fightingthecage | AC/DC,Take II - Hampden Park, June 30th, 2009

Mostly pics, 'cos what can I say about the gig that I didn't say about the Wembley one? It rocked just as hard, it was even hotter, I left feeling just as battered and knackered and had to wring the sweat out of my T-shirt. Gross? Maybe. But almost unbearable amounts of fun. I almost made myself sick from it.

I didn't get in right when the gates opened because I couldn't pick my ticket up until 7pm. I was convinced I was going to be stuck near the back, but nope! I was almost exactly where I was at the first gig and through it, got even closer. I was five people back from the front at one point but it only lasted about two songs before the crowd going sick (again!) shoved me back.

Hampden! I found it weird at first that the stage was facing side-on but then I saw why - the rig wouldn't have fit at one end! It is bloody huge.

Angus, with clothes on (but not for long)

Stripper!Ang

...tease

'AVE IT!!

Got him on the rope this time

Crowd couldn't get enough

Fucking love this picture. It's the exact moment when the lyrics go 'let there be light' in the song Let There Be Rock and these huge banks of stagelights on top of the rig blaze over the whole place.

He's like a guitar messiah

And then, disaster! Because at the end of Angus's solo, I was ill. This is entirely the fault of the sods selling shirts outside the gig. I've never been in a queue so slow in all my life. Even when I got to the front, I stood there for half an hour before someone beside me grabbed a guy and pointed out that the people lined up in the middle were being completely ignored. I'd been planning to go back to my car, get a drink - and drinks for after the gig, 'cos I knew I'd need them - and then come back to pick up the ticket etc. In the end, I had no time and one small bottle of water wasn't enough to cope with that level of heat, and jumping round all that time. There was no air in that crowd. Everytime a breeze came over, you saw a thousand people around you craning their heads up trying to catch a decent breath.

So just as Angus was finishing up, I suddenly felt like someone had punched me in the head. Well, at first I thought someone had because there were elements of that crowd that would make it likely. But nope, I was just mugged by dehydration. I stood there telling myself, 'two more songs, you'll be alright, hold it together...' and that lasted about thirty seconds before I knew I was about to pass out. I had to get out of the pit so I did. Gutted. I would have killed for a drink at that point but they'd taken the concessions stands out of the pitch-level standing area and I wasn't going to miss the encores by heading up the stands to the bar. being able to breath helped immensely anyway so I watched the encores from the edges of the crowd. Gutted gutted gutted. But it was still awesome and it was actually cool to get a different perspective on the crowd. When you're right at the front, you don't get to see the other 53,000 people going mental or, indeed, Jonna singing, at times. Quite a lot of the time, you just hear other people yelling the lyrics out.

Loved those guys with their arms around each other - it was so typical of how people were most of the time

Fireworks to say goodbye to the UK!

God, I was a zombie when I left that stadium. It was a fifteen minute walk back to the car and ten minutes to the nearest store with a drink. I think I drank my weight in liquid over the next hour - couldn't stand the thought of food, but MOAR DRINK PLZ!! And was knackered and battered and happy and floated all two hundred miles home down the motorway. Absolutely. Awesome. I don't know how else to say it. Fucking brilliant. I want to go again.

I will say something for the Glaswegians - they remember where their boys came from. Angus and Malcolm were both born in Glasgow (obviously, being brothers) and homage to them was everywhere; there were cafes that had written one-off Special's menus with dishes created around the band members names, people everywhere were talking about where the Young's were born, every taxi was blaring out AC/DC tracks and the whole atmosphere was a damn good time. I mean, the fans were up for it in London as well but in Scotland, there was more pride, if that makes sense. A sense of sharing.

Anyway. I will shut up about the concerts now. Until I damn well get to see another one. \m/!