World of Weird Al Yankovic

Just arrived at home from a long weekend holiday in London with the highlight of an Al concert.

First of all, London was great. It is extremely fun and we managed to see the ten most touristic places in 3 days and my wife and I (well, my wife a bit more than me) did some shopping.

Anyway, you don't care much about that so I guess I'll just skip the story to yesterday, dec 6. The day of Al in London. First my wife and me went to the Charles Dickens museum and after that we went into one of the largest CD shops in London, the HMV. We already been there (bought some Family Guy stuff) but this time we went inside if we could find Weird Al somewhere in the millions of CD's. Obviously, I went looking in the rows with Rock/Pop but I couldn't find him. My wife was smart enough to go and ask and the guy was like, who?. My wife (Anya) typed in Weird Al Yankovic and there was a list of CD's and where they could be found. The shop-guy walked with us and guess where Weird Al can be found??


Yes.. at the obviously logical Spoken Word-section.. Odd..
After a quick food injection (Burger King) we went to the underground station close by The Forum (which is not weirdalforum). When we came there was a extremely long line waiting for the entrance. I didn't have tickets (somebody promised me tickets and I should be on the Guestlist). So, Anya and me walked up the ticket-pickup thing and there was a very irritated lady with metal on places where nobody would figure there could be metal (as in, pierced thru... her head). She was really unfriendly and kind of annoyed. She basicly told me. You are on the guest list, so wait on the normal line and check inside if you are on the guestlist. WTF?

Lucky I found Ludovica64 .. well, she was the first in line so I talked automaticly to her. After a hug and after the excitement, she tried to get in contact with somebody about the entrance. Didn't work. She scared me a little bit with a sudden scream "STEEEEVE". He was just walking by to go inside somewhere. At some point, people came out and I asked him if they could check if I was on the list. It took forever, so finally I decided to requeue to the angry-lady-cassier to hopefully get more info. Well, besides she went even more angry it didn't help. Around that time, the VIP people could get in so I grabbed the chance to ask again to somebody from the inside. Finally they really checked and I was on the list and could go in, right after the VIP people went in. Ok, fair enough..

So, I went in.. convinced again that I was on the VIP list or guest list or whatever and finally I received a bright green ticket with aftershow stamps. Great.. Appearantly, I didn't have to go thru body check so I walked inside in the nice room where Ludovica was front row. So I just stood with them and reserved a place for the Isreal-fans

We stood there and crowd came in. Funny enough that Steve was standing with us the entire time (well, with Ludovica but I was there). Just talking about things, really nice. We actually learned something from Steve about The Forum.

After a long wait and several tests the show started around 8:10pm but it immediatly went wrong. First they started with the theme song but the CD stopped (or whatever, it stopped). They restarted it so we figured, ok.. weird.. Al came on stage and we heard the first notes of the Polka. But almost immediate they stopped!! Afterwards I've heard that there was no countdown for Jon so he didn't start while Al did start. So, basicly they played 3 notes and then stopped. At that moment, they cannot restart (for several reasons) so the Polka wasn't played at all. Al made some jokes and the guys where also laughing a bit. Then they continues with Franks 2000" TV which was perfect.

Al was already feeling a bit sick which was also hearable when he was singing. The higher notes he couldn't do always and towards the end of a song, his voice became worse. But he managed to do it. They followed the playlist like the way they did in America, so I won't tell specials about that. Despite the fact Al was noticable sick in his throat, he did all songs and in the long medley, his voice regained strongness and from that it sounded great. With Wanna B your Lover Al put his leg over Ludovica and then went into the audience. Really awesome to see.

Steve did his famous "trow-a-bassguitar-in-the-sky" on Smells like teen spirit and Steve and Ruben were joking around a lot. I couldn't see Jim very good and Bermuda is, as always, kind of hidden.

For me the show was kinda like in the USA, except I didn't see the Starwars guys yet. Also Santa Clause came on stage during "Fat". In general it was a very great show.

Afterparty was upstairs so we all went there (again, we were checked over and over again if we could do that). We waited and then I decided to go and see the T-shirts. When I was there, Ludovica asked me about a photo and I didn't understand why.. but Jon was behind me and after a better look he recognized me. So, I introduced him to Anya and we talked. Then a guy named Danny Cummings came to Jon. Appearantly, he's percussion player on the Dire Straits so we had a nice talk about drums.

At some point, I saw Jim and Ruben, but I couldn't get to them to talk. Al came out last, still feeling a bit sick I guess. He did the usual authographs and then went away suddenly to give authographs to the fans outside. Aww, I didn't talk with him. So, I followed Jon to go backstage to Al so I could a little bit talking with him and a few photo's. So, I talked with him too but only a very small time. Tomorrow probably more, because both me as the band have more time.

