So........ the big event of the summer that me, Kurt and Lewis were buzzing about turned out... pretty okay. Yeah! You see for my 4th Concert, Me, Lewis and Kurt went to see the "Rap God" himself who returned to Wembley Stadium after 13 years and did an outstanding performance but the only catch/ downfall and error in this whole experience was the poor sound quality!
But it wasn't all doom and gloom, seeing Slim Shady for the first time ever, I actually enjoyed it and here's why.
On Friday 11th July, I had booked the day off to go and see Eminem "Marshall Bruce Mathers III" or best known as his alter-ego "Slim Shady" at Wembley Stadium with my buddy Lewis (who showed me everything about him and his music a couple years ago) so seeing as the doors wouldn't open till around 5.00pm, we thought let's make a day of walking around the streets of London?!
We finally met up around 1.00pm, after Lewis had spent some time with his family after retuning from uni and we made our way to London and I fancied popping to the Comic-book store Forbidden Planet over in where Kurt buys his comics and figures from (a lot of the stuff from MCM Comic-Con can be found there too. Anything Star Wars, Doctor Who, Adventure Time, Anime, Video Games, Films, TV-Series related really). Oh my god, it was heaven and had 2 floors! Upstairs was figures which were bloody overpriced and looked beautiful and downstairs was the biggest comic-book store I've ever seen in my life. Of course I'm going back there again and this time Kurt and anyone else we can drag along will all go crazy!
Anyway, my purpose there was to look for a special "Amazing Spider-Man" comic-book for Stan Lee (Creator of MARVEL) to sign tomorrow at London Film & Comic-Con. Soon I did find it (though it had a different cover than expected) but I bought it anyway.
Soon after, Lewis wanted to take me to a special Burger restaurant called "Five Guys" which he had spotted while we were navigating where "Forbidden Planet" was after leaving the Leicester Square Underground. We popped inside and saw the bloody expensive menu but I was really impressed by the restaurant itself, he ended up buying a Hotdog with some good extras for £4.25 while my Little Hamburger, Regular Fries and unlimited Drink was a whopping £11.25!
Sure it was an outrage but once Lewis and I saw the Coca-Cola machine that people went to fill up their drinks... it was like discovering the greatest machine in the history of mankind! It had almost every type of soft and energy drink and had a rough 5+ variety of flavours, we were experimenting the flavours and we both really enjoyed the Fanta Zero Grape flavour, oh god I want another one now. We intend to go back again and show others whenever we visit. One thing that was everywhere were little sign cards with review from critics or magazines which have tried out the restaurants gourmet (I lost count after counting 40+ on both floors of the restaurant). There were even a lot in the toilets and I saw one which said and I quote "Five Guys could take over the burger industry and universe in under a decade!" Lewis and I both agreed "Yeah if they bump the prices down!"
So at 5.00pm, we headed all the way to Wembley Park Underground station and were getting overcrowded with fans and party boys who were all keen and excited as we were or even more. I saw a Merchandise store and jumped straight in the que which was a big mistake. The queue took 1 hour for me to get to the front and every shirt was beautiful and awesome and all ranged £25 except for the Slim Shady Detroit Jersey which was £80, but I went for the one with the cool picture of him performing back in 2001 at Wembley and it had tour date details on the front.
What me and Lewis were excited and curious about was the fact that when I bought the 2 tickets (£260) the day before world-release on Stubhub.co.uk, when the tickets came in the post at the end of June, I got a message inside saying "You have been upgraded from Level 5 seating to Level 2 Suite area seats!" These were a face value of £99 but I got em for free thanks to purchasing that one day earlier before general release. We were shocked and honoured and thought we'd go in a box or a room with exclusive seats, turns out we were just sitting on the Level 2 seats and we realised we'd have to suffer a little because one of the Bass Tower speakers on the ground was directly in the centre of the stage so we had to rely on the screens for the night.
Now onto the opening acts, Lewis made me aware of 2 nights before the show that Danny Brown and Odd Futures were the opening acts which I had no idea and clue who they were. But when they came on, I couldn't understand a god damn thing thanks to whoever organised the sound system for the night, that dumbass had f***ed it up and I couldn't hear the music and understand the lyrics that well at all. Lewis and I feared this would ruin the whole night if we couldn't hear Eminem that well too!
