Perth: the most isolated city on earth and the last stop on Twisted Logic’s Australian leg. And so the remarkable Burswood Dome was saved for last. An over-sized and idiosyncratic white elephant on the banks of the Swan River. A vestige of WA Inc., it’s linked to a casino built on landfill by a mate of the gaoled ex-premier Brian Burke. For some reason (improved tennis ball trajectories perhaps) its roof is a fibreglass dome held up by maintaining positive internal air-pressure. It’s a strange situation. Demolition is threatened for the Dome and the Coldplay tour only stopped here thanks to a fan-petition. It may be that the Dome’s just too big: there were 16,000 people in for Coldplay. As Chris Martin bantered on-stage: the back-row was in another time-zone. And the pressurisation has its hazards. At one point I mistakenly opened an emergency exit and a huge bellow’s wind blew me off my feet. Luckily I could slam the glass door shut before the stadium deflated.
The stage doors were airlocks. Youth Group’s dressing room was out of the pressure-zone through an airlocked service-door which refused to re-admit unless a supplied security guard slammed his shoulder heavily into it. Sometimes we had to double-team the door to get in. Eventually this door made a bloody mess of our helpful security guard’s hand and he had to be bandaged and replaced. But by then we were on stage.
From stage the people in the furthest bleachers up the black back were almost out of sight in the distance. I can only assume it was similar circumstance in reverse. It was a buzz to play for that many people. Walking off stage that night was about the point that I mistakenly decided our record would definitely debut at number one.
After Coldplay finished, on my way out, I talked to Franksy, Coldplay Tour Manager, to say thanks and goodbye. I made comment that it was a great tour to be on: meals were excellent, people friendly, morale high. To the last point he replied “Why wouldn’t we? We get paid well to travel the world, take on all comers”. But there was work to be done. The entire stage had to be broken down and the crew put on a five am flight to Singapore. Toby and Danny tried to no avail to get a cross-camp drinking party into Perth city. And so the tour ended. Just like that – no more Coldplay.
Tennis is the main event at the Burswood Dome.
YG celebrate with Vicki Taylor and a Pat Rafter poster:
