Canada to Patagonia at a Worrying Age

…as Rory’s mum put it.

An evening at the Polo Field was promised and delivered in the company of Matt, Richard and Wools/Walls.  And two brothers from Burnage and their mates.

Usual fun getting to the gig.  4 blokes sit in cab and explain their destination.  Cab driver invites us to leave his taxi and wishes us good luck in our endeavours in getting anywhere near the Polo Club.  Next cabbie fine and gets us there no problem. 

Fairly dodgy crush to get in the place, with the organisers funnelling everyone through a tight set of barriers under a railway bridge in a sort of mad effort to prevent a repeat of the Stones’ riot.  Oh well…

Once in usual lack-of-bar scenario was mitigated by the very prompt arrival on stage of ‘Whassis’.  This after three of the four of us had relayed our ‘we met Liam’ stories to the starstruck young girls close by.

Fairly quiet start was livened up with the introduction of, I think, Live Forever and from this point on the band didn’t look back.  A bloke had to calm the crowd after this song as the place was getting dangerously lively, including throwing trainers at the stage.  Noel “There’s some right fookin’ clogs up here.”  Holds up shoe.  “What’s this?  Fookin’ Nike!  You need adidas.”  (Notable that nobody attempted any crowd-pleasing Spanish until a single adios at the end.)

There was one local cultural reference, however, when Liam announced that this next one was for Diego Maradona before launching into a fine rendition of Cigarettes and Alcohol.  Predictable but fun.  Wonderwall was dedicted to ‘The Ladies’.  Screams and swoons all round.  The best live attempt I’ve heard from them.  Another track was dedicated to the people in ‘those flats’ i.e. the very exclusive apartments overlooking the polo pitch.  Liam was further bouyed by the crowd’s homage of ‘Ole. Ole, Ole, Lee-amm, Lee-amm’.

Overall the setting was marvellous with a high and bright waxing moon, brightly lit Metropolis buildings (and suburban trains) in the background and generally good sound, slightly affected by the wind.  Frankly, Liam was at his swaggering rock star best and clearly enjoying the evening.  A regal performance.  Noel was also on form with The Importance of Being Idle and Don’t Look Back in Anger being delivered fantastically.  Sorry this is sounding a bit fan-like, but they were that good.

As is the way these days, they finished with My Generation which was great for the first two and a half minutes but rather self indulgent for the next.  But that is being picky really.  As the concert (and it was a concert) came to an end Liam announced that the crowd had been ‘the bollocks’.  This was true.  He finished by tucking his hands into his jeans and staring at the crowd before taking off his sunglasses.  Twice.  Rare praise indeed.  Fashion watchers note: his jacket was white double-breasted suit with only a chain on beneath it.  I hate it that he can get away with that…

Quick pint afterwards finished with bed at 5am.  Cheers boys (both lots).  Good luck with the rest of your travels.

Song – How Soon is Now – Played in bar during our quiet pint afterwards.

There is no straightforward way to get from A to B in this continent.  Part of the reason that you can never get flights in this particular country is because the locals reserve about ninety each on the off chance they might want to go somewhere at some time.  For a laugh I decided to join in, so went to spend a happy hour reading my book and waiting for my number to come up in the Aerolineas Argentina office.  I reserved a few flights (no-one was actually buying any) and left with a smirk on my face.

However, today I thought I might go and confirm and pay for one of them (for when I leave for Brazil).  AA got their revenge by having a strike yesterday, the result of which is a load of frustrated people queueing to have a go at the bored/moody counter staff.  A result of that is the security guard at the office won’t let people in to queue.  Rather we have to stand outside.  Can’t be arsed so decided to check on any Rory news – everyone fine, Sue now at home, Isis playing with her cousins etc…

Been a bit of a tourist recently.  Tigre is fantastic.  I recommend anyone coming here for a while to take a breather from the city and get the cheapest train in the world (37p return) to this cosy little backwater.  Also visited La Plata (dear to get there – 58p return), a sort of Milton Keynes of Buenos Aires Region in that it was a new town (in 1880) built to house the regional government when BA became the federal capital.  I went for the architecture and was very impressed by the cathedral – the ‘biggest neo-gothic church built in the 20th century’.  Not sure what the competition was.  However, a lot of the turn of the century stuff has been demolished, a fact amply demonstrated by the models of how the town used to look in the museum.  Still, I absolutely made the day of the woman in the tourist office simply by being a foreign visitor.  Which was nice.

Anyway, off to see a couple of miserable Mancunians tonight (if I can track down the ticket – hello Matt) and then await the arrival of her highness on Sunday.  Hopefully, review tomorrow.  Bye.

Track of the day – Saturday Night Beneath The Plastic Palm Trees – The Leighton Buzzards

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