War of the Worlds (From This Is Local London)

War of the Worlds

10:43am Wednesday 2nd January 2008 in Blogs By Webmonkey

On the 22nd of December, Mr Webmonkey took me to see Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds at the O2 arena.

Our seats were very high up, but even though I suffer from vertigo, it hasn’t been a problem until now. Earls Court was fine, the Palace Theatre (though a bit cramped) was quite alright. The O2 arena is absolutely terrifying. Never before have I been so high up without a hint of a safety rail. The seat rows are arranged in such a way to allow minimum foot room, with the seat in front providing a handy tripping-height obstacle to the narrow ledge.

Our seats were somewhere in the middle of the row, but luckily we got there quite early - so we could shuffle along the ledge by gripping onto the empty chairs. We sat down on the slightly too-springy folding seats, and stared down at the many rows of seats below – and then we noticed the very distinct absence of safety rails. Had we tripped over the seat-back in front (which was highly likely), we would have rolled down at least 4 rows of seats before tumbling over the metal safety rail at the bottom and falling to our (probable) deaths. Mr Webmonkey muttered "this just feels wrong...", as I leant as far back as I could and gripped the sides of my seat. At this point we realised that it had been difficult enough to get into these seats when nobody else was there – what would it be like when all the seats are full?

Anyway, Mr Webmonkey took me down to the help desk where we were assigned different seats – on level ground – where the view was just as good, but somehow we didn’t have the feeling of impending death. During the concert we kept glancing up at the nosebleed seats, where happy music fans seemed completely oblivious to the danger.

Am I just a wuss?

Ps, the show was really good.


If you’ve been to the O2, I’d like to hear about your experience. Leave a comment below: