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Saturday, 6th of July 2002

My Finsbury Gig Precious Ticket
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Next time.. safety jacket around my waist!!!!

The memorable Day of Mosh&Crush&Love: The Day of The GIG!!!

Question time: how many hooligans generally attend Oasis's gigs?
1)1000
2)10000
3)they are 95% of the crowd there.
Answer in fully honesty, please. My guess is number 2. Because I am trying to be nice, loving the band...

We woke up at 5.15. No kidding, we did, just to be the first ones at the gate...

But immediately, we split: Nelly and Izzi didn't want for no reason to wake up that early, so they stayed sleeping in their beds, saying they would have joint after, selling as well the spare tickets we were having since Karin, and Gecko and his friend weren't be with us.
 
Without Tube to use for the early time, we took a taxi with Chris, Micke, Paul, Toni and Baz, aware we would have met Henry, Sinath and Laura at Finsbury outdoors.

When at 6am (almost) we took the black cab for heading towards Finsbury Park  I was feeling so filled with expectations and with the whole stomach revolving (joyfully) around itself  I would have probably felt no physycal pain if a tank would have tried to step over me.
My powers were more than Superman's ones, really!
The fact is that I was waiting from years to get again Oasis' live experience and finally I was ready to make it alongside other mad people as I am and I always will be whenever the Gallaghers will be ready to share something with me (Notice the arrogance ;)!)
 
Well, the day had come: then, at 6 am, I wouldn't have really guessed how things would have turned out for me..ehehe! :P

the mighty Black Rebel Motorcycle club
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Micke's proud discovery of the year..:P

We arrived at Finsbury gates slightly after the planned date with Henry, Sinath and Laura (that was fixed at 6 am).
We weren't really the first ones there, which made me think a lot about Oasis fans' habits (where did they sleep, those who were already there and moreover.. did they?).
Weather was cold and grey, but that greyness which suggests you it won't really rain during the day.
 
When Henry cheered us, we finally had the great pleasure to meet Sinath and Laura for the very first time and I have to say they are both cute and with amazing smiles as well!
First thing especially I thought watching Sinath's sparkling eyes was that a portrait of her could have been really cute, and I am determined in makin it of course!
 
I got to say they weren't exactly up for having been forced at such a fast and quick wakin up, but by the time I had alongside them a good breakfast in the cafe on the other side of the road which was limiting Finsbury Park, I suppose their moods were restored and happy again.
 
We stayed something like five hours in the corner of the gate of entrance, between it and a phone cabine, and as time was going by, more and more people were arriving, but not as much as we could have expected.
Many Izzi and Nelly's think-alike I suppose, and after all, the breeze of that morning which was making Baz and Paul and Chris all using some towels they stole at their hotel like coats, would have suggested to many more to rest a bit in their morning beds I reckon.
But fans are fans, and some can sacrifice a bit of health, for a while, for a dream realized.
The only moment when some of us left that corner was for finding some toilet...me and Micke and previously Chris used the Tube ones, some blocks away.
You can't really resist a whole day.. *without*, can you?!?
:P

One of Chris's best ideas was to buy some garbage sacs in a petrol stationshop along the road: in case it would have rained, we would have used them as k-ways.
I shaped mine like some kind of Middle Eastern coat, with the face free, but all covered over arms and head otherwise.
Around 10 we were into the first part of the park, all gathering across the bounderies, just like cows ready to be fed.
The security crew looked all just like the next Mancunian bloke you could meet, and once again I have to said that there are a few , a very few worst sight than teeth of British people.
 
It rained a little, we ate something and just chatted a lot.
There I got the first perceivement we were all there for a gig after many talks among us about the band which means so much for many of us. There I realized in full how sweet it can be to talk with people out from different countries and culture about a liking of everyone: many different sides to watch the same things from, and a whole vibe of a community, of a strong one, nevertheless displayed.
 
Rarely I found that pleasant to talk about my music love as I did with all Finsbury crew (my Finsbury crew) during that morning.It was like all memories were sharpened thru a shared acknowledge, through the same passion, but in diverse nuances.
 
There was only one major fear for me: the MUD. I was telling everyone no way I would have risked to break my neck running over there, sliding in every directions.
 
Naive me,I didn't even think the risks would have been way different and huger if we would have managed to get in the front row, as I was sure we would have anyway...

Cornershop live at Finsbury Park
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I feel ashamed for the way they have been treated by idiot racist cunts around there...

I still remember clearly the image of all people desperately attempting to not only stay standing up, but furiously moving their legs to reach the last gate before the stage section entrance.A dense and thick flying of mud soft pieces were all arising and getting down ground back around me and Micke, who kindly and protectively decided to follow me in my calm arrival in front row.
I have never felt that dirty as I felt looking my beloved red trainers all covered with dark brown mud...but the mega trousers were covering the shame quite well (none beats me whneit's about dressing aptely for all eveniences :P)
 
It was Chris, exiting from the stage crowd for lookin up for some food (strange!!) to tell us that the mission was accomplished and the guys and girls were at the middle front stage.
It wasn't difficult to find googs tall head and discover  where they were all then.
Well.. it took a while, but we menagedit eventually.

