Queen stuff and travel diary London

Hey everyone :o)  Unforunately I do not feel like I'm in a good mood right now although I am unsure as to why!!!!!!  The Queen tour dates were announced today so Trina and I are busy planning which ones we want to go too.  So far it will definitely be the whole of the UK ones and possibly one or two abroad.  I'm trying to convince her we need to do the second to last date in Vienna, plus that's on a Saturday so not too much time off work lol..........Not sure I wanna do the last date which is in Dubai!!!!!!

The main annoyance with the tour so far is how much Brian May orientated it is!!  We all know he's a PHd in physics or scientific stuff and guess what the tour is called ........'Rock The Cosmos'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  How flippin' cheesy is that??  Well to be fair I've never heard something worse................This does not bode well!!  For those of you that might be interested in the new material they are working on with Paul Rodgers and live in the UK should check out the Al Murray show on the 4th April coz apparently they are gonna play one of their new songs ~ or at least the song is gonna get an airing...........

I don't think I am excited about the album, I think curious is more the word I would describe it.  I mean we have been promised an album with the song they released in December last year which technically was a cover and one other cover (no idea what that is!!) so this only leaves new material...............I guess this is bringing back feelings of the gig we went to in Brixton 2005 when this whole Queen/Paul Rodgers thing was new and we had all brought tickets and weren't sure we were even gonna like it. 

Sorry I don't mean to go on about it here but it's stuff I'm thinking about lol.......Otherwise not much else is happening so I shall just post the next instalment of tour diary :o)  I left you at the end of the Foo Fighters show in Cardiff which was in November last year.............so we are still in that week and let's continue with the next one we went too.......enjoy xx

FOO FIGHTERS - O2 DOME, LONDON - 17th NOVEMBER 2007

I met up with Trina and Wayne at the train station, they were in the cafe having breakfast, and it was really busy in there, bless Wayne he got me a chair. As there are train works on the line between Plymouth and Exeter our train started from Exeter so it was already there and waiting, we just had to wait till they opened the doors before we could get on. Luckily we didn't have to wait long, but we couldn't find any unreserved seats so we had to sit in the ones we had saved. This meant that the three of us couldn't sit together. Trina decided she wanted to sit next to me so she could listen to my mp3 player with me. I had been convinced it would be me on my own!! Still Wayne was sat in front of us and before the train started moving we attacked him with the safety cards and poked him............ he did retaliate, in case you were feeling sorry for him!! We are all just children really........... Trina and I had a good journey listening to new music and old stuff on the mp3 player and chatting about work, music and life in general.

The train pulled into Paddington on time and we met Sheila in the station. She had kindly agreed for us to stay at hers. Unfortunately we had not been able to get her a ticket (Since made up for this as the Foo's are playing Wembley in June 2008 woohoo) we explained that we had a plan to stalk the band so Sheila suggested we go to the venue first as it was quite a way to get to her place, (she lives just outside of London). So we caught the tube and after changing lines a couple of times arrived at the O2 dome. I had never been to the dome when it had first been built, wasn't into all the hype that surrounded it but now I was slightly intrigued by the big tent!! We made our way inside the venue after feeling slightly disheartened by the outside. There were fences everywhere........this did not bode well!! As I was dying for the loo we went to find some. The entrance is very weird, there is one of those security bag check thingys and members of security all over the place, but you are not made to go through this check. As we entered we weren't sure whether or not we had to go through it until we saw a couple of other people go through with bags. So we didn't go through the check, but Sheila did.

Just outside the venue is miles upon miles of food places, cafes, restaurants and bars. Also there is a cinema, an ice rink and what looked to be a place to play computer games. We found the loo's and then went to find the queue or at least a backstage area. Walking past some of the food places you had to feel sorry for the staff, there was one bloke dressed up like a sailor and looked very gay indeed, poor thing!! Past the ice rink and a bit further one we found people sitting down behind a barrier and more security people. We couldn't walk any further down this way as they had blocked it off!! Was this the queue? There wasn't many people sat there, mind you it did feel a bit cold in this part of the tent, even if you are technically inside!! I was giving up on the idea of finding the backstage area but thought we should have a look around outside, just as I voiced this thought, Trina (with suitcase in tow), went to ask a security man where the backstage area was!! I started to walk away, thinking that what she was doing looked very stalkerish and in front of those fans sat there peacefully!! Looking back on it though I suppose with the suitcase it could look like she was with the artist but knowing Trina she would've given the game away with her question!!

