the three of us on my way back. THAT was convenient LOL! 😀

There were a LOT of fans I knew at this gig but many I didn’t actually see. My seating crew tonight was Steve, Sally and Maria. We were nice and close in Row B but way to the side so sadly I couldn’t see Stuart and Martin was often blocked (Steve was kind enough to offer to swap but I declined figuring it wasn’t going to make a huge difference and I ended up later taking advantage of being the aisle seat and would just step out or up to get a few pictures so no worries 🙂 ) I had heard that HoJo had a new CD/EP so was excited to hear some of it and someone had said he was playing an hour but as it turned out, nope only 40 minutes (darn) and only 2 new songs. But that being said, it’s always fun to hear his older hits too.  His colorful robe that he originally came out in made me think of Dazzle Ships in a mild way (tho sorry didn’t get a picture of it and he took it off after a couple songs. A girl behind me right away got up to dance so I joined her LOL 😉 ) A bit more sing along than I’d prefer but overall he still sounds quite good and it’d been about 5 years since I’d seen him so it was a great start to the show. 😀

A little earlier start for tonights show at 8:45pm and I joked with Steve “are they going to play a longer set?” But as soon as the lights went out and the intro started, everyone was ready. You never know what London  crowds will be like but since this was a massive venue, how could the band go wrong? When Merv brought out the bass, Mr. M. asked us if we had our dancing shoes and of course we did. Afterwards, he made a comment about HoJo having just opened for them. Everyone cheered and he followed up with “we’ve known him for FORTY years. He opened up for us when New Song was just coming out. We were testing out some new songs ourselves.” Mr. H. laughed and said “yeah we were” and off they went into TG. Steve helped me with the ‘yes, Yes, YES’ but again, not loud enough to catch on. It’s still fun tho and he did a final YES after the final No “gotta have the last word” LOL 😀

Since being further off, I decided I’d record one of the bouncing songs and since the new Kleptocracy is now one, I grabbed that on film. Kept trying to get the animal graphics in my video too LOL. Then it was SERIOUS bouncing to HoM “leave it to us to write a song about the end of the world.” I have to say, I hadn’t noticed the graphics in Ipswich but saw some of them here…a bit disturbing to be bouncing to for sure!  When it was done, Mr. M. said he was getting ready to kiss “On the North Greenwich staircase”. Mr. H. was like “are you SURE it’s the North Greenwich staircase?” to which Mr. M. said “well it is tonight”. And he threw out kisses to various fans to match the lyrics.

I watched the jumbo tron off and on during the show and I have to say, they had some cool views because they’d be behind the guys sometimes too. Got to see Stuarts full drum kit from behind and during JoA, they focused on him for the last bit so we could all see him smashing at the drums. I wonder if he ever breaks a stick…not seen it happen yet but…tho shoot I better shut my mouth or he will have a first! 😮  MoO found Steve and I having a blast windmilling like we used to. Sally and Maria laughed at us (tho Sally joined for a short bit) but we were just letting it all out without caring who saw or what anyone thought. Inside joke LOL and we were hugging and laughing when all was done. Too funny! 😀 Tho MoO got a great reaction as always, the “cultural” part of the show was a bit lack luster from the crowd so Mr. M. joked and said “It’s risky playing 2 new slow songs in a row so thank you”.

It was bouncing time again with Don’t Go and Mr. M. told everyone “it’s not over yet” for SiL. I managed a picture of Mr. C. and his saxaphone with the big hearts behind him and once done, Mr. M. got everyone to cheer for “Mr. Cooper and his SAX”. He then asked “who’s seeing us for the first time?”  I didn’t hear much cheering, but he must have seen some because he looked down the middle and said “Ah we haven’t gone easy on you but oh well” Dreaming went down well and Stuart got the highlight for SotSS with his drumming.  As soon as the drum kit started EG, everyone cheered and Mr. M. said it was time to bounce. But the really cool thing was at the end when we were all clapping to the beat. Mind you, I thought, despite being much smaller, the Ipswich crowd was more enthusaistic but hearing THIS many people clapping at once, it came slightly behind the drum beat so it was like an echo and you could really hear how loud it was which was so cool and must have been great for the band! 😀

First goodbyes and then the guys left before coming back out for encore songs. Mr. M. thanked everyone again and said “I can honestly say that in 45 years, this is the BIGGEST crowd we’ve played to in London.” Lots of cheers and Mr. H. said “yeah, it IS really”. Mr. M. joked and said “I wonder where it’ll be in another 45 years.” I just had to get Look at You Now recorded and again took advantage of the aisle to try and move and avoid as many swaying hands as possible LOL. Pandora’s box was fun and then Mr. M. said they were going back to 1979 “for Electricity”. Well THAT got the crowd cheering for sure! When it was over and the guys were saying goodbyes, Mr. M. not only blew out kisses to the crowd but made a loud smooching sound LOL. Lots of waves and such and then off they went.

Again, with the venue being so big, it was going to be impossible to try and find others so I just took a quick group photo of the 4 of us, said goodbye to Maria first and then walked out with Steve and Sally before saying goodbye to them too. MASSIVE crowds heading to the tube but hey, it’s a huge venue so… 😉

So…tonight’s highlight of the night is an easy one…windmilling with Steve. SO much fun and such great laughs. Like he said “we just HAD to do it”. YUP! 😀