Plans had to change and before I knew it I was on my way to Holyhead as opposed to the original flight following day. Arrived in Dublin very tired at 6am only to have to wait a couple of hours for Mick, as I was expected to land at about 8.30am
We headed into the city (getting very lost) trying to find the Hotel so stopped near St Stephens Green, for some breakfast and some shopping before finding parking right near the hotel (when we eventually found it)! Of course at that hour of the morning check in is not possible so left our bags in search of a pub to watch the Heineken Rugby Final as Mick was supporting Munster against Biarritz.
Sat down in the pub and its now just gone noon and I was seriously starting to flag, wanted nothing more than to go to hotel and sleep whilst the match is on. But once the match started, was no possible way anybody could sleep through that! Talk about exciting, it was nail biting stuff with Munster just having the edge. Really cheeky try from Peter Stringer was best bit of the match for me and got them the deserved win.
Then back to hotel to go and get ready for Bon Jovi and Nickelback. Ok the hotel happened to be in the Dublin red light district and was mega expensive, so I could only summise it was the kind of establishment they rent by the hour.
Hotel called us a taxi and we waited for ages, then decided it might be best to try and flag one down.
Arrived at Croke Park to a cover version of Stereophonics "Dakota", so I assumed there was another support on before Nickelback. After climbing about 20 ramps to get to 6 rows from the back of 100,000+ seater stadium almost killed me but I found it really hard to look down and everytime I stood up my stomach turned....never been that high before!
After a couple more songs I realised that it was Nickelback on stage already and it was them who did this cover song???!! Anyway I was not impressed by the sound and it was terribly bright from the sunshine so all a bit weird. Only managed to catch a few songs and I remember "Someday" and then they finished their set with "How you remind me" and that was about the best bit.
I remember thinking during Nickelback, "What the hell was I doing here?" I have been so spoilt with intimate gigs that I found this stadium setting to be less than ideal.
Now time for main act Bon Jovi opened up with "You give love a bad name", they were positively on fire. They sang lots of songs from the latest two albums including "Have a nice day", "Its my life", the list goes on as they basically carried on for nearly 3 hours.
Sound was awesome and light show was fantastic too!
Wow what value for money. We also had 3 encores and best song of the night for me was Richie Sambora singing "In These Arms" - that man can surely sing! Bon Jovi finished the last encore with "Treat Her Nice" which was featured on The Committments sound track a few years back and that was superb. Sadly no "Bed of Roses" but I still ended up thoroughly enjoying the stadium experience!
Well trying to get out of the Stadium along with 80,000 other peole was a bit hard as you can imagine, and you would have had more chance of seeing a Yeti than getting a taxi from there. So we decided to walk into the City get some food and then hail taxi back to hotel.
O'Connell Street was still packed after the food and the walk, so decided to walk back to hotel. This might have been easier if we had known where the hell we were going. I have retraced my steps on a map since and it seems that we walked about 9.5 miles! But eh circumstances and all that, must say though its prob my fault that we got a bit lost as I would not trust Mick to get me back to the hotel as he has no sense of direction either!
We had planned to go and see The Delarentos at the Village after Bon Jovi but by the time we got away from the stadium and to the south of the city it was too late. Had some Abrakebabra though as no trip to Ireland is complete without that :o)
It was a great weekend for music and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Bon Jovi again, as last time was for the last concert in Wembly.
Thanks to Mick for a lovely weekend!
Original Blog
What a lazy week, not been to a gig since Saturday and not bothered with the blogging either, which is really bad as I had a superb weekend of music.
Started off by wonderful Newsum Turn at Stoke on Trent and then on Saturday Bon Jovi and Nickelback in Croke Park, Dublin. Some good stories to tell about both. So when I get back from Liverpool tomorrow I will write, maybe.
Richard Snow today in The Cavern Liverpool!!! Being a sucker for the scouse accent, I might not come home....
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