Marillion, 18th May, Munich

Here we go.
I caught my plane one dark morning, it was very early, the plane was cute and small and took me to Budapest. During the flight it was racing with the sunrise but at the moment it landed, it lost. Nevermind, I was in Budapest, at Budapest airport, more precisely, stayed there for an hour, trying not to fall asleep and then - next plane to Munich.
Munich was sunny and hot, while Sofia that I left six hours ago was rainy and cold. Am I not lucky, heh.
My one week stay in the capital of Bayer deserves another post, so let's go directly to the concert evening, 18th May, club Backstage.
In the beginning it was quite confusing, the venue has two halls, on both sides of the road, so I got lost. But eventually everything got sorted out, I took an interview with Mark Kelly, Marillion's keyboardist, and entered the hall - it was still almost empty so we could choose wonderful places - near the bear bar ;) and only few meters from the scene.
The support act were young German boys, very talented, sorry, I didn't remember their band's name, but it can be checked any time. It's Germany, all right, so they came on stage at 20:00. After them the stage got prepared and at 21:20 it went dark. Then a ray of light fell on Steve Hogarth and illuminated his face. Very strange, he was wearing some kind of coat that reminded me the child on the "Misplaced Childhood" album's cover...

I like both Marillion with Fish and with H. Most people chose one of those two bands. A friend of mine always says that Fish is extremely charismatic artist. And what I see in H is the creative force of the madness. The one that moves most artists at any age or place in the human history. That night he was not only a musician, but also an actor. And he didn't stop singing for two hours. The band didn't use any solo - drums or keyboards, to give the other members time to rest. Two hours perfect performance plus 20 minutes encore. And H's voice was at its best. Powerful, crystal clear, emotional. They did songs from a lot of albums, including, of course, "Somewhere Else", promoted on this tour, and a lot of "Marbles".
But - from the beginning. Mark Kelly said that this tour they decided to perform songs that the audience wants them to do - and as people discuss that on forums, the dates to come are prepared :) In Munich the hall shouted "Easter", it was the last encore.
And there we are, the diabolic light, Steve Hogarth started "Splintering Heart" from "Holiday In Eden". Then the stage become all light and we saw the others - Steve Rothery:
Ian Mosley,
Pete Trawavas:


and Mark Kelly:

Next song was „The Other Half” - the first track from the new album.


I didn't rank "Somewhere Else" very high, but after the show I am considering to revise my opinion. It sounded powerful and enchanting.
Before the second single Last Century For Man, came Ocean Cloud and You’re Gone from Marbles.


The public was amazing. H told them "I remember the show in Munich during Marbles" and they went crazy. It was possible to actually feel the love they were sending to the musicians and to see how this was giving the band power and was charging them like battery. It was like a running circle of emotions.






I am happy that I choose to attend the show in Munich, next day in Prague Marillion has perform less songs...

The Invisible Man stroke me:

I haven't changed
I swear I haven't changed....

And you see H, illuminated face, eyes bright with madness, screaming:

I will scream again
"I am perfectly sane"
"I am perfectly sane".

Yeah, right, "sane"! Amazing!

Then "Man Of Thousand Faces" from my favourite album "This Strange Engine".








When they said "Good night" and left the scene, the hall was about to be ruined :) They came back to perform the encore, and H said "Yeah, I remember Marbles. But you managed to beat it somehow!"
Great.

Belen Maya and her flamenco

"Belen Maya's company" presented "Dibujos" (Pictures) in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia. It was amazing - I like flamenco a lot.
It was an interesting set of different pieces of music and dance. The music is by the flamenco guitarist Jose Luis Rodriguez, who was playing the guitar in "Dibujos".
Belen uses traditional, classic flamenco dance altogether with modern influences. It was like a dialogue between the guitar and her dance. And it made me sit and stare, with no moves, it grasped my attention. Flamenco is always very powerful, like a huge bird, majestic eagle who starts beating his wings at the edge of a high cliff. You see the sea waves below him, the enormous sky above him, the free space between them, and you feel his desire. Sometimes to stay, sometimes to fly calmly, sometimes to fly fast and risky. And most of the times all this at the same time.
The quality of the pictures is very poor, it was hard to take good ones with my camera.



La Tremendida, the singer:

