Dr Lecter Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 New text "SHES FUCKING GREAT AND IN FINE VOICE" YAY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apples388 Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 Come Tuesday I will be texting Dr. Lecter, M.D. with the Suedy report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Lecter Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 I expect NOTHING less YAY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Lecter Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 DM Live Updates: 8:02pm local time : Paul Oakenfold did not play any Madonna mixes. 8:20pm : Mexican waves going around the stadium 8:24pm : Programmes are £25. No Cardiff wrist charm. Though they are selling some wrist charms, but not with Cardiff writtem on them. 8:37pm : House lights down. It is starting! 9:01pm : "Live To Tell" on right now. No changes as yet. 9:30pm : Someone threw something on stage during "Like It Or Not". She just glanced at them. YAY "DONT THROW SHIT ON MY STAGE OR ILL KICK YOUR ASS!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverwide Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 My friend called me during Live To Tell. She sounds SO strong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest maverick25 Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 Why is the catwalk so high? It looks at least 9ft high. Thats a bit crap for anyone right up at front or sides of it. Jealous thou!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ste_Dub Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 Why is the catwalk so high? It looks at least 9ft high. Thats a bit crap for anyone right up at front or sides of it. Jealous thou!!!! I assume its to insure people further back can still see her. Stadium stages tend to be much higher than arena's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverwide Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 My friend just texted this: "Awesome. Stunning vocals and she looked incredible! Best tour by far!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ste_Dub Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 Got to listen to some of Jump and she sounds fantastic. Can't wait to see her in London now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreeMySoul Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 Clad from head-to-toe in jet black riding gear, she made her entrance by emerging from a giant silver glitter-ball. Gallery: More pictures of Madonna's Cardiff concert In the two hours which followed there were seven costume changes, a plethora of extravagant props, three separate hairstyles and even, apparently, a change of eyelashes. Madonna certainly left no stone unturned in the special effects department as she began the UK leg of her Confessions tour in front of 59,000 ecstatic fans in Cardiff last night. Coming into the tour on the back of 34 sold-out shows in the States and her most successful album in almost a decade in last year's Confessions On A Dance Floor, Madonna was in a confident often conspiratorial mood, winking surreptitiously at a fan as she stepped out of the one-and-a-half ton glitter- ball. The pop diva, who begins an eight-night stint at Wembley Arena tomorrow (Tuesday) is obviously in no mood to relinquish her crown 'Alright Cardiff? Are you ready to ride with me?' she asked as she opened a concert which was divided into four separately themed 'acts' with subtitles such as equestrian, Bedouin and, closing the show, disco. With over half of its 21 songs drawn from the career-revitalising Confessions album it was an evening which resembled a lavish theatre production as much as a rock and roll show. With the stadium roof closed and the huge arena bathed in red and white spotlights it was also a show that could lay claim to being the biggest nightclub on earth. The crowd, a fair proportion of them wearing bright pink Stetsons certainly lapped it up. In bringing retro-sounding, dance-influenced pop into a stadium setting, Madonna is trying something different with this tour. These bigger gigs are usually the sole preserve of boys with loud crashing guitars and anthemic , sing-a-long choruses. In trying to stage a glorified disco on such a large stage Madonna was certainly bucking a trend. And while the venue of last year's FA Cup final did not quite mutate into legendary New York nightspot Studio 54 Madonna's fans were all on their feet from roughly the third number, current hit single Get Together, onwards. The equestrian section, which opened the show, mixed new songs with old favourite Like A Virgin and a cover of Donna Summer's classic 70s hit I Feel Love. And while the Bedouin segment of the show was more low-key, Madonna practically raised the roof when she began the third part of the show by donning a black leather jacket and strapping on a gibson guitar to sing full-on rock versions of I Love New York and Ray of Light. The former came complete with a backdrop of the Manhattan skyline and a crude and gratuitous insult aimed in the direction of George Bush. The latter was a dance song which lent itself perfectly to a more rock-orientated arrangement. Despite the overall reliance on special effects, a 22-strong dance troupe and costumes and shoes by Jean-Paul Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent respectively, this was a show with more natural energy than the last Madonna outing I saw, 2001's Drowned World tour. There are those of course who argue that a 47-year-old mother-of-two is getting on a bit for this sort of thing. Maybe Madonna, they say, would be better off leaving the suggestive, risque gyrations to talented youngsters such as Christina Aguilera and Natasha Bedingfield. Madonna being Madonna, there were also plenty of moments when the stunts seemed to be there purely to court controversy. The sight of the singer wearing a crown of thorns while being raised above the stage on a 'disco-fied' silver crucifix certainly lent nothing to the overall spectacle. Likewise, the screens which showed x-rays of the injuries sustained in a riding accident were rather superfluous but, at the times when Madonna got it right, the Confessions show was an expertly choreographed, high-octane marriage of music and visuals. Despite her seemingly on-going need to shock for the sake of it there are still moments when you simply have to raise your pink Stetson to her. Forget stadium rock. In giving the world its first 'stadium disco' show Madonna, who closed the show with supped up versions of Music, La Isla Bonita and Lucky Star, has practically invented a brand new live genre. Daily Mail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest maverick25 Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 obviously left before Hung up lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Lecter Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 DAILY MAIL ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Lecter Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 I await 3am girls DAMNING VERDICT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drowned World Posted July 30, 2006 Share Posted July 30, 2006 I went up to Cardiff to see the show, and I've got to say, it was incredible stuff. "Drowned World", "Ray of Light", "ILNY" and "Forbidden Love" were standout performances! I also loved "Issac" too, and the choreography was fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacho Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 The Independent Madonna, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Queen of pop consolidates her grip on the throne By Owen Adams Published: 31 July 2006 At a time where every emerging pop artist gets plaudits for how "raw'' and "honest'' they appear to be, thank God for Madonna. Ultra-slick and fantastically fake her act may be but this is pure, unadulterated escapism on a colossal scale. At up to £150 a pop for tickets, it had better be. "There's a lot of people who talk and talk, but how many walk the walk?'' she asks her reverent multitude. What walk she walks is anyone's guess, as this is plastic pop, which only pretends to have a soul. But this is no mere gig, but the ultimate showbiz extravaganza. As the world's number one superstar emerges clad in Jean-Paul Gaultier's S&M-esque creation of leather riding boots, top hat and jodhpurs from her giant disco ball - encrusted with £2m-worth of Swarovski crystals - it's evident we've been teleported to planet Madonna, or cloud nine which ever you prefer. Recent song "Future Lovers" segues into Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", and soon the blockbuster "Like a Virgin" gets the crowd all jumping. It's one of the few Eighties songs in the set, revamped for the chemical generation. This show, her first-ever in Wales, dwarfs any in the stadium's short history, including U2's. This, the first stop-off on the European leg of her tour, also boasts a bigger staging than any of the US dates, and it's mainly all standing. "Thank fuck for that,'' the adopted English rose declares, before telling us she wishes she could touch us. Oh, she's such a tease! You could never imagine Her Madgesty, the Queen of Pop for the past 22 years, baring her soul in a song, despite naming her tour Confessions. She displays compassion and empathy - "I can tell you all have a conscience of unity,'' she says, and a screen relays images of war and suffering during a remix reprise of "Sorry" - but all this hardly squares with the 47-year-old diva's pelvic thrusts and whip-cracking dominatrix pose. There's no escaping the material girl. Love her or berate her, she encapsulates the great capitalist dream while exposing, and revelling in, the hypocrisy of it all. Well aware that shock sells, she raises a perfectly manicured two fingers to the Church; she mockingly wears a crown of thorns while rising a crucifix, flirts with the seven deadly sins and periodically gyrates with a devilish look of ecstasy. Confessions is a show of four quarters. It begins and ends with her cast as the disco diva, as she reasserts her presence on the global dance floor, while the middle is given over to a "Bedouin" section, featuring the spiritual warbling of Hebrew singer Yitzhak Sinwani. She emerges from a trapdoor for a section she's called "Never Mind the Bollocks" and she actually appears to have a grasp of basic punk chords as she straps on a guitar. "I Love New York" has more than a whiff of "Pretty Vacant". Culminating in dance floor visitations to the various phases of her career, including "La Isla Bonita", "Erotica", and "Lucky Star", Madonna expertly consolidates her grip on the pop throne with a four-to-the-floor finale. Long will she reign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacho Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 The Sun Madonna is Madge-nificent SHE has been attacked for charging £150 per ticket but last night MADONNA proved she is worth every penny. At Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium she performed 21 songs