Liverpool Museum-November 2nd

Well, day two for me and VIP to look forward to. But before hand, I had set up a bit of a fan gathering to go see some OMD sites. Our group had shrunk a bit last minute but at 11:30, Claudia, Andy (Austin, not Mr. M. LOL), Dave, Sue and Walter, and myself set off to cross the Wirral and see the old phone booth and guys houses among other things. It was quite surreal and we had LOVELY weather to start! Got our pictures taken by the booth and unbeknownst to me, Andy had dialed the phone to see if it worked. Being gullable I thought it was just ringing RIGHT at that time and was like “OMG, Shut UP! 😯 What do we do, answer it?” He didn’t say a word until I got daring enough to pick it up and started to say “OMD Residence”. Got as far as “OMD Re…” when I saw him laughing and figured it out, goof! 😉 We saw the guys old houses (crazy story, the woman who owns Mr. H.s house with her family happened to pull up right when we were there taking pictures so she ran in and came back out with a framed set of pictures and 7inches, one being Mr. M. and a couple other people with her, her husband and their dog who was sitting and looking right up at Mr. M. all obedient LOL 😆 ). We walked to their old school then drove to the Reform Church and finally Stanlow. OMG, that place is huge! We didn’t realize what it was like until we got into it and kept driving. Wish we could have seen it at night as I’m sure it’s a true sight! 🙂 Once back, we split up and Claudia and I hit the museum cafe as we had been told there were “Dazzle Cakes”. I had to ask a couple people before they showed us to the funky frosted cupcakes…of which we had to get some LOL 😀 . On our way back to our hotels we did a couple more sites, then departed to prepare for the gig.

Since I’d been told there was a mad dash and not real order for the VIP the previous night either, I wanted to get in the queue early as I really wanted to be up front with no heads in my way LOL. When I arrived, Wendy, Kim, Evan, and Sue and Walter were there already and Claudia came soon after then shortly after that Dave and Karen and Paula and Steph. One of the guards was really lovely too and stood chatting to all of us. He was quite tall and broad shoulders so when he came by to check all our bags and got to Steph, it was a hilarious sight to see them standing by each other…enough to get Paula to take a picture with the blessing of the guard LOL. 🙂

Once in, I was told where to go to submit a question. I have to say, my brain was pretty much moosh at that point but I managed to come up with something to ask Mr. H. and popped it in the box. Then back to the rope as I was told last time they dropped all the ropes vs. just the first. It was kind of funny because they started moving the poles but as a whole so I honestly thought they’d just do that little by little until we were up to the stage. Sadly though, they waited until shortly before 7:30 and then the lady got serious and was like “OK, NO running. Let’s all be civilized adults here, I’m not joking now.” They tried to drop the ropes evenly and originally many of us had our arms linked so we could go together but the link broke when, not even a second of me TRYING to walk, I found myself running with Claudia who was next to me to try and beat others who were coming from behind to get to front row. I thought “REALLY?! What happened to being civilized and walking?” 😕  A guy got in between us and also Kim but he was kind to swap so Claudia could come next to me and then he was going to swap with Kim too but she wanted to stay where she was so Claudia settled in and we started chatting to him (darn, didn’t get his name). He and I had a ‘hi-five’ planned for the camera guy who came around shortly before the gig saying he would be in front of us recording but he’d move around so not be in our way for more than 10 or so seconds (which wasn’t the case until the guy moved back the barrier a bit so that the camera man could move into the center and over. That helped clear all our views LOL). So happy to be front though, such a relief! 😀

Anticipation again for the gig to start despite now knowing what was coming. I was really excited to see ABC Auto Industry this time so I could watch the flag waving and it was just so cool. NEVER thought I’d get to see something like that! 😀 Once they finished that it was Sealand and the crowd went crazy, Mr. M. joked that last night was the rehearsal, tonight was the gig and after more cheers, he and Mr. H. agreed we sounded louder LOL. This was the time things got going dance wise too as everyone started bopping to Messages. Mr. M. swung his bass around like he does, saying hi to everyone and I THOUGHT I heard a bit of the “der da der da der da deeeerrrr” so I started to join in but then it stopped so I stopped too LOL. 😆 I found myself bouncing up high during GE. Gosh I just LOVE that song! And the bouncing kept going when they did HoM. Evan was bouncing too so even though he was 4 people over to my left, it was nice to see a fellow bouncer LOL. 😉 As promised, I nabbed some pics of Mr. C. and the bass which I loved seeing him play! Such a rarity! 😀 As Merve brought the bass out to him and the crowd got going, Mr. M. turned to watch Mr. C. putting it on over his shoulder and said “do you remember which end to blow into it?” Mr. C. gave him a grin.

The 3 piece A&M section started and when it was Mr. H.’s turn with Souvenir he introduced it as “keeping the A&M theme going…” Always great to hear him sing that song and everyone loved it as he got a great cheer when he finished. 😀 When MoO started and Mr. M. was doing his windmilling, I suddenly had a, er, ‘moment’ and started to cry as I thought “God, I thought we may never see this ever again”. Followed by memories of Mr. H.#2 playing it and me deciding to not watch Mr. M.s windmilling but instead watching his drumming…which just got me crying more. 😥 NOT that I wanted him there drumming, it just got me emotional thinking.  But at the end, Mr. M. got a great response for his windmilling, rightfully so.

All through the night there was one spotlight that was pointing right in the direction of my eyes so I had to squint and/or try to shield my eyes a lot but they also were planned to come down at the appropriate times for dramatic effects…one of those times being for 4Neu. Spotlight first on Mr. H. as he started the song, then onto Mr. M. to cause an almost eery feel and finally back to Mr. H. for him to finish the song…gorgeous! I was able to see the videos for International better tonight too so could see what appeared to be a lot of political images and Mr. M. seemed to hit the difficult time even better than last night which says a lot as I thought last night was brilliant. The crowd went mental for that and, like after MoO, got Mr. M. smiling wide and turning to Mr. H. with a look like “wow, listen to THAT”, again, rightfully so. 😀 He joked “I can’t believe I waited 30 years before trying to sing that song. Or maybe that’s WHY I waited.”

When Metroland started, I couldn’t help but think about the Boston ‘train motions’ from last year but then Mr. M. came into the chorus early and all of a sudden they were off kilter. The look on Mr. C.s face was priceless as he turned to look at Mr. H. with wide eyes like “OMG! What the…What do we do?” Mr. M. realized quite quickly and tried to get back on board as Mr. H. started to sing a bit to help him. He took a second and then said something about now being lost where they were and asked Mr. H. so Mr. H. started singing again and louder while Mr. C. still had that look on his face but then Mr. M. picked up and got back on to sing the chorus. We all were laughing including him as he’s always such a good sport about it and kept joking with things like “it’s the second verse now right?” before going into it, and “we’re not using THIS one on the DVD!” and at one point he came over by us and, looking down at me, said “do you want to sing it?” and pointed the mic at me… 😯 to which I laughed and heartedly shook my head NO! 😆 Bless! But that wasn’t all….near the end of the first verse of SMS he suddenly lost it again and laughed saying he couldn’t believe it. Mr. H. was laughing too and as he got back in (because it was a quick little loss of memory on this one), he joked “I think I should just go home” and where he normally asks us to come and follow him brothers and sisters, instead he said “pray for lyrics”. Aww, bless! 😆 When it was over he joked about not using that either and Mr. H. laughed saying “we’ll be scraping the DVD onto the shelf”. I was thinking “keep them as out takes/bonus clips” and ironically someone yelled “out takes!” The thing about Mr. M. forgetting his lyrics is how he handles it. It’s always a good laugh and makes it all more human so honestly, I never think anything but sweet thoughts when it happens. 😀

Next was SotSS and since it was a “Mr. M.s OMD” song, Mr. H. laughed and said “I KNOW you’ll know the lyrics to THIS one” 😆 . We all started singing along and Mr. M. laughed saying “yeah that’s right, sing along, good” hahaha. It went down without a hitch as he was back on track and they finished with another bouncing song of Enola Gay before coming together on stage to wave and thank everyone, then walk off stage. The crowd kept cheering and it was definite this was indeed a stronger crowd (though Saturday was great, don’t get me wrong, we were just louder tonight). When they came back, Mr. M. thanked us saying “I know some of you probably had to pawn off your grandmother to get a ticket. Hopefully you can get her back one day” LOL and went on to do the thank yous to the museum and crew, with Mr. H. throwing in a “you guys are the best, really!” and giving claps in the direction of Merve on the side of the stage and then towards the back of the room for Andrew and Chikey, then it was one last bouncing moment for Electricity.

