Ladytron Madrid Heineken Arena 9th May 2007

Last 9th of May I was invited to see Ladytron live in Madrid. My friend from Manchester The Mighty Big Clive was touring with the band and after visiting other odd cities before like Lleida and A Coruña they were playing in Madrid and then in Barcelona.

I never heard of this band before but its nice to get visits from friends from England so I decided to go.

The venue was located in Plaza España right in Madrid city center, in fact you can not get more city center than that. After some SMS texting, I was supposed to meet Big Clive in a german sort of brewery bar right behind the venue, where the load/unload area is. It helped the fact that I live 10" from there.
Its been almost a year since I saw him last time with the New Order gang for the Summercase festival. He travels all over with bands and he told me he was recently in Brazil and Argentina too, the lucky ba***rd!

While the front street bars were packed of people, this one was empty. Much better.

We stay there couple of hours before the show because the band seemed were still on their way, lost in a more than probably mad Madrid traffic jam.
While I had 3 or 4 bottled beers, Big Clive drank 5 or 6 sort of german huge jars.

At the time of the show [There was no supporting act] we had some troubles in the door because the bouncers couldnt understand a bloody English word while Big Clive was trying to let them know he was touring with the band and he was also in the guest list [Big Clive+1]. We didnt managed to communicate at all [And I didnt want to help either..he he ..] so at the end they let us get in with some sort of 'who cares' attitude.
Idiots.
We then realized we could have said 'Big Clive+10' instead and It would work too!!

The Heineken Arena is a brand new venue, it has a top floor with a bar where you could get a fairly good view of the stage.


Didnt think so many people was gonna turn up, close to sold out, seems the band were more popular than I thought at first. This city never stops to surprise me.

My friend was recording the audio [Thing that I kept forgetting everytime I talked/screamed at him durig the show by the way] , so we decided to stay on the front.

And ...what about the music?, well... they sounded to me like a sort of 80's 'light-industrial-retro techno' backed with the ladies vocals and synthetizers-guitar with real drums.
I have to say on their behalf that all music was live, nothing is pre recorded.
Not too bad.



Good points: The lightning and sound was OK, nice to see some many people attending to a live show on wednsday. Considering the lack of live shows in Madrid it proves this city is still alive and young people wants more !

Low points: 10 euros for a pint of beer in a plastic cup..... 10 fuckin euros!

Funny point: Getting paid a bunch of euros on the backstage after the show because they thought I came with the local stagehand crew! .....ace.......thats what I call a cool nite...... [I refused the money by the way...what did you think?! ;-)

more photos





After the show we decided to go for a smoke and also the classic 'One for the road' back to the german bar on the backstreet. On friday Ladytron were doing Barcelona in Razzmatazz club so we agreed to meet there.

Couple of days later I did meet Big Clive again in a bar in Barcelona. We had 'a few' with me mates and other regulars in our local. Ladytron was due at 2:30 am!

Here is a couple of pics in 'The Mitre Bar!'

Jordi, Big Clive and Guillermo!

After a copious intake of beer and other refreshments I thought it was better to not to go see the show, it was on the other side of the city, my friends were pissed and I didnt want Big Clive to get in trouble. I saw the band anyway so wisely we decided to stay at me mates who lives right in the corner.
So we said goodbye to me mancunian friend and got him a Taxi.



See you on the next tour Alex!

Ladytron myspace:


http://www.myspace.com/ladytron