Tennis and Rock n' Roll in Sydney...

This entry was posted on 2/4/2007 5:46 AM and is filed under Australia.

Lucky us!  We're here in Sydney for the Australian Open Tennis Tournament.  OK, it was held in Melbourne, but we're close.  So we settle for watching it on this gigantic (15x10ft.) screen set up at the foot of the stairs of the Opera House.  There were a few hundred people that turned out for the Women's championship game, but about FIVE THOUSAND showed up for the Men's Championship game.  It was great fun...

Here's what it looked like walking up to the steps of the Opera House.  Note the giant screen on the right side of the photo...



Pause on this next photo to see the screen in animated action...



And good luck would also have it that the next night Eric Clapton was performing at the Entertainment Center.  We couldn't resist buying tickets to see an old favorite of ours who can still play and sing rock n' roll like nobody's business.  It was LOUD, raucous and fun.

First we saw the poster for his concert...



Here's the crowd at The Entertainment Center...



Here's Eric on stage with his fantastic band...



And here are two movies so you can pretend you were at the concert too.  The first is the hit "Leila", which he sang with the full band and light show...

Movie - Eric Clapton singing Leila

and then he sent the boys offstage and pulled up a chair and sang some unplugged great blues stuff too...

Movie - Eric Clapton sings the blues

The next night we just happened to walk by this theater an hour before the concert started and were able to buy 2 tickets 7 rows from the stage to see The Pretenders, one of our favorite bands in the whole wide world.



The entrance to the State Theater was regal!  The walls and ceiling all in gold, with the relief of St. George slaying the dragon...




Chrissy Hynde can sing and move and get this rather stoic crowd dancing.  It was a fantastic concert and we loved every moment of it.  She's a true rock n' roller!



Click on this movie to hear a little of what the concert was like...

Here she is singing the hit I'M SPECIAL...

The Pretenders Sing I Am Special

and the hit I'll Stand By You...

The Pretenders Sing I Will Stand By You


The next day we came down to the Opera steps to see her unveil the new poster of PETA.  She's a big advocate of vegetarianism and protecting animals.

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Comments

• 2/7/2007 10:02 AM Darcey wrote:
  OK so it's hard enough to sit at my desk and watch you havin nothin but fun for months on end - but Eric and Chrisie in 48 hours. Arrrgh! So glad you guys are having such a grand time. I guess I can only hope we can follow your example some day! The Queen Mary was here this week and caused quite a stir - trafiic jams from all the gauckers! People were surprised she got such a reception as she came in under the bridge during the Super Bowl! Sure is a big friggin boat. it will be amazing to see both of them together! Enjoy!!! YAYB D
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