over two hours, which works out a bargain £7.14 per track. Madonna leapt about the stage like a wild animal who had been caged for 30 years. It’s hard to believe she’s 47. She told the crowd: “This is my first show in a stadium and I love it. I want to touch you. We are living in a world where there is too much hate and fighting. You guys have a consciousness of liberty and you can change that — so thank you.” I might be biased because I’m a Madonna fan but I challenge anyone to name an artist who can put on a more spectacular show. Madonna turned the venue into her own dancefloor as she kicked off the European leg of her Confessions world tour. Top DJ PAUL OAKENFOLD was flown in from Los Angeles to get the crowd going before Madge descended on a giant glitterball. The set list was dominated by tracks from her multi-million selling album Confessions On A Dancefloor. She sparked off a new dance craze too — the Madonna Trot — with her imitation of riding a horse during the opening section. And there was a bit of controversy to get critics going, with the fetish gear, anti-George Bush messages and crucifix scene. My personal highlight was the ode to JOHN TRAVOLTA in the movie Saturday Night Fever, when Madonna and two dancers, dressed in white flares, moved to a mix of Music with the classic Disco Inferno. At that point the show lifted to another level and it felt like we were in the middle of a giant party at New York’s famous venue Studio 54. Hung Up, with Madge in purple leotard and shades, made for a magnificent finale. The only problem was that it left me — and the rest of the crowd — gasping for more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacho Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 BBC News Confessions from a Madonna show By Natalie Grice BBC News, Millennium Stadium The Queen of Pop has arrived in Europe with her Confessions tour, thanking not God but something far more carnal (this is Madonna - use your imagination) as she did so for being in a place where "people in the audience dance". They certainly did. Even before Her Madgesty appeared, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium pitch was a mass of moving bodies packed like sardines, eagerly awaiting the first glimpse of their regent. They were dressed for the occasion too. Within 10 minutes I'd seen more clearly straight men in pink cowboy hats than I had expected to in a lifetime. The heavily disco-themed extravaganza, based on her Confessions On a Dance Floor album, opened appropriately enough with a huge glitter ball descending from the ceiling. It opened to reveal Madonna in black raunchy riding-style gear, topped off with a black hat with a mane trailing from it. As she began to move around the stage, skipping and occasionally cantering, I could see her clearly as the Madonna of 20 years ago, in her early Material Girl and Like A Virgin videos and performances. Once the hat was off and her face was in close-up on the video screens, it was definitely a more mature version of the world's most famous pop star on stage, but you would never have known it from her energy levels. She can sing, dance, gyrate, stretch and jump with the best of them, and proved it repeatedly throughout the set. The audience were treated to disco anthem I Feel Love to start - very appropriate to the sentiment Madonna must have been receiving from the appreciative crowd before her. The first of her defining hits came next with Like A Virgin receiving a roar of approval from the crowd, including a bunch of girls standing next to me who just possibly were not born when the song was released. Despite that, they clearly saw Madonna as an icon and an inspiration. Every time she demonstrated her flexibility, sexuality or ability to keep up with her fit, fast dancers, they cried, "amazing", "look at that", "she's fantastic", clearly in awe of what the 47-year-old performer could make her well-toned body do. Madonna's tour director said before the show began that it was not a concert but closer to a theatrical performance, and he was spot on. Sets moved seamlessly - at one time delivering Madonna suspended on a giant wire cross from where she sang the ballad Live To Tell - costume changes were quick and flawless. Nobody put a foot wrong the whole night. There were serious messages being delivered without a trace of subtlety to the audience - videos told us of 12 million children orphaned in Africa because of Aids, with websites flashed up for the concerned to log on to. During the song Forbidden Love, which used two male dancers to demonstrate the love that (used to) dare not speak its name, up flashed icons of differing religions crossing one another. Yes, we get the message - nasty religion keeps star-crossed lovers apart. Indeed, my one complaint would have been this - the singer herself seemed a bit too serious. Not until the last quarter of the show did Madonna look like somebody enjoying herself. She wasn't much of a smiler, and considering this is a tour about disco, surely one of the most light-hearted, frivolous and fun forms of music, she could have lightened up a little. The audience did get to see her in different guises. Madonna the rock chick, anybody? That, I have to say, was a new one on me. She appeared in a leather jacket with a very high feathered collar, straight out of the 70s' glam rock scene, and reminding me rather incongruously of Suzi Quattro. It worked for her rendition of the song I Love New York, but I wasn't so sure about using it for Ray of Light, which is such