Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert - 03/09/2022 - Weekend in London

THURSDAY 1ST SEPT

SO, this is it, the most emotional weekend we've ever had in our lives. 

A weekend full of personal heroes, rock legends, joyous celebrations but great, great sadness, it does mess with your head as you will see later on.

A few weeks before we were heading to London i had a ice hockey jersey custom made, a one off just for the concert and Sian had a one of my Oceanic Rock legend t-shirt made especially and had it sent from Zakynthos for this weekend.

The Foo Fighters began their life in Seattle in 1994 so i contacted the manufacturer and had a Seattle Kraken jersey custom made.

We had our concert tickets, we had our first class train seats and we had our apartment booked in Hampstead which was a great choice as it was one tube stop from Wembley and one tube stop to central London, perfect.

Finchley Road was ideal, a really busy street with everything you'd need on it and just a short walk to Camden Market.

The view from our apartment on Finchley Road.

It was more of a studio to be honest but again it had everything we needed, perfectly clean and more than a hotel room provides but for less money.

No time for chilling out, as you now know our vacations and weekend breaks are anything but relaxing as we fit in so much and walk everywhere. Off to Camden Market we go for our pre-booked tea at The Cheese Bar.

I have to say Camden Market is now somewhere that carries the name but has turned in to a expensive tat shopping experience with unit after unit selling the same crappy stuff. 

Years ago they were little units with old wooden glass doors selling retro clothing, second hand records, antiques and great homemade food with the odd quirky shop thrown in for good measure.

Now it's cooking on mass take away stalls, cheap print t-shirts charging stupid prices, hat shops and sunglass shops. Can you remember in Scooby Doo when they'd run down a corridor and they'd be running past the same 4 doors time after time, that's what Camden Market is like.

T-shirts, Hats, Sunglasses, food, repeat.

The beacon in the crap is The Cheese Bar, if you don't like cheese then it won't appeal to you but we've wanted to go here for the past 4 years but Covid took away 2 of those years but in year 4 we made it.

So simple, so fattening but so good. Grilled cheese sandwiches. Mmmmmmmmm.

With full bellies we were now thirsty after our salty skin on fries, grilled cheese and smoky bacon sandwiches with a chilli honey dip. We need a pint. And what's this little place, Ye Olde Swiss Cottage, HOORAH!

What a great looking bar also there were a few famous people in here as the area Swiss Cottage has a Drama & Arts school.

In here we were sat across the table from Vincent Franklin and Eve Pope.

Vincent has been in TV shows like The Office, Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack. Bodyguard and Doc Martin also quite a few movies.

Eve Pope is best known for Coronation Street but also starred in Peak Practice, Bad Girls, Waterloo Road and Holby City.

We think they were doing a acting class at the school as some students joined them a while later.

Time to head back, recharge and get our sea legs on, for tomorrow we sail down the Thames.

FRIDAY 2ND SEPT

Ahoy there ya land lubers, lets get going to Westminster, the Thames and time waits for no man, sorry, no person, political correctness and all that rubbish.

This is a day Sian has sorted out which i have to say was a great idea. First an Uber Boat from Westminster (the very start of the route) then on down to North Greenwich (the very end of the route) but we could get off at any stop we wanted to along the way as Sian had bought us an all day hopper ticket BUT there was a reason for going the full the length of the Thames.

Our Uber Boat which was very comfy along with a onboard coffee shop.

We sat at the very front so i could pretend i was the captain, Sian forget to bring my toy steering wheel with working horn to strap to my seat, never mind, the view will do as we went past the Shard, HMS Belfast, Tower of London and under Tower Bridge until we reached the O2.

Look at that Sian there's a cable car going across the Thames from the O2.

OOOOoooooooo, that looks very high but i bet the view is great from up there.

WHAT? We're going up in it? What the hell are we doing. I think Sian is a cable ride junkie, does anyone know a good counsellor for people addicted to cable rides? We've gone from a mini cable ride over the Stampede in Calgary to a higher one over Calgary Winter Olympics site to this one over the Thames is 90m above the ground.

There's the O2!

There's London City airport to the right of centre in the very distance.

There's my breakfast, BLURGH!

Only joking, it was awesome, we wanted to go around again but i don't think you were allowed to so we got off like good little Welsh people.

We've never been to the O2. I remember when it was built for the Millennium and after that it was a bit of a white elephant but now, WOW, what a great place. A huge concert arena in the middle with a small 1000 capacity room off to the side and loads of shops, bars, eateries, entertainment and a cinema, you could have a day out just in the O2.

Who else would they have on the wall, the Foo's are enough.

