Have I Got A Little Story For You!
Thursday 20th April 2006 will forever be one of the best night’s of my life.
A couple of weeks previously one of my favourite bands of all time Pearl Jam announced what for a band of their statue was to be a tiny club show at The Astoria in London. I’ve loved Pearl Jam since as long as I can remember. They’re one of those rare bands that I’ve listened to over the year as I’ve grown up that are still around now. I can remember going out and buying every single one of their albums, and where I bought them from. I’d never seen them live, and missed out narrowly when a ‘dead cert’ fell through in 2000. I was gutted then, but little did I know they wouldn’t return to the UK for six long years. So when the Astoria show was announced I was determined to go.
I joined the band’s fanclub in time to be eligible for the advance ticket pre-sale. Unfortunately the pre-sale fell on the day I had to get the train to London to go to Imogen’s Shepherd’s Bush gig, and while I tried to call the US phone number given between the specific times I had no luck in getting through. This was after an admin mistake meant I, along with 100s of others had been calling the wrong number at the wrong time of the day earlier on! Still I wasn’t too put out when I didn’t get tickets that way because there were 8 people trying when the tickets when on general sale the next morning. I was stuck in London without internet access the next morning so was relying on friends to bag me a ticket (it’s usually me who does the early morning ticket buying as I’m in front of my computer, not commuting!). The general sale came and the show sold out in about 5 mins flat. 2000 tickets gone in 5 mins. And out of the 8 people trying, only 1 person secured a pair of tickets (Chloe must type fast!).
I was gutted, but once again didn’t give in. It was going to be the hardest gig in the world to blag tickets or guest list too, but non the less I had to be there so started emailing friends/colleagues to see if anyone could help. I was fully willing to pay for the tickets, and was at one point very near to paying the £200+ that the scumbag touts were selling the tickets for on ebay. After what seemed like ages a good friend who works in the music industry called to tell me he’d managed to get us 4 tickets for myself, my cousins Steve & Michael and our best mate Stu. We are all massive Pearl Jam fans and we couldn’t believe our luck! We immediately sent a cheque to the promoter of the show for 4 tickets. 24 hours later I got an email back saying there had been a mistake and we could only have 2 tickets, we also needed to resend another cheque ASAP to guarantee the tickets. Michael sent another cheque, I told everyone about the problem and urged EVERYONE to contact anyone they could so we could get a couple more tickets.
As the date got nearer and nearer it was looking increasingly unlikely that we were going to get 2 more tickets so the question came up, which 2 of us would go and which 2 would miss out? Fortunately, 3 of the 4 of us are family (brothers and cousins) and the 4th is as good as family so whatever happened it wouldn’t cause any major problems, or at least we all hoped now! In what I can only describe as a very selfless and noble move, Steve and Stuart who had both seen Pearl Jam in 2000 decided they’d miss out and let Michael and I go to the show. I was really touched by this, although I didn’t say anything at the time as I didn’t want to rub it in. I was still determined not to get too excited until the ticket was in my hand and I was at the gig.
The day before the gig our tickets (which we’d paid special delivery postage for) still hadn’t arrived. I’d already sent an email to find out where they were and was getting increasingly worried that we’d got so close to going, but yet were still so far away. Fortunately I got an email later that day explaining that due to the delay with us having to send the 2nd cheque the tickets would be left at the box office at the venue for us. So on Thursday afternoon we headed down to London on the train and met with Kelly & Chloe who had been queuing since 12pm. We arrived at 4:30pm to find them about 25th in the queue - which was already huge and snaking along the side and round the back of The Astoria. We joined them in the queue and waited. Whilst waiting assorted drinks and food were passed down the queue by generous Pearl Jam fans who gave beer and chips to their fellow queuing buddies!