a dance track it seemed odd to watch her strumming a guitar for it. But more power to her for doing it. Perhaps this is an indicator of the future, because even she will one day have to give up her high-energy dance-based shows if she carries on touring into her 60s, say - won't she...? She certainly didn't give it up before the end of the night. Wearing a cloak with the legend "Dancing Queen" on it, she belted out Lucky Star, which segued seamlessly into her Number 1 hit Hung Up, finishing with a multitude of golden balloons falling over the exuberant crowds at the front. And then she was gone. No encore, to the sorrow of the girls next to me, just a message asking, "Have You Confessed?" as the lights came up on the 59,000 people in the audience. Well, I will. I confess I was impressed. No sign that Queen Madonna will be abdicating from her throne just yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacho Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 The Guardian Madonna Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars Caroline Sullivan Monday July 31, 2006 The Guardian Jenny Hughes' last Madonna gig was in 1993, when the singer brought her Girlie Show tour to Wembley Stadium. Unable to get a ticket she listened from the balcony of her flat. Thirteen years later and now living in Newport, she was finally about to see Madonna as well as hear her. "She keeps going, always reinventing herself," she said. Hughes was one of relatively few fans at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium old enough to remember Madonna before her image makeovers began. Most of the girls at this first UK tour date were of an age that considers pink cowboy hats a good idea. A fortnight away from her 48th birthday, Madonna still causes enough commotion to warrant the closure of streets near the venue. Hours before show time, thousands of cowboy hats were swarming the city centre getting hyped-up for the Confessions tour, the name a reference to the Confessions on a Dance Floor album that saw her get her pop mojo back. The tickets went weeks ago, despite costing between £80 and £150, proving that neither age nor a propensity for Miss Jean Brodie tweeds has diminished her saleability. To counter internet chatroom grumbles about ticket prices, she has released a factsheet listing what goes into the show, which in the way of all major pop tours today is one part singing to three parts special effects. It reveals what it takes to make Madonna Madonna, from the 4,000 Swarovski crystals embedded in her belt to the 350 people needed to build the stage. The result justifies the price tag. It's such a blockbusting show that there's probably no need to see Madonna ever again, so well does Confessions do its job. It is obvious why those 350 roadies are needed - the production is enormous with a glitter ball that turns into a flower, a huge crucifix, 22 frenzied dancers and, at the centre of it all, one small, blonde woman. There's a moment at the beginning of the evening - the show is divided into Equestrian, Bedouin, Never Mind the Bollocks and Disco segments - that sums her up. She dismounts the back of the male dancer she has been "riding", removes her jockey's hat and stands motionless, letting 59,000 pairs of eyes take her in. "Are you ready to ride with me?" she asks. She is imperiously removed from the madness around her, the dancers, lasers and explosions could be happening to someone else. The word iconic has been devalued in the last few years but she is the real thing. When your daily grind involves challenging old-school morality, the Catholic church and gossip magazines that print unflattering pictures of your 47-year-old hands, your sense of humour is bound to suffer. That is the show's weak link. Madonna struts, Madonna preaches but she doesn't laugh; perhaps she sees little to laugh about. The world is going to hell in a handcart is the message she sends in set pieces such as her "crucifixion", complete with crown of thorns, during Live To Tell. The bleakness is hammered home by a video montage accompanying I Love New York: there is Tony Blair, a bare-breasted African woman and suddenly a scream of: "You can go to Texas and suck Bush's dick!" That comes from Madonna, who has changed into a leather jacket and is uneasily hacking away at an electric guitar. So there is not much levity, unless Like A Virgin qualifies. It involves Madonna singing her classic hit (and oldest song in the show) in front of footage of horses falling over, a "jokey" reminder of her riding accident last year. No matter, though. She has moments of girlish enthusiasm ("I've never been to Wales before") that remind us she is human and her job is to command awed respect. And she does that better than any other entertainer in her league. Sarah Morgan, 41, of Pontypridd, summed up the general adulation: "I have always wanted to see Madonna, and if she hadn't come to Cardiff I would have gone to Paris or anywhere. She is unbelievable, and what she does with her body at that age is unbelievable." One suggestion, Madonna. If you must play guitar during the Never Mind the Bollocks punk segment, try not to look as though the instrument is a colicky baby who will scream at any moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest boytoyville Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 She's getting excellent reviews for this debut European performance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacho Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 The Mirror - 