So having seen Paul McCartney play last night and also seen quite a few concerts there over the past few years I’ve now come to agree with what my friend Tref’s says about the stadium – it’s a bit rubbish when it comes to gigs.
It does the infrastructure & support part brilliantly – 7 gates all around the stadium with the 3 different levels – just trying to Google how many actual flights of stairs there are (someone’s bound to know), but anyway, I digress.
For music, it just doesn’t cut it properly. You do get a great view wherever you are, but unless you’re within 20 rows of the stage, it’s not such a great place. Saying that, I’ve seen some outstanding performances there – Robbie, Take That. Killers, U2 (and now Paul McCartney) but unless it’s a big event kind of show – it just doesn’t seem to work. Maybe that’s what was wrong when i saw The Police there – just didn’t feel like an event – a concert, yes but not an event.
And comparing the Millennium Stadium to the CIA is doable – for music the CIA is fantastic – you’re never really that far from the artist, plus the acoustics are fine whereas sometimes in the stadium it tends to get lost in the mix (Macca’s soundmix was perfect though in saying that).
I’ll never slag the MS off because I sit in there & look up & it still takes my breath away 11 years since it was built – but it needs to be a special kind of concert/event for it to really come to life – rugby match maybe? Well.. there again the way Wales have played recently…