Part 6 Birmingham and Late Nights

Hi *waves* Well I've survived the last couple of days at work!!  Team leaders due back tomorrow *phew* lol........Jim and Pete have been keeping me amused!!  They were talking about making a film of the volleyball team they've got together.  If I hear the word montage once more LOL.........Never mind!!  Onwards with part 6

Birmingham cont........

We all had the usual conversation as to where we were all going to stand.  Sarah decided she wanted to try the front barrier right by the main stage.  I wanted to join her so we could have a good view of Roger :-) behind his drum kit all evening!!  Trina was fine with this (which did surprise me) and decided to join Cat in front of the platform.

Eventually the doors were opened.  There was the first set of doors, then another set, and then another set.  So the first set was opened, we all scrambled in and ran to the next set.  Yet again I'd lost 'em all!!  I could hear them but couldn't see them!!  I'd also seen Becky (Sarah's mate) fall down.  She was near Trina on my left hand side so I did manage to find out that she was ok!!  The venue people started to play the UK Hall of Fame thingy on screens behind us.  As I was surrounded by 6ft tall people I couldn't see a thing and I wanted to see Julie and Vern in the audience.  Instead I had this random woman talking to me about how she'd been to some F1 drivers house and Brian turned up with his son Cliff?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!    Any Queen fan knows his sons called Jimmy!  As soon as she said that I knew I had to get away from her but as I was squashed in there was nowhere to hide, someone must of heard my thoughts though coz they opened the this set of doors.  This time as we ran through there were two sets of doors to choose.  I went to the right as I saw everyone else head that way :-)

Vern, Gavin etc, tried bargaining with the security people to let those that were there early in first.  They always say that if you don't ask you don't get........guess what.........they got!!  They decided to allow one person in to say who had been there early and let them into the next holding part before everyone else.  So they pulled Julie through and she pointed out the ones who had been there early.  I pushed Fairy and funster forwards as they were there before me, but somehow Trina and I managed to get through too :-)  Nice one Jules is all I can say ;-)  Vern said afterwards that there was someone behind him saying 'tell them we were here earlier get us through as well.' Of course Vern didn't recognise them from the queue so didn't grant them their request.

So there was 10/15 of us in another holding area.  The security people said when they give the signal we had to go round to the right.  We just couldn't believe how nice these security people had been, definitely 10/10, even better than Newcastle, but believe it or not the amount of niceness didn't stop there!!  Whilst in this new holding area though all of us started assuming what nastiness was gonna be said about us on the forums later that day.  We all decided we were the new 'royal' family!!  Or even better the 'royal sheep' lol......(The royal family were nicknamed by Freddie coz they did so many shows and made the front row every night!!)  Roger's PA, Justine walked past, which gave me a great opportunity to give her a letter for Roger.  I walked up to her and said 'Justine can you pass this onto Roger please?' handed her the letter and she said 'sure' and put it in the pocket of her jeans.  I had managed to do it but I couldn't get over the fact she didn't ask me what was in it!!  I have no idea whether she did actually give it to him or not, (I have backed this up by sending a copy in the post ;-) but I shall keep you posted if I ever receive a reply. 

The signal was given for us to go round but, shock horror, there was another queue round there and they were letting them in first!!  Guess what they did??  They held back that queue, told them they had to wait and let us through :-)  Isn't that cool??  So everyone made the barrier and Sarah and I made it to wherewe wanted to be, between the main stage and the catwalk.  Trina and Cat were at the front of the platform and I could see Trina from where I was :-)  As the rest of the crowd was let in some girls I know stood behind Sarah and me!!  To be honest Trina and I were friends with them at one point but since then Trina and I feel let down by them and I didn't like the idea of standing in front of them!!  Trina spoke to me through Sarah's mobile and asked if I was alright, I said 'kinda' not wanting to give too much away!!  It's quite petty I know but I would've felt a lot happier if they had not been there!

SETLIST: Reaching Out, Tie Your Mother Down, I Want To Break Free, Fat Bottomed Girls, Another One Bites The Dust, Wishing Well, Crazy Little Thing, Say It's Not True, Year of '39, Love of My Life, Drum solo, I'm In Love With My Car, Guitar solo, Last Horizon, Hammer To Fall, These Are The Days, Radio Ga Ga, Can't Get Enough, A Kind of Magic, I Want It All, Bohemian Rhapsody, (encore) Under Pressure, All Right Now, We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions.

It was quite amusing coz where we were standing it really did look like Roger was looking at you, but halfway through the gig (yes it did take me that long LOL) I realised he's reading the autocue which was in front of us damn it!!  Anyway here's the highlights...........During Tie Your Mother Down (i think) Paul started walking down the catwalk, scanning the crowds faces, when he spotted Sarah.  He backed up, and started singing to her -  Pictorial evidence :-) See how he's pointing LOL......Bless him!!  Unfortunately from where Sarah and I were we couldn't partake in the condom throwing but Roger was expecting it so when everyone threw them he laughed, bless him!!  When Brian went down to the platform for his solo spots, Love of my Life etc, apparently he kept looking in Trina's direction, (one night she wore a brian t-shirt, can't remember which one LOL).  They played Another One Bites The Dust for the first time, apparently they had been rehearsing it in Newcastle (I didn't hear it!!), Paul had to read the autocue all the way through it but it was really good and had some audience participation which I like :-)  Roger's girlfriend came out and danced near to where Sarah and I were, which surprised me coz she's usually on the other side!!  Halfway through drumming in one song, one of Roger's drumsticks left his hand and flew across the stage.  Whether that was meant to happen or not I have absolutely no idea!!  He soon had another one in his hand though, what a professional!!  During the gigs Paul has this thing about chucking his mic stand in the air and catching it usually to signal the end of a song, Roger had been trying to copy him chucking his drumstick in the air and pretending to try and catch but usually failing.  (He tried four times in one gig abroad!!) Well in Birmingham, he went one better and chucked 4 sticks in the air at the same time and then realised they were coming down on his head so he had to duck, it was quite comical!!  He also spat - now I know what your thinking 'that's disgusting why is she telling us.'  My web mates at roger-taylor.net will be interested to know lol.  Unfortuately though guys this is second hand information from Trina and there is no pictorial evidence.  At the end Roger usually chucks his drumsticks into the audience, if memory serves me correctly that night Paul grabbed one and chucked it towards Sarah and myself, intending for one of us to catch it, but we both missed it and one of those girls behind us caught it!!  I was not amused!!  Still a great gig

 

(you can all take part in the great roger photo debate between myself and Trina - that one above, I took it (yes finally I get a great pic, they are usually taken by Trina!!) anyway she swears he's looking at the camera and I say he's not!!  What do you guys think?? I'd love to know!!)

Anyway afterwards Gavin had a bit of an argument with one of the unofficial merchandise people outside.  It was so funny they told him that they could tell what type of person he was by what he was wearing.......LOL.......We all wandered round to the back and soon Sarah, Cat, Becky, Gavin and I think Andy went with them!!decided to leave.  Sarah had to drive home and Cardiff was the next day.  Trina and I stayed round the back and started talking to Michelle and asked if she wanted to stay with us.  She agreed and we all decided we would wait to see the band before we left.

Leaving it there for the evening.......tomorrow read all about how long it took us to get out of the NEC and get to bed!! 

Take care peeps