Take That Progress tour (pt2)

In front of us were several rows with stewards checking bags. I thought I was going to have my bottle of squash taken off me but they were only interested in cans and alcohol of which I had neither. We showed our tickets and were given red wristbands to prove we were in the standing areas.

It felt like being at a Theme park. All around us were food trucks selling everything you could imagine. Very expensive though. It was all part of the experience. I did have to nip to the loo though and that meant on of the hundred or so portaloos. It was a bit of a tight squeeze but I had been desperate since we got on the train at Blake street.

Once we were all in and wrist-banded up, we decided the best thing to do would be to go and find seats and then we had plenty of time to go find food and drink and merchandise.

The view as we went through into the ground was breath-taking

Of course I had seen pictures of the staging already but seeing it for yourself with your own eyes is something different altogether. It was amazing.

Our tickets were for standing or unreserved seating and we found the perfect seats with a great view facing right on to the end of the walkway. We were in the Holte end for all those footie fans out there ;)

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We had a good 3-4 hours to wait until even the Pet Shop boys would be on stage. There was a lot of milling about. It gave us a lot of time to soak up the atmosphere and also to do a bit of people watching.

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There was also a bit of entertainment. This Nutty Professor type character kept appearing on the stage with the giant computer and in amongst the crowd. He had his magic bag with him and he seemed to be counting the people.

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Also right up above the stage were some cages where if you were looking up, dancers kept appearing. they were waving and dancing to get the crowd going.

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I am not sure what time it was but sometime between 7 and 7.30pm the nutty Professor appeared onstage again. He plugged in the USB lead to his giant keyboard and a message appeared on the giant monitor screen on the stage.

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And the Pet Shop Boys were on. Its amazing actually the amount of hits they have had and the amount of their hits that everyone knows. There was still a lot of hustle and bustle going on but the majority of people in the stadium got up and danced and clapped and waved their arms around. It was a great set. There were dancers with big coloured blocks on their heads and even Neil Tennant danced the routines rather than the myth that "The Pet shop boys just stand there on stage"

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The PSBs were on for about an hour. Part way through I couldn't wait any longer. I had to nip to the loo. I was amazed at how much activity ws going back on the forecourts. There was lots of people milling about, queuing for food, looking at the Merchandise stand. The queues for the toilets were huge so I decided to go out and use the portaloos again. Even though there wasn't enough room to swing a flea in there it still meant relief.

On my way back to my seat I stopped off to buy a bottle of pop. £2.50 for a diet coke and they took the lid off me. We couldn't quite get our heads round that. They take the lids off plastic bottles but they still sell glass bottles of alcohol. I also treated myself to some cake. A Billionaire's slice which is the same as a Millionaire's slice but with honeycomb in the chocolate and a Yummy Delight which is essentially Chocolate fridge cake. They were £2 a slice but absolutely heavenly and worth it.

Go to pt 3 for the main event...

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