Oxford-May 6th

Well, it was an easy morning for us girls as we only had a 1.5 hour drive from Bristol to Oxford so I was up early (well, semi-early…8am) to blog and then we all had a casual little bite in the hotel room before heading out. Since Oxford is only an hour drive from Paula’s house, we weren’t staying in a hotel for the night, just driving back. However, we had to get to the city early because this was one of two gigs I had a Gold package for. 😀

We made it in with plenty of time but then circled the city looking for a parking spot LOL. Finally found one and then made our way to the venue. Across the street was a nice little pub so we walked on in and gradually more fans/friends arrived.  Sue, Julie, Duncan and his 2  daughters, and Kathryn.  When it was time, we headed back down, meeting up with Mark, and it seemed the packages for the night  sold well as I would guess there were about 75 people.  It was going to be the first time seeing a sound check with seats though.  In America, it’d always been GA so I wasn’t sure just how things would work. As it turned out, we got in near the end of the crowd so we went to the stage left side but as Mark said, this way we could stand and dance (or bounce in our case but I’ll get to that in a bit :wink:).  Most people remained seated but some got up and took pics and/or danced.  In the beginning, they had to do some stuff for Mr. C. so to kill time, Mr. M. started to tell us the story of his bass guitars (because he had brought out ’69 to tune it up as his back up to Old Faithful).  This pretty much answered why Old Faithful is here right now. Hopefully I get this right but ’69 has better sound but he had taken the neck off another bass and put it on ’69. However, it didn’t feel right to him…too wide, so he is going to get the old neck back on…shoot, I think on ’69 (or maybe it was back on the other one…ugh, can’t quite remember). But in any case, he liked the sound of the other (vs. Old Faithful)  but it’s just not the right feel for him. Well, he made a comment that once he got things sorted out with the proper neck, he’d paint the  bass gray and I thought “wait, then how will I know if it’s Old Faithful or not?” but then I saw ’69 isn’t solid black in the middle and the other one he had that seemed white and was what he started the American tour out with isn’t solid black in the middle either so I’ll know when he brings out the “imposter”.  They did a good array of songs, some I’d heard already in sound check, but a couple I hadn’t…KtM and Metroland. AND…HoM! Mark and I were super excited since it’s our major bouncing song and we were together in the sound check….we got a practice run of bounce for the night. 😆 😀  They seemd to really like the sound coming out of the boards too…especially Chickey. He was very happy LOL.  Mr. M. joked maybe it was the lot of us scattered ever so that was making it sound good and maybe we should just have the show with all of us and not let anyone else in…sounds good to me. 😆  Just as we were leaving, they stopped us and asked if we’d join them in singing happy birthday to a friend of theirs who was turning 50 and who had done photographs for them. It was Innes’s special day so we all sang to him and after, the band presented a blown up poster size print of one of his own photos that they had all signed. He was thrilled and said they’d been part of his life since he was 16 so this meant a lot to him. Awwww! 😀

When it was over, we went outside for a bit of waiting around and then Kathryn, Mark and I went back to his hotel room to have a cup of tea and make use of his free wi-fi as I had finished the blog at the hotel that morning but hadn’t been able to get it all together with pics and such.  Time flew and before we knew it, it was almost 19:00 so a quick stop for a small munchie at Sainsbury (well it ended up I was the only one who bought something…gotta say I’m loving the fact it’s so easy to find plain greek yogurt around here! :D)  and then we eventually met up with Paula and Steph. Kathryn’s seat was a few rows back from Mark and I, Steph and Paula were behind us and a couple seats over and Mark and I were center second row…yay! 😀

Well, Oxford New Theatre was a really lovely theatre and with 2 balconies, it was fairly large also. We got there in time to see John Foxx (Steph, Mark and I bopping around a bit, Paula looking like she was having to endear a 6 hour meeting LOL) but again, I wasn’t sure about recording as there was a guard right by us. I found out very quickly that not only were they going to ban video recording, but also pictures because Mark went to take one of JF and the guard came over to make him stop. OMG, no PICTURES? 😯 Shoot! I immediately thought “Well, that’s fine for JF but how am I going to get some pics for the blog? Gonna be the shortest and most boring blog ever if I can’t sneak a few.” 🙁 (as it went, I was able to sneak a few but not without worry! Mark would step forward to try and block me but man, was the guard strict! He was busting people left and right, never seen such banning of just pictures! 😯 :sad:)

Mark joked that we’d have to “all remain seated for PRS” and we did…hahaha, but once Metroland started, up a bunch of us went and it wasn’t long until most  of the area around us was up….except most of the front row center! 😯 NOT that I was complaining because hey, clearer view LOL, it was just a bit strange.  The one girl in front of me who DID get up, tried to get her friend up and when she didn’t, I leaned in and said “come on, you know you want to hun, go for it!” She laughed but shook her head.  I also saw for the first time, a huge propeller thing that was on the side of the stage. I was like “OMG, look at THAT!” and Mark said they had it at Margate too but I hadn’t seen it at the other gigs.  Well, when Metroland was over, Mr. M. made a comment about dancing being a cure to something (sorry, forgot) and that got the remaining people up (except for one girl in our row, not sure why but she sat down the whole time. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well or something. :sad:). The girl who had hesitated even got up and I patted her on the shoulders and said “whoo hoo, you go girl!” and we both laughed. 😆

Tesla Girls got people moving around a lot and when Dresden came up, Mr. M. stated that it is now on Radio 2’s playlist…nice!  Being up closer, I could see Mr. C. better (though still having difficulty seeing Mr. H.#2…my guess is due to the drums being up higher. :sad:) and he was all smiles.  Mr. H. was quite boppy himself during HoM (Mark and I joked that we’d just sit that one out since we already bounced to it in sound check….as if! :wink:) and after that, Mr. M. said he had to make a special dedication to  15 specific people. “those of you in the upper balcony. It’s under renovations so they sold those seats to the most volitile dancers.  Don’t worry those in the circle, you’re insured if they come crashing down on you. You’re insured by the same American insurance company who paid for this next song….HA, what a lead in!” 😆  Well, more people singing along and doing the finger motion so that was cool to see.