From when we got on the boat to when we left the O2 we have already been out 5 hours and that was without stopping for food or a beer, SOOOoooooooo it's beer time, off to the Maple Leaf, the best Canadian bar in London.

Cheers!

Couple of beers later and back to Westminster. Shall we go to Wembley now for a snoop around? Sian says Yep, lets go!.

I had an email saying that concert merch was going on sale the day before the concert from 10am until 8pm. I do like to get t-shirts from all the concerts we go to so lets see what they have.

Sian's first time to Wembley and my first time to the new Wembley.

I had been to the old Wembley to see Michael Jackson twice, Guns N Roses twice, INXS headlining the SummerXS and to see Wales beat England in rugby while our new stadium was being built and Wembley was our home stadium for that year, GO ON SCOTT GIBBS!

Sian's first steps on Wembley Way.

The queue for the one and only merch stand that was open that day was easily over half a mile long, t-shirts that were £24.99 on the Foo Fighters own website that were for the concert were on sale on the stall for £40. No thanks, i will buy it off the website instead.

The calm before the storm.

Now then, one of these artists is a Legend the other two are nowhere near the status of a legend, can you guess which two couldn't lace the shoes of  the one and only Legend on this display? What a ridiculous flag. Out of all the pop stars they could have chose who have played Wembley since the 70's they decided on a whining, bitchy female who writes songs slagging off ex's and a dull as dishwater street busker who got hyped way to much and people believed it. GET THIS REMOVED NOW!

Now i don't believe in a higher power or mystic spirits or spiritual energy BUT we were walking around the edge of Wembley Stadium as we heard someone practicing inside, we were the only ones there and at that moment one single white feather floated down right in front of Sian's face and landed gently on her open hand without reaching out or grabbing for it, there also wasn't a bird anywhere to be seen in the sky, that is just spooky and freaked me out a little, Sian has kept that feather safe.

And we heard this, i think it's The James Gang practicing but answers on a postcard if you think different.

After walking all the way around Wembley it was time to head back to pick up our tea, after all, we had by now been out and about for over 10 hours. We had read this restaurant had been voted the best Kebab restaurant in London, that's a big claim and we are going to check it out to see if that's true. The restaurant is called Tony's Pita.

We had Gyros, dolmades, gigantes and saganaki, and we have to say, it was as good as the best gyro's we have had on Zakynthos, bloody amazing.

Time for bed and try to get a good nights sleep but very excited with sadness attached at the same time, stomach churning and head in a weird place, never felt this way before and really difficult to explain, ah well, lets try to settle down.

SATURDAY 3RD SEPT 2022 - 2.30PM - TAYLOR HAWKINS TRIBUTE CONCERT

As we stepped off the tube at Wembley Park you could see the masses spread out in front of us. It's 1pm so not to chaotic yet as doors open at 2.30pm. We saw about 10 people queueing the day before when we were there as they had pitch tickets and wanted to be at the front. That's just crazy in my opinion. Firstly your crushed against a barrier for about 8 hours, secondly if you want a beer it's a pain in the arse to get out and get back to where you were, thirdly once the seal is broken your having to go through crowds time and time again all day. I really don't see the point. 

We have seated tickets as with us being short arses no matter where we may stand on the pitch we wouldn't be able to see the stage and i'd be stuck behind the absolute dickhead filming all the concert on his/her phone all day, again what's the point, your there, enjoy it. It was being filmed professionally so you can watch the concert again on the internet without hearing someone like me behind you on your recording saying "Oi you, you twat, get that f**king camera down now before i use it for a rectal examination"

As we walked down Wembley Way had a photo opp under the Taylor Hawkins sign which was also a free downloadable programme which i thought was a nice touch.

As we got closer to the stadium it hammered it down but it was just a short sharp downpour of a couple of minutes then it stopped and become bright over Wembley as the doors opened, another spooky moment, it had been black above the stadium up until then.

2.30pm and we are fourth in line at gates to go in. We made our way up level after level as we were on level 5 and found a gin & Pimms bar with an amazing view out over Wembley Way, as you can see the sun really did come out at gate opening time.

We were in level 5, block 552, row 13, seats 588 & 589. I had a rough idea of where we were and what our view was like as i had used a website called A view from my seat, it's a pretty good site.

And here is the view from our seats.

We thought they were great and only £75 each for such an occasion with all the big names that had been announced. The only thing you couldn't see from our seats was the drummer but there were screens at the front and side of stage so we saw all the views on them also. 

Our 7th ever selfie in 6 years together, WE HATE SELFIES!

Now remember i told you about those people who were queueing the day before, well they would have had a shock as the stewards were corralling people in line by line for safety measures, no running to the front today i'm afraid.