I went outside and using the last underground and last train I came back at the hotel around 1am. Al has at least one fan more now, Anya is now fan too

Some pics:
My friend Jon and me


Al and me


Anya and Al


Thursday more

Thanks for the review, Bart. So sorry Al was sick, and that the polka wasn't played, but it sounds like Al was a real trooper. Glad you at least got pics with him, even if you didn't get to talk to him much. Anya is very cute.

Hopefully, tomorrow you'll have more time after the show..

I guess the count has to synch with the video. The polka vid wont work well if its not in synch with the band. I think I recall someone saying that they normally have an extra person to ensure that doesnt happen, but someone else was doubling up and I guess accidents happen.
It was awesome to meet you Whizzi/Bart also Anya. Wish I was better with other languages. I hope Anya didn't feel too left out. Did you get a photo of Al climbing over me into the crowd ? ***HOPE***

(ps sorry I'm scary... lol)

Sorry, I don't have pictures... Also sorry I couldn't hug you again in the end. Stupid guard really made sure he let me out and I couldn't go back anymore (and waiting was no option because we were already a bit late for the underground). Next time if I'm in London, I'll make sure I will hug you again. I hope you talked with Al too in the end..

I enjoyed it, i just felt really sorry for Al with the technical difficulties and his illness etc! plus there was a stupid man in front of me who basically watched the concert through his camera lens! right in my line of vision! grrr.

The stormtroopers were a nice added bonus though. :-D

Oh and i'm convinced it was me and my sister who started the 'WE WANT AL!' chanting.......hehe! we love him

I was there, near the front. I noticed Al struggled with a few of the notes, but he still put on a fantastic show. I just hope he tours the UK again soon as I would love to see him live again.

Also, I was wondering what the song was that Al sang whilst in the safari outfit? That was the only song I didn't recognise.

Nice to read your review.

I got there at 5.30 and (ignoring the VIP and fan club people) only had around 20 people in front of me which I was very happy about. After 6.15ish there was one of the security guys checking that if people had a ticket saying doors open at 6.30 they were the Fan Club people and to go to the front as they got let in earlier. That does explain the varied starting times on many of the sites when I was looking for more information.
There was one family behind me who had brought their little kids and they didn't know why they were there, they went mad when their dad told them

Feet went totally dead from the cold which was fun Got let in at about 10 to 7 and sensibly they seperated the people who were upstairs and downstairs. Got frisked and the guy didn't even bother looking in my pockets where my camera and phone were so makes you wonder was it just food and drink and obvious weapon shaped things they were looking for? One of the security people said that some people were bringing in whole lunchboxes of food for their kids and some people were bringing in fast food! I think in the end they let in people with sandwiches. Not your normal Forum customers I guess

Upstairs was nice. Unreserved seating, front bit being cushioned benches. Obviously the front middle couple of lines were taken up with the VIP/Fan Club people but I got myself a very good seat just on the right hand side. Not that we knew but the show wasn't going to start until after 8 so a bit of a wait but good to try and warm up a bit. Mind you saying that I think the air con was on and I kept my fleece on all show.
The number of people who turned up after 7.30 and looked astounded that all the seats in the front bit of the balcony were full. If you want a good seat then get there earlier! It was like the people outside shocked at the queue outside when they got there an hour after the queue ran down the side of the forum and started to run behind the church.
They did manage to squeeze in a couple of people in the row in front of me (don't know why that couple got put there) and that actually created a perfect view for me with no heads atall

I know that many people hate viewing other peoples cameras at gigs, but with the tiered seating and being on the balcony I don't think I was in anyones way and I actually wanted to make sure that I did actually watch the show, not just live though the camera . I was covering the camera screen up most of the time and actually watching the performance.
So if you watch my videos you'll see it slip a bit now and again as I was actually concentrating on the show!

Very impressed with everything. Real pity that we didn't get his one new piece of music in the polka, not sure why they couldn't start it up again (I would have been happy to hear it without the video, after all I'd guess a lot of us had seen it on YouTube anyway) but in the grand scheme of things it didn't delay anything. I didn't really realise that had happened again until the Tuesday morning.

Al's voice did struggle a little with a couple of the songs, but not that much really and it was great to see them all live. Great performances, a very nice mix of old and new.
I've seen some people mention that if he did less changes he'd get more songs in which I agree with, but Al TV and the multitude of Al references from film and tv made a great show, and the fact that everyone knew the words to the Wheel of Fish sketch was great to hear

I was very very very happy to have the chance to see Weird Al and the guys play. A wonderful evening

If you would like to see the 16 videos I recorded that night please take a look at YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/opaqueentit ... e=mhum#p/u). I am very happy with how they came out


Kevin

kevhamster wrote:I was there, near the front. I noticed Al struggled with a few of the notes, but he still put on a fantastic show. I just hope he tours the UK again soon as I would love to see him live again.

Also, I was wondering what the song was that Al sang whilst in the safari outfit? That was the only song I didn't recognise.

It was Skipper Dan - youtube it, it's funny! I hope he comes back again soon too! x

Thanks for answering that.