Over the past few years, there’s been a real insurgence of acts from ‘back in the day’ reforming and performing to reminiscent, sold out crowds across the country, from boy bands to soul singers, everyone wants to be taken back to ‘the good old days’.
Between now and 2011 we’ve got some real legends coming to play The O2 arena. We’ve already had 80s heartthrob Bruce Springsteen, who might have been Born in the USA, but felt right at home here at The O2 arena last December, and who could forget the king of Gospel, Al Green, who graced us with his presence back in June.
Who would you most like to see reform? Seen any golden oldies recently who you thought knocked the barely worn-in socks off some of the new kids on the block?
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With under four weeks to go until Carmen at The O2, rehearsals begin from next Tuesday 27 April. Among those on the call sheet are Christina Nassif and John Hudson, who play the lead roles Carmen and Don Jose respectively. Don’t forget that Darius Campbell has announced he will be performing once only on Sunday 23 May at 2.30pm. This will be Darius’ first major operatic role since he won ITV’s Popstar to Operastar. Darius will undertake the principal role of Escamillo.
Have you got your tickets to Carmen at The O2? We’ve just posted some great pics of the auditions here. The O2 on muzu.tv
Lady Gaga seems to have sealed her creative talent by becoming Polaroid’s Creative Director. We have seen some amazing sets and costumes, including mirrors, leather, perspex pianos filled with baubles, and more recently a giant bathtub. Lady Gaga comes to The O2 on 26 & 27 February. Don’t miss out!
In the final London Calling diary, we chat to Managing Director, Chris Kermode, about the success of the inaugural Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
What has been the most pleasing aspect of the event for you?
I think the most pleasing aspect of the tournament is that we started this two, three years ago and everyone kept telling us that it wouldn’t work at this time of the year and that tennis interest in this country was just based on Queen’s and Wimbledon. I think we demonstrated quite clearly that there was a huge demand for top-level tennis in this country.
What has feedback been like from players and fans?
I’ve had quite a few players say that it’s the best-staged tennis event they’ve ever seen. I think everyone’s blown away by The O2 arena and I think just the presentation of the event and the fact that, even in doubles, it’s been played in front of 17,500 people.
The court looks so good, with the lighting looking like it’s a boxing ring. The fans that I’ve spoken to have all said it’s one of the best entertainment evenings they’ve had, as opposed to just a sporting evening.
How have the players enjoyed travelling by boat to The O2?
Everyone kept telling me that players will not travel on boats, they’re used to the cars. I think the boats have been a huge success. I’ve gone on the boats with all the players this week and they all look totally relaxed on it. I think they didn’t really understand that it was a river, and not the sea! I think they had thoughts of bobbing about all over the place! It’s very calm and also you know that it takes 30 minutes from the hotel to the arena, as opposed to the traffic that is so unpredictable in London.
What has kept you awake at night?
I think two things.
Firstly, just staging an event for the first time, you just hope the show production works smoothly and you hope that the lighting does work from when you’ve started drawing it on a piece of paper to actually seeing it built.
There was also the big risk we took with two sessions. Again, most people just wanted the one session; it takes the risk factor out if there’s either a match that is over with very quickly or someone injures themselves. So, I was just hoping that we didn’t have a withdrawal in the middle of a match after 10 minutes.
What has been the most unusual player request you’ve had this week?
I tell you what, they’ve all been so relaxed here. I actually have had more bizarre requests at Queen’s than I’ve had here. It just went so smoothly. Players appreciated the hotel and the boats and how they were all looked after. The backstage bar area, overlooking the court, in their player lounge worked really well.
Did the players enjoy getting close to the fans on the public practice court?
I think that’s been one of the most successful parts of this event. At indoor tennis arenas around the world normally you only experience the tennis when you go into the actual bowl with your physical ticket. What we tried to do was engage a new audience. At any given time in this arena, there’s probably 5,000 people here, who aren’t here for the event that’s on. So they’re at the restaurant and at the cinema or the nightclubs.
