In It For The Money Tour
As the planes circled towards Heathrow and rain-heavy clouds gathered, 50,000 people waited expectantly for the return of 60s legends Simon and Garfunkel.
Jo, Sarah, Steve and I made our way into the open-air arena with a bag full of food, and high hopes for the evening with 'old friends'.
As we waited in the fading sun, we tried to remember at least one song from The Everly Brothers’ back catalogue but failed miserably. There were, however, some rather excellent renditions of Unchained Melody and You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling by the Righteous Brothers, which were obviously the wrong set of siblings.
Anyway, at 8.30pm, S&G came on stage to huge cheers and, without even so much as a 'hello London', they went straight into a wobbly version of Old Friends.
They proceeded to belt out all their greatest hits – Mrs Robinson, The Boxer, Bridge Over Troubled Water etc etc with a great guest appearance by their teenage heroes, The Everly Brothers.
They sang Wake Up Little Suzy, All I Have To Do Is Dream and Bye Bye Love – of course they did, we said remembering now.
Garfunkel still looked creepy and Simon just looked old. Very short, and very old. So small, in fact, it looked he was playing an oversized guitar as he adopted the School Of Rock power stance – legs as far akimbo as their tiny length could manage and guitar ‘shooting’ at the audience.
And as for being friends, they weren’t fooling anyone. Not once during a two-hour set did they look at each other, stand closer than two metres or smile in each other’s direction. No shared joy at the delight they were bringing to the crowd.
They told a little anecdote about how they met during rehearsals for a school play – Alice in Wonderland. Simon was the White Rabbit and he made great pains to remind Garfunkel that his role as The Cheshire Cat was 'just a supporting role'.
But despite their not connecting with each other at all, together they brought together people of all ages and from all walks of life. There were mums and grown up daughters swaying, couples in their 50s cuddling and crying, groups of Japanese tourists and puff-smoking 30-somethings with girlfriends way more attractive than their own looks justified.
Everyone was singing along. Everyone knew all the words.
After a cracking set, S&G were cheered and whistled back on for two encores – first to play Cecilia and finally, sending us off into the dark night, Feeling Groovy.
Jo, Sarah, Steve and I made our way into the open-air arena with a bag full of food, and high hopes for the evening with 'old friends'.
As we waited in the fading sun, we tried to remember at least one song from The Everly Brothers’ back catalogue but failed miserably. There were, however, some rather excellent renditions of Unchained Melody and You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling by the Righteous Brothers, which were obviously the wrong set of siblings.
Anyway, at 8.30pm, S&G came on stage to huge cheers and, without even so much as a 'hello London', they went straight into a wobbly version of Old Friends.
They proceeded to belt out all their greatest hits – Mrs Robinson, The Boxer, Bridge Over Troubled Water etc etc with a great guest appearance by their teenage heroes, The Everly Brothers.
They sang Wake Up Little Suzy, All I Have To Do Is Dream and Bye Bye Love – of course they did, we said remembering now.
Garfunkel still looked creepy and Simon just looked old. Very short, and very old. So small, in fact, it looked he was playing an oversized guitar as he adopted the School Of Rock power stance – legs as far akimbo as their tiny length could manage and guitar ‘shooting’ at the audience.
And as for being friends, they weren’t fooling anyone. Not once during a two-hour set did they look at each other, stand closer than two metres or smile in each other’s direction. No shared joy at the delight they were bringing to the crowd.
They told a little anecdote about how they met during rehearsals for a school play – Alice in Wonderland. Simon was the White Rabbit and he made great pains to remind Garfunkel that his role as The Cheshire Cat was 'just a supporting role'.
But despite their not connecting with each other at all, together they brought together people of all ages and from all walks of life. There were mums and grown up daughters swaying, couples in their 50s cuddling and crying, groups of Japanese tourists and puff-smoking 30-somethings with girlfriends way more attractive than their own looks justified.
Everyone was singing along. Everyone knew all the words.
After a cracking set, S&G were cheered and whistled back on for two encores – first to play Cecilia and finally, sending us off into the dark night, Feeling Groovy.
posted by The WyeBird @ 3:47 pm
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