3AM Pigeons 31 July 2006 MADGE IS MAGIC FORGET THE MOANS. THIS SHOW'S A £150 STUNNER Eva Simpson & Caroline Hedley QUEEN of Pop Madonna last night kicked of the UK leg of her dazzling Confessions tour - and her performance was just breathtaking. The gig at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff was the first of 21 European dates - eight of them in London - so we donned our leotards to shimmy on down with the superstar. Unfortunately, around 5,000 fans didn't make her show because ticket prices were steep, ranging from £60-£150. They missed a treat. We revealed last month how fans were revolting against these outrageous prices despite Madge desperately trying to get them to come. But the star has already made a whopping £46million from her sold-out North American shows, so we don't imagine she'll be crying into her macrobiotic Rice Krispies this morning. The Madge-ical tour show mostly showcased the songs from her current Confessions On A Dancefloor No1 album, but a few old classics such as 1984 hits Lucky Star and Like A Virgin were thrown in for nostalgics. Although she turns 48 on August 16 - she'll celebrate with thousands of fans at her gig in Earls Court - Madonna still puts on a show that puts singers half her age to shame. And her husband Guy Ritchie and their children Lourdes, nine, and Rocco, five, watched her stage acrobatics open-mouthed. The crowd went wild for the first part of the show, dubbed the Equestrian segment - ironic in view of her bad riding accident last year. As horses paraded on overhead screens and dancers in jockey-style gear gyrated on stage, Madonna appeared from the centre of a giant disco ball covered in £2million worth of Swarovski crystals and shouted: "Are you ready, Cardiff?" before belting out Future Lovers and the Donna Summer disco anthem I Feel Love. She gyrated to her dancefloor hits Get Together and Like A Virgin. Although she's pushing 50, she proved she hasn't lost her sex appeal as she writhed about on a saddle, to worried gasps from the audience. She looked super-toned in leggings, lacy top, waistcoat and top hat and gave a saucy crack of her whip. An insider says: "Madonna was really nervous because it was her first stadium event of this tour." Suddenly the prospect of being suspended from a glitter ball much higher up seemed pretty daunting." The Bedouin segment began with Madonna donning a thorny crown, taking a Christ-like position on a huge cross and singing Live To Tell. Next came the Never Mind the B****cks section, where Madonna went wild for a fun run through rock-infused dance numbers such as I Love New York and Ray Of Light. Madge turned all political, with signs flashing up on a screen with anti-domestic violence messages Then it was flashing disco balls for a full-on disco party. Madge gave her all with renditions of party favourites La Isla Bonita and Lucky Star. The screams were deafening as she closed with Hung Up - and many fans shed a tear at the thought that this could be her last world tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen Bitch Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 Although she turns 48 on August 16 - she'll celebrate with thousands of fans at her gig in Earls Court The screams were deafening as she closed with Hung Up - and many fans shed a tear at the thought that this could be her last world tour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest QueenofPopfan4ever Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 WOW she is getting rave reviews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacho Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 ITV Madonna kicks off Europe tour 9.31, Mon Jul 31 2006 Madonna has already caused a stir at the opening night of the European leg of her world tour in Cardiff, Wales. The singer rode in on a saddle and a crucifix before going on to entertain a crowd of 59,000 with an erotically-charged performance. It was the first time her Confessions tour had been seen outside America and in a stadium. She said: "It's also our first show in Europe. I'm sick of people sitting down in concerts. It's really boring. "Oh my goodness there is so many people. This is very exciting for me." At one point, she showed them a dramatic middle finger as if to prove she could do no wrong in the eyes of her fans. The superstar said she was glad to be in Wales for the first time and to see so many international flags in the crowd. "Right now we are living in a world where there's too much hate and too much fighting," she said. The stadium was shown films of African Aids orphans and quotations from the Bible. The show ended with a giant video screen asking: "Have you Confessed?" The 70,000 seater venue has hosted rock acts such as U2, but Madonna has pulled the biggest crowd so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacho Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 The Telegraph A stew of religion, pop and politics (Filed: 31/07/2006) Neil McCormick reviews Madonna at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff As a po-faced band dressed in black revolve across the stage on a moving platform in front of a pop diva cast as Jesus on a disco crucifix singing her ballad Live to Tell in front of screens displaying gut-wrenching images of African Aids orphans, the only sensible option is to surrender to the whole ludicrous audacity of the Madonna Live experience. Outside, the heatwave may have faded, and rain battered down on the closed roof of Cardiff's fabulous Millennium Stadium, but inside 