I said watch this space, and I changed my mind on this posting several times.
We did something we didn’t think we would ever do last night, return to the Royal Albert Hall to see a concert.
We pre-booked parking and a meal, but when we arrived we weren’t on the list to park there, despite having our ticket, in fact, ticket number 1, as we were first to book. That wasn’t a great start, it made us late for the meal, and it also caused a lot of stress for Dave with his Parkinson’s.
Once inside, we made our way to the restaurant and a cocktail and a lovely meal later.
Later, we had forgotten about the mayhem when we arrived. I would recommend eating, if you can afford it, in the Elgar Room, but be warned the set menu is London prices, £44 for two courses, £51 for three.
We did have great seats and I was surprised by how good they were. I thought they were further round and further back, so I was thrilled with the seats.
However, as soon as the main act came, on he encouraged people to stand up, which they did. They did sit down soon after but after that it was a constant up and down, my husband in his wheelchair could have seen, if it wasn’t for two girls who stood most of the time and who also didn’t really look at the stage but were taking pictures of each other. I am not joking and James Blunt was on stage for 1 hour 40 minutes but they weren’t watching most of the time, just posing, most likely for Insta.
I don’t want you to get this wrong I really enjoyed the concert. I love James Blunt and his songs, if anything I would have liked a bit more chat between the songs. However, this concert made me re-think going to concerts again.
I remembered having a conversation with a friend a couple of years ago. She had booked to see a concert at the o2 in the VIP seats. She is tall but she said she was sick of people standing up in front of her. I agreed and we ended up going to the concert together, the seats were a few £100 but no one was standing to block our view. The tickets included food and almost unlimited drink. Yet these seats are not suitable for disabled patrons, so if I go with my husband we can’t do this.
Currently, I have two concerts booked, one we are on the 2nd row, and I don’t think anyone can block the view, as the stage is close and high. The other is at the same venue but in the Royal Box, surely no one will be in front of us. I think these might be our last ever concerts but I guess never say never – as you just never know.
