𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐁𝐎 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐓 𝐖𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐀 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟒

On 5th November 2004, 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 performed a very special and unforgettable concert at 𝑾𝒆𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒂 in London. After eight-years of career and a rising success with each one of their four albums - up to then -, this was the biggest gig they had made in the UK and the last they would play there until 2006. 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 had stated that they would never play at Wembley, in the quotes below he explains why they changed their minds:

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐲. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐤. 𝐖𝐡𝐲 ?
I could answer with a line like, "It's just fools who don't change their minds", but no. The truth is, myself, at a time when I was more snobbish than today, I refused to go see my favorite band - The Velvelt Underground- at Wembley because I didn't like the room, that the sound was abominable. But on our tours we played in venues where the sound was much worse, and our sound engineer - we call him the "doctor" - managed to give us decent sound. So we can do it. And then symbolically it's an important passage. We live in London. British musical weekly NME thought we would be dead five years ago. We're going to do Wembley".
𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘, 𝙻𝚎𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚔𝚞𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜, 2004.

“Of course we never wanted to go there”, Molko jokes. “Only people who are at the top, who are mainstream, play there. We’re not one of them. We’re not Blur or Oasis. We were always on the outside, we were an alternative. We were unfashionable with our sound. We always were - only it happened to become fashionable at one point. That’s why it amused us to give everyone the finger for once and say: ‘Nyah, us, too!’ Somehow we stayed that way until today - we’ve never been hip or trendy. It just appeals to us not to fit into the clichee or the current pattern.”
𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘, 𝚅𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜, 2006

Photo credit: Jo Stelmach

“It's something we said we would never do,” Brian explains sheepishly, “but it's partly to annoy and partly to say we've done it. It's going to be a bit like a party. It will be the last concert until 2006. It will be a fun night ”.
𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚔𝚘, 𝚄𝚕𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚊.𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚘.

It really was a great party, with sold out tickets and in which they also celebrated the release of their singles collection "𝑶𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈"(2004), so the show was based on the songs featured on the album. One of the highlights of this concert was when the special guest, 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝑺𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒉 from 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒆 appeared on stage. 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑴𝒐𝒍𝒌𝒐 welcomed him by saying:
"𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐, 𝒂 𝒇*** 𝑯𝑼𝑮𝑬 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒐'𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆-𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒎𝒆. 𝑨 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒚, 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒍𝒚 𝒈𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒅, 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒛𝒊𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝑰'𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒆𝒕. 𝑷𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑴𝒓. 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕 𝑺𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒉!"
And after a deafening applause from the audience they sang together "𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝑰'𝒎 𝑵𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈" and 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒆's classic, "𝑩𝒐𝒚𝒔 𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝑪𝒓𝒚". 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 and 𝑹𝒐𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒕 ended this epic performance by giving each other a big hug.

Brian Molko and Robert Smith. Photo credit unknown

Another very emotional moment was when 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐 played for the first time a slow version of "36 𝑫𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒔", this is the video I share with you today and which was included on the 10𝒕𝒉 𝑨𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝑬𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑫𝑽𝑫 of their first album, "𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒃𝒐"(1996). To introduce this new version 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 said:
"𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒐 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒓𝒆-𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒔𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒂 '𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒙' 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒂 '𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆', 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒎𝒂, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓…"

Then, 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 was interrupted by a fan who shouted from the audience:
𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞: F**k me!
𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Excuse me?
𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞: F**k me!
𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧: Later honey, I'm working right now, you know what I'm saying?
(LOL!)
𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 continued:
"𝑨𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒅𝒐. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒛𝒆 𝒊𝒕…"

Photo credit: Jo Stelmach

 If you want to watch the full concert you can do it here: https://youtu.be/1mhxQO0VmpM
The quality is not the best, but you can see that the band was very happy and grateful for the affection that the audience showed them that night.

Post by Rita