Friday 14 January 2005

6 hours and for what?? Read on!!

Hi everyone hope your all ok?  Was a bit surprised to only find two journal entries today where are you all??

 

Wednesday was great I've written up my thoughts feelings etc........What follows is the whittled down version :-P  To read the full version (if you want!!)  Go to roger-taylor.net message board in the backstage area and under news there's two threads.  You'll only need to read the one titled The Long Awaited Report coz this is the second one mainly :-)  Hope you enjoy reading my tale!!

 

Trina (that's me best mate) and me were sitting in row M of the circle.  Not a bad view and made sure we had the binoculars handy just in case.  We hadn’t seen the show since last year in January when we went with our other halfs for Trina’s b-day.  This time it was for Trina’s b-day.  The script had changed again, the dance routines were more energetic and there had been cast changes.  The guy who has taken over from Tony is really good.  I didn’t cry during No-one but you, but when I started thinking of Roger’s non-appearance earlier I did feel like it.  I was still chilly as there was a draft coming from somewhere in there!!  During the interval Trina and I tried to plan our escape route, to make sure we got a good spot at the backstage door again.  Whilst sitting there I spotted G4 (guys from the X-factor) walking along the gangway.  I went for a walk as I couldn’t stand sitting there for much longer.  I was still cold and my bum had gone numb!!  When I got back to my chair the woman behind us said she’d seen roger walking along the gangway.  I was gobsmacked coz surely he would’ve had to walk past me or maybe he appeared from the toilets.  Trina swore blind he didn’t as she was watching the gangway.  I trust her judgement.

 

Second half the cast were on fire.  You could tell they were building up to something!!  During one vision I wondered if Brian was playing the guitar and mentioned it to Trina.  She agreed that it was!!  Unfortunately although we could see the band we couldn’t see the guitarist as he must have been on the other side.  Much laughter ensued during the 2nd half.  It was just electric, the band were on form, the cast were hysterical and up for it and so were the audience.  Just the anticipation was mad!!  Eventually they finished the show with Bo Rhap.  The trap had opened.  I mentioned it to Trina and she said ‘watch out for the puff of smoke’.  Low and behold there was a puff of smoke and Brian came up…….The place went mad….I was screaming my head off……..I had to keep reminding myself to calm down to be able to have enough energy to scream for Roger.  Eventually the Tottenham Court Road tube station set came forward with our lordship on it……OH MY GOD!!  There are no words to describe it.  When Bo Rhap finished they came to the front of the stage and bowed.  (Roger’s hair looked really funny when he bowed. All floppy LOL)  They then went off stage and came back after a while.  Roger said something (but I really can’t remember what it was…….) and then Brian said something whilst Rog went and sat behind his drumkit.  He thanked us lot for coming and mentioned about the proceeds going to the asia tsunami.  What else he said I can’t remember!!  They then played Tie Your Mother Down and Show Must Go On with the cast singing.  I have never screamed and clapped so hard in all my life.  I managed to get some good photos and a couple of video clips.  When they went off stage and the house lights came up, Trina and I bolted it to the back exit……………….

 

When we got round to the backstage exit tons of people were already there.  I was not gonna get downhearted.  I lost Trina in amongst the crowd, so I stood on the pavement opposite the cars.  Then people stood behind the cars so they blocked my view.  I’m not having that I thought.  So I climbed under the barrier next to the cars on the other side of the fence and found a position as close to the fence as possible, right in front of the stage door.  So as soon as they came out I would be able to get a great piccie!!

 

Minutes turned into probably hours.  Still separated from Trina, I was listening to 3 blokes behind me who obviously hadn’t played the waiting game before.  They were really funny, they kept talking about trying to get through the stage door, and how were they going to get home and one was an iron maiden fan and thought the band were crap.  They also had a discussion about wanting to pee but not wanting to move in case they missed something.  Eventually Trina’s gang got moved.  I managed to make eye contact and felt good about the position I was in and knew that when Dean (Roger's driver) made an appearance to get the camera ready.  The bloke beside me was from the press and I wondered which paper!!  So nosey aren't I??

