Runrig – The Final Mile

I am not sure how many have heard the band Runrig other than the UK and Europe, but Mr M is a huge fan of them. He has loads of their cassettes. They are doing their final tour now and since Mr M was keeping track of it, we managed to book two tickets for their performance in London which was held at Apollo, Hammersmith. It was a Friday night event and it was very well arranged. The entry, the bag checks etc.

I have never heard of them or their songs for that matter. Even though Mr M was playing some songs of theirs I was always doing something else (for example: reading my kindle) that I hardly bothered to listen. I had no clue how they would sound and what their songs were like. There was no intro music or anything. They started on time at 7.30 pm (maybe a couple of mins late) and by that time the event area was totally packed. You could see the hardcore fans wearing their T-Shirts and getting ready for the gig.

They started with a bang and I was taken by surprise. They sounded very very good. I totally enjoyed the whole performance. All kinds of songs, old and new. There were so many people who were joining in. They had very good stage presence and each one of them (total 6) were great on their own. They played a few Celtic songs. You could see some Scottish flags waving from time to time. The audience pitched in whenever they were asked to. Mr M was in his own world. Towards the final, they introduced themselves and told their story (short) and showcased a variety of instruments.

It was a very lovely evening and they performed until 11 pm, which wasn’t a small feat. They have so much energy, so much love for their music that you can’t but enjoy it and enjoy it well.

It was such an irony that it was my first time listening to them and their last time performing in London. Even though they have decided to call it quits, their songs will live on forever.

 

A gift in the form of music, again ;)

Mr M delighted me by getting tickets to Imelda May’s concerts as my birthday gift. I wouldn’t have thought that I would have the chance to return the favour by gifting him his very favourite musician’s live concert. Mr M is an ardent fan of Gary Numan. He has almost all of his records on vinyl. When he was checking out Numan’s home page, playing his latest album, he saw that Numan was touring and that he would be in London in October. Since he hasn’t been to Numan’s concerts all these years, I thought it would be a very memorable gift on his big 5 O 😉 You should see him getting all excited when we got the tickets.

We saw the concert at the O2 centre in Brixton on the 14th of this month. When we got out of the tube station, all we had to do was to follow all those folks wearing a Gary Numan T-Shirt. It was amazing. The arena was fully packed and we had to stand in the queue for almost 20-30 minutes to get in. We got very good seats where there was an unrestricted view of the stage. Jayce Lewis opened the night. I should say that except for the first song, he didn’t manage to capture our attention.

Around 9 pm Gary Numan came on stage and was welcomed very grandly. Honestly, I had listened to only a few of his songs and I don’t remember them all, except for the one I posted for the Tuesday Tunes (My name is Ruin) that week we went to the concert. But then, this concert was for Mr M and I can tell you that he totally enjoyed it and I saw him singing along to almost all the songs. It really felt very good watching him enjoy the show. Numan also played the songs from his latest album for which he was accompanied by his daughter Persia. She did very well, that cute little girl.

The show went on until almost 10.30 pm. It was close to midnight when we reached home. The gift was almost a month delayed, but I am glad that I got the opportunity to gift him that. Thank you for that Mr M and may you have truly wonderful years ahead with good health, happiness and opportunities to make your dreams come true.

 

Choir and Tunes

Even before I go to my Tuesday Tune song this week, I need to tell you about my first Christmas Carol Concert I went this Saturday. My close friend, who is a Christian and whose tree my ‘Angel‘ will be part of, wanted to attend the Concert by Glorious Ministry. It is a youth choir group who have been performing choirs for almost 25 years I believe. My other friend also wanted to join in (she was part of her school choir long back) and for some reason I got roped in too. I still don’t remember saying yes or no to that, except that I was told that the tickets were booked for me too and that I would definitely enjoy it. And that is how my first Christmas choir concert happened on Saturday.

They sang a total of 21 songs and in between some testimonies were given and there was also a Kids choir who performed some songs among the 21. And at the end, when it was over, that is when they suddenly started to sing Feliz Navidad, Jingle Bells and other popular songs and people who almost left the auditorium came back and started singing along with them 🙂 and that included my friends too. I have some oh so funny videos of their singing 😀 And I did enjoy the whole concert very much.

They did ask us of one thing though. It seems that they are going to do their first ever performance in UAE this year end, i.e from 30th Dec to 4th Jan and wanted to spread the word. So here I am. In case you wanna catch their performance, here are the dates for Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Here are some photographs of their performance. I do have some videos, but might take a while to upload and share them. Will do it some other time.

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And now to my Tuesday Tunes of this week. I saw this the other day in TV by chance and liked it.