The people sat around us in our block weren't to bad apart from 2 women 2 seats away from me. They were wasted when they got to their seats at 3.30pm both in floral summer dresses, loud and annoying trying to be younger than their 40 something age. If ever i wanted 2 people to fall over the seats in front and break their necks it was them.

I don't think they realised how long a day it would be, by around 7.30pm they had run out of steam and they had gone before the end of the concert, I AM SO GLAD THEY MISSED IT!

The gent sat next to me said before the concert had started he had heard Paul Mcartney was going to be playing and if he did he would need reviving. I wanted to say if Paul Mcartney is playing i will kill you myself, i hate The Beatles. Their best work was when they were off their tits on drugs, no one ever mentions the albums before they were dabbling so what does that tell you?

Just a few pics to show you the crowd as it filled up.

So that's the concert set up for you 

The people are in, a countdown begins on the screens and the Foo Fighters walk on to the stage and stand arms around each other in a line at the front of the stage as the crowd erupts. 

This goes on for quite a while until Dave Grohl asks for calm, he starts to talk about Taylor Hawkins and we just lose it, Sian and i both start to cry with almost everyone around us doing the same and Dave barely holds it together.

Time to kick of the Tributes. 

I'm not going to roll through every single artist as you can see that online for yourself, this is our experience, our highlights and how we felt.

Liam Gallagher was the perfect start to a sad but joyous day with "Rock n Roll Star" and following with "Live Forever" which Liam finished his concert with on the night Taylor died and dedicated it to him that night, the Foo Fighters were Liam's backing band. That alone would be most peoples ideal concert.

Then they all went off and as the day progressed artist after artists would make their way on to the stage with Dave occasionally joining them. 

Them Crooked Vultures (Queens of the stone age) were the next line up i was looking forward to but they came on much later in the day after 6 other artists had graced the stage. A quick mention for Wolfgang Van Halen, his guitar work was unbelievable, never seen anything like it.

Time to bring out the even bigger guns if that's even possible after the previous artists.

Its time for all the drummers Taylor saw as idols and drummers who saw Taylor as an idol to come and go one after the other.

Brian Johnson from AC/DC with the Foo Fighters and Lars Ulrich from Metallica on drums. My mind is blown at this point and Sian is screaming. 

Look, myself and Sian are so much alike that it's such a joy and pleasure doing anything with Sian, can you imagine if i had been with someone who liked ABBA , Lady GaGa or god forbid Taylor Swift, it would be a freakin nightmare to enjoy the concerts we go to.

They blow the fans away with Back in Black and Let there be Rock, AWESOME! 

I bought Back in Black when it was released in 1980. 

A 12 year old Kevin goes to Cathays Community Centre Friday night children's disco in Cardiff, the most popular song at that disco is Back in Black, Kevin moshes along with the older greasy dirty rockers in their black leather jackets with sleeveless denim jackets over the top sporting cotton patches of rock bands smelling of patchouli oil.

Dave, Lars and Brian after a monumental 2 song set.

NEXT:

Stewart Copeland from The Police takes over and again i am in awe.

Seeing Stewart Copeland who was such a cool guy and amazing drummer in my eyes as a 10 year old was again mind blowing, i even like his alter ego, Klark Kent..

A 10 year old Kevin buys his second ever album with his pocket money, The Police "Outlands d'Amour" in 1978, my first was "Never mind the Bollocks here's the Sex Pistols" when i was 9.

NEXT:

Rush came on and performed Taylors favourite songs by them as Rush were Taylors all time best band.

NEXT:

Now it's time for Sian to lose it all together 5 whole songs maybe about 20 mins she didn't stop crying.

So, time for me to explain. Sian had got in to the Foo Fighters due to me and she is now as big a fan as me, most probably, like me, her favourite band as of now BUT Sian's favourite band of all time even more than the Foo's is............QUEEN, no one will take their place in Sian's eyes or to quote from a famous film "There can be only one!".

Sian has never seen Queen in any shape or form. We've been to all the places we can which are associated with Queen but she's never seen them, today she will get to see her 2 most favourite bands perform together under the saddest of circumstances. One because Taylor is no longer with us and two Freddie also isn't with us on the weekend of his birthday. Sian's emotions just totally overwhelmed her in that split second of a moment as both bands came out on stage with Roger Taylors son on drums Rufus, who is also Taylor Hawkins god son. That overwhelming emotion lasted during the whole of their set, i put my arm around her and let her be in that moment no matter how sad it was but it's a moment that will stay with Sian forever.