Danny Brown seemed fairly okay and started the show at I think it was 6.45pm, but Lewis was sad a little that he couldn't understand anything due to the poor sound quality but Danny was being funny by sticking out his weird tongue a lot which looked a little like the shape of a tooth. And after he and that annoying DJ were done by 7.30pm, the stage was graced with a big inflatable O and F which looked like a Simpson's donut styled font which of course was meant for the logo of Odd Futures.
What can I say about those guys? Same thing really! Bass was too much, couldn't work out a thing from what they were saying but they seemed better than Danny Brown and put some comedy into their act except for when they kept swearing a lot (but what should I have expected?!)
So at 9.04pm, a huge white curtain fell from the stage ceiling and on came a long 2-3 min video opening like a Life-Story about Slim Shady and where is he along with some interviews and a news report/ history lesson on his work while being monologued like the "Breaking News" format (it even mentioned Stan in the video). Then the curtain came down and the endless screaming began and went on for 5 minutes and covered the first 2 songs. It was an unbelievable and unrealistic feeling for a couple seconds for me to realise that I was here... at Wembely Stadium... seeing Eminem... LIVE!
He opened up with the ending to "Bad Guy" and then went straight to "Square Dance" and then a real hardcore and one of my personal favorites came on to always hear (especially at the gym came on), "Won't Back Down"! Setlist is here. All my vids start almost precisely when he begins the song.
Slim Shady's hype man for the night was his old friend Mr Porter AKA "Kon Artis" who's formerly from D12!"
Eminem looked on fire (not really, just literally) because he rapped and shouted so powerfully and made everyone head bang when I looked around the seating area. That man played 35 songs for us within 2 hours because a lot of songs were cut short so that he could squeeze in so much for everyone to enjoy and scream our hearts out to when our favourite songs came on.
While I was there, I was recording 1 minute and a half or 2 on every song and recorded all of a couple songs while I shouted at the top of my lungs along to all the songs I knew and remembered. I kept looking at Lewis for help as I admit that I didn't know everything or couldn't understand which song it was due to my lack of knowledge from some of his older work before "The Eminem Show" and it was due to the sound quality and sometimes he just jumped straight into another song without warning which muddled up my video recordings and has left me having to edit them as some of them have 2 songs on 1 recording (that's frustrating).
I had my doubts and dishearten beliefs that I wasn't a true fan for not knowing all the words or not recognising so easily as Lewis to which like always he offered some good and peaceful advice "You are here mate! You came to see him! You may not know everything or a few songs, but you came because your a fan! So don't worry and stop doubting your dedication and love for this amazing man!" So that washed my disbelief and doubts away after 1/4 way through the show already.
By the time the 17th song came on, we were even more shocked and surprised to hear Eminem shout out "People, make some noise for DR. DRE!!!!" And the man himself came on stage through the smokescreen and busted out rapping to the songs "The Next Episode" then "Still D.R.E", "Nuthin' But a "G" Thing" and "Forgot About Dre" while Slim was helping him out with backing vocals and collaborations too. That was a real strike in the review of the night, because even I had a feeling that a surprise guest would turn up. Shame that Rihanna didn't make it too because when "Love The Way You Lie" came on, I thought to myself "Oh I hope what I think is gonna happen, happens!" Sadly it didn't but it was still just as great because Eminem got all the ladies involved in the chorus and dedicated the song to them too. The woman who provided backing vocals was a nice touch, too bad I couldn't hear her at all.
I actually had fun singing out to the songs "Won't Back Down", "3 a.m", "Don't Give A F***", "Rap God" (that was the greatest thing about the night, he sung around midway through the song till the end and sounded exactly how he does on the album! However I noticed him miming a couple times throughout the night but I kinda understand that he can't always keep it up), "The Way I Am", "Love The Way You Lie", "Sing For The Moment", "Like Toy Soldiers", "Berzerk", "Survival", "The Real Slim Shady", "Without Me" and "Not Afraid" (I think I've just listed half the setlist already). He even did the song "Forever" which is a big deal seeing as the original was done by Drake and the song features Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem, only he had none of them with him... that would have been the icing on the cake for me and Lewis.
Rap God and some of the above were the highlights of the evening that I favour and treasure the most thanks to how the audience got involved too despite the annoying sound quality on most of the tracks. Oh how I wish I could upload every video, but I'll try my best with as many as I can over time.
