Lynne, wearing her best silky cowboy shirt and pink, flashing angel wings, is outraged. 'It's bollocks, that's what it is,' she said. 'One and a half hours late and she still hasn't bothered to come on stage? It's disrespectful. I've driven down two hours from Birmingham. This just isn't right.'
In the semi-filled Cardiff Millennium Stadium, Lynne is not alone in her frustration. At 8pm last night, after an hour's wait, the crowd tried to encourage Madonna on to the stage with cheers and whoops. By 9pm, after two hours' wait, the boos began; starting cautiously in the stands but quickly gaining deafening momentum throughout the stadium.
'I didn't pay £75 for the joy of sitting on a cold, concrete floor, eating hot dogs,' said Tom Allan, one of the most enthusiastic of the booing brigade. 'I do my job properly, why can't she?'
Finally, at 9.10pm the lights went down and the crowd leapt to its feet, instantly forgiving the Queen of Pop as a giant screen appeared and the Material Girl herself burst onto the stage, throwing her heart and soul into confounding and exceeding fans' expectations yet again.
The long-awaited Sweet and Sticky tour had begun.
'This is more like it!' Lynne screamed. 'This is what I came for. I never doubted her really. Madonna rocks. There's no one like her. No one. She's an icon. Her best is yet to come.'
On a stage bookended by two enormous Ms filled with £1m-worth of Swarovski crystals, the world's most successful female recording artist of all time leapt, trampolined and pole-danced with an energy that pulled the audience into her pocket.
A past master at seducing and enthralling her fans, she introduced a whole new definition of 'audience participation' by skipping with a glittering rope in time to their ecstatic rendition of 'Into the Groove'.
With the help of Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci, Miu Miu, Stella McCartney, Yves Saint Laurent and Roberto Cavalli, not to mention 12 trampolines and 100 pairs of fishnet stockings, Madonna launched her eighth world concert tour at the 74,600-seat Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Having turned 50 last weekend, Madonna remains defiant amid rumours about the state of her marriage to film director Guy Ritchie, gossip fanned by a warts-and-all biography by her younger brother, Christopher Ciccone, in which he claims that the couple only stay together with the help of a marriage-counselling rabbi.
Swatting such carping aside with the aplomb of the ultimate showgirl, she has crafted a show of exuberance that conceals a tightly controlled narrative. In a micro-managed, four-part stage set, the singer takes fans on a whistlestop tour of the stages of her career.
Those roots go back to when the aspiring singer reportedly showed up in New York City with just $35 in her pocket. Yet three decades on she is still writhing, shaking and shimmying in the limelight.
The Material Girl opens the two-hour spectacle dressed in the first of her eight outfits, 'a mashed-up homage to gangsta pimp and Art Deco'. The first set is a nod to her early years as a new-wave disco nymphette who made her name as a performer more respected in her first British performance at Manchester's Haçienda nightclub for her bravura than her ability to hold a note.
Pausing to transform herself from a Givenchy-clad, dominatrix-style gangsta pimp into a Gothic goddess, Madonna references her early days as part of the Eighties New York dance scene with songs including 'Into the Groove' and 'Borderline'.
A brief 'Romanian folk interlude' features a paean to Romany romance, featuring three gypsy musicians playing tracks including 'Devil Wouldn't Recognize You', 'Spanish Lesson', 'Miles Away' and 'La Isla Bonita' on acoustic guitars. Madge presides over this section in a black Gothic-style Givenchy cloak, peeled off to reveal a flowery top, baggy skirt and knee-high boots.
The evening has nine of the 12 songs on her 11th studio album, Hard Candy, which went straight to the top of the charts in 31 countries. It culminates in a grand finale focusing on what could be described as Madge's 'post-imperial' phase: a futuristic, Japanese-influenced rave set in which she sports diamond-studded trousers, a colourful throw top and black vest, singing hits including '4 Minutes', 'Like a Prayer', 'Ray of Light', 'Hung Up' and 'Give It To Me'.
