Here are a few photos from last Sunday’s Take That concert in Croke Park, Dublin. It was an amazing concert that started way too slowly. The Alice in Wonderland theme was great but the show really picked up once Robbie Williams came on stage. The guy is a master show man. If Freddie Mercury were alive he’d give him a run for his money!

Pet Shop Boys played support and I would gladly pay money to go see them again!

I would venture to say the crowd was 95% women. I bet they were happy to see the guy who half-stripped above the stage. Yes, yes, photo of him below! Over 76,000 people went to see them on Sunday night and it was amazing. We had no problem leaving after the concert and thankfully stayed in a nearby hotel which was just a walk away.

The fans enjoyed the show but so did Robbie Williams if this post is to be believed! (oh dear, the cynic in me!)

Quoting the full post below, just because I know that blog will disappear when some PR guy decides to revamp that site..

HOLY SHIT!

I CAN HONESTLY SAY EVERY SHOW WE’VE DONE SO FAR
HAS BEEN REALLY SPECIAL…..

FROM THE LOVE WE RECEIVED FROM THE GENTLE FOLK
IN THE NORTH EAST…. WHERE WE LEARNT TO BE A BAND AGAIN

….TO THE GRIT AND PERSEVERANCE
OF THE MANCHESTER CROWD THAT GOT PEE’D ON MOST NIGHTS…..

I’D KINDA FOUND MY PERFORMING FEET IN MANNY’
MOST NIGHTS WATCHING YOU ALL BOUNCE UP AND DOWN
IN LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU WAS A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

AND THEN THERE WAS THE WELSH CROWD THAT OUT SUNG THEM ALL…..
WE WON’T FIND OURSELVES IN A BETTER VENUE ON THIS TOUR…..
SO HUGE BUT SO INTIMATE AND I/WE FELT THE LOVE

BUT OH MY LORD….IRELAND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME ON SUNDAY NIGHT…..?

I GAVE EVERYTHING I HAD ON SATURDAY AND AS EXPECTED
YOUR PERFORMANCE WAS BETTER THAN MINE…..(ONLY JUST ; )

SO MUCH SO THAT IT WAS WITH A BIT OF TREPIDATION
THAT I MADE MY WAY BACK TO CROKE PARK THE NEXT DAY
FEELING A LITTLE JADED AND DRAINED FROM THE NIGHT BEFORE….
(SUCH HIGH HIGHS THERE HAS TO BE A COME DOWN….)

BUT I WASN’T EXPECTING WHAT CAME NEXT…..

I PROPER LOST MY SHIT……

THE OVERWHELMING GOOD WILL…LOVE…SMILES
HAPPINESS,APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE
BEAMING STRAIGHT TO THE STAGE
TRANSFORMED ME FROM PREENING PEACOCK
PRIMA DONNA SHOWMAN
TO A BALL OF MUSH WITHIN SECONDS…..

IT WAS SO POWERFUL THAT I DIDN’T
KNOW IF I WAS GOING TO BE ABLE TO COLLECT
MYSELF ….
PROPER FLOORED ..THERE’S A TEAR IN MY EYE THINKING
ABOUT IT NOW….

YES, THE GIGS HAVE RANGED FROM BRILLIANT TO RELIGIOUS
EVERY NIGHT ………BUT SUNDAY NIGHT CROKE PARK
WAS LIFE DEFINING …….IT WILL STAY WITH ME FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE….

IRELAND I BOW TO YOU….

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The best of these photos will eventually land on my photoblog as more polished images but I wanted to give everyone a flavour of the night’s festivities and atmosphere. Yes, I did sneak my Canon DSLR and a 70-300mm telephoto lens in and I’m glad I did because I was at the other end of the stadium. BUT, Take That recognised that they can’t stop people taking photos and even recreated their first album cover on-stage. They gave everyone a count down to get their cameras out. I unfortunately only got a blurry shot as they weren’t standing in a spotlight.

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I think I have to agree with Damien. This is the best trailer for a conference ever!

It’s for The Dot Conf in Dublin on July 22nd. I won’t be going but there’s a great line up of speakers!

