Blackout in Liverpool

I left for Liverpool at about 2.00pm which was slightly later than I intended so I put my foot down a bit (or as much as I can in my car!) and managed to stick at about 80mph most of the way (the speed limit in UK is 70mph but 80mph is acceptable). By 5.30pm I was only about 40 miles from Liverpool so I stopped for a cup of tea. I got to the venue by 7.10pm and there was a big sign for free parking there. They also had signs for the VIP parking but I just followed the queue and parked right near the venue with nobody asking me if I was VIP or not!

I'd booked this ticket by myself but by coincidence I was only two seats away from two friends so that was good. I actually watched Hurricane Party from my seat and thankfully they weren't as loud as at the outdoor venues. I was in the 7th row and it was supposed to have been the row directly behind the VIP seats here but it turns out that they didn't sell all the VIP seats so the 6th row was the first cheaper row. These were all people who had booked their tickets a couple of months later than us and ended up in the row in front! The VIP here was about £200 ($300) and mainly consisted of a champagne reception before the concert and an open bar afterwards. It was obvious though that although they had paid a lot of money for their tickets most of them only knew the songs from Bat Out Of Hell so weren't the biggest fans.

Disaster struck for me about 5 minutes before Kasim was due on stage as there was nobody sitting in the seat in the row in front of me so I had a perfect view as I was in line with his mic stand but then some people shifted along and the place went dark for me as this MASSIVE guy totally blocked my view! Basically if I wanted to see Kasim when he was at his mic I literally had to lean partway across someone either side of me to see him! It's not like I could just listen to the music either as the sound there was a bit muddy! I managed to take a couple of photos of Kasim when he emerged from the shadows of the mountain but my enjoyment of the concert was certainly marred. I literally could see all the rest of the band except Kasim (and Patti when she was at her mic) - it was so frustrating! If only they had tiered seating.....

I got out of the car park quite quickly and managed to find the motorway okay. It seemed far longer driving home than it did driving up there but I managed it with no catnaps and only stopping once for petrol.

I got in at 3.30am and found that one of my website clients had sent me something that they wanted added to their site that evening! Thankfully it only took me about 20 minutes (and it was still evening somewhere in the world then!) so I fell into bed at 4.00am and did NOT want to get up when my alarm went at 6.30am!

Mileage today: 498 miles
Tour total (in my car) –5, 969 miles