This evening was a combination of firsts!
- the Hammersmith Apollo, and
- Little Big Town live, and
- Ashley Monroe live
I first heard Ashley Monroe sing when the she was part of the Pistol Annies. This was the group that introduced me to modern country and western and I have added Ashley’s albums to my collection ever since.
Little Big Town, on the other hand, are only a relatively recent addition to my playlists. I first came across them on YouTube and on a visit to Wales bought my first album at the wonderful CD second hand shop in Barmouth.
Rather catch the train into Waterloo we drove to Richmond and caught the DIstrict Line into Hammersmith. The pricing at the car park had a breakpoint at 6 hours so we had to buy a 24 hour ticket for over £18!
Meal at Belushi’s in Hammersmith
After a quick visit around the shopping precinct above the station we crossed the road to Belushi’s for a meal.
We were there late afternoon and sat in one of the booths. I chose a booth playing Sky’s (repeated) coverage of the weekend’s final qualification of the Grand Prix rather the ones showing golf coverage.
We sat in our booth for a while after we had eaten rather than going back outside to the Apollo. Around us were lots of photographs and memorabilia on the walls.
Watching Sky’s coverage was fascinating especially after qualification the interviews (with no sound) looked particularly quirky. The meals and two drinks cost £29 which was expensive but as we used the booth for somewhere to wait all in all we decided it was fair!
Hammersmith Apollo (the Eventim Apollo)
The doors for the event were scheduled to open at 7:30pm. We joined the queue outside at around 6:30pm. The evening was warm and we enjoyed the company around us in the queue. The folks in front of us had seen Little Big Town a few times and had travelled from the Isle of Wight to be there. The queue was good natured especially as we watched security turning people away wanting to get in early or jumping the queue.
Behind us we had the elevated section of the M4 and we were at the side of what had probably been a busy road before. Now it was an open area for taxis to turn and under one of the pillars twenty or more food delivery cyclists sat waiting to be summoned to a restaurant.
A couple of the pillars had street art:
PS I have a dedicated Street Art feed on Instagram here.
At 7:30 pm we all moved through the security checks and ticket scans. As an aside I had to have my tickets on in my Apple Wallet as it was unclear if a print out would have been accepted – another minor first!
Once inside we easily found our seats and settled down to wait for the perfinces.
After my experience at Reading’s Hexagon when my camera was held by security I had checked what the Apollo’s’ policy was.
It seems that any camera with an exchangeable (zoom) lens is regarded as professional. So rather than risk a repeat I just had my iPhone.
Ashley Monroe
Ashley’s set started at 8:15pm with her playing the piano. Then she moved to centre stage and played guitar. Her solo performance was excellent.
Sadly a combination of the lighting and using an iPhone so far back from the stage the majority of my images were unusable…
Little Big Town
Little Big Town played both old and new music. Their number “Girl Crush” was the one that had everyone’s attention. Then by the time we had “Wine, beer, whiskey” everyone was on their feet.
The encore…
After the extended encore we headed out to the station. The entrance nearest to the Apollo was shuttered and we had to walk through the precinct to the front entrance to get down to the District Line.
From Richmond station it was a short walk back to pick up the car and home after great evening at the Hammersmith Apollo.
