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First things first, let’s just say that I’m not a big stadium concert goer. I usually prefer the smaller gigs where you can see the artists and actually feel the speakers shaking a few feet away from you. However, this year I have attended two mega gigs and they offer very good comparisons, because the artists themselves are often compared and contrasted. The first one I went to was Kylie’s X show at the O2 Arena just last month. Despite being at the very top/back row at a far corner of the arena, and thus looking at a tiny Kylie, it was, nonetheless, a great show with a fantastic atmosphere.

The second one, as is is evident from the title of this post, is Madonna’s only London date from her Sticky & Sweet tour at Wembley Stadium. It was a bit of a manic drive up there (I allowed 4 1/2 hours to get from Swindon to London, which should have been plenty of time, but for the traffic snarl-ups that occurred seemingly from the moment we passed the M25 turn-off and immediately regretted following SatNav’s ‘through’ London route!). She was due on at 8:30 and that was pretty much the moment we were got to the multistory car park on site, so we arrived in our seats a little stressed! In the end, she didn’t start until after 9pm which would have been a relief for the many other people we saw stuck in different traffic queues leading to the event.

As we sat in the stadium waiting for her to start, comparing it with O2 Arena (it looked, to me, like it was wider than the O2 and had mores space for the standing masses below, but otherwise not massively different), I commented to Manda that I was surprised about the number and size of speakers hung from the rafters. I’m no sound rigging expert, but for a venue of that size they just didn’t seem to be big enough or in sufficient numbers, but perhaps they were deceptively powerful?

Apparently not.

From the get-go, it seemed like the sound was going to be an issue. Perhaps the sound was good for those people directly in front of the stage, but the vast majority were not down there, the vast majority were reliant on these speakers. The effect was that the sound comprised a low - but loud - rumble and Madonna’s voice often screechingly loud over the top; there was nothing in the middle or top ranges for the music. It sounded very poorly mixed and was, at times, really quite uncomfortable (largely depending on how well Madonna was singing at that point). I read one person comment that it was difficult to tell what she was singing until some way into the song. I don’t know about you, but one of the things I really enjoy about concerts is listening to the lead-in to a concert gig, recognising the tell-tale chords, melodies etc as they hint to the song that’s about to start. For this gig, there was none of that - it was often a few lines in that I recognised the song, because the melody was not there in the music (because of the missing mid and high ranges)!

I did wonder if this was anything to do with the fact that the stadium was open air - perhaps the wind that occasionally came in and made an appearance was messing with the sound, but I suspect not. I still think it’s down to poor rigging/set-up, not atmospheric conditions. The O2 Arena sound was brilliant, in comparison.

Still on the topic of the sound, another thing that irritated me was not really one of the technical set-up, but artistic choice - Madonna’s insistence on doing mash-ups of older songs with new. The best example I can think of is when she did a ‘version’ of the vocals of Vogue over a backing track of ‘4 Minutes (to Save the World)’. Perhaps good in theory, but what with the sound problems we experienced, it sounded very flat. People wanted to hear some hits, and there was a brief moment at the end where the familiar piano riffs from Vogue were dropped in and the effect was instant ‘yay!’. Comparison time - when Kylie performed, she did some alternative versions of here song (e.g. an a cappella version of ‘I Believe In You’) but didn’t try to be too clever, and for her final song? The original, not mucked-about-with ‘I Should Be So Lucky’. Yes, it’s cheesy, but boy did it hit the right spot, and the atmosphere was fab. There was none of that sheer exuberance and joy at the Madonna gig, I’m afraid to say.

And now on to the stage setting. Once again, probably very good if you were in the minority who were at floor level or at the back of the stadium looking straight on. For everyone else, it wasn’t great. There was a big screen showing the pre-production graphics and video clips, but it was inset on the stage - if you were viewing from the side, it could not be seen. There were additional screens at either side of the stage which were used for the camera close-ups of what’s happening on stage, but these were not really big enough and were set far too low for everyone to see - they absolutely should have been rigged far higher up. If anyone in the seating area stood up, the people behind would also have to stand to get a chance of seeing the screen, and so on it would go until everyone was standing. Perhaps the argument is that seats are optional and that you should be on your feet anyway, dancing. Fine - give us some decent sound and an atmosphere to go with it and that might have transpired! Cue comparison time … At the Kylie gig, the screens were bigger, brighter and easy to see and as for the stage graphics, if your vision of the graphics behind the artist and dancers was obscured, the entire stage floor area was also lit up and displaying graphics - so no-one got left out. Just look how good it was here!

Final comparison time - the end of the show. At every gig I’ve been to, there’s been some kind of encore. Kylie absolutely excelled with hers, while Madonna didn’t ‘play the game’ at all. When the screens showed the phrase ‘Game Over’, it really meant over.

Finally, we had the fun and games of getting out of the venue - it took me an hour just to get out from the multistory car park and on to the street! While I was expecting a delay, I didn’t think it would be quite that bad. I have read that because of the late start, many people who used public transport to get there were unable to leave by the same method because stations had closed, causing the streets around to be clogged up with masses of people which, in turn, seemed to stop the flow of traffic exiting the site.

All in all, this was a disappointing concert, mostly because of the sound problems which led to the lack of atmosphere in general. Madonna didn’t appear to be on top form, either - screechy and often out of tune vocals and arrangements that seemed to lack pizazz.

Manda (my wife) had always wanted to see Madonna live, but this wasn’t the experience she had hoped for, for sure. "The thing is" she said, "I know that she can sing, but this set-up didn’t seem to give her the opportunity to show that fully." We might give ‘her Madgesty’ another go in the future, but it sure as heck won’t be at Wembley Stadium. One thing is absolutely without question - the dancing and choreography is excellent and you have to take your hat off to the woman (I nearly said girl), she is supremely fit.

The irony of this is that having seen Mrs Ritchie’s latest offering, tomorrow we’re going to see Mr Ritchie’s latest offering. Given the reviews of the film so far, and having seen her offering last night, I think it’s fair to say that Madonna’s concert will be ‘Swept Away’ by Rocknrolla as this year’s must-see Ritchie extravaganza.

In summary then … Kylie: Wow! Madonna: Ow!