Rush at the Manchester MEN arena 14th November 07

After many months of anticipation the morning of the Rush concert arrived. The Weather was reasonable, and more importantly my health was giving me a rare good day.

I dug out the Griphin which was disappearing under a pile of stuff as I played solitaire in my garage trying to get enough space to strip her down for a respray and rebuild, and made sure there where no lose bolts where I had already started to tinker.

After a light lunch I set off. I had arranger to meet Tony on his BMW at Forton service on the M6 around 3:30, then to follow him to a mates of his where we would leave the bike prior to heading into Manchester for the gig.

Arriving at Forton however, there was a missed call on my mobile from Tony. I rang and found that he was stuck some 25 miles away with a flat tyre on his rear and was waiting for his other half, Fiona to bring out his spare rear wheel which fortunately had a good tyre on it. Amazingly she managed to get to their house and back out to Tony in amazing time considering the lakes traffic. This allowing him to join me at Forton about 5:10. We then proceeded at a rather brisk pace and shortly arrived.

After quickly chaining the bikes up and shedding our ridding gear we headed off. The plan had been to take the train in, but as we were running late Andy took his car. We got parked for a reasonable £5 considering the train would have been £8 a head, and headed for the arena.

Once passed the hawkers trying to sell tickets at ridiculous prices (I thought tiketmaster [read Bastards] had the monopoly) we got in and via the products stand made our way to liquid refreshment at ludicrous prices. Toni was served by some YTS kid who as soon as his till locked up, lost all ability to serve despite there being other tills. Toni being a bar manager him self and somewhat in need of a beer after all the hassle, was I though exceedingly polite to the bar manager when she eventually came to sort it out.

The concert was of course exhalant after my initial burst of vertigo when I turned round to take my seat and realised how high up we where and how steep the seats where set. It felt like one laps of balance and you’d be downstairs before you knew it.

There’s nothing like the tingle of live music being played loud felt up your spine, and as usual Messrs Peart, Lifeson and Lee where on exhalant form. Their musician ship is incredible, showing true mastery of their instruments. Neil’s ability to play 3 different rhythms independently always impresses, as does Alex’s dexterity with all stiles of guitar and Geddy’s proficiency with a verity of instruments and amazing vocals. Even after 33 years they can still deliver the goods a lot better than most younger groups, playing for the best part of 3 hour’s.

Their older music never seems to age much, while their latest stuff sounds fresh and contemporary. They played a good mixture of both including a few I wasn’t familiar with. A Passage to Bangkok toped the night off for me during the encores, being an old favourite of mine. And YYZ always leaves a good feeling to end on.

It was noticeable at this concert everyone remained sitting, where as last time on the R30 tour we all stood, something to do with us all getting older I think.

Once back at Andy’s, we had a quick brew and a smoke out back then wrapped up for the journey home. This takes me a bit more time than Toni as his BMW has a nice screen and I’m sat in the full force of the wind. I had brought my thermal arctic suite stuffed it in a rucksack but it being surprisingly warm for the time of year in the early hour’s of the morning, decided I didn’t need it. I’d also bought a poster at the concert with out giving thought to the logistics of getting it home on the bike. But this was soon sorted with plastic bags and rubber bands.

I love riding at night, it’s less crowded and the likely hood of idiots on the main roads is reduced, there’s less crap getting chucked up at you from passing vehicles and it’s just generally less frantic. However by the time we reached Burton in Kendal services my lack of a screen on the chop was starting to tell on my arms, and I was well ready for the rest.

I carry my own T bags due to allergies and was pleasantly surprised to not be charged for a cup of hot water as I have been before. We had a decision on the state of road works on the A66 and headed off again. Parting company at junction 36, I continued north. I didn’t feel at all cold until going up the final big hill before home and arrived about 02:00.

There was another text from Toni. Now he hadn’t had a puncture in something like 20 years riding until tonight so I was amazed to hear he had another puncture. 2 in fewer than 12 hours. An’t life weird. Indecently it took the AA 4 ½ hours to get to him, witch is a bit much on a dark night to top thing off.

This page added..25/11/07