Day: May 15, 2006

Katy and I saw Santana in concert at Wembley Arena this weekend and boy, did we ever get our money's worth! The show was 3.5 hours, with the first act doing a 1h set and Santana playing a solid 2 and a half hour set without interruption!

Since the concert, I have come to a few conclusions:

1. I am offiially old, because the concert was LOUD! I should have known better, because I brought earplugs with me when I went to see Rush live and I was happy I did. I came out of the show with a hell of a case of tinnitus, but the music was kick ass.

2. I prefer Santana's earlier works better than his latest ones. I think I had a small orgasm when he played the first riffs of Black Magic Woman. The most recent stuff from his latest album is still good, but it's a bit too involved. Too much happening at the same time. He played a lot of the songs I wanted to hear though, like Oye como va, Black magic woman, Smooth, Maria Maria, Foo Foo, Put your lights on, and I'm forgetting a bunch more (like I said, it was a looooong set!).

3. The average age of the concertgoers must have been around 37. Easily. If not in the early 40s. The woman with the business suit complete with shoulder pads was not the typical concert fan, but man did she seem to be enjoying herself :)

The concert itself was really good, but tiring. We'd planned things well though. We had decided to make our way to London without any real haste, check in to our hotel (which we booked right next door to the arena), chill out by the hotel pool, have a meal at the hotel and head out to the concert. Things didn't quite go according to plan.

We thought we were booking a good room in a 4-star Hilton hotel. At least, that's what was on my reservation sheet from Expedia. We were expecting something similar to the conditions we had when we spent a weekend at the Casino Hilton in Hull when Katy first came to see me in 2004: fine dining, beautiful views, marble bathtub.

The Casino Hilton this wasn't. Hell, we didn't even see any mention of the Hilton chain.

I don't know how this hotel could be rated 4 stars. It shouldn't be. The bed was clean but lumpy and very uncomfortable. There was no air conditioning in the rooms, which were quite hot and stuffy. There was no mini bar nor fridge. The kettle was completely full of scale. The prices for room service and at the bar were quite high for what was being offered. The view we had was the side of a competing hotel and a really big parking lot. All in all, we were thoroughly unimpressed and really disappointed.

Wembley itself is like being in the rougher parts of Leicester. I felt like a visible minority there :)

Anyway, it was a good weekend, and I put a bunch of pictures online here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/santana_wembley/