After Not Afraid was done, you better believe that nobody was full and we all shouted "We want more!" And we were given it, as soon as the intro began to what could possibly be Eminem's most iconic and famous song of all time began, we all knew what was coming and were all so hyped and began screaming again as he came back on for an encore (ha like the name of one of his albums) and he performed "Lose Yourself" from his tough and inspiring film, 8 Mile! This was Lewis's highlight besides Rap God because to him, this song is all about trying your hardest to pursue what you want no matter what. You need to get back up and try again to seize whatever it is you want or who you want to be. That's an inspiration!
Now besides the whole sound issue, I actually had a little tough time recognising what was playing most of the night (as I've mentioned already) that because of the sound issue and the fact he kept jumping onto the next song so quickly that I was barely lucky to understand at all.
Another surprise for my time there, was the fact a woman behind me tapped on my shoulders during Like Toy Soldiers and asked me if she could get my contact details at the end of the night and if I could send her my video recordings online as her camera died 3/4 way through the show. Course I couldn't turn down an offer like that and I was more than happy to help and I was given a hug by her and I quickly got her facebook details (thank god for facebook!) luckily I did as my IPhone 5 battery was 1% by the end of the show. I asked her for a photo so that I could recognise her when searching for her so she shared a photo with Lewis, and I found her when I got home and have been fixing the videos, writing this out and chatting to her ever since.
The journey home was tough and over-crowded to the max (luckily we weren't claustrophobic on the tube journey back to London Victoria, however we missed the last trains home to Horsham but luckily Kurt found me and Lewis at London Victoria. He had spent all day since 8.00am in the que trying to get close to the front on the ground to see Eminem, and he did which I'm happy for him and glad he's alive. I thought it'd be hell/ dangerous down there, but he held in there and had a blast. Though he shared the same feelings as me and Lewis about the sound quality too. So we made our way back to another station, parted ways with Kurt (we were both heading back up to London the following day for London Film & Comic-Con) and Lewis and I got a lift home from his dad who picked us up at 1.00 in the morning from Gatwick Airport. So we got home alive and had an amazing time, sure we wish it could have been a little better, but what can you do but hate someone for mucking up one of the most important nights of every fans lives who were there too?! This was Awesome no matter what!
The newspaper company "The Independent" posted this on Facebook which Lewis found on Sunday which sorta sums up a lot of people's feelings and reactions to Eminem's performance. Mine however is mutual on both sides as I feel bad the night was afflicted by the sound system, however I was there in a moment in music history where he gave it his all and returned to the same stadium 13 years later. Dr. Dre made an amazing surprise guest appearance and we were all awarded the song "Lose Yourself" which hasn't been played live in the UK since his last time here in 2001. So of course it's another memory ticked off my bucket list and despite the errors, it turned out really great and it's one of my proudest moments of my life to have witnessed.
Sorry this all took almost a week later guys, but I've been have trouble editing most of the videos, been patiently waiting for the bloody things to upload onto Blogger and I've been uploading the pictures from London Film & Comic-Con on my facebook. LFCC is another upcoming post which was an okay thing too and you'll see why when the story is revealed and how I should have been more careful on getting my hopes up and expecting the full package.
But anyway, hope you've all enjoyed this. Will write up LFCC story asap, but for now, I'm heading over to Greece on Friday 18th July till 1st August for my annual family holiday. The place were heading to may even have a story too in time (with the manager's permission) and people still don't see why we keep going back to the same place for almost 9 years straight?!
But it wasn't all doom and gloom, seeing Slim Shady for the first time ever, I actually enjoyed it and here's why.
On Friday 11th July, I had booked the day off to go and see Eminem "Marshall Bruce Mathers III" or best known as his alter-ego "Slim Shady" at Wembley Stadium with my buddy Lewis (who showed me everything about him and his music a couple years ago) so seeing as the doors wouldn't open till around 5.00pm, we thought let's make a day of walking around the streets of London?!
We finally met up around 1.00pm, after Lewis had spent some time with his family after retuning from uni and we made our way to London and I fancied popping to the Comic-book store Forbidden Planet over in where Kurt buys his comics and figures from (a lot of the stuff from MCM Comic-Con can be found there too. Anything Star Wars, Doctor Who, Adventure Time, Anime, Video Games, Films, TV-Series related really). Oh my god, it was heaven and had 2 floors! Upstairs was figures which were bloody overpriced and looked beautiful and downstairs was the biggest comic-book store I've ever seen in my life. Of course I'm going back there again and this time Kurt and anyone else we can drag along will all go crazy!
