A tale of two gigs

Tomorrow night’s going to be a bit weird. I’m off to see Green Day with my thirteen year old son at Arsenal’s Emirates stadium. That’s not unusual in itself except for the fact that the last time I saw Green Day in London in the early 1990’s it was at an entirely different (and much smaller) venue – the Britannia Bar on Euston Station. Roll back to the 1990’s and this bar on the concourse of Euston station was called ‘Rails’ or something and looked a bit down on it’s luck. Ideal for a touring punk bands first London gig in fact. And that is how Green Day, now one of the biggest bands on the planet, got to play there and wow the pretty small crowd with their on stage antics including one of the most WTF what was that all about spitting games. So tommorow night it’s going to be a bit weird, hearing them play some of the same songs to what I guess will be a five figure crowd, in the same city accompanied by my son who wasn’t even thought of last time I saw them. And I very much doubt I’ll be buying their CD off the band at the end of the show like last time either….

The Britannia bar as it is today, Green Day played at the rear of this room.

The bar overlooks the station concourse. It’s hard to believe looking at this now that the Green Day gig ever happened – but it did!

Emirates Stadium – the venue for tomorrow night’s Green Day gig