We got a Nutella jar for the flight (which they ended up throwing out) and took the Tube to the airport. At the airport the American Airlines guy asked Mary the old security questions, it was kind of nostalgic. We got her stuff all taken care of and she got on the plane fine.
I read the Atlantic that Amy gave me (really interesting study on happiness from Harvard students from the 1940s to today, JFK was a subject) and got off at Piccadilly to return my Italy book and get a Bucarest one.
I walked back and uploaded my Northend stuff and then went down to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. I wasn't really sure what to expect, since he's fictional and all (something that I heard a number of tourists asking about inside) but it was ok. They have it all Victorian inside, how it would have looked. It didn't really do that much for me. On the upper floors they had wax figures from different cases. Not that great, but glad I went to it, I mean I'm his neighbor.
I walked down to the National Portrait Gallery to look at their 1966 Dylan European Tour photos. I'd seen a few, but many I hadn't. In particular the ones that were cool were him on Canarby Street, posing with kids in Liverpool, and watching his band's soudcheck from the seats at the Royal Albert Hall.
It reminded me that Clapton was there and I really wanted to go to the Royal Albert Hall since it was in 'A Day in the Life.' I went around the corner to look at tickets for "Waiting for Godot" starring Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, but there were kinda pricey and I'd have to wait for returns. So I took the long walk through the parks, stopping for my worst Flake so far (they didn't use the right ice cream) and made it down there in about an hour.
There were lots of people outside, a number of scalpers selling things. I wanted to spend £20, going up to £25 at the most, after all it was like £7 to just tour the place. I waited around for a little and after asking a couple scalpers, a guy came over wanting £40 (they are £75 tickets) and I got him down to £25.
It was a good seat on the side of the stage, but when I showed it to the usher he told me to wait for a minute while he checked something, generally not a good sing. Turns out my ticket was bought with a rejected credit card and invalid. They were really nice about it, and offered to get me a cheap one for £35 but I really couldn't afford it.
I went outside and decided to hang out for a while because there were a ton of scalpers and I was the only one buying. I ended up talking to Tom from DC who was here for a friends birthday. We talked about music and the Capitols and he ended up selling me one of their VIP box seats for £20. They spent thousands on the tickets.
The box was awesome, right by the stage, free food and drink (I had a few vegetarian things and most of the desserts, as well as fancy water). The people were all really great, a bunch of fun. They were from DC and Lexington and we laughed and really hit it off. They all seemed to really like me, I was really lucky to get in there, and they were really impressed that I was over here doing the study abroad thing and how they were so jealous that I was at my age when they at 50 were doing it now. It made me realize how cool all this really is.
The show was great. I wasn't familiar with a number of the songs, but the show was incredible. He sounds great and plays amazing. Plus we were really close and the show was rather intimate. And it was at the Royal Albert Hall. If I was ever going to see Clapton, this would be the place (the whole 'Clapton is God' thing started in London too). I read about how the Beatles were in attendance at the Dylan show in 1966 and it just sort of brought everything togethery. This was one of my more enjoyable shows.
Once it was over I went down to the stage and talked with the security guard. He was incredibly nice and tried to help us get setlists. There was one man that asked before me, so he made sort of a line of people waiting. I stood around for 15 minutes, chatting with the guard and everyone else else except me and him so I got the setlist, pretty incredible.
I went back up to the box and said bye to everyone. They took my name and I got a card so I can keep in touch with them. Tom also gave me back my £20. Just an aswesome time.
I went outside by the buses to try to get Clapton to sign the setlist, but he never showed. There were a bunch of people over by the stage door and after waiting for maybe an hour a guy named Martin came by and told us he hops in his Ferrari and drives home right after the show (he lives two minute away). I talked to Martin a little and he said he usually has extra guest passes to the shows (he knows Clapton for way back) and if he can catch me at the Thursday show, maybe he could get me one. Who knows.
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