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Watching Kylie Minogue From the VIP Bubble

by Zoe Strimpel
Mon, 28 Jul 2008 at 10:48 PM

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Time was, a pop concert meant gay men, sweaty teens, and girlfriends on a night out standing, swaying, and spending at least half an hour of the show in line for a Coke and nachos. In England, replace nachos with "chips." A "VIP experience" at a pop concert? Only for celebrities and royals. Anyway, times have changed.

In London, a city in the grip of a taste for luxury and the good things in life with or without the funds to support such preferences (I find myself caring unduly about the precise source of the British beef I order in restaurants and swooning over such seasonal foods as samphire that I'd never even heard of a couple of years ago), even pop concerts have become a scene for wining, dining, and private viewing. On Saturday night I caught a glimpse of the new pop experience (if you have an extra £150 — or $299 — to burn), the occasion being a press evening at the Kylie Minogue show at the 02 Arena in Greenwich.

Gaucho Grill, the middling steakhouse chain, has a bizarrely swanky setup there (chandeliers and a sunken bar). We were whisked into a world of Veuve Clicquot, a dinner in a private dining room complete with wines from the "cellar," and, for the pièce de résistance, a box at the side of the arena from which Kylie could be viewed in VIP isolation. It was great, but there was something odd about bopping along with a three-course steak dinner in my belly and wine in the hand, my view unobstructed by fellow fans. The good life is all very well, but sometimes the old-fashioned way is just more fun.

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