Tom Waits

The venue looked brilliant from outside, the huge circus tent with fairy lights and balloons surrounded by food stands and picnic seats really suited the occasion. That said, the weather was lovely before the gig, so the atmosphere was relaxed... in the rain it would be a washout because there's no shelter.

The security was definitely hit and miss... they checked my passport against my ticket, but didn't mention a credit card, and my sister walked straight in with just a glance at her ticket.

Inside, we had great seats, aisle seats in the centre of block B. The view was great, but we were lucky! There was a large number of seats that shouldn't have been sold, including a number directly behind the supporting columns of the tent.

The performances were fantastic, and Tom Waits was hugely impressive.
The playlist was a little disappointing, I know he has a huge back catalogue, but as he hasn't played here for 21 years, I for one would have loved to have heard a few more of his older songs. That said, Hoist that Rag was a huge highlight, also the incredibly successful Make it Rain:).

I would say the one true great disappointment was the crowd. Not all of them, obviously, but there were times that it was like being at the cinema with a class of 5-year-olds.

You got to wonder how much people have to pay for their ticket before they'll stay in their seats???????
The traffic in and out throughout the gig was truly astonishing... I thought at one stage a fire alarm had gone off. At least we were in the tiered seating so people could squeeze past, but you still had to stand and block the view of those behind.

I agree about the sound quality, particularly in the first hour. The vocals were clearish, but the rest of the music was slightly muffled and indistinct.
And at no point was it loud enough to drown out the incessant inane chatter from some of the audience. We were unlucky enough to be seated in front of two girls who seemed to think they were at a Joe Dolan concert! And despite leaving behind our (silent, flash-free) digital camera because of the no-cameras policy, the person direcly behind managed to spend the entire gig blinding us with her completely pointless flash!

So, 10 out of 10 for the performance, 7 out of ten for the venue, and a disappointing 5 out of 10 for the crowd!

All in all, still an unmissable occasion... but it would have been a better idea to do what did for Nick Cave... go see him abroad.... it would cost about the same, given the insane price of the tickets!