Pressure On

Well I wanted to share this tour diary with you last year and completely forgot but I won't forget this year ;-)

1999 - a pretty good year for me!!  Followed Roger around on tour whilst I was unemployed ;-), got a job at the council, year of the eclipse - that was the day I started my job!!  I'm sure there were other good things but I can't remember them now LOL.........

Anyway here's the diary as I wrote it back then so forgive me for the writing..........

March 15th - Gloucester Guildhall

The start of the tour!!  We set off quite early with a few train changes to make!  I couldn't listen to Electric Fire on the walkman as it was making me too nervous just thinking about it.

Got to Gloucester and on our way to the B&B took a look at the queue.  Familiar faces but only about 5/6 people there.  Once checked into the B&B we went back to the Guildhall to queue.  Got there at 1.30pm.  Six people in front of us, they were, Lisa, Sarah, Helen, Brenda, Alison, and Sarah.  Between them they kept checking the back entrance.  Trina and I hadn't eaten much so I went off to get something to eat.  After a little walk and a Macdonald's in hand, I went back to the queue.  OH MY GOD!!  No-one was there........Lots of things entered my mind......had they been let in early?  Were they meeting Roger?  Where were they?  (Editors note - please remember this was before EVERYONE had mobile phones!!).  All of a sudden Trina's walking up to me.  Apparently he had just gone in, was sound-checking and was due out at any moment.  So we made our way to join the others and listened to him sound checking.  Whilst waiting we heard practically the whole set, so we knew he was gonna do Under Pressure and other stuff, BRILLIANT!!

Eventually he came out!!  He looked so perfect, he was wearing proper glasses so you could see his blue eyes.  GORGEOUS!  We managed to get him to sign stuff, well Trina did.  She pushed her way through and he signed her Electric Fire cd cover.  He also brushed fingers as he took the pen from her!!  He signed Lisa's leg, which she went and had tattoed.  It looks good, if you ever meet her ask her if you can see it.  Anyway after that was over there was a long wait till the concert actually started.  But even though all 8 of us had left the queue we were still in front when we went back :-)

The gig started about twenty past eight when Roger's guest Treana Morris came on.  (Editors note - She's now the singer for a band called Wire Daisies - look them up their really good :-)   He found her in a pub in Cornwall apparently!!  Now before Roger comes on I'm going to tell you another story.  I took a liking to his guitarist in the first ever gig I went too.  His name was Jason Falloon.  At the time one of my penpals sent me a pic of him from the Shepherds bush Empire gig 14/10/98 so I was looking for him from what he looked like in that pic.  When Roger was signing autographs I watched some of the other people coming out of the door.........desperate to see Jason.  A bloke walks out and I think to myself, 'He looks like jason but it can't be he has too much hair.'   We had made it to the front row and We Will Rock You, Roger's first song starts up.  Guess what?  It was Jason!!  Anyway the whole concert had started but you could tell the band and roger were nervous!!

Just so I don't bore you stupid I shall only give you the highlights.

- He announced a song wrong.

- His flies were undone (many photos taken) *cough*

- He knocked a light off the stage

- When he came over to our side of the stage (we were stood on Jason's side), Sarah stroked Roger's leg.  He glared at Trina who pointed to Sarah and said 'It was her not me!!'   He grinned at Trina and at some point before anyone else shook her hand.  I was livid!!  It just wasn't fair!!

I was sharing moments with Jason though :-)  and he always smiled at me after I took his photo.  grrrr....

Believe this or not but Roger then came back over to the front and shook my hand Arrrrggggghhhhhhhhh........His hand shake is lovely, it's so firm he literally grabs your hand.  Anyway what else happened?  Oh yeah, Martin Chambers, drummer from the Pretenders was there!!  Not much else happened except Jason shook my hand as he was walking off, (I had meant to ask for his plectrum!) His hand shake wasn't as firm as Roger's, it was sweaty.  Sarah got his plectrum and Trina told me to ask her for it.  So I did and I offered to pay money for it, but she gave it to me anyway.  Oh my god I had Jason's plectrum.  Wow what a night!!

After the gig we went round to the back exit, but we couldn't see Roger, what with security guards.  We saw the band get into their van.  After Roger had left Trina and I walked back to the B&B and looked forward to what the next day was going to have in store.

 

Tomorrow - Cardiff :-)