6:30pm came quickly and we started to move into the foyer of the venue. I was really nervous, having gone all that way and queued that our tickets wouldn’t be there - but at the same time they’d been paid for and we’d got written confirmation. We queued for a couple if mins at the box office window before getting there and giving Mike’s name - a few seconds later we were told that they were there and to go to the guest list window as they were probably there. By the time the foyer was rammed and really noisy - lots of excited PJ fans going into the gig. I gave the name ‘Mike Clarke +1′ to the girl on the guest list window, she thumbed her way through a pile of envelopes very quickly and pulled an envelope out and thrust it at me. She then instructed me to check the right amount of tickets were in there. As I opened the envelope I notice the name written on it was incorrect, it read ‘Mike Greek +1′ not ‘Mike Clarke +1′. As I opened the envelope I said ‘yes there’s 2 tickets…’ and she turned away to deal with the next person. At this point I decided not to say anything as I was *desperate* to get into this gig and could not risk handing back tickets having got that far to find out there weren’t any under our name. Besides maybe it was a spelling mistake? A few seconds later we realised it was no spelling mistake, for not only did we have 2 tickets, but 2 VIP balcony passes AND 2 aftershow party passes!
As we headed up the stairs both smiling like fools we stuck the VIP passes on and decided that, we were in and we were going to do our best to STAY in. Someone else screwed up, it wasn’t our fault! We grabbed a drink and headed to the balcony where security waved us to a roped off area which was reserved for the promoters of the show. The security chap told us we could stand anywhere in this area or sit on the tables reserved for ITB (the promoter). As we stood, sipping our beer, still not believing our luck I noticed the sign on the table not even 20 feet away from us. It read ‘ITB Reserved for Robert Plant’!!! Pearl Jam had jammed with Robert in the USA a few months previously, so it made sense he’d come and see them when they next played in England - especially considering they’d not been here for 6 years. I pointed this out to Mike and we continued to grin and discuss our luck. At this point we did feel a little guilty. Who was Mike Greek? Maybe he was a massive PJ fan who was going to be gutted he missed the gig? But then again, he must have friends in high places to have scored the passes. Mike made a call to a friend of ours who works in the industry to see if we could crash at his house - we had planned to get the last train home, but we couldn’t miss up the chance of going to the aftershow. He said we could stay and couldn’t believe our luck - being in the industry we asked him if he knew anyone called Mike Greek. He did. It turns out Mike Greek is a senior promoter at a London based music promotion company. A real big cheese. Robbie Williams’ booking agent non the less! And we had his tickets and passes because we got there really early before he’s picked them up!!! Our friend helped our guilt by explaining that if anyone could get into this gig when their tickets weren’t on the door, it was Mike Greek, so we settled down in the VIP area as the venue began to fill. Before long, low and behold Mr Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin arrived with his entourage, still looking very circa 1973! Before the show started I went to the toilet and while there tipped the guy who was handing soap and paper towels out very well. Lady luck was on my side tonight and I wanted to pass on some good karma!
At 8:10 Pearl Jam took to the stage. I was so so so excited it was ridiculous. There’s not many bands that I care about this much, but I’d waited *so* long to see them, and so so seldom come to the UK this was the chance of a lifetime. I doubt I’ll ever see them play somewhere this small ever again. The show began with ‘Worldwide Suicide’ the new single from their forthcoming album. They then continued to play another 4 new songs to open the set. The crowd were noisy, but when they then played ‘Even Flow’ the place went ballistic! Despite never seeing them live in the flesh before, I’ve seen a lot of live footage on DVD and watched all the DVDs I own many times and tonight they were on form. Playing in England for the first time in 6 years - Eddie commented on how they were playing a lot of new songs that we’d never heard before, but that was ok - because they’d never played them before! Once again, everyone went nuts!
