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Traffic Festival, Torino, Italy (2005)
Traffic festival Torino
I've been promising a full account of my first ever New Order gig for months now, so here is my story, perhaps not as polished as I'd hoped, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway..
I had a reasonable choice of concerts this time, Barcelona, Stutgart and Turin. I was in the middle of my exams, so the choice of Turin was last minute really, I had second thoughts up to three days before leaving. Also I can't be bothered to get a passport, so I went with my ID, had minor problems at the Italian border - I was checked over the radio by the carabigneri and had to say how much money I'm taking (KOLKO PARA ? - the particular carabigneri didn't speak English, so I had to remember my Italian from my Trieste shopping days - the long gone Ponte Rosso - but he spoke a universal language of the former state). I've only bought the train ticket a day earlier, and that also added to the price of the trip, as a weird man at the ticket counter refused, for various reasons, to sell me any ticket except for the morning train, so my plan to sleep on the train was ruined. Apparently you can't buy a ticket via Bologna at the Zagreb train station, and the information given at the information counter isn't the same as information at the ticket counter ("what do they know"). Also I'd planed to buy euros in the morning, but the train wasleaving before the exchange offices were open, so I had to do with 50 euros and the rest in swiss francs I'd been saving for university while they were as strong as euros. And lost quite a lot of money on them in a nice New Ordery way. Also that ment that I'd arrived in Turin at nine in the evening, when no cambio valute wasn't working anymore, and the very weird person at the railway counter in Zagreb had actually sold me the ticket for the wrong railway station ! So I had to walk to the Turin city centre, had a pizza and very good Red Dragon double malt beer in a pizzeria frequented by local football huligans (class Juve tatoos though). I'd found a nice looking clean hotel, 3 star, called Hotel Chelsea (why would anyone want to call a hotel Chelsea if it's in Turin ?) where they accepted swiss francs, but it was really expensive, 85 euros a night. I compensated it with the included breakfast - I ate more than an entire swedish famili at the next table. The room was great though, satelite TV, air conditioning - it was over 35 outside (normal for you I guess ?), minibar and room service of beer which I gladly expected (paid 5 euro a beer though). The next morning was spent mostly looking for that eklusive cambio - I only found it at the main railway station. I've spent the rest of the afternoon sightseeing Turin, the cathedral and the Shrowd of Turin, the royal palace of the Savoys, and the Museum of Cinema. It was just enough to keep me from feeling too nervous about the forthcoming evening.
The gig was wonderful and surreal. It was a solo gig after all, although part of a larger festival. It was in the middle of a public park, and upon reading about people's getting into Wechter problems two days earlier, I was far too early there, and there were literally families riding bicycles and people walking dogs there, and only Hookys amps on stage to give away that New Order were coming. Actually, coming to the gig I'd gotten lost and stumbled upon a fairground with an annopuncement about a latino night, which had scared me a bit. Good bit is there were kebaps on sale. Although I wore my green NOOL t-shirt t-shirt, had stated previously that I was going to wear the t-shirt and passed by several people who very much resembled people from NOOL, I didn't actually meet anyone from there; only an Italian had asked me where I'd gotten the shirt; however, I met a very nice bunch from Bergamo, Andrea, Milko and Banja and the girls, who were very impressed by the fact that I'd traveled alone for 14 hours from Croatia, and also that I was at the same university with Zvone Boban, so we stayed drinking together (they gave me their water and mosquito repellant and everything, and later droveme to my hotel !) throughout 808 State, untill the moment that Tony wilson appeared on stage to announce New Order. We were around tenth row, but at that moment I just had to rush upfront, so I fought my way up to the second row, beating up two men, a woman and a metrosexual in the course. As you would expect, the girl resisted the longest, but I had physical training throught the summer. I'd pogoed at several young punks' gigs, including Stakor Ugrizo Bebu, quality young band, I could send you their mp3 if you want to. I couldn't push my way to the first row because two big idiots were just standing there and talking, and occasionally makong weird bottom movements to push everyone else off their backs, but one of them ate my elbow and I hope he has permanent liver damage now. Still, I had perfect view of Bernard - I found myself staring at him all the time. I was really scared what tehy would all look like after the nonflattering photos I'd seen earlier in the year, but they were just beautiful. Bernard was jumping around all gig long, Hooky was doing his poses, I can't really say much about Steve - it was all the Morattis, they were selling 0.66 bottles of them, I actually brougt a half filled bottle to the second row with me and finished it during the set. They seemed really up and happy, I don't know why, perhaps because of all the old faces around them, and they gave us EGG, which I'm a great fan of now. And they also looked younger, some 10 years younger than on the promo photos for Sirens (really bad promo photos they were). We got over 90 minutes of music. Bernard was very polite, not mentioning his anathomy, he was here representing the city of Manchester after all. He invited us to their hotel "Bastardo" - of course it doesn't exist - after the gig to party with them. Also he mentioned that they were there to bring together the cities of Torino and Manchester anfd mentioned Manchester United, prompting me to yell "DINAMO" in pauses for the rest of the concert. It was an unbelievable and unforgettable experience. Imagine waiting for a concert for 19 years and not being dissapointed ! My only complaint was the lack of t-shirts sold - There was only one t-shirt counter, and it sold cartoon t-shirts, so I freaked out and bought a Muttley one (and two sizes to small, as I felt very optimistic about my figure).
Next morning I went to the Holy Mass at the Cathedral, then spent the morning trying to buy a copy of Torinosette with the articles about New Order and Manchester and the festival, but couldn't find it anywhere. I left for Venezia on the early afternoon train, and I had to pay a fine because the counductor interpreted the sign that my ticket is worth for two months as that it is a second class ticket. I arrived in Venezia around nine and found out that I'd missed the last train to Ljubljana by an hour (I was very dissapointed by Trenitalia internet information service). So I found a hotel in the Venezia city centre, which cost again, and wasn't as pretty as the Torino one, but at least I saw Venezia for the first time. I walked across the city the whole morning, and on my way to Plaza San Marco I saw a Joy Division Here Are the Young Men t-shirt in a shop window between all the souvenires ! Of course I bought it, so that made up for lack of a t-shirt at the gig at least a little bit. And I'd run out of clean t-shirts anyway, so I wore it on my way back. I had an incredibly expensive fish in a restaurant by one of the smaller canals, got asked out for a coffe by a very friendly waiter there (must have thought I was very rich ?), and had to run across the city centre to get to the four o clock train as I'd miscalculated the speed of the river taxi. As I was waiting in Ljubljana for the Zagreb train, a local man bought me a beer because he thought I was English because of my t-shirt, and when he asked me my name I said Gillian.
All in all it took me seven trains, four days and aboutan average Croatian monthly wage, but it was well worth it. Two minor regrets were no t-shirts and noone from the site. But I'll definitely do at least one European gig next summer, so see you there.
Cheers,
Jul.
Source: NewOrderOnline.com (Julijana Zitnjak) |
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