Toronto-July 19th

I’ve been struggling with what to do about this gig and a blog. Initially my thought was “hell NO I’m not doing a blog, I can’t! It’s way too hard and I’m too sad!” and typed up something along that effect Saturday afternoon in the Toronto airport as I was waiting to start my trek home. But there was something that stopped me from posting it.  My friend Sinead, who’d been at the gig with me, had said to write about the happy and good parts and a small part of me felt it just seemed if I walked away from it, I’d be cheating the band because, ironically, before Mr. H.#2 fell ill, it was the best gig of the tour. Better than the first Toronto gig which imho was the best crowd thus far. I was literally in tears at one point as I was SO happy for the guys! Who would have known I’d be crying for another reason less than an hour later but it just seemed that THAT part, the triumph of the band and how much they gave out that night should be known.  If I didn’t tell of it, I’d be doing a dis-service or not respecting them or something. I don’t know how to explain it but I didn’t hit “publish” and instead kept it as a draft and decided to come back a few days later.

It’s now over a week later and I’m still not fully sure but I’ve learned to try and trust my instincts and follow my heart and my heart is saying to write about the greatness and how much everyone was loving it, both the band and the crowd so that’s what I’m going to try and do. I will apologize in advance for a couple things…first and foremost if my writing this offends anyone. It’s not meant to! I’m not trying to minimize what happened, believe me, this is going to be the hardest blog to write as I’m crying already but I know there may be people disagreeing on this so I’ll say I’m sorry.  The other will be the lack of detail because tbh, sadly, at least for right now, the first and main thing that my mind goes to when I think of this gig is the ending so though I’ve had some things slowly come back to me and I can also remember the joy and such in the guys faces (the other main thing my mind goes to, thank God for that! I just wish I had more pictures of their faces with those smiles…), I can’t remember as much detail of when certain things happened or exact things said but I’ll do my best….

Sinead and I had VIP and I was really excited to do sound check with her and have her finally meet the guys.  Chicky was having to work on something technical (though to NO extent of what had to be worked on for the first Toronto gig!)  so Mr. M. came down and sat on one of his monitors. “right, so does anyone else need a picture?” Of course everyone did but people waited in line and I managed to get Sinead with him, much to her joy.  When we did the meet and greet, she didn’t know what to say at first but I told her they’re really sweet and down to earth so just ask them something like “how do you like Toronto?” or something…anything. She told me after “OMG, I had butterflies in my stomach but then I started talking to him (Mr.M.) and they vanished. He was SO nice! They all were!” Yup, that’s the guys for you, bless their hearts!

When it was time to go in, we had found Brydon and Phil and Paula were also coming so it was going to be just like last week only this time Sinead and I were the packagers holding spots for them.  We did the whole sunglasses thing for Diamond Rings and they were able to do the full set this time without a glitch which was great to see since this was their home town area.

It was another sold out show and I honestly didn’t know what to expect since the first Toronto gig was so amazing but I got the feeling it was going to be another brilliant gig when I heard the OMD…OMD…OMD chant start BEFORE the guys even began to come out!  That’s a first!  (just one of a couple firsts) A ton of cheers as PRS started and by the time Metroland began, everyone was clapping and dancing.   When it was over, Mr. M. said “weren’t we just here last week?” and everyone cheered.  He then joked something along the lines of it being a Friday so sure, we got tickets and came to drink and such but we couldn’t be bothered to do a Thursday gig last week but that tonight was going to be for dancing and as Messages started, everyone began to bounce. I looked around and it was like a little hub of people all bopping around together.

By the time TG was done, the looks of dismay and happy surprise that I often see on the guys faces were there as they all just kind of looked at each other. At one point, Mr. C. heard people screaming and, looking up at the balcony, gave a look and nod like “wow, OK then, wow!”  Dresden went down well but HoM…OMG! I can honestly say this was THE best bouncing crowd. Sinead joined in this time which was good because pretty much everyone around me on both sides were up.  When it was over, Mr. C. was literally laughing as was Mr. M. and Mr.H.#2 was sitting there looking out with such a massive smile on his face.

Well, it was Mr. H.s turn next and as he was introducing FLaD, everyone just freaked out with cheers.  Like he did at the first Toronto gig, he slapped hands (and for one, I saw him do the knuckles together greeting) and when it was done, Brydon started yelling “Paul…Paul…Paul…” and within a second or two, the whole place was yelling it. This was where I began to cry because the smile and look on Mr. H.s face…it was SO PRECIOUS!!  I couldn’t help it.  You could just see the joy and excitement in ALL of the bands eyes.   I thought how much I loved all this and to be able to see it….just priceless!  Mr. M. did the repeated bow and Mr. H. just stood there, dumbfounded, his shoulders going up and down as he started laughing, then clapped back and said “wow….thank you!” as it continued a bit more, to his continued laugh and bashful smile to ears end.