Arlene Phillips, a Strictly Come Dancing judge and friend of Madonna, who helped to design the look of last night's extravaganza, said the singer had been determined to produce a show as spectacularly steamy as possible.
Having reached her half-century, the singer might now travel with her own chiropractor, personal trainer and masseuse, but Phillips had been quoted as saying: 'Getting older has had little effect on her sense of fashion adventure. She may have turned 50, but has no plans to tone it down. This is going to blow everyone away.'
From Cardiff, the show will cross Europe and the Americas, finishing in São Paulo on 18 December.
Give It 2 Me
Give It 2 Me
Hard Candy
Hard Candy
4 Minutes
4 Minutes
Live Earth
1. Madonna was not a hour and half late! She was due on at 8:30pm but started at 9:00pm. 2. People were't booing because she was late they were booing at the people doing the mexican wave as it did not go round the Stadium. The Concert was fantastic and she looked amazing! I had been to the confessions tour and was worried if this concert would meet the standards off confessions. It did and it was fantastic!
I, for one, am not paying any attention to these negative comments. I don't believe anything I read in these trashy papers. The media have been trying to take Madonna down since the beginning and she's STILL on top. f*ck all the haters!
Madonna is notorious for NEVER being late. She abhors being late. Why was she late? I've been a Madonna fan for years but there's something strange about this concert, almost like it was just thrown together - nothing new or different. She's fit but doesn't look as good as she used to. I HATE the hairstyle. I'm wondering if she's trying to copy Britney Spears?? I don't know what's going on, but as a big Madonna fan, I don't like it.
"Laurie" let me ask you a question: DID YOU ACTUALLY SAW HER SHOW LIVE????????????????????????????????????????????
AND MADONNA COPYING BRITNEY?????????????????????????????????????????
WTF????????????????????????????????????????????????????? go and take a nap all of you so called fans. M is 50!!!!!instead of suporting her you're trashing her. SHAME ON YOU
The only reason why we dissapointed fans are critizing her,is because we love her, really! Ive loved Madonna all my life and i follow every move and thing she does, she's my greatest inspiration! But lately ive been really hurt by the negative things she's been doing: Like compromising her artistic integrity by recording that "Crap Candy" album, i mean come on! we are used to her making real music! Since when did hip hop become music? Remember we are Madonna's fans because we have class and exquisite TASTE! Now our queen has compromised her crown, taste and artistic innovation by stooping to this trashy "music"
And on the topic of the hour: The Queen's new tour, sooner or later everyone of us will agree on something: This is the worst tour that Madonna has ever done!And before u tear me up and crucify me, please remember im not trashing my queen!!! Im just hoping that she realizes what she's doing and tries to change; cause she's the best!And i LOVE her. Here are my facts: I was not at her opening show, but guess what! Ive been on youtube and every song from the setlist has been uploaded live
1. She sings human nature with a guitar, and does not dance at all! Come on this is one of her most sexual songs! By the way she plays the guitar on human nature,ray of light,borderline, and hung up, the new version of borderline is horrible! she totally ruined one of my fav songs on this tour, we love it when u play the guitar maddy, but dont u think it gets kinda boring when almost the entire show was just performed standing up against the mic, strumming ur guitar and just stomping ur feet, NO! we expect much more from u Angel, we really do!
2. Ray of light has the same choreography as in confessions tour, By golly it even has the same back drop screens! Since when did our queen repeat the same things in her tour except when being sexual and provocative?
3. Vogue is not actually Vogue! She sings it with 4 minutes music, talk about dissapointment! I feel like crying, Madonna should have never remixed such a classic into such garbage!
4. 3 of her dancers from the reinvetion, & confessions tour, are on this tour, how on earth can this be! time to showcase new dancers maddy! by the way Donna Delory is not on this tour, and believe me that matters to alot of us that love Madonna, I would go on and on with more but i know u guys will tear me to pieces, but honestly we have to accept the truth even if it hurts us, dont believe im trashing Madonna, im actually borkenhearted that the only favorite artist ive ever had has totally lost everything she had, please Madonna go back to what u used to be, because we need u!If u want new ideas i have the perfect setlist and customes and everything, id designe anything for my madgesty!
