Belfast, Northern Ireland - Fan Reviews

Fan Review - (MY) FUNNIEST MOMENTS IN … BELFAST & DUBLIN By Luca Zerbini

The day before the Belfast concert I walked to the Odyssey Arena to see where it was and also thinking Def Leppard might have been there rehearsing. I took several nice photos for different angles of what I thought it was Odyssey Arena. Unfortunately it turned out to be a car parking building.

When I arrived at Odyssey Arena the day of the concert in Belfast, I saw a long queue and waited at the end. Only later I (and some other people) realized that was the wrong queue: that was for cinema movie Kung Fu Panda 2. Not too bad flying to Belfast to be front Row for Kung Fu Panda 2…

The security at Odyssey was so strict that everybody at the only entrance gate was to be checked one by one by one policemen. “Girls on right, man on left” said the policeman loud at the queue: for some reasons I found myself in the wrong queue and the policeman laughed at me.

I knew that usually all over the world plastic bottle with top are not allowed inside the venue and security asks you to take away the top. Knowing that before leaving my hotel I hide in my bag 2 top to be used later on inside Odyssey Arena. Tops were so well hidden that I found them only at the O2 Arena in Dublin the day after.

The security search at the entrance found my camera even if very well hidden and they wanted me to bring it back to my hotel. But then they found out my (Tv Station) Sky Sport working badge: thinking I was there for work, they did apologize for minutes. Then they made me leave the long queue to enter the venue from a different entrance so that I was able to go front row.

At the entrance of the standing area inside Odyssey Arena all the tickets were collected by the local security for “security reason” (?!) and giving back one by one by the same security guy at the end of the show (haven’t fully got the reason of this).

After a fifteen minutes queue I asked for a bottle of water at the only bar available in the standing area of Odyssey Arena which was selling only beer-bag in group of 6. Just imagine their face.

The Odyssey Arena is used by the local Ice Hockey team which is very popular. According to what my feet felt during the Thin Lizzy set, they should have just covered the ice. After Thin Lizzy it went a bit better mainly because of the additional plastic cover created by used glass.

During the Alice Cooper show in Belfast I was front row right side of the stage. There was a funny moment when: I was tweeting, the guy on my right was playing games on his smartphone, the guy on my left was drinking and shouting “Def Leppard”, the two guys in front of me were kissing and more all the time (and eventually promised will call their baby Alice). But Alice Cooper was fantastic…

After the Alice Cooper set I totally lost my data connection on my iPhone. On Phil side there was O2.UK, on Viv side T-Mobile. Both unusable to tweet. Like in every James Bond movie I had to use a B-plan.

During MLLAM Joe kisses Phil during his vocal and both laugh very loud. Phil leaves his vocal without finishing it and still laughing. In Dublin the day after during the same Phil vocal part, Joe was miming to kiss him again without really doing that and Phil was looking at him worried but laughing while singing.

After the end of the Def Leppard show only Pizza Hut inside the Odyssey was open and just for take away. All pubs and clubs were already closed or not serving food anymore. I could have died!!!

Before Armageddon Joe call Viv near him on stage. Then he said Alice Cooper played a great show and Thin Lizzy were fantastic. Then he turned to Viv who was just behind and said something like: “By the way, look who’s here! Are you in the right band?” and they started laughing! Then Joe mentioned all the Viv bands and introduced him as “hometown boy” to start Armageddon!

Joe: "It's always great to play in Belfast!! It's in our Top2!". Dublin wasn't until the following day...

After I left the Odyssey Arena I walked to my hotel in just less than 10 minutes. But it was so cold that I was leaving just my eyes uncovered. When entering my hotel I was stopped in a tough way by the receptionist because they couldn’t believe I was staying there. I simply realized the reason when I saw myself in the mirror of the lift...

When I started uploading the Undefeated video file on my YouTube channel it was saying "368 minutes remaining". I am sure it didn’t take so long…

Read part two on the Dublin page.

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