FLaD found Mr. H. out front and everything going well for Mr. M. and after that, it was swaying for Night Cafe.  Then the A&M trio. I’ve gotta say, not that there was a problem with Night Cafe being in the middle, but it’s kind of cool to see all three A&M songs together too. 😀 And a great response after JoA/MoO!  Smiles on all the guys faces and I looked back to see a lot of people  standing in the balcony clapping.

Our System was as beautiful as always AND, the propeller thing came back, setting a really cool backdrop. As if the song isn’t beautiful enough already…. Then it was time for Mr. M. to take a break “since it’s summer outside, I’m goiing to sit down for this one” (it IS gorgeous weather over here, OMG! :D) Well, he had his water bottle but he also had a towel…which he ended up throwing out to the girl in front of me (the one that was up right away and dancing the whole time). She was absolutely ELATED! It was so cute! She caught it and gave it a squeeze like “OOMMGGGGG!” then thanked him, then squeezed it again and was just so excited, Mr. M. definitely made her night! 😀

Mr. M. looked up at the balcony and asked if they were still OK and a nice cheer went out.  When SiL came on, Mark and I started to bounce again and SMS found Steph and Paula truly joining the congregation (they had their hands too low in Bristol :lol:) but due to not being in the front with a rail to hold on, Mark had a harder time keeping balance so we held on to each other…and did pretty well since I only had to apologize for jumping on the poor guy next to me’s foot twice the whole rest of the night 😳 😆  During the “I don’t know exactly what I’d do” part, Mr. M. came over and moved Mr. H.s mic stand way to the side before Mr. H. laughingly grabbed it back and “Jesus” was a fan in the crowd tonight.

SotSS…gotta say a major hats off to the crowd as the sing along was awesome! 😀  Mr. C. had a grand time doing his solo tonight and when Enola Gay came on, it was all bodies moving. When they gathered around to say their introductions of each other, lots of cheers and as they walked off, the girl in front of me that got Mr. M.s towel made a gesture at him and he responded with a point and wave. I figured another thank you but as the guys came back out, Mr. H. came and threw her one of HIS towels! :shock:….a matching set! 😆 😆 (actually, forgot to say that the towel Mr. H. had during the show…because he threw her something else when he came back out, had a stripe down it that glowed green in the dark, it was hilarious to watch him wipe his face with it beaming LOL). Well, yet ANOTHER great sing along for WotMW, one of the best I’ve heard in awhile, then the closer of Electricity with Mark and I having one final bounce of joy…then it was done. 🙁 But not before the guys thanked us for being brilliant and happily waved goodbye.   It was the usual group photo on Marks camera then goodbyes to some as we all made our way outdoors. Another successful evening! 😀

So highlight of the night…hahahaha, this was totally spontaneous but that’s part of what made it so great! We went and waited outside for the guys as Kathryn had never done it before and thought it fun, I saw it as more chance to visit and we both thought maybe get a pic so out to the back stage door we went. There were quite a few people waiting but eventually Mr. M. came out and started signing things and taking pics. We were at the end and when he made his way over, he signed Kathryns wrist band and then another couple came up so he was talking to them as I was trying to get my camera set to get Kathryns pic with him. They were quite close to me as we had had to move to the sidewalk so the truck carrying all their equipment could come in and load up so I had to lean back. I was just about set when Paula looked and thought  I had them so she started to push the button but they weren’t in pose yet and I didn’t want the flash going off in his eyes so I  quickly turned the camera down…and got a pic of our feet LOL.  After I got the real deal and was showing Kathryn, Paula said “I still like the one of our feet better” so we decided to get a proper one as we all put a foot in. Then Paula suggested we take another one with the camera turned so next came a huddle shot LOL. But then the idea of doing it with the band members was thrown out. By this time Mr. M. had left but Mr. C. had walked out and was saying hi so when he was done with the crowd, Steph asked if he’d come by as we needed him for a picture. LOL he asked “what do I have to do?” and she was like “nothing, don’t worry, we just want a huddle picture” so bless his heart, he huddled with us, she, me and Kathryn put our cameras in pointing up and snapped…and got it! 😆 😀  So then he left and Mr. H. came out so when he was done with the crowd, again Steph asked him and he too was sweet and obliged LOL.  We were on a roll now and really wanted to get one with each guy so Steph joked that maybe she should ask Mr. H. to ask Mr. M. to come back out for a huddle but then out came both him AND Mr. H.#2. 😯  Steph told me to go ask him since she had asked the others but I was a little nervous to and hesitated so Kathryn went up and asked and, like the others, he was great and came over,  joining the huddle.   Then when he was done, we saw Mr. H.#2 leaving so I was closest and ran towards him, calling out, but he was heading to the bus by now so didn’t hear me and again, I was a little nervous and didn’t want to bother him as I knew it was late and they had to get going so I just turned back to the gang. But the 3 we got are hilariously awesome! (and we are still hoping to nab one with Mr. H#2 at some point LOL :wink:)  Bless the guys hearts for playing along!! 😀 😀