Pink

Yesterday we planned to set off to Birmingham mid-morning and spend the day there before the concert that evening. However, we were delayed and so didn't leave til midday. My dad went out fishing yesterday early in the morning. Then mid-morning, when we were almost ready to leave for Birmingham, my dad rang - he'd fallen in the lake! Muppet! He was soaking wet and so mum had to take him a change of clothes. And on the way my mum had a little accident with the car - she had to drive up onto the pavement to avoid another car driving into her, and damaged a wheel. Luckily the car was ok to drive to Birmingham, though the steering wheel constantly vibraterd throughout the hour and a half journey!

So we eventually got into Birmingham at about 2pm as we'd stopped on the way for lunch. We got a bit lost in the centre of Birmingham as the Sat Nav confused us, but it didn't take long for us to find the NIA. We parked in the NIA car park at 2.30pm, but had some trouble with the ticket machine. It cost £6 for 4 to 8 hours or £8 for up to 24 hours. We knew the concert would start at 8pm, so thought we'd best go for £8 to be on the safe side. But the ticket machine didn't accept notes and we didn't have £8 in change on us. We found a change machine in the car park, but it was out of order, so we asked in an official looking office, but they didn't have any money. We were advised to go to a local newsagents over the road and buy something with a note to get some change, but not to tell them why we wanted the change. Mum bought some chewing gum, so we headed back to the ticket machine with £8 in coins. Then we discovered that the ticket machine didn't accept £2 coins. Grrr. After asking lots of strangers if they'd got two £1 coins to swap for a £2 coin, but having no luck, we paid £6 for a 4 to 8 hour stay and hoped that the concert would finish by 10.30 (which of course it didn't, but we were ok).

We walked into the city centre, where we did some shopping and stopped for a coffee. I didn't buy anything at the shops, and all my mum bought were presents for a couple of friends' upcoming birthdays. I was very tired during the day. While wandering round we spotted a local newspaper which had reviewed Pink at the NIA the night before, so we bought a copy and got very excited. Later in the afternoon we made our way to a Japanese restuarant we'd passed earlier to have tea. The restuarant was really authentic with sushi going round on conveyor belts and lots of Japanese staff and customers. I had some green tea and a starter (because it wasn't long since we'd eaten lunch) of crispy duck spring rolls with plum sauce. And I also finished off mum's dish of chicken and noodles when she was full. It was good fun re-learning to use chopsticks. Mum gave up and just used a fork!

After our meal we made our way back to the NIA as the doors opened at 6.30 before the concert began at 8pm. Me and mum both wore feather boas (I took mine off later though as it was too itchy) and I had purple nails and mum had pink nails. And my mum has purple hair too, so we looked the part! We didn't have to queue to get in, which was nice. Headed to the merchandise stands first where I spent quite a bit of money on a programme, a tour t-shirt, a set of 4 button badges and a (printed) signed photo. Then we headed into the arena. Our seats were in the second row from the back, so we were quite a way from the stage, but we were very central.

At 8pm the support act came on. They were called Raygun and I didn't really like them. They played 7 songs and finished at 8.30pm. Then there was a half hour break where the final people found their seats, visited the bar, went to the toilets...

At 9pm Pink came on! :D The concert was fantastic! She performed around 20 songs - 9 off her Funhouse album, 7 songs from her back catalogue and 4 covers. The set list can be seen here. From her Funhouse album she performed lots of good songs (such as 'So What' and 'Funhouse', but unfortunately she didn't perform 'Sober' - my favourite song and one the review had said she'd done ariel acrobatics to on the previous night. I've looked on the Internet since and 'Sober' is on the set list, so I'm puzzled as to why she didn't perform it last night. I thought the 7 songs from previous albums were all good choices. I thought the covers were mixed. 2 of them I didn't know, but she covered 'Crazy' by Gnarls Barkley which was very good and Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' which was amazing! I sang along to most of the songs and so am losing my voice now from all the singing!

There was an acoustic set partway through the concert, which was a nice contrast. Pink played the piano and guitar herself during some numbers, which we were very impressed with. And during other sections of the concert there were some very impressive guitar solos by the main guitarist when Pink had costume changes. Pink had lots of costume changes and I liked most of her outfits, though some of them were very daring.

The staging was fantastic. The set was great - there were screens at the back of the stage where they played videos and animations during some of it, there were slides on the stage itself, giant inflatable characters popped up during 'Bohemian Rhapsody', a bed appeared for a pillow fight during 'So What'... There were lots of dancers dressed up and doing acrobatics. During the last 2 songs ('Get the Party Started' and 'Glitter in The Air') some of the dancers and Pink performed some spectacular aerial acrobatics! :D

The concert was brilliant, better than any concert I've ever been to before, and I'd love to see Pink again. I'd highly recommend her concerts :) I'm hoping they'll bring out a DVD of the tour eventually as I'd love to watch it again.

Pink performed for almost 2 hours! After it finished we had to queue for quite a while for the toilets, but that was ok because my mum started chatting to some complete strangers in the queue, which passed the time a bit! Then we went back to the car, which we'd parked quite near the entrance. However we soon realised there was a problem. Mum had left the headlights on, so the car battery was flat and we couldn't start the engine. This was just after 11pm, eek! We didn't know what to do so rang dad, and woke him up! Mum wandered round the car park in the hope of finding some jump leads, and luckily she found a man who had some with him. So we got the engine started. We sat in the car and waited for a while (I'm not sure quite why we had to do this, I know nothing about cars) and I ate some sandwiches. Then we set off and didn't get lost on the way home :D We got home at about 1am, tired but very happy! :D