M like Music

It seems that the month of May will be full of M-Music: Marillion in Munich, George Michael on Monday, Belen Maya yesterday, Iron Maiden next Monday... coincidence?
Before writing something about Marillion in Munich experience, I'll write about George (not Harrison, unfortunately).
The concert in Sofia, Lokomotiv stadium, on Monday was the sixth of his "25 Live" tour. He celebrates 25 years on stage and said in the beginning: "I'll try hard to thank you for supporting me for 25 years". And he did. It was amazing. I never was a fan, I know some of his hits because they are played on the radio and so on and I went to the concert just of "scientific" interest and as a journalist. But it was stunning. Huge scene with giant screen crossing it horizontally and reaching the front rows, the Circle of Faith (I think no one had such a scene in Bulgaria before), all the lights, videos, colours. It was proof of brilliant professional work, on one hand, and on the other - George's voice was at its best and he sang the songs just like studio record - amazing! I was charmed and thrilled. I didn't stop dancing during the upbeat tracks and just sat down quietly, deeply moved during "Jesus To a Child, Ticking, Praying For Time...
The concert was also supporting our nurses in Lybia and the last song - Freedom, almost made me feel like William Wallace ;) Seeing all those 20 000 people around me shouting "Freedom"!
Yes, absolutely perfect concert of an absolutely perfect artist.
The organization of the event was very good, especially having in mind the heavy rain that fell minutes before the start of the show. The promoter covered the grass on the stadium with some kind of plastic and nobody got wet and muddy. Unfortunately the stadium is in the suburbs, I, of course, live in the opposite suburb, there is no public transport after midnight and around the stadium everything was absolutely disgusting - mud, whole lakes and swamps to cross - a real adventure. And the traffic jam - at midnight in the capital city there is a traffic jam because of a concert... At least it was better than the situation after Depeche Mode's show, attended by 45 000!
I am very worried about Iron Maiden's concert next Monday. Very, very worried...
Here some pieces of the amazing night:
"Father Figure", stunning video on the screen (this is shot in Denmark):

Wonderful song, especially with this vision - "Praying For Time", Denmark again:

The same song in Sofia, different aspect:


The beginning of the concert, in Denmark, here in Sofia it was dark when it started - very beautiful.
And the magnificent Elton John's song "Ticking":

Especially for a very good friend of mine:

Flight To Munich

Everything usually messes up at the very end. Yesterday when I finally decided to print my electronic ticket I saw the return date was scheduled to be on 22 JUNE. I just couldn't believe my eyes. I just ordered the ticket by phone and paid online and didn't look at the reservation receipt. How stupid... Now I try to fix the things up.

So early in the morning I took my flight to Budapest. The new terminal of the Sofia Airport looks like a real European one, mainly from outside. It was quite quiet and not very cozy inside I must admit. The view from the plane was magnificent, especially during the landing, because the sun could be seen above the clouds shining brightly, at the horizon of the clouds the colours were blue, green, red and purple and below the light was still weak and very gentle, it was dawn.

A friend of mine told me that Budapest Airport is huge and messy, nobody speaks English and you find it very hard to discover your departure gate while transferring. But fortunately it was very easy for me, everything was translated into English and there were signs everywhere and the departure gate for Munich was very close to the arrival gate from Sofia. So I waited for an hour - at 6:15 in the morning the airport was busy, full of people, very dynamic and sunny.
Next flight was full of sunlight. We were even given a Hungarian (I suppose) cake during the snack on board - it combined cheese and sultanas. I liked it.

When I saw those majestic mountains in the distance I decided to give my camera a try and here they are:
Yeah, mostly blue and white up there...

Then everything went just fine. It's a little bit cold in Munich though. I have plenty of things to worry about - the ticket, the concert, the pile of work (I took another translation assignment, why, girl, why???) I have to do. Let's hope for the best ;)

"M" like Marillion, Munich, music...

This week I'll fly to Munich. On Wednesday morning. And if everything goes right, I'll attend Marillion's show there. Still cannot let myself believe in it.
I'll have to leave my two cats and one dog to my brother's care for a week. That'll be interesting.
But what I wanted to say - I'm about to complaining. Just finished two album reviews - Tori Amos's and Maximo Park's. It was OK, nothing great but quite impressive. Now I have to write an article about a band called "The Rosebuds". They sound so ordinary - I mean in the field of writing about them. After writing about the weird "Decemberists" and the majestic "Grindeman" now I must compose a text out of the blue, no, out of the grey - they met, they signed with a major indie label, they are happy. I cross my fingers I'll find something teasing eventually.
That was complaining.
Now, something good. Finally I intend to watch Beatles' Anthology. Believe it or not, I haven't watched it so far. Me, the huge Beatles fan, *smirk*.
Raxo, don't say a word. Everything with its right time ;) And thanks for writing here (I miss the smileys...)

It's St George's day here. And as my name comes from George, I celebrate. It's good, most people remember my name day, because it's a national holiday too, but few people know my birthday.

I spent the afternoon at my grandparents', eating lamb (tradition!) and drinking old alcohol drinks, not to say ancient. My grandpa keeps them for years - today's wine was from 1972, for instance. And there were so many horses in the green sad field outside. Most of the people in the village are relatives of ours but I still cannot manage to make someone give me a horse to ride. So I'll have to go riding here, in the big city. Modern times...

Speaking (writing) of which, in a minute ago I wrote to my brother, who is in the next room, to turn the volume up, because I heard the beginning of "High Hopes". Not that I couldn't shout and he couldn't hear me through the door, but technologies are much better...

I don't want to do the lot of work I had and I want to learn my Finnish grammar instead, but I cannot because of all the work that had to be done. So I'd better start with doing something useful...

Stuff

For every body's surprise (and mine too) I guessed correctly the score of Liverpool - Chelsea football game this Tuesday. And knowing that I bet on Liverpool only because I'm huge Beatles fan...

I was given a flower - very spontaneously and although it was small wild one, this was a very beautiful thing.

There are some things that perplex me at last.fm. How doest it exactly work... I'll find put some day :)