 

So we walked back the way we came with Trina informing us that the security guards said there was no way to access the backstage area!! Still the decision was taken that we would walk around the venue outside just to confirm this. It wasn't that we didn't believe them, it was just I didn't want to give up.......damn it!! On the way out Trina wandered over to look at the Merchandise stall. As the staff hadn't finished setting it up I watched a video about the dome and there was a clip of Bon Jovi arriving with fans waving at them from a bridge. Where was that bridge? Could we get to it? Would we be able to spot the Foo's from it? I mentioned this to Trina and we waited for the Bon Jovi clip to be shown again!! It was on a continual loop you see. Eventually it did come round but it wasn't giving away any clues, damn it. So we headed outside anyway, and turned left and followed the road round. There was a hospitality area behind the bushes, which inspired impersonations of (oh god the name escapes me!!) This led to the river and a boat was arriving at the bottom of the jetty. I joked that Dave and the band were on it, which we all knew wasn't true but it didn't stop us from standing there and watching the people on board get off. Trina and Sheila started walking on after a while. Wayne and I had no idea where they were going but we decided to follow them anyway!! But it was very cold, with a chilly wind!!

Halfway round a helicopter was flying over head so we joked about that being them but it just flow away!! We could see into the area behind the O2, separated by a fence and every now and then a car went past. I kept moaning that they weren’t the Foo’s. There was a group of people, who to me and Trina looked like concert goers and we figured they had, had the same idea as us. We stopped debating whether to carry on or not and Trina and I decided that we should let them go passed us. For a couple of minutes they stopped too, but eventually walked passed us. We carried on when they were out of sight, with the thinking that we’ve walked this far we may as well carry on.

We walked the whole way round and just as we were coming back round to the front though we could see a sign that read ‘backstage area’. We couldn’t get any closer to it then the road so Trina and I ambled along hoping to see something. We reached a main road at this point, but I didn’t wanna cross the road in the hope that if the band had to drive up to get backstage they would do so in this area. So Trina and I made a joke about how we couldn’t cross as there were cars coming (there was nothing coming in either direction). We did cross over eventually and made a decision to stand on the corner of this road next to the bus station; we could see the entrance to the back stage bit. Sheila and Wayne decided it was too cold for them, so they made their way back inside the arena to get a hot drink. Trina and I were freezing but we just couldn’t give up. To make us look better and not feel so sad that we were probably waiting in the wrong spot anyway we made up a story that we were waiting for a bloke called Dave to come and pick us up. We’d make comments about ‘that not being his car etc.. It was very funny!!

After about an hour or so we gave up. It was getting late and we needed to drop our bags off at Sheila’s and get back for the gig. We called Sheila and Wayne and agreed to meet them at the tube station which we were very close too. We sat there waiting for them and watched the crowds of people going to the arena or coming back from. We kept trying to work out who was possibly going to the gig or not. Eventually the other two arrived and we caught the tube to Liverpool St Station.

Once we got there we looked into buying another ticket. Whilst we were doing this Sheila had contacted our Queen friend Mark. He was due into Liverpool St Station on his way home so we agreed to wait for him to say hi. We went into a pub which was actually situated on the station and decided to order some food and have a drink. We needed warming up!! Trina and I both decided to have a burger, Sheila had the veggie option burger and Wayne had a chicken/bacon warm salad. Trina and Wayne went to order the food and were told that we would have to wait 40 minutes as the chef was not in. So we had a gossip and a laugh whilst we were waiting. There was some football match on………I think it was the qualifiers for the euro cup, when such and such had to beat such and such for us to qualify or something like that - so Wayne was happy.

 

I shall leave you there for now before you moan about it being another long entry LOL There was other stuff I was gonna mention like Dancing On Ice Final and how I've brought Trina a pressie but she doesn't know what LOL ;-)  But that's just to tease her lol  I'm off to see Trina at the weekend so I shall see you sometime during the weekend xx 

Have a good 'un people

Oh and good luck to Gaz who's getting hitched tomorrow...........hope it went well hun xx

Tags: Queen tour 2008, Foo London part one, Rock the cosmos