When things settled down after that song, Mr. H.#2 made the announcement about how Mr. H.#2 had programmed the drums for this last song and though he wasn’t there on stage, he was with us. I knew what was coming but, like with MoO, tonight it hit me thinking of Mr. H.#2 and also just how amazing all this was, despite it being weird too with a whole threesome set up so down came the tears. 😥 But I knew just how special this was to have this given to us and the song went down wonderfully. Like any OMD gig, it was over too quick as we watched as the guys waved and walked off stage.

I looked around for Wendy as we had planned on hanging but couldn’t see her so decided to try for a set list and bless Merves’ heart, he gave me Mr. H.s and Ed pulled off Mr. M.s for I believe Evan, yay. Saw some familiar faces and hellos before eventually heading towards the theatre. I just made it as the host was starting to introduce what this whole weekend had been about and how it got put together so nabbed a seat next to Martyn. In a few minutes, the guys were introduced and welcomed in and as the Q&A went on, the host rummaged through the cards, pulling out certain ones to ask the guys. They were in great spirits and there were a lot of laughs! (ironically someone asked if the old phone booth still worked….YES! 😆 😉 ) It was confirmed they were writing for a new album (YAY) and they’d be doing some gigs next year as a foursome with Stuart Kershaw being in Mr. H.#2s spot so next year promises to be interesting but with OMD in it so though it’ll be really weird and sad to see someone else in Mr. H.#2s chair (and they both said it was sad for them to not have him there with them but they had been texting back and forth a lot over the past two days so it was like he was there), he’s given them his blessing and they are going to be doing some things so in terms of OMD, I guess the future WON’T be silent! 😀

When it was over, we all eventually made our way back into the bar. While visiting, I saw Mr. H. and a bunch of fans up around him getting photos and such so decided to go try and say hello. Heading over with Wendy (we finally found each other) we saw Mr. M. was out in the atrium. Well, since none of us had expected to get any form of M&G/hello, as I stood near Mr. H. waiting, a ton of people came and  I got pushed back quite a ways. After a few minutes I thought “shoot, I’m getting further and further away, I’ll go try to see Mr. M. and then come back”. Headed out to find he had just left 🙁 so went back in and eventually got to say a quick but lovely hello to Mr. H. and he again said they had gigs coming up that were booked so….hopefully….. 😀 A nice chat with Ed and Steve and Sally before first Wendy, then Steve and Sally and finally Claudia, Martyn and I headed out. But not before the sweet guard from outside earlier came by to ask us how it was for us and if we had fun. We all told him absolutely and had a short chat before he literally gave Claudia and I hugs and Martyn a sturdy hand shake. Awww, what a nice guy! 😀 Final goodbyes outside, first to Martyn and then Claudia after we walked towards our hotels as far as we could together.

So, highlight of the evening….well, I had to think about this for a bit and tbh, I would say it’s a mix between being up front as it truly DID make a difference that I could see things as I missed a lot the night before (not complaining as I was still lucky to be there but I’m just saying…it’s not fun being short LOL 🙄 ) and I think the whole Metroland goof and mic offering. I will never forget Mr. C.s face, the laughs from Mr. M.s jokes and who would complain about getting offered the mic…all great. Like I said, it’s always a funny and human moment and this one especially so, yeah, I think those are what stick out in my head the most this night. 😀

Now it’s all over, my head’s spinning, and my heart’s all over the place. It’s always so sad when things end after having waited and anticipated it for so long. This was also my first time seeing OMD since last years Toronto gig so I knew it’d be with a lot of emotions but WOW. What an AMAZING weekend! I’m not only grateful to have been able to see it but grateful that the guys DID it. It wasn’t easy for them or anyone else involved so a big thank you back to them for the unique and special gigs! 😀