The set consisted of a wide range of material from the extensive PJ back catalogue, they played at least one track off every album and threw a couple of rarer b-sides in. They also played ‘Why Go’ from debut album ‘Ten’ - a song they’d only played twice before in the last 11 years! The whole 2+ hour show was a highlight so it’s hard to pick one song out. ‘Present Tense’ followed by the mass sing-along of ‘Betterman’ was definitely was of my favourite moments. Eddie was on form and chatter in between a lot of the songs, mixing his usual serious points with very amusing humour. As the show drew to a close and Mike McCready began the familiar intro to ‘Yellow Ledbetter’ they’d already played 22 songs for over two hours and were on the second encore of the night. During one of the many lead guitar solos in Ledbetter Mike played the Led Zep riff to ‘Nobody’s Fault But My Own’ as a little nod to Robert Plant - without thinking I laughed out loud and glanced 20 feet to my right to see what Plant’s reaction was, as I did this our eyes met and he stared straight at me! I looked away quickly feeling rather silly! As Yellow Ledbetter ended the crowd went berserk. I can honestly say I’ve never heard a louder crowd such was the hunger of everyone in that room.
The band waved and began to leave the stage, suddenly Eddie began waving his arms about and summoning them back on stage. He lifted his bottle of red wine up and put his hands to it, gesturing that he still had some wine left and therefore they couldn’t end the show yet. Seconds later everyone was back on stage and Stone began the now legendary guitar riff to ‘Alive’. It was at this point I feared the balcony might collapse. The whole place was literally bouncing up and down, the noise went up another level and the people on the floor below us looked like a giant wave of flailing arms and legs. Alive drew to a thunderous close, after an extended outro in which drummer Matt Cameron egged the rest of the band on to continue as long as they physically could. Eddie swung his microphone around and around in the air, twisting it around his arm and neck until there wasn’t enough cable left to swing. And as the final chords rang out, the band took a bow, before Eddie thanked everyone and told us they’d see us next time. During what was a standing ovation he picked the mic up again and wished the Queen a happy birthday. Then the were gone.
What should have followed was silence, but the chatter from all around us was loud. And the ringing in my ears was even louder. We made our way out of the balcony area and tried to meet up with Kelly & Chloe. Unfortunately they were already downstairs and we couldn’t get to them, so we said goodbye on the phone and headed for the aftershow bar, passes stuck on tightly.
After a few mins the aftershow bar area cleared and only people with passes were allowed in. We got a drink and chatted about the show - still ecstatic about our luck and the fact we’d got the best view in the house - we were stood right next to the guy operating the spot light on Eddie! We then discussed our plan - aftershow parties can often be anything but partly like. More often than not it’s a load of record execs getting pissed and talking shop - boring stuff! And what are the chances of a band as big as Pearl Jam coming out to chat, especially given their somewhat reclusive reputation. We considering getting the last train after all as the ‘party’ was shrinking in numbers, to a point where there were only 50-75 people there. Then as if by magic Stone Gossard appeared walking down the stairs! He headed straight for a couple of people and began chatting to them.
Before too much longer, Matt, Mike and Jeff all appeared and spread out amongst the room chatting away with people. It was at this point we decided we were staying! A few mins passed, and a couple of beers later the guys chatting to Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam, and for those who don’t know formerly the drummer in Soundgarden!) looked to be saying goodbye. It was our time! We walked on over to Matt and I told him I thought the show was great and shook his hand. He thanked me and proceeded to ask us where we were from, and what we did. So began a 45 minute conversation with Matt Cameron, a man who had played in 2 of my favourite bands, and is one of my favourite drummers (I even had a big 5ft poster of him when I was a teenager!). Here we were chatting to him about everything musical like we do our mates in the pub. We talked about their upcoming Reading Festival slot, playing live on TV, Saturday Night Live, Jools Holland, Faith No More, extreme metal band drummers(!?), we also chatted about the new PJ album leaking on the internet with him and Stone, who came over to Matt and started chatting with us. Stone was a pretty funny guy, and the kind of person who has a look on his face as if he’s constantly thinking, and working things out. He asked me if I’d downloaded the leaked version of the new album and I explained I hadn’t because it was crap quality and I was waiting to hear the album in full quality because I didn’t want to ruin my first listen (the truth - I downloaded it but heard it was crap after 15 seconds and deleted it!). He also jokingly told me I should write the setlist for them for Reading after I insisted they should not just play the hits like he was suggesting and put some obscure numbers in there!