50,000 middle-aged mums and gay men in pink cowboy hats were enjoying a disco inferno. The fact that this is barely a live show in the traditional sense does not seem to bother her fans, nor indeed the lady Madonna herself. Her response to accusations of miming that dogged her last live outing is to throw the microphone away during a storming version of Music Inferno and concentrate on her dancing while vocals continue unabated. Given that she enters the stadium encased in a giant glitterball while her pre-recorded on-screen image introduces the show, the message is clear: this is the modern world and the Material Girl is prepared to use all means at her disposal to entertain her audience. The show is sequenced and choreographed to the hilt, dancers hit the same marks and the music will not alter one note from the show's debut last month in LA to its conclusion next month in Europe. But what it lacks in spontaneity it makes up in spectacle and invention propelled by some of the most addictive pop music of our times. Dressed like an S&M gymkhana mistress she simulates sex on a flying saddle on Like A Virgin and thrashes a guitar in leatherette for a punk rock pogo of Ray Of Light. Madonna has taken the format of the rock show, crossed it with a Broadway musical, thrown in elements of a circus spectacular and laced it with the arty pretentiousness of an Edinburgh Fringe review. A bravura multi-media stew of religion, politics and pop, Madonna scales a mountain of 21st century kitsch and hurls herself off the top. One day, we will look back on this and laugh. But right now this is state-of-the-(pop)-art. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacho Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 The Times July 31, 2006 Pop Madonna Pete Paphides at the Millennium Stadium Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars AS ONE venerable pop institution wound to a close on BBC Two, another arrived in Cardiff to show us that her stock (or, for that matter, her bikini line) has never been higher. To borrow from Gloria Gaynor, Madonna is back from outer space. That, at any rate, was how it seemed as she descended on to the Millennium stadium in a rocket ship-cum-glitterball. “Come with me,” she suggested from a huge screen, while – on two others – wild horses galloped aimlessly waiting for someone to tame them. Suddenly, the singer was revealed in her full riding regalia. Anyone near the front of the stage, who paid £150 for their tickets, might have noticed that those were $2 million of Swarovski diamonds embedded in that glitterball – while the ever-changing stage which paid host to Madonna’s first UK show in more than two years took 350 people five days to assemble. As a woozy symphony of synths ushered in the Future Lovers — the opening song from the “Equestrian” suite of this four-part spectacle — Madonna straightened her hard hat and prodded at her dancers with a whip. It helped that this fantasy on a kinky show-jumping theme was played out over a rising torrent of arpeggios which mutated into a version of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love. The resulting non-gender-specific screams of fans in pink cowboy hats suggested that there were no gays left in the villages of Wales tonight. Hereafter, the theatre of rugby and football dreams, became the unlikely setting for the campest pop celebration imaginable. Confessions on a Dancefloor —– the album which heralded her return to the New York disco roots — received a thorough airing. If it was brave of her to dispense Like a Virgin near the beginning, it was potentially foolhardy of this 48 year-old mother-of-two to sing it while pole dancing on a moving bronco over footage of horse-riding accidents. She sounded more assured than ever. Live To Tell was no less bold, but less successful. When that gleaming, tiled crucifix finally emerged with Madonna on it, the dramatic effect was akin to someone pretending to hang themselves in a particularly well-appointed shower. A movingly restrained performance was concluded by a series of on-screen facts about the Aids crisis in Africa. One might argue that there’s a time and a place — and that place might not be a stone’s throw from a glitterball studded with diamonds. Madonna had a response ready for her detractors. “The world is full of people who talk the talk. If only they walked the walk,” she said as the catwalk lit up like a landing strip for Like It or Not. If, as John Lydon once put it, anger is an energy, a blistering sequence of performances could have turned the national grid into a giant pinball machine. She modified the lyrics of I Love New York to take in something unprintable about President Bush and bastardised a Stooges riff with finger-shredding intensity. When she tore into Ray of Light the response was almost enough to raise the stadium’s retractable roof. Having proved her capacity to rock, she re-emerged to underscore what she does best of all. Following the equine dominatrix, the blood-red blouson and the leather-boy’s look, she euphorically sang an inspired mash-up of her 2001 hit Music and The Trammps’ Disco Inferno in a white flared trouser suit. In the thrilling finale, the percolating synths of that Abba sample served notice of Hung Up. But those of us who remembered the leotard from that video were already whooping. Balloons rained down upon Cardiff — and she was gone. It felt like we were just getting to know each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Piao Piao Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 