Tuesday, 15 September 2015

How I got to see U2 in Croke Park...twice!

Posted by Anne Canaveera on Tuesday, September 15, 2015 in expat life, Ireland, Irish music

If you're a foreigner in Ireland, going to a U2 concert in their home town is the ultimate Irish experience.

You might be aware that the band has finally announced their concerts in Dublin in November. And if you read the news you probably learned that all the gigs were sold out in less than an hour.

I had the chance to see them twice in concert, and never had to queue for a ticket. I might be boasting a bit here, but really, I just got really lucky both times. I never intended to go to these concerts, mainly because I couldn't get myself to queue for hours or frantically look at a computer screen in the hope of securing a ticket. Even if I really like U2's music, I'm not that big of a fan to do that.

The first concert I went to was the Vertigo tour, in 2005. Fabrice was working in a hotel at the time, and one of the customers gave him two tickets for free. He was going on the Saturday and had spare tickets for the Monday.

The show was absolutely brilliant, but yeah, Bono talked A LOT and a good part of the gig was a platform to promote his RED charity. But when the band was playing, the atmosphere was just uplifting. Watching U2 play in their home country is something special, and you can feel it. The best part of the concert was the end. After the "encore", and once the stage lights were shut down, the band came back and sang a cappella. And they did it for a very Irish reason: to avoid traffic jams outside Croke Park.

I also went to the 360 tour in 2009. We were on holidays in Mauritius when the tickets went on sale, but without an internet connection handy, it was impossible to get any. A few days after we were back, I got this text from a friend:

"Hi, I queued all night on Grafton street to buy U2 tickets, and we were allowed 6 tickets per person, so I bought them. I thought you might be interested in going!"

Yes, I have a friend who loves queuing all night in the cold and rainy Dublin, just to buy concert tickets. And on top of that, she thinks of others. What more could you ask for? A cheap ticket, maybe...As a matter of fact, that's exactly what happened. Ireland was in recession at the time, and the band decided it would be a good idea to sell affordable tickets.

And that's how my friend could actually buy 6 tickets, at 30 euros each.

This concert was even better than the one before. There was a lot less talking, and a lot more singing.

Technically it wasn't a 360 tour, more like a 280...

So what about the upcoming concerts? Well, my lovely friend wasn't in Dublin the day the the tickets went on sale (although before we knew the dates she offered to queue all night again!). She did try online though, but it just didn't work.

Unless a miracle happens like in 2005, I don't think I will go the Innocence+Experience tour. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter, I had the chance to enjoy U2 playing at home, and that's the dream of many foreigners in Ireland (and a few Irish people who don't despise Bono).

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

A musical evening

Posted by Anne Canaveera on Wednesday, December 31, 2014 in concert, Irish music, present

A friend of mine invited me to a concert last night. She asked me if I was interested to go and see Mary Coughlan, Frances Black and Sharon Shannon performing together at a theater in Drogheda. Me being French and all, I had no clue who those singers were, except Sharon Shannon as she is quite well known in Brittany.

I really didn't know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. Mary Coughlan came up first and I discovered her raspy smoky jazzy voice. She is a fantastic singer, and funny with that. Despite suffering from pneumonia recently, she still took on the stage and delivered! Obviously I didn't know any of the songs but I really enjoyed her performance.

Then, Frances Black came on stage. The fact that one of her trick is to actually get people to sing along made me enjoy the songs more, even if I didn't know the words. The audience was a bit shy at first, but by the end of her slot, people were a little more relaxed and really started to sing along.

One of her song was "All the lies that you told me", and as soon as the music started, I felt transported back to my teenage years. Somehow I wondered how I knew it and then I remember it was featured on an album me and my best friend kept listening back in the days. It was called "L'imaginaire Irlandais" (Imaginary Ireland) and was a compilation of Irish folk and trad music that was released in 1996, following a big festival that celebrated Irish culture in France. This album made me fall in love with Irish folk and trad music.

When Sharon Shannon came on, all I wanted to do was get up and dance. I didn't do it of course (I would probably have been thrown out of the venue!) but I was tapping and clapping along. That woman is a musical genius. It's hard to explain, but it is amazing to see how fast her fingers go when she plays the accordion or the tin whistle. Her pianist was equally amazing. I mean, come on! The guy was playing piano AND guitar at the same time!! How crazy is that? This is the kind of music that completely lift my spirit and makes me forget all my problems.

My best friend also plays accordion and we used to dance to the sound of Breton and Irish tunes. She is very talented and I know she is a big fan of Sharon.

I know she will kill me but well... picture taken a long long time ago

When I saw there were CDs for sale, I couldn't resist buying one for her birthday. It's a limited edition CD of an upcoming DVD of one of her concerts, but it will only be released on Saint Patrick's day. On top of that I managed to meet Sharon after the concert, get a signed copy with a personal message for my friend, and a picture!