An email made me aware of Tokio coming to a venue near you, and tickets were quickly booked at the Union Chapel, Highbury and Islington. I have never been there before, although my wife had sung there as a gamesmaker at some stage.
The Union Chapel is brilliant, a church which also puts on some amazing concerts at reasonable prices. And they are very accessible, very! My wife followed their simple instructions and emailed them about my coming in a wheelchair, no problem. The means of getting there was left to the last minute, and would have been a train to Highbury and Islington overground station, but one of the lifts was not working, so we looked at the option of driving into London. It is N1 and therefore not congestion chargeable. The yellow lines near to the Union Chapel don’t operate after 6.30 and before this I am able to use my blue badge if necessary, which I did as we arrived with plenty of time.
Queueing is simple, you go to the start of the queue and they get a ramp to let you into the Chapel, and huge and current Church every Sunday. We were directed to the front row, omg! I am sitting right next to the stage, a few yards from a duo of pianos. A lovely lady makes sure we are comfortable, with extra cushions, redistributes my chair for the evening, and explains how the bar works, which is upstairs. Let the evening commence.
In support is a lovely singer who has been touring with Tokio, Anna Pancaldi. She is great, and I usually fall asleep to support bands! Then here he is, and plays for nearly two hours, only limited by early hours of closing.
I didn’t cry, much, the noise was crushing, but majestic, bright lights and just beautiful music, mostly classical based, and inspiring, and stories about his life, his loves, his kayak journey in the Phillipines, his dad, his wife, his daughter. All very personal, and all shared with love in a great place, and an amazing guy playing pianos, and drums and noises you could not imagine.
I will not try and explain any more, just listen to Tokio and make your own mind up.
What a wonderful experience, thank you.