The Mirror - 3AM Pigeons Although she turns 48 on August 16 - she'll celebrate with thousands of fans at her gig in Earls Court - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queen Bitch Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 GMTV ran a news report that she was booed because she didn't play an encore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnox Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 she never plays encores - and that 3am report !!!!!!!!!!!!!! The hypocrisy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacho Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 Madonna blasts off European tour Jul 31 2006 Claire Hill Western Mail DRESSED in black with a horse whip, lace sleeves and a riding top hat Madonna was unfurled to Wales from a massive disco ball at the front of the Millennium Stadium stage. Her arrival, at 8.38pm, was marked by deafening cheers as she opened her first set in Wales with an equestrian theme. Future Lovers was blasted out at the start of the six-track "saucy-horse" section where Madonna pranced around the stage with her dancers held by reins. Minutes earlier the singer had been driven to the stadium in a blacked-out silver Range Rover. Madonna instantly silenced critics who carp that she can't sing live with pitch-perfect versions of I Feel Love and Get Together before going into a racy and raunchy Like A Virgin. An adulterated merry-go-round horse with just the saddle left moved in a circle while the 47-year-old put on gymnastic movements that would shame someone half her age. To the end of the equestrian section the singer disappeared through the floor and was replaced by three separate dancers who break-danced their way through individual tales of child abuse, self-harm and gang-killing. Madonna reappeared attached to a disco-fied cross with her head wearing in a crown of thorns as she sung a powerful rendition of Live To Tell. Images of this moment have been well-documented since the singer started her Confessions tour in May but with the backdrop of children dying of Aids in Africa and the running tally of 12 million children who will be orphaned by the disease in Africa the song had a poignancy which has so far been missed. She closed her section by lying prostrate on the floor as quotations from the gospel of Matthew 25:35 appeared on the screen above her. Then the singer launched into her Bedouin section which featured two versions of her recent hit, Sorry. Described as more of a theatre production than a concert, last night was a chance for the 59,000 concert-goers to see the show first, as the Queen of Pop kicked off the European leg of her world tour. The atmosphere in Cardiff throughout the day was electric with thousands waiting for the gates to open at 5.30pm. If Madonna had been so inclined to step out of her dressing rooms and move around the crowds, pop into the bars blasting Holiday out onto the sunny streets of Cardiff then she'd have been impressed about the power of one thing - her cowboy hat legacy. Inside the stadium Madonna changed her outfit seven times moving from the equestrian period to Bedouin and finally to disco. Those in the audience only had one chance to dress for the occasion and while plenty schlepped along in everyday high-street wear, others were making a different statement. The hardcore fans were happy to display their unwavering dedication by pulling on their well-worn tour T-shirts from years back and others were more keen to pay a more personal homage. Two girls purposefully strutted down Queen Street before the concert dressed in tiny black shorts, a cut-off gold and black leotard, a heavy helping of lace and tight peroxide curls that recalled Madge in her Blonde Ambition days. Behind me a middle-aged couple commenting on the £150 tickets, announced, "You might as well just get drunk and watch it on the telly, you'd see more." This is possibly true for the £55 tickets at the top of the stadium, but the flaw in her theory was that Madonna was not on television last night. No, last night she was only at the Millennium Stadium. As the clock hit 7pm, DJ Paul Oakenfold, a favourite remixer of Madonna became the second person to open up for the singer since the Beastie Boys in the 80s. We were promised a spectacle and that's what we got. While the songs were powerful with acoustic renditions of Drowned World and the return of old classics like La Isla Bonita and Lucky Star, it was the all-round theatrics of the performance that threatened to leave the audience speechless. In costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, the singer glittered in Swarovski crystals and wowed with her athletic dance moves. She was a ringleader on the stage drawing everyone into her world, if only for two hours. Closing with her last single Hung Up the singer pulled out all the stops. You might be able to watch it all on video in the future, saving yourself that £150, but you won't be able to capture the full reach of Madonna. Only the 59,000 people there saw that - and luckily, I was one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drowned World Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 Queen Bitch said: GMTV ran a news report that she was booed because she didn't play an encore. As soon as the show ended everyone started making their way to the exit, she played for 2 hours and by the end of it everyone was tired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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