Anyway, my purpose there was to look for a special "Amazing Spider-Man" comic-book for Stan Lee (Creator of MARVEL) to sign tomorrow at London Film & Comic-Con. Soon I did find it (though it had a different cover than expected) but I bought it anyway.
Sure it was an outrage but once Lewis and I saw the Coca-Cola machine that people went to fill up their drinks... it was like discovering the greatest machine in the history of mankind! It had almost every type of soft and energy drink and had a rough 5+ variety of flavours, we were experimenting the flavours and we both really enjoyed the Fanta Zero Grape flavour, oh god I want another one now. We intend to go back again and show others whenever we visit. One thing that was everywhere were little sign cards with review from critics or magazines which have tried out the restaurants gourmet (I lost count after counting 40+ on both floors of the restaurant). There were even a lot in the toilets and I saw one which said and I quote "Five Guys could take over the burger industry and universe in under a decade!" Lewis and I both agreed "Yeah if they bump the prices down!"
 |
| Here's a Panoramic picture from where we were sitting. |
What me and Lewis were excited and curious about was the fact that when I bought the 2 tickets (£260) the day before world-release on Stubhub.co.uk, when the tickets came in the post at the end of June, I got a message inside saying "You have been upgraded from Level 5 seating to Level 2 Suite area seats!" These were a face value of £99 but I got em for free thanks to purchasing that one day earlier before general release. We were shocked and honoured and thought we'd go in a box or a room with exclusive seats, turns out we were just sitting on the Level 2 seats and we realised we'd have to suffer a little because one of the Bass Tower speakers on the ground was directly in the centre of the stage so we had to rely on the screens for the night.Danny Brown seemed fairly okay and started the show at I think it was 6.45pm, but Lewis was sad a little that he couldn't understand anything due to the poor sound quality but Danny was being funny by sticking out his weird tongue a lot which looked a little like the shape of a tooth. And after he and that annoying DJ were done by 7.30pm, the stage was graced with a big inflatable O and F which looked like a Simpson's donut styled font which of course was meant for the logo of Odd Futures.What can I say about those guys? Same thing really! Bass was too much, couldn't work out a thing from what they were saying but they seemed better than Danny Brown and put some comedy into their act except for when they kept swearing a lot (but what should I have expected?!)
Eminem - Bad Guy (Outro) (Opening)
This was a video I had to edit because the video got split into two, so I fixed it a little.
This was a video I had to edit because the video got split into two, so I fixed it a little.
Eminem - Won't Back Down
So at 9.04pm, a huge white curtain fell from the stage ceiling and on came a long 2-3 min video opening like a Life-Story about Slim Shady and where is he along with some interviews and a news report/ history lesson on his work while being monologued like the "Breaking News" format (it even mentioned Stan in the video). Then the curtain came down and the endless screaming began and went on for 5 minutes and covered the first 2 songs. It was an unbelievable and unrealistic feeling for a couple seconds for me to realise that I was here... at Wembely Stadium... seeing Eminem... LIVE!
He opened up with the ending to "Bad Guy" and then went straight to "Square Dance" and then a real hardcore and one of my personal favorites came on to always hear (especially at the gym came on), "Won't Back Down"! Setlist is here. All my vids start almost precisely when he begins the song.
Slim Shady's hype man for the night was his old friend Mr Porter AKA "Kon Artis" who's formerly from D12!"
Eminem - Rap God (Started right here)
Eminem - Don't Give A F*** & Still Don't Give A F***
Eminem - The Way I Am
While I was there, I was recording 1 minute and a half or 2 on every song and recorded all of a couple songs while I shouted at the top of my lungs along to all the songs I knew and remembered. I kept looking at Lewis for help as I admit that I didn't know everything or couldn't understand which song it was due to my lack of knowledge from some of his older work before "The Eminem Show" and it was due to the sound quality and sometimes he just jumped straight into another song without warning which muddled up my video recordings and has left me having to edit them as some of them have 2 songs on 1 recording (that's frustrating).