 

After lots of the cast came out in fancy dress (we had seen, robin hood, Austin powers, members from pulp fiction, Kill bill and pretty woman, a fairy, catwoman, and many more), Dean came out and got into the car and drove off.  I managed to get Trinas attention and told her to follow it, but she stayed where she was.  A few minutes later he came back and parked up.  We looked at each other and breathed a heavy sigh of relief.  (Little did we know that they'd decided to walk and went out the front entrance grrr.....!!)  Minutes again turned into hours.  Getting cold again, feet hurting from being stood in one position.  Soon a bloke came to the door and said, ‘There are only 4 people left in this building and none of them are Roger or Brian so you may as well all go.’  I didn’t personally believe him, how could they not be there, the cars were!!  Lots of people went.  I had a conversation with the funny guys about how I didn’t believe that guy and yes I am a hardcore fan!!  Eventually I went and stood with Trina.  Sarah had heard a rumour that they had walked to the club and lead us away from the dominion and to this club.  Rogers car had appeared outside with Dean in it.  Sarah and her mate (Sarah runs the girlonfire web site we met during the EF tour) started talking to Dean who was really sweet.  The decision was to stay there until Roger came out.  It was alright for me and Trina we didn’t have far to get back to the hotel but Sarah and her mate had to drive home to be at work the next day.  There wasn’t many people there!!  That mad woman who I talked about earlier was there unfortunately.  I told Trina that when Neil Murray had come out of the dominion she said is that Roger Taylor?   What a muppet!!

 

Cold, setting in………soon Trina said Roger, and I looked round and there he was signing autographs.  I still can’t get over that he appeared and nobody screamed, nobody shouted, I started to build my hopes up of getting the photo.  The four of us stayed near the car and waited for him to get to us (which the other three said he really appreciated coz you could tell that he wanted to stay and talk to us!)  Sarah handed him her photo.  It was taken back in 98 I think, at an SAS gig and his words after looking at it was “I hate this photo”.  Basically in it he has normal glasses on and was looking over the top of them and his hairline seemed to be receeding.  We all laughed when Sarah got this photo back as he’d coloured in the missing hair………LOL…..bless him.  Sarah’s mate got an autograph.  All the time I’m saying Roger, like a little loss puppy.  However, just as my chance came some absolute bastard in a khaki shirt pushed roger into the car and that was it, he was gone.  Tears filled my eyes……5 hours, cold and for what??  Nothing  I had put all my hopes into getting a photo and nothing!!  Or so I thought…….his car was stopped at the traffic lights.  Sarah’s mate shouted something and I woohooed really loudly so he would’ve heard it.  I watched the car go round the corner and as it did I thought ‘did he just wave?’  I asked the others and only Sarah’s mate saw it.  So we called out to the car, and waved even more……….bless him!!

 

The next decision do we wait for Brian.  It was an overall yes, we had waited this long and we were about as cold as we were gonna get, so why not??  We talked about Roger.  How sweet he was and how he had been forced into the car.  I would’ve got something if they hadn’t have done that.  Trina said she heard him say something when that happened.  She said it sounded a bit like they had winded him.  She also said he had put his hand out.  God if I’d known that I would’ve grabbed hold of it!!  And for those of you wanting to know apart from this khaki shirted guy and Jim Beach the only other person in the car was a woman who I took to be his PA.  She was also crowding round him to make sure he got in the car.

 

An hour later Brian emerged.  The cheek of the man when we asked for a photo he said yeah if it’s quick I’m cold.  We almost said you should stand out here for 6 hours.  I know that’s our choice but really not the point!!  I did get my photo taken with him, but I didn’t think it was gonna come out that well as I still had the roger incident on my mind and I wasn’t really smiling but it’s not that bad!!  All four of us agreed he actually looked really thin and really ill.  Where as Roger still has the thing (to normal people that's a beard with some strange thing just below his bottom lip) and still podgy!!  Bless ‘em!!

 

Not really how I had dreamed that day would turn out and I only wished I had stood in front of Rogers car and demanded that after 5 hours in the cold he gets out of the car and I have a picture with his arm round me grrrrrrr………..LOL…….

 

Thus endeth the jottings of the day of a mad woman who now has a personal vendetta against the bloke in the khaki shirt…….HE HAS BEEN WARNED!!

 

Oh I forgot to mention there was a write up in the Evening Standard.  A horrible report by some snotty nosed critic and the picture has Hannah Jane Fox’s (she plays scaramouche) hand in front of Roger’s face LOL!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering how you got on! Sounds quite exciting, even though you didn't get the photo, but there's always the next time! At least the show sounds really good, quite tempted to go myself! The trouble is that Freddie was my favourite.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/irisclyde/GeminiTaurusRising/

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it was great Jen, 6 hours in the cold though, are you mad?!!  Don't answer that lol.  Shame that dope in the khaki shirt ruined it, probably thought he was on manouevers or summat.
You got some great memories and some photos too, hope you share them :-)
Gary

Anonymous said...

Six hours, are you mad, don't answer that i think i already know the answer, the nloke in the khaki shirt should be shot, didin't he know just how long you waited, some people !! glad you had a good time xx Julie xx, know what you mean about the alerts, it is quiet, or could it be that my entries are boring, Help !

Anonymous said...

Sounds fantastico!!!
Glad you got some good pics, though gutted you didn't get the one you really wanted after waiting for 5 hours.  At least you got a wave :o)
5 hours - you really are a hard core fan aren't you!!
Sara   x