Queen blew all the past performers out of the stadium, everything was perfect and Sam Ryder who joined them as the singer for Somebody to Love was on another level, Adam Lambert better keep looking over his shoulder and check his contract with Brian and Roger.

Foo's, Queen and Rufus Taylor performing one of my Queen favs "I'm in love with my car", sounded awesome. 

It's 1975, my sister has bought Night at the Opera by Queen and 7 year old Kevin is singing over and over to the album track "I'm in love with my car" which is playing on his sisters Philips flip top stereo system.

Brian performing solo Freddie's "Love of my life" with Taylor looking on over him. Brian left the stage crying.

And now for the most heart breaking moment i have ever had to witness.

Now i have lost pets been to many funerals of Friends and very close family but i have never been so emotionally effected by a death than that of Taylor Hawkins. I know, weird right, someone i didn't even know. I can't explain it at all.

The stage lights dim, a pale dim blue light covers the stage with the Foo Fighters stood on stage in the  shadows, then a spotlight goes on above Dave as a church organ fills the stadium, just one single continuous note.

It takes a while for Dave to get composure and he starts to sing the first line of Times Like These, no guitar, no band, just his voice and that single tone note.

This is my song, this song gets me through all my dark times and was on constant throughout 2015 which helped me so much, so Times Like These means so much to me.

What you have to remember, this is the very first time the Foo fighters have played a Foo Fighters song without Taylor behind them.

Such courage and love for his best friend, his brother as he called him to bare his soul in front of 75,000 people, you could feel his heart break then break down and then break through the other side, i couldn't have. Dave said in his book "Storyteller", which is a great read by the way, he would take a bullet for Taylor, a brother from another mother.

Add along to these emotions Dave's mom died in late July who was his rock and supported him whatever he decided to do in his life which is also mentioned many times in his book.

I can't even watch this video anymore as it just breaks me each time.

The people lighting the way for Taylor during Times Like These with Taylors Hawk symbol blinding bright at the back of the Stadium.

Usually whenever i see the Foo Fighters play this song or hear it i sing along at the top of my voice until my lungs burn but today.......i couldn't get through the first line without crying and i didn't try again. How Dave did it was an act of huge, huge courage.

The Foo fighters did a set of 10 of their own songs including Taylors favourite Foo Fighters song "Aurora" unfortunately for us we had to put up with two songs from Paul Mcartney in the middle but it was bearable, JUST! I think he should have come on before Queen.

And the emotions keep on coming as Taylors son Shane who is just 16 joins the Foo's on drums. Now he has as much courage and huge heart as Dave to take his fathers seat and play his fathers drums for his fathers band. That's raw and boy did he play those drums, also what a fitting song to play with "My Hero"

This will blow you away if you haven't already seen it.

The end is in sight, it's almost 10.30pm and we are all and i mean everyone in the stadium emotionally drained and in that moment with Taylors family, friends and his brothers The Foo Fighters, all as one, all feeling the emotions of the day dedicated to one of the greatest drummers of all time Taylor Hawkins.

BUT just when you think you can take no more and your torn apart there is one song left to play to break you fully, a solo by the man himself Dave Grohl.....Everlong.

No loud crescendo finish, no pyrotechnics, just a beautiful and serene way to end a fitting tribute for a bright shining star who will definitely be sadly missed by all who knew him, watched him or listened to his music.

For Dave, Pat, Nate, Chris and Rami to get through the Foo Fighters set without Taylor and keep it together was amazing and the tightest i have ever heard a band play, how they did it....i don't know.

And what of the Foo Fighters.......I'll leave it with these two lines from that amazing solo of  Everlong....

"If everything could ever be this real forever, if anything could ever be this good again"

Maybe........but i think maybe not. 💔

We miss you Taylor, sleep in peace.

And on to L.A. on the 27th Sept for the second of just the 2 tribute concerts in Taylors home town of L.A. which in fact due to the time difference will be my birthday.

We make our way out of the stadium to the tube with a very subdued crowd but thousands of people are still singing one line over and over from the song My Hero ........"There goes my hero, watch him as he goes."

We take a back street to the tube station and beat all the masses. We sit down on the tube and we're sat across from 2 couples who are of our age. The one guy starts talking to me and says "I've seen the Foo Fighters the last time they played Wembley but the finale tonight was a bit of a let down if i'm being honest, no pyrotechnics and a acoustic song to end on, you'd think they'd give us paying fans more"..................you may want to stop reading at this point until my rant is over.............

I just looked at the guy in disgust and this is what my mind was stopping my mouth from saying.......

"You F**KING dull C**T, are you for real you stupid cockney T**T, do you actually know what this concert was for you utter S**T FACE B**TARD, you pathetic self absorbed TOSSER "

Sorry for the language but those are the exact words that came in to my head at that exact moment.