All these complaints about Madonna being late are just silly. No concert I've ever been to in my entire life starts at the time printed on the ticket. Everyone knows that. It still started at a reasonable time so it finished in plenty of time for people to get home at a decent hour.
Some people just complain for the sake of it. You complain that she is doing the same things. But then when she does something different like playing guitar, doing hip hop or remixing Vogue you don't like that either!!
On the one hand, you say she shouldn't use the same dancers, but then you say you're mad that Donna isn't there anymore. You contradict yourself! On one hand you want her to go back to where she used to be, then you say you want new ideas. You obviously just want to criticize for the sake of it!
Get a life seriously!
The guitar playing was not the majority of the concert so anyone who said that is just wrong.
I too am 50+. Have followed Madonna for years, somtimes avidly, sometimes not. So mixed feelings about the show. Absolutely the greatest spectacle one could hope to watch in terms of presentation, sound, lighting, choreography, and some songs. The lady at her age, is amazing in her sexuality, considering she is probably post-menopausal at her age. Interesting!
But her treatment of her fans, at this concert, which I was at, is disgusting. To keep them waiting in huddle, centre statium, form 6pm til 9.10pm, with no supporting act which could have relieved the boredom and unconfotrableness, rather than staring all those hours at a blackened stage, was not respecting her fans. To come on stage with no mention of how late she was starting, was cruel to her fans. And to put a sign out on stage after a song saying 'Game Over', to signify end of concert, with no goodbye, or taking of applause, or, perish the thought, any encores, is also disrespectful to her fans. A lady she certainly 'aint. I will not be going again. To have paid £75 for 5 hrs of queueing, and only 1hr 50mins of entertainment is disappointing.
Ask St Johns Ambulance about the conditions. Usually a tunnel is left open for fresh air to enter the stadium, to help the crowds, but Madonna had it sealed off with a curtain, so there were more people that collapsed with heat exhaustion that night than usually they get at Boy bands in the Millenium stadium. Respecting her fans, I think not. Some weird S/M game with her audience, (make them suffer) yes, I think so.
Madonna appeared no later on stage here than she did on the Confessions tour. The tickets to Cardiff said the gates opened at 6 p.m., they certainly did not say that Madonna was going to start performing at 6 p.m. No one in the right mind would think a concert would start at 6 p.m. Why did you have to get there so early long before any reasonable person would think the concert would start?
Madonna never says goodbye or gives encores. She just gives a great performance. Why isn't that enough? Game over is a toungue in check fun thing. It's not meant to be offensive.
And why should she put on some boring support act that no one likes anyway. They came to see Madonna! The length of her concerts is exactly the same as most other artists.
bmaddy83: Great comments - yes, I think this concert is disappointing for the fans that have been there from the beginning. The music and tour are not up to Madonna's standards. Hip Hop and gangsta is sooo not original and boring. When she teamed up with Justin Timberlake (ugh) and Pharrel Williams I thought she'd sold out. Not good.
went last night to wembley,am a huge fan but was a little dissapointed,the dancing and energy was fantastic but she came on late didnt really interact with the audience much,and to be honest it was a bit boring, guy in front was actually asleep!!!!not worth the money-shame
Im a huge Madonna fan and went to the Wembley Stadium show and the sound was terrible... they need to sort that out, people were walking out half way through the show and some were getting very annoyed... Have to wait for it to be released on dvd to appreciate it. Shame cos she has always put on amazing shows before!!!!
I too am a huge fan of Madonna and took along my niece and sister inlaw to wembley saying that you wont be disappointed. You will see an amazing show as i have seen her 4 times before. I must admit i thought the sound was too bassy and loud for her voice to be projected clearly. It was like her mic was cutting off. the screens were too small for the size of wembley. I enjoyed it a little but thought all her other concerts i had been too were ten times better for sound. Her last confessions tour was amazing and so professional and she interacted alot with the audience.