The hour passed and the Coral (how crap!!!) showed up their young faces. Now if only their songs wouldn't have been that boring and pointless, maybe I could name their skill better, but what can you ask for? The only noticeable thing was that almost at the end of their set I was reaching the front row aside Baz and Sinath. Henry was protecting Sinath, and again Mikael was doing the same with me :)
 
4 years of waiting, and I was the nearest to the stage. I still see in my mind all the faces of the lads and that cute red haired girl of the staff givin us water, and ballons for playing.. but already, the worst side of the passion of Oasis fans was there: lots of food and bottles throwed all over, and some silly choruses starting to arise from a bunch of hooligans who were, yet, well behind and on the corner compared to us.
 
If only they would have remained there....
 

Instead, they were starting to push a lot for coming exactly in the front row middle side. Namely ours.. namely mine...Proud Mary ended their really good set (unexpectedly good I have to say) and when Cornershop came, they were offended constantly and bottled by the same bunch (looked more like a little army force in numbers than a bunch indeed) of idiots.
I felt really bad, and now that I am back in Florence I will buy their record. They are an amazing band, and really great live. Pity that many there in the crowd were pea-sized in their brain and obviously they couldn't even spell the word "greatness", let alone get its meaning in music.
 
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club followed, and they were exceptional...
Sadly by the middle of their set some hooligans were all around me, bothering, shouting, pushing.. I never felt that bad and hopeless, but I was determined to resist.
Since the pressure was too much, both for me and Micke though, I asked the cute chief member of the security crew facing us to take  our little rucksacks (both mines actually) and to please not put them under the benches of security as usual, but in order to make me control them better, to put them on the tables where  security staff was having their things and the water, for being more assured.
 
He kindly, so very kindly accepted my request... and that lead to unexpected troubles.
 
It wasn't really easy to follow the powerful Charlatans (what a band!!!) after BRMC, because even without the rucksacks, I was splattered over the barrier.
In that moment, I was wishing to have back my ten chilos more of some years ago.. I woudln't have felt that weak, and I wouldn't have been forced probably to give up after.
 
But for how much I am stubborn and fixed with my own will, at a certain point I had to realize that safety is safety, and nothing is more precious that my own good health.
When the pushing for the third time made my flesh and bones aching, and made me lose my sense of body, I reckoned to remain there in the front row would have signified too much of a risk.
 
And I let the crew take me out from the crowd.
In that very moment.. Oasis were coming onstage.

It would have all been normal, and I would have got time to come back near to the stage after, if only, in the lil time for takin back  the rucksacks from the table (which were having into themselves my pocket and documents and portatile phone.. namely the whole essence of mine..), a big mess wasn't made real.
The people there gave me only one of the sacks, leaving the other in a place where I wasn't allowed to enter no more.
Where no one was allowed to enter no more, as I discovered in the thrilling hour after.
 
So while Oasis were playing the gig I was waiting from an eternity, I was all in my rage and anger, consumed with the thought that was the worst organisation ever created for a gig, attached at a boundery near to the Red Crux station, asking endlesly for someone to give me back that damn other rucksack.
Mikael has been the adorable creature he's always.. he lost with me practically all as well, trying to calm me down and supporting me.
 
Everyone was enjoying the gig, and I was having one of the most scaring time of my life: without documents.. what I would have made?
It was really disturbing but powerful.. in my head the voice of Liam, and that one of Noel, their music, were like a strange soundtrack for anguish and fear, and at once, a delight for my ears and heart.
A true tao of feelings.
 
In the end, I was able to receive back my stuffs.. and I discovered two very nice people in the crew of security: a guy so kind, who tried four times to find a way to enter in the protected area he wasn't allowed for, and who gave me water and many good words for supporting me at his best, and the man  with the red shirt, the security chief staff one, who was allowing me previously to have the sacks on the water table.
 
"They asked me for your bag girl.. but I  was telling them it was yours, and they couldn't have it. I hope you enjoyed the gig..."
He said to me givin the total wet rucksack back to me.
I enjoyed it. After all.. I think I did.
They are my kids after all :) Of course I did.
:)

Then we all met again, Izzi and Nelly were so relaxed and it was nice to see them after an entire day apart.
It seemed the crew was all aiming at throwing everyone out from the park to clean it up for the folowing day gig, and we ended in a way to hang around clueless unaware which way we would have been able to come everyone at the respective places to sleep.
No Tube, no idea of the Buses working around there, and just one last hope.
CABS.
Yeah.. try to find one at midnight when thousands and thousands of people out from the same park want all more or less one of them.
It was a sort of Treasure search.
We took a Night train, and arrived somwhere around Mayfair... from there, destroyed and not sure about anything, we finally find a cab.

Laura and Chris in the long awaited cab...
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lookin half shocked and half relieved!

But we couldn't fill it up totally, we were too many, so the four in the pics here.. were forced to wait some more.
I have to say, this sort of tricky coming back home was absolutely funny in the end. I know.. you couldn't guess from my face, but even if destroyed, smelly, totally forceless and weak.. I have lived  on Saturday the 6th one of the best days of my life.
And it was Micke's BDay, so of course it was meant to be cute&perfect.
Messy, but perfect in its own way: when I'll love only perfect gigs, refined, calm and troubleless.. I suppose I will be ready to watch some other band's one.. not my beloved Oasis.
That day I will miss something I think.
Well, I think that day will never come anyway....

I am ONLYshattered...
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while Micke seems to look forward to his dreams :)