I watched Nadal practise in front of probably about 2,000 people who, quite clearly, had never ever seen live tennis before. You could hear the enthusiasm and engage them into watching the game.
What’s been your personal highlight from the tennis this week?
For me, I’ve just been amazed at seeing Nikolay Davydenko close up and just seeing the quality of the tennis he played this week, which was breathtaking. To see his footwork and balance, I mean the guy did not stop running and retrieving. I think the highlight for me was him playing late on Friday night, then having to come back on the Saturday lunchtime and he beat the World No. 1!
What improvements or changes would you like to implement next year?
It’s year one, we’re here for five years. We will review the event and we will always look to improve it year on year. We sold 260,000 seats out of 265,000 over 15 sessions, which makes it the biggest indoor tennis event ever. It’s the third most highly attended sporting event in this country, behind Wimbledon over two weeks and the British Grand Prix. But we will always look to make the player and fan experience better year on year.
From the red carpet to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals: Bafta-nominated Dev Patel, star of Slumdog Millionaire, is one of many star names to have graced The O2 arena this week during the year-end championships.
Harry Potter stars Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), Jamie Campbell Bower (Gellert Grindelwald) and Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) have all been guests of tournament sponsors Lacoste throughout the week.
Premiership footballers have been out in force to watch the world’s best tennis players this week. Thursday evening saw Tottenham Hotspur’s Robbie Keane, Michael Dawson, Jermaine Defoe and Luka Modric, Arsenal’s Andrei Arshavin and Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel all take their seats in the stands to watch Juan Martin del Potro beat Roger Federer. Meanwhile, Argentine and Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez was courtside to watch his good friend, del Potro light up The O2 in a three-set win over Federer.
ATP supervisor Gerry Armstrong, an avid Tottenham Hotspur fan and current leader in the ATP London’s Fantasy Football mini-league, even managed to get his photo taken with Spurs stars Dawson and Keane.
WBA World Heavyweight Champion David Haye is the latest celebrity to check out the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and received a rapturous reception Saturday evening when he was introduced to the crowd at the semi-final between del Potro and Robin Soderling.
Bryans Upset “Governator” Schwarzenegger
Following their round-robin victory over Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach Friday, which secured their place in the semi-finals of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, California natives Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan were informed by the world’s media that they had upset Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Austrian born Schwarzenegger, star of The Terminator movies, hails from the same hometown as Marach – Graz, Austria.
“Hopefully he’s not going to raise our taxes,” joked Mike Bryan. “We apologize to Arnold. But we had to do what we had to do. We needed this one. So I apologize to the Austrians, but we needed it.”
BBC Five Live Tidbits
Commentators on BBC Five Live Extra, where you can listen live to the final tomorrow, have been scouting out some interesting tidbits from players taking part in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
According to the Five Live tennis team, Mark Knowles joined in his family’s Thanksgiving celebrations via skype, obviously unable to join them as he and partner Mahesh Bhupathi had advanced to the semi-finals of the season finale.
Meanwhile, had del Potro not advanced to the final of the year-end championships, he planned to travel to the north-west of England to attend the Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool and cheer on friend and countryman, Javier Mascherano.
Argentina and Manchester City striker Carlos Tevez was courtside at The O2 Thursday evening to watch his friend and countryman Juan Martin del Potro take down World No. 1 Roger Federer and book a spot in the semi-finals.
While del Potro, and the centre court crowd, eagerly waited for the announcement of who would qualify from Group A after the match, Tevez even took to the court to knock up with del Potro and showed off some off his keepy-uppy skills to entertain the fans.
“Maybe if I play Saturday night, he will be here,” said del Potro afterwards.
The players each have their own personal locker room in the bowels of The O2, identifiable by the larger-than-life photos that adorn the door.
Verdasco will be leaving London on Friday to fly to Barcelona to join up with the Spanish Davis Cup team preparing to take on the Czech Republic in the World Group final next weekend.