After some time I went to the bar and return with a beer for Matt. I bought Matt fucking Cameron a beer! He thanked me, by my name - which he’d remembered from when we started chatting about 30 mins earlier! He then went on to tell me about how he spends his downtime on tour using hotel’s high-speed internet to download old Soundgarden footage off the internet, as he doesn’t have broadband at home!? Being somewhat of an internet (and Pearl Jam) geek, that amused me to no end. Some more time went by and I spoke to Jeff and later Mike McCready, who was a mused by the whole me/Robert Plant staring moment!
Eventually we decided to go and talk to Eddie. We wondered over and shook hands and told him with loved the show - he thanked us and turned to Michael and said “Hey man, I think I saw you during the show, I like your jacket!”. Michael beamed! We chatted to Ed for a few mins about the gig, about what red wine he drinks on stage and some other stuff - at one point he asked if I wanted to swap drinks, I said sure (this is Eddie Vedder!!) and swapped my full pint of beer with his can of beer…which turned out to be almost empty! Non-the-less I was polite and he toasted with us saying “Cheers” before drinking my beer and I drank his. A couple of seconds later he told me he felt guilty that he’d only swapped beers with me to gain my full pint as his can was nearly empty and insisted we swapped back, so we did. This was one of the most bizarre moments of my life - but brilliant!
Before long it seemed like things were winding down so we asked Eddie if he’d mind terribly if we got a photo with him. I wasn’t about to ask for autographs or get loads of photos, but at least have one photo with Eddie would cement the memory for us (we still thought we were dreaming) and we’d have something to show everyone! So we turned around to ask someone to take the photo and low and behold a guy answered his mobile phone “Hello, Kelly Curtis” - it was only Pearl Jam’s career-long manager! He finished on the phone and we asked him to take the photo, which he did with pleasure. It was really dark in the bar and the photo is pretty grainy, but it’s Mike and I with Eddie Vedder and we were well chuffed!
Soon after Kelly Curtis began rounding the band members up as they were about to leave - we said our goodbyes and before leaving I shook Matt’s hand again and told him I’d ’see’ him at Reading (we’d talked a lot about their upcoming Festival performance). He said he probably wouldn’t ’see’ me there and there wasn’t much he could do about that, but said he’d give me a wave!!
And with that we left the Astoria laughing and joking about our luck. It was a perfect evening that we couldn’t have even dreamt of. Thanks Mike Greek!
Setlist:
Worldwide Suicide*
Life Wasted*
Severed Hand*
Unemployable*
Gone*
Even Flow
Sad
I Am Mine
Insignificance
Army Reserve*
Present Tense
Betterman
Marker In the Sand*
Do The Evolution
Why Go? (only the third time played since 1995)
—————
Man Of The Hour
Given To Fly
Small Town
Porch
—————
Comatose*
Leaving Here
Yellow Ledbetter
—————
Alive
* - New album tracks.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Jeez Jams. I can’t believe you totally stole some dude’s tickets!! And I also love how you’re such a pantyfan.
Wow, nice story….loooong but really interesting and I´m a bit jealous! But you deserved all that! I saw PJ first time in Berlin after a long waiting and now I go to london in June 2007 - rock rock! Did you see them in Reading? :D
@Henna
Thanks! It was an amazing night! I was lucky enough to go to Reading as well (which was awesome on the opposite end of the capacity scale to the Astoria), and I have my 10c tickets for Wembley!
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I can’t tell you how jealous I am!! I too am a MASSIVE PJ fan. All the way back to Ten I have bought every album and single on release date….but I have never seen them live. I am also a member of the Ten Club and i wasn’t happy when the phone line went wrong!! I tried for ages to get through but didn’t!!! I nearly cried!! And then I read about another PJ fan who not only goes…..he has a chat with the band members!! You jammy bastard!!! Glad you had a good time though!! ps the new album rocks!!!