Part 9 Sheffield

Hi j-land people :-)  Goodness me so many alerts I'm getting now coz everyone's pimping journals to read and they are all so good!!  Anyway just a quick question before part 9 - has any of you AOL people recently received an email with regards to billing information?  I'm not sure whether to open it or just delete it........be grateful if you could let me know - thanks peeps!!

PART NINE:  SHEFFIELD

Trina and I got up around 7ish (i think) and decided to stop downstairs for breakfast before we go to the venue.  Just when we were thinking we weren't gonna get charged for breakfast, we tell them what we want the waitress then mentions how much we have to pay.  This does not help my mood LOL........So we decide to stay, Trina ends up having toast and I had the full english only it was just stuff kept in metal trays that had probably been there all morning *eugh* and I ended up paying £9 for it!!  Still at least it set me up for the day even if I didn't want it.  We had asked the receptionist if they had a number of a 24hr cab company the night before so we called them and they turned up and took us to the venue.  The cab company was called 'mercury' LOL........the driver was nice he was telling us about the venue.  We got there about 9ish and there was already about 20 or so people there already.  The usual gang plus other people I did not know!  We joined them and there was a usual discussion with security staff about which door is closer to the stage.  Apparently they were gonna open every door at the same time (there were quite a few of them)  but somebody said the door on the other side of the venue was closest to the stage so the usual gang went round to wait there.  At least we wouldn't have people in front of us. 

The sun was out when we got there but it soon disappeared and started raining.  There was no shelter for us so we had to grin and bear it if we wanted to remain in the queue.  Sarah was still ill by this point and decided to go and sit in her car, Cat joined her.  Julie had her 'moon' chair and Vern had a chair too.  Jamie had pinched another blanket from her hotel room and was huddled underneath it.  I only had a jeans, t-shirt and my fleece on and the wind was howolling (not spelt right??!!) round with the rain coming down.  I went and stood under one of the trees that was nearby.  Trina went and joined Cat and Sarah in the car.  She kept urging me to do the same but I couldn't be bothered and was (although cold) quite happy were I was!  At one point to shelter from the rain I picked up Gavin's chair and put it on me head lol........What was also funny during this queue is we started talking about how cheesy Paul is!!

Everytime a new person joined the queue, they came round to our side of the building.  Monty (who had not been happy at Manchester) turned up, hoping he would get in ok this time.  Trina came round with food from Burger King a bit later, then much later the hotdog van opened and we all had hotdogs :-)  I ventured off for a walk at one point to use Burger King loos.  The venue was open for the blokes to use their loos but the ladies was inside and we weren't allowed in there.  Some of us managed to sneak in and see the stage being built, until some security person told us to get out.  LOL.......The Burger King loos were nasty and no toilet paper!!  But at least it got me in the warm for a couple of mins   Andy turned up later and had told Gavin not to laugh when he saw him.  All intrigued why, it was relieve to finally see what he meant.  He dyed his hair blond!-bless him!!

It was soon time for them to let us in.  Security told us where we had to go etc.......the queue was growing big style by this point and all the usual gang, well apart from Vern and Gavin were all starting to panic.  They gave the nod for us to go, so we ran up the steps and had to go through a turnstile type thing.  I was dead chuffed with myself coz I finally pushed my way through :-)  Then we had to go along to another door and the bloke let us in, down the walkway and some people were checking tix before they let us down the steps for us to get to the barrier.  Confusion reigned and they called Sarah and Jamie back.  It was a flippin' nightmare coz we could all see the barrier filling up.  Trina and I eventually got to the right hand side of the barrier by the platform.  All the gang were finally stood in a line altogether!!  It went Trina, me, cat, sarah, andy, gavin, jamie, vern, julie (I think!!)  Oh and Sarah's mates from Sheffield must've been there but I can't remember where *embarrassed look*

Not long before the band came on we were told that the gig was being filmed for video and TV.  We all knew it was being filmed but I had no idea it was for TV too.  Anyway I had a good gig, but I know a lot of the fans were disappointed, not just because the lights were on a lot of time over the audience but also because the audience didn't seem to be getting into it.  Sarah, Cat, Trina and myself certainly did and I only hope that people don't see that on the forthcoming DVD (possible release date of the 13th September) don't think we were just doing it for the cameras.  We weren't we had been to all the UK gigs and done the same.  Sorry I don't know why I'm trying to justify myself, I just wanted to voice that and here is where I do that a lot of the time :-)  Also before the band came on their head security came over to Gavin and Sarah and asked them not to throw the condoms.  They responded with 'have you told Roger?'  Basically if they hadn't he was bound to still ask if anyone had a condom.  Naturally he hadn't said a word to Roger so bargaining ensued.  Sarah said, 'give me roger and I won't throw them.'  I only asked for a drumstick I was obviously setting my sights far too low LOL.........In the end he gave up, coz he knew we'd throw them anyway ;-)

Ok so here's the highlights:  They were starting to play some good rockin' tunes before the gig such as Red Hot Chilli's etc....It was back to the full set list again.  Roger cut his drum solo short saying he didn't want to bore us.....I was not amused with this LOL.........There was a new running theme with him where he'd have a dig at Ginger Baker (Cream drummer), don't ask me what it was about.  Unless Roger tells us we can only speculate.  He messed up during the lyrics to These Are The Days, bless him.  Someone chucked a Tigger on stage and firstly Paul looked like he was gonna trip over it, then he saw it and picked it up and started singing whilst holding it to his mic.  It looked really funny like he needed his ickle teddy bear.........awwww......lol......he kept it by the way ;-) 

Whenever we are at these gigs Trina and I often have a conversation along the lines of: T-Oh my god did you see him look at you then? J-No darn it!!  (about Roger!!)  This time the conversation went:  T-Oh my god he looked at you then, J (grinning from ear to ear)-Yes I saw that!!  LOL........He finally looked at me during a gig, it only took him,...what, 5 gigs!!  LOL.........ah well he gets there in the end LOL........They played Under Pressure but said it was just for us there at Sheffield and wasn't gonna be on the DVD.  Condoms were thrown during Say It's Not True, then Brian came on to do his spot and sung Love of My Life and told us that Freddie's mum was there (sniff, sniff), :-(  Afterwards he mentioned about how there were a lot of condoms on the stage, picked one up and chucked it.................

  Guess who caught it LOL........I have Brian May's condom!!  I just put my hand up and caught it no problem.  I was really chuffed I'd caught it - don't ask me why, I guess I wanted to go home with a momento!!  I love telling people it's Brian's lol..............Anyway during We are the Champions Sarah, Cat, Trina and myself were filmed coz we'd all linked arms :-)  When the band came down to the platform at the very end all four of us did the 'we're not worthy' thing again.  Spike noticed and eventually Paul did and blew us a kiss :-)  Not a bad gig and can't wait to see the DVD ;-)

 

As we didn't take many pics at Sheffield - thought I'd share one of the lighting rig with you :-)

Not a great photo of it but I have chopped it a bit,it really was quite impressive!!

After the gig the gang dispearsed.  Trina and I decided to hang around and see if we could see anybody.  We did see Freddie's family leaving bless them!!  Eventually Michelle and the people she was with started running and a couple of them got into a car and drove off.  I said to Trina that it probably meant the band were leaving by the other exit.  I was right, so we'd missed them!!  We headed back to our hotel and got some sleep.........only Wembley left!!

I shall leave you there for now............Hope you all doin' ok!

Take care

Jen xx