Total dickhead if ever there was one.

From leaving our seats to being in our apartment in total it only took 30 mins which i was totally amazed at. We hadn't eaten all day so i went across the road and bought two dominio pizzas. We sat there, tired and quiet just eating as we had to, not because we wanted to and then went to bed with both of us still a bit emotional and not sure how to feel.

As Sian said to me, she still feels like it's a big joke and Taylor was going to pop out from somewhere and be like "Surprise!", it just doesn't seem like reality, so, so weird. 

I still till this day can't get my head round it.

SUNDAY 4TH SEPT

Wake up and still feel like it's all a dream. We've seen our heroes and some of our rocks legends but our feelings are still at a low when we should be buzzing like we are after other concerts we've been to.

Well, we don't have anything planned for today so i suggest to cheer ourselves up a bar crawl of our fav places in London, YEAH LETS DO IT! And the sun has got his hat on hic hic hic hooray!

So we actually make it around all of our favs we make a deal just one drink in each. 

We do miss out Maple leaf as went there Friday and the Fitzroy Tavern as it's the opposite way to where we are heading

Covent Garden here we come and first up Punch & Judy

Just a short walk to the edge of Covent Garden to The Roundhouse.

Out of Covent Garden, through Soho, along Carnaby Street, past the London Palladium to The Argyll Arms.

Out of The Argyll on to Oxford Street, turn left at Primark and in to Marlborough Head.

Back on to Oxford up to Marble Arch and in to Hard Rock Hotel

It's West End Musical Sunday, BOOOOOOooooooooo, get off crappy under studies. Today due to it being Freddie Week at the Hard Rock (Freddie Mercury Birthday) it's songs from "We will rock you", Freddie would have been turning in his grave and Sian was laughing her head off, it was that bad, it was like a junior school musical project or really really bad Am Dram.

Waitress, more cocktails and quick.

Leave hard rock hotel, walk down Mayfair along side Hyde Park until you reach Old Park Lane and enter Hard Rock Cafe.

        

More Cocktails here and Sian being sneaky gets shots of tequila in while i visit the toilets, this can only end badly but happily.

We have now been on our bar crawl for 8 1/2 hours without eating and our bar tab for Hard Rock alone has reached.....wait for it.........£160 and that's without £60 we spent in the shop on t-shirts but it was definitely worth it.

Feeling slightly merry but not drunk it's time to head back and pick up food from the first take away we come across on Finchley Road which was KFC, nice easy to eat hand food, Chicken Fillet 10 piece bucket meal, oh yeah baby, finger licking good.

Watered and fed it's time to sleep........oh, your asleep already Sian, ok time for me to sleep, nigh nigh now, shhhhhhhhhhh, go by byes.

MONDAY 5TH SEPT (BOOOOOOOOOOO!)

Wake up and feel a bit shaky and tired due to waking up every 2 hours for water as booze and salty KFC isn't the best combo.

Sian feeling the same way but neither hung over, thank god!

We pack very slowly and leave at 11am on the dot.

Sit in Costas for an hour and catch the train home.

After being in Cardiff maybe no more than 5 minutes my first encounter with a local is a drunk 15 year old looking at an electronic bus timetable and asking me what 15.34 is.

Again like the guy on the tube i look at him in disgust, stare him down and this rant comes in to mind but my mouth stays shut.........you may want to stop reading at this point.........

"You F**KING dull C**T, are you for real you stupid Welsh T**T, are you actually that thick you utter P**CK, if you went to school instead of BEING A BRO walking around the streets with a can of shandy you may have got an education, buy yourself a digital Mickey Mouse watch with the benefits you'll end up getting you DICKHEAD"

Sorry for the language but those are the exact words that came in to my head at that exact moment.

Total dickhead if ever there was one.

It amazes me that we go to all these places all over the world including in the UK and nowhere is as shitty as Cardiff, my own home town where i was born & raised and Swansea. 

We both dread having to come back here apart from seeing our Squidly and family.

Heeeeeeere's Squidly!

Rabbits only sleep like this when they feel safe, happy and content, Awwwww she so freakin cute!

And there you go my lovely friends, blog readers and followers, all was amazing even with the highest of emotions being reached on the saddest of occasions. The weather once again was great for us apart from that very short downpour of about 4 mins, we are so lucky every time we go away.

We again did a minimum of 8 miles walking a day i think it was but the main reason for this trip was to see our rock heroes and most importantly say our final farewell to Taylor Hawkins......

So until my next update..........

Love All, Serve All, Peace All.......Kevlar Out!