I Never Knew I was a ... Pink Floyd Fan!

Several days ago while searching the web for fun stuff to do in London I stumbled across an opportunity to win free tickets to the Australian Pink Floyd Rehearsal concert in West London. I’ve never been a big music buff and I can’t say that I have a single Pink Floyd song in my iTunes. However, for some odd reason I registered my name thinking “I’ll never win anyway!” Around 1 p.m. Monday I received a phone call from a strange number. Now, since Mom subscribed to caller ID for the first time I have been a screener of phone calls. When the phone starts to ring I hear the No Doubt song, “I gotta screen my phone calls, no matter matter matter who calls I gotta screen my phone calls” and this particular call from an unknown number was no different. I let it roll over to voicemail. I have five voicemails dating back to 2010 that I still haven’t listen to; however, for some odd reason when the phone alerted me of the message I picked up the phone and dialed straight to hear who this unknown caller was and why he or she was calling. “Hello, this is Jo from Ticketmaster’s Live Nation and you entered to win a couple of free tickets to the Australian Pink Floyd Rehearsal and I was just calling to let you know you have been chosen the winner. Please check your e-mail for more details. I hope you enjoy the show.” When Eastern Boy and I arrived at the event the lady at the door crossed our names off the list, and we couldn’t help but feel rather important to even have our names on a list anywhere in London. We were ushered into a small greeting area where about 50 other people were gathered eating hors d'oeuvres and drinking complimentary champagne. We felt rather out of place in the sea of mostly middle aged men, but quickly found a comfortable spot to stand back and take in the scene. There were all types of people and we got the impression that a lot of them knew each other. There was a group of business men with a few ladies, hard rocker types (one very clearly had brought his younger female escort for the night), a couple of girls about our age (they must have been random ticket winners too) and a couple of families with pre-teen aged children. Around 7 p.m. they directed us into the auditorium and handed us 3-D glasses. There was a big pink bunny in the corner of the room and a big purple creature that sort of resembled the rabbit from Donnie Darko. The lights dimmed and a movie started. We put on our glasses and watched. Frankly, I have to admit that the meaning of the video was lost on me. Things were blowing up, there was a man’s face, some creepy laughing, drums, babies crawling, more things blowing up – you get the picture. I realized that the Aussie Pink Floyd really doesn’t sing very much, but the instrumental was amazing and the light show to match the music was phenomenal. We even got to sing along to the only song we knew: “We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control.” The rehearsal ended and Eastern Boy and I snapped a few more shots of us in the 3-D glasses and headed out the door. We were stopped before we exited and asked a few questions on video about what we thought of the show. Camera Man: Did you enjoy the show? Eastern Boy and Me: “Yes! It was great.” Camera Man: “What was your favorite part?” Eastern Boy and Me: “The whole thing; the lights, the music” Camera Man: “Would you buy a ticket to go to see the Aussie Pink Floyd on tour?” Long pause while thinking about the price of tickets and my student budget Eastern Boy and Me: “Uhhh, yes! Of course. Going home to do it tonight! Thank you.” We giggled all about our responses to the questions, especially the last one, all the way through dinner at Pizza Hut (yumm) and most of the way back to Central London. All in all, it was a fun free night out. In the future I will be more likely to put my name in the pot for things I wouldn’t normally do, because I never know when that simple free ticket could lead to a fabulously fun evening. Truth be told, if I weren’t living on a student’s budget I might actually see them on tour.

#London #PinkFloyd #FreeConcerts #Privateconcert