It was another fantastic sing-a-long to IYL, probably tied with NYC for the best as Mr. M. took his ear piece out to hear.  Many swayed to Night Cafe and then when the A&M trio started, Souvenir got almost as big a response as FLaD. Mr. H.#2 sat and, waiting like the rest of the band while the cheers for Mr. H. died down, started bobbing back and forth in a happy go lucky motion.  JoA was amazing and when MoO was done, well, I had my highlight of the night….smiles and joy! I had recorded it for Sinead as she loves Mr. M.s windmilling (uploading it to show how amazing the crowd was) and I saw how thrilled she was, that thrill only surpassed by the guys. Mr. H. did repeated bows to Mr. M. who was laughing and thanking us and again, because the cheering kept going, I saw Mr. C. shake his head and laugh. That song truly highlights both Mr. M. and Mr. H#2 and everyone knew it.  It was just amazingly special beyond words!  I remember Mr M., finally recouping from catching his breath, looking down at me and mouthing “fuck” as he shook his head and smiled and I smiled back, giving him 2 thumbs up and mouthing “yay, you did it!”  Sinead turned to me and said “he was great last week but he was even better tonight. He gave it his all”.  I nodded and just kept clapping because really, they were ALL giving it their all. This kind of crowd just fuels the band so they knew. They could feel it and it was coming out of them as much as it was coming out of us!

As Our System was about to start, Mr. M.  joked and said “for obvious reasons this next one is a slow one” and I just loved seeing it, then during KtM, another friend who was with us (and wants to remain nameless) got her special Mr. M. hand kiss moment so that was great.

But then it was SiL and enough of the “slow, intellectual part…it’s now time for the intellectual dancing!” and up we went again. We also sang along well which was great to hear!  By the time it was over, Mr. M. joked that apparently it was last Thursdays crowd who were the lazy ones as he, along with the rest of the band, realized this crowd was unreal!    I’m pretty sure Mr. M. pointed to himself for “Jesus” tonight during SMS but then said to not let him in and there was a good congregation going on due to a few others around us joining in for the heck of it. It was just that kind of crowd, everyone was revved up and ready for fun.

When it was over and the bouncing died down long enough for us to cheer and get our breaths back, the guys stood there looking at us and again, their faces were pictures as you all say across the pond.  Mr. M. and Mr. H. did the “will you listen to THAT?” “Yeah, I know, bloody hell!” motions to each other as they pointed out to us,  and I can’t remember which one thanked us and said we were being brilliant but I know it was said.  Mr. M. was at the other side of the stage from Mr. H. when they did their Locomotion choreographed moves to “run down the railway…” and they were just laughing and having so much fun.

During SotSS, Mr. M. came over and wrung his shirt out right in front of/at Sinead, much to her surprise and laughter. But it was during this song I also noticed something wasn’t right in that the drums sounded, er, off. Like something was missing.  I’m not going to go into detail here as it was really scary and upsetting but basically, at the end of the song, Mr. H.#2 got up and walked off stage and Mr. M. announced they were taking a premature ending but they’d be back.   I initially thought maybe it was technical problems due to the drums not sounding right and also Merv had come running out near the end of the song (he does drums and bass) and they had had so many tech issues here last week, but when no one came to work on things, I got scared!  A few minutes went by and then Mr. M. and Mr. H. came back out to the edge of the stage and Mr. M. announced that the show was over due to Mr. H.#2 taking ill. He thanked us and apologized saying he hoped we understood but they cared too much about Mr. H.#2 to continue.   I could barely look at the guys as he spoke because I was freaking out and trying to breath and not totally lose it by crying (lost the battle on that second one).  Security started ushering people to leave so eventually we waited outside for awhile but Sinead had to go as she had a really early boat race and I had heard Mr. C. had gone in the ambulance so we assumed that everyone else was on their way too so left.  Luckily, it wasn’t long before Mr. M. posted the info on the forum so we could at least know Mr. H.#2  was going to be alright!

And now I’m home and, well, I had obviously planned a different ending to this last gig and blog but as we probably all know too well, life has a mind of it’s own and can take us in directions we didn’t think of.  There’s so much to say but I don’t know exactly how to say it.  The past few months have been unbelievable! I had such a wonderful time bouncing and dancing with so many friends (thank you!), I had special moments given to me at various gigs, I had so many laughs my cheeks hurt  and my heart has swelled so many times I can’t even begin to say.   I don’t mean to sound like a broken record but I can’t say it enough how much I love OMD gigs. They are truly where I’m the happiest and to think of all the wonderful times I’ve had, not just for EE but for all the gigs!  I never EVER dreamed I’d be where I am now when I first went over to see OMD in 2008. How could I have?  Who would have thought we’d get 2 new albums and multiple tours?  There’s really no words to express my gratitude to Mr. M., Mr. H., Mr. H#2, and Mr. C. for everything they’ve given me (well and all us fans).  Having what happened in Toronto just makes the gigs I was able to see mean even more and I’m so grateful to have been able to do it and even more grateful for the guys to have given them to me and everyone else!  I’m not surprised by Sineads reaction after the meet and greet because they are all a bunch of wonderfully gracious, funny and humble guys but even without a VIP experience, it just shows on the stage.  They truly love it and the dedication and emotion they all pour into a show, it goes unsurpassed and is what makes the gigs like no other and such a special place to be for me!

I have no idea what is next in the life of OMD, I don’t think anyone does yet and that’s OK as it should be that way!   I’d give anything to have had things end on a happy note and Mr. H.#2 be safe but time can’t be changed.  I do know that this gig was just another example of the kind of magic the guys can create and give to everyone in the room with them.  It’s been an honor to have experienced years of magic, both alone and with all the friends I’ve made.  No matter what the future brings, I have been given more memories from these past few years than I could wish for in a lifetime! Thank you seems so insignificant but it’s really the only thing I can think to say.  THANK YOU! xo