I had my doubts and dishearten beliefs that I wasn't a true fan for not knowing all the words or not recognising so easily as Lewis to which like always he offered some good and peaceful advice "You are here mate! You came to see him! You may not know everything or a few songs, but you came because your a fan! So don't worry and stop doubting your dedication and love for this amazing man!" So that washed my disbelief and doubts away after 1/4 way through the show already.
Eminem - Still D.R.E (Feat. Dr. Dre)
Eminem - Forgot About Dre (Feat. Dr. Dre)
I actually had fun singing out to the songs "Won't Back Down", "3 a.m", "Don't Give A F***", "Rap God" (that was the greatest thing about the night, he sung around midway through the song till the end and sounded exactly how he does on the album! However I noticed him miming a couple times throughout the night but I kinda understand that he can't always keep it up), "The Way I Am", "Love The Way You Lie", "Sing For The Moment", "Like Toy Soldiers", "Berzerk", "Survival", "The Real Slim Shady", "Without Me" and "Not Afraid" (I think I've just listed half the setlist already). He even did the song "Forever" which is a big deal seeing as the original was done by Drake and the song features Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem, only he had none of them with him... that would have been the icing on the cake for me and Lewis.
Rap God and some of the above were the highlights of the evening that I favour and treasure the most thanks to how the audience got involved too despite the annoying sound quality on most of the tracks. Oh how I wish I could upload every video, but I'll try my best with as many as I can over time.
Eminem - Love The Way You Lie
Eminem - Stan
Eminem - Like Toy Soldiers
Eminem - Like Toy Soldiers
Eminem - Berzerk
Eminem - Survival
Eminem - 'Till I Collapse
Every song had a cool video display which was either a Boom-box with
Eminem's name on it or some graphics design locations like the inside of
a warehouse, the rooftops of a city or even an industrial estate were
all mesmerising and intriguing to me because it felt like just a random
location where some people would imagine where he may have come up with
these songs or they just represented an atmosphere for the song of
choice. The light show was a little overwhelming and messed around with
my sight a little but it was a big deal so the spotlight people must
have wanted to make it look as dazzling and epic as possible, I guess.
Eminem - The Real Slim Shady
Eminem - Without Me
Eminem - Not Afraid
Eminem - Lose Yourself (Encore)
After Not Afraid was done, you better believe that nobody was full and we all shouted "We want more!" And we were given it, as soon as the intro began to what could possibly be Eminem's most iconic and famous song of all time began, we all knew what was coming and were all so hyped and began screaming again as he came back on for an encore (ha like the name of one of his albums) and he performed "Lose Yourself" from his tough and inspiring film, 8 Mile! This was Lewis's highlight besides Rap God because to him, this song is all about trying your hardest to pursue what you want no matter what. You need to get back up and try again to seize whatever it is you want or who you want to be. That's an inspiration!
Now besides the whole sound issue, I actually had a little tough time recognising what was playing most of the night (as I've mentioned already) that because of the sound issue and the fact he kept jumping onto the next song so quickly that I was barely lucky to understand at all.
 |
| Me and Kurt |
The newspaper company "The Independent" posted this on Facebook which Lewis found on Sunday which sorta sums up a lot of people's feelings and reactions to Eminem's performance. Mine however is mutual on both sides as I feel bad the night was afflicted by the sound system, however I was there in a moment in music history where he gave it his all and returned to the same stadium 13 years later. Dr. Dre made an amazing surprise guest appearance and we were all awarded the song "Lose Yourself" which hasn't been played live in the UK since his last time here in 2001. So of course it's another memory ticked off my bucket list and despite the errors, it turned out really great and it's one of my proudest moments of my life to have witnessed.
Sorry this all took almost a week later guys, but I've been have trouble editing most of the videos, been patiently waiting for the bloody things to upload onto Blogger and I've been uploading the pictures from London Film & Comic-Con on my facebook. LFCC is another upcoming post which was an okay thing too and you'll see why when the story is revealed and how I should have been more careful on getting my hopes up and expecting the full package.
But anyway, hope you've all enjoyed this. Will write up LFCC story asap, but for now, I'm heading over to Greece on Friday 18th July till 1st August for my annual family holiday. The place were heading to may even have a story too in time (with the manager's permission) and people still don't see why we keep going back to the same place for almost 9 years straight?!
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