I was there

As you progress through life you start to collect favourites. Favourite sports teams, favourite foods and favourite bands to name just a few.

This post regards my favourite band, a band from Athens in Georgia who go by the name R.E.M

I was there…

I was casually browsing a shopping website when the above metal reproduction of a tour poster caught my eye and the memory banks opened and flooded my brain with fantastic memories of this very day. Yes I was there and what a day it was. And today I purchased that poster to go in my workshop, beautiful memories.

Milton Keynes Bowl

Milton Keynes Bowl (or the National bowl as it was officially known) was just that, like a massive crater in the ground that during this period of time in the 90s attracted a number of big groups to this part of the Buckinghamshire countryside.

The National Bowl (originally the Milton Keynes Bowl) is an entertainment venue located in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The site was a former clay pit (for brick-making), filled in and raised to form an amphitheatre using sub-soil excavated by the many new developments in the area. It has a maximum capacity of 65,000. The arena is open-air grassland, without seats.

Wikipedia

I was living in Watford at the time and a friend and i had to make the journey north by train. Not a particularly long journey it’s only about 30 minutes each way.

This was part of the R.E.M Monster tour.

The support was superb with three acts who all became well known in their own rights, Sleeper, Radiohead and the Cranberries, mix that with plenty of sun and beer and it made for a fantastic day.

When my favourite band came on, Wow, they were superb.

Here’s the set list for their show that day:

Set list

I can’t believe it’s almost 30 years ago, the band split in 2011, and by then I’d seen them about 5 times. I’ve always said if they were ever to reform for just one concert anywhere in the world then I’d be there.

It’s just amazing that one picture, can bring such good memories flooding on back.

Happy days.