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I was in Dublin yesterday to see Matt and Craig become Honorary Patrons of The University Philosophical Society in Trinity College. It was a low key informal event with many students and a few staff in attendance.

Eamon Leonard, of Echo Libre, kindly used my Flip Mino to record the Q&A session that followed. I want to express my gratitude to him for doing a fine job, especially as I saw him switch the camera from arm to arm during the hour long event. It wasn’t easy holding the camera aloft for so long. I’m currently transcoding the video and trying to make it smaller before uploading it.
I’ll add it to this post later, you won’t want to miss it!

Update! Matt was interviewed by Silicon Republic earlier today. Catch up on what’s happening at the Web Summit in Dublin by following #dws2 on Twitter.

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In honour of the day parades will be held in all the cities and many of the towns of Ireland. I’ll be in Cork tomorrow to capture a flavour of the day and photos will appear soon after on In Photos.

Some links to whet your appetite for tomorrow:

• I can’t believe the last time I posted St Patrick’s Day photos was 2004! I did shoot the St. Patrick’s Festival which was on during and after the parade last year. That was great fun with street entertainers and food stalls. Yum!
• Details about the Cork Parade can be found on the Cork Festival website. The parade starts at 1pm from the end of the South Mall and heads up towards Mc Curtain Street. The usual route of the parade if memory serves.
• The Dublin festival lives at stpatricksfestival.ie and if the radio adverts I’ve heard are anything to go it’ll be a great day!
• Does your town or city have a parade website? Leave a comment and I’ll link it here!

Blogorrah lists five reasons it’s great to be Irish which will either bring a smile to your face or confusion. Frawley’s? Never heard of it! I love reason two however!

You don’t have to resign from office for being corrupt – just pretend you’re really sorry for about half an hour. Or better still – ignore it and it’ll go away!

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Reception to the new comedy on RTE has been less than favourable, or so it seems by what The Screaming Lady has to say as well as Blogorrah.

Was it really that bad? I didn’t watch it so I was spared the experience but someone must have done so! Go on admit it, what did you think of it? Was it a pile of trash or the greatest thing since Big Brother? (Or does that amount to the same thing anyway?)

Just in case you missed a few episodes or you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, here are a few episodes, courtesy of Blogorrah where I saw them first!

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This is covered in much more detail with pictures:

• Indymedia, photo essay of the day (via)
• Dublin Riots on Flickr
• A picture tells a thousand words
• footage of rioters
• Dublin samples a Bite of Northern Ireland Troubles
• Three of those arrested aren’t Irish
• Todays Dublin Riots links to Dublin Riots Flickr pool
• I predict a riot (I’ve never voted for Sinn Fein anyway, this riot guarantees I won’t)
• Dublin Riot Photos
• Never been in a riot
• RTE reporter attacked and called “Orange Bastard”
• Video of a group of young men destroying a car. One wears the Irish flag over his shoulders as he smashes the side windows with a metal pipe. Very patriotic.
• The Dublin riots from a PR perspective
• Finally, a call for the return of the march to Dublin. See the comments there for a taste of how divided our nation is. I liked this bit: “an aesehole is still an arsehole, it doesn’t matter where he goes to church.”

A sad, sad day for Ireland.
The Sunday Times has coverage of the background and riots:

• Who let the mob run free?
• Under siege from ‘madmen’
• Torn and bleeding, Bird makes the news again – Charlie Bird, RTE journalist, was attacked by nationalist rioters and called, “Charlie Bird, you’re an Orange bastard”.
• Loyalists forced to retreat as riots halt Ulster love march
• Republicans told: ‘Do all in your power to stop it’ – “The text messages were sent out to republicans and sympathisers early yesterday: get to the GPO at 10am, they said. Between 150 and 200 people responded to the call, but they did not congregate so as to avoid coming to the attention of gardai.”
• Outcry over action of ‘thugs’

Here’s a video of rioters overturning a car and smashing it. Citizen reporting is alive and well. (via)

(links via Irish Blogs)

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