Tonight was the night that rock and roll giants Greenday took over Wembley Stadium in their biggest show ever performed and first live outdoor event since the release of their current album “Twentieth Century Breakdown”.
Hours before the doors opened, hundreds of fans lined the stadiums sweeping walkways in a hope of catching a glimpse of those elusive front row positions for the biggest gig of the band’s careers. Frank Turner warmed up the crowd with a strumming set made up of acoustic songs and the full band, using the cliche but never the less effective line “Wembley, How are you guys doing tonight?! – Man I’ve always wanted to say that.” Following Frank was Joan Jett and The Black Hearts, who’s lead singer although past her prime and donning a leather all in one suit, got the crowd going with the only song anyone truly knew that wasn’t a cover “I love Rock and Roll”. Finally the time had come and expectations in the stadium were high.
With a set lasting just under 2 hours and 50 minutes this show wasn’t for the feint hearted. Drummer Tre Cool bounded onto the stage with usual exuberance followed by a grinning Billie Joe Armstrong and a casually sombre looking Mike Dirnt. Standing at the end of the runway Billie Joe declared to the audience – “”This is the biggest fucking show we have ever had in our lives. This is going to be the best rock ‘n’ roll show Wembley has ever seen.””
The Entire show was filled with anecdotes about the World Cup, at one point the frontman declared “Fucking Green Day is going to win the goddamn World Cup I can tell you that now.” Wrapping himself in the Union Jack numerous times and even shouting “Fuck the US, England’s the best!” The band even managed to fit in a medley at the beginning of the set, comprising of a cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’, Guns N’ Roses’ hit ‘Sweet Child O Mine’ and AC/DC’s ‘Highway To Hell’.
In usual Greenday fashion Billie Joe got numerous audience members up on stage, drenched the front of the audience with a power hose (myself included), donning numerous outfits including Michael Jackson with a hospital mask, shooting T-Shirts into the audience and getting crowd members to stage dive and crowd surf.
A second Medley began, consisting of ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’, ‘Teenage Kicks’, Can’t Get No Satisfaction’, ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Paint It Black’. The audience was in pandemonium by the time the second half of the show was coming to a close. All that was left was for Billie Joe to declare “I tell you one thing, I’m going to remember this for the rest of my fucking life,” before finishing the night with “Wake Me Up When September Ends” and “Time Of Your Life”
On another note, the epic journey home from the stadium (lasting just over 3 hours, thank you TFL) was made that little bit more pleasant by a group of merry chaps sitting behind us on the night bus. Consisting of a Mr Gay Times model and a man that appeared (and later confirmed) that he had managed to commandeer a McDonald’s Chip and Pin machine. Singing merrily down the top deck “Would you like a chocolate biscuit up your ass?” to the tune of ‘She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain” who recieved a reply of “Nah mate, I’m more of a HobNob kind of guy” as well as the classic “Banananananana” including the lyrics “BANANANANANANANA, A BIG YELLOW BANANA FOR £1.27, NANANARIBBA ARIBBA” to the tune of “La Bamba”. Other conversations included, a double page spread in the world cup issue of The Gay Times, numerous attempts to gain access to peoples credit cards through the ‘Chip and Pin’ machine, singing “Blue Daba Dee” by Eiffel65 as a man in a blue spandex suit danced away to the tune and the fact that the Machine thief wasn’t sure if he needed his passport as he was traveling South of the river for the first time (no pun intended), therefore being counted as a tourist. We will never know who these people were (other than that one is a feature on page 41 of The Gay Times football special) and said goodbye as they waved out the back window of the bus as it disappeared into the distance…
