Ipswich-March 23rd, 2024

OMG! I can’t believe I’m back in the UK. 4 years, 4.5 months since my last visit…so sad! I HATE  Covid!!!! 😡  But never in a million YEARS could I have ever thought the 2019 UK tour would be my last for so long…no one can predict a pandemic.

ANYHOO, it wasn’t easy getting over here for this tour and I was supposed to have been blogging 9 gigs instead of only the last 4 but…some serious issues arose and that isn’t the case. And then getting out of Chicago and to London proved to be a major issue too LOL but I’m now on English soil and SOOOOOO glad!!! 😀

Right, so, Ipswich. Well it started out by me staying with a (non OMD LOL) friend who thank GOODNESS is a night owl and thought nothing of going out at 23:30 to go pick me up at the train station (all part of the flight nightmare). Tho we missed out on some of our quality chillin’ time together, we still had a great visit (and I’ll see her again in Eastbourne as she’s never been so we’ll see a few sites before I go to the show and she heads home). There was a fan dinner gathering at 6:30 so she dropped me off and went off to a ball (how cool is that? You never hear about “balls” happening anymore! 😮 😀 ) and I got to see some other friends I’d been missing. Maria, Steve and Sally, Dave, Anji and Debbie, Rebecca and Jean Pierre and a new guy named Paul. I had eaten already but it was fun to chat and good to see all!

Quick half mile walk to the venue with half the gang and then more visiting in the lobby…UNTIL…beep, beep, beeeeeep. I looked at Sean (oh yes, he met us at the venue so was chatting with him) and was like “Is that some kind of alarm?” He was saying he didn’t know when we heard the announcement “attention, this part of the building is being evacuated”. Um….huh? Of course with all my current bad luck, at dinner Steve had joked saying “Andy lost his voice and the gig has been cancelled” to which I laughed and said “well with MY luck lately, I half expected the venue to burn down and the gig gets cancelled”. So once we all realized it wasn’t a drill and were being evacuated, the joke was “It’s LORI’S fault, YOU did this” and I kept apoloziging as it felt like I HAD brought my bad luck over! Good laughs LOL. 😀

Luckily we were only outside 10-15 minutes and the fire dept were able to go in and deem everything safe for us to come back in. Band only started 15 minutes late so luckily we got the full set, YAY! 😀  I was sitting between Sean and Dave and as it turned out, some of the gang ran down to the front row so there was room for Dave and I to shift slightly right which got me out from right behind a super tall guy LOL…Yay again! 😀  Mind you, I’d been staying away from “spoilers” because I wanted to get the experience of seeing the show TRULY for the first time. NO idea why but stupid FB had set up a notification to me that a friend posted “Healing” so darn, I knew they did that in addition to the obvious 2 singles but that was it. So when the show started, I had no idea what the opening song would be…Anthropocene…ok sure. 🙂 Cool new graphics and the crowd was up immediately (actually 2 guys behind us had stood as soon as the lights went down but the rest of us got up when the band came out and the song started). When it was over…I got off the hook for the fire alarm because Mr. M. announced it was his fault due to leaving the kettle on. Sean and I laughed and I said “see, it WASN’T me” and more laughs after the gig when I could clear my name with the rest of the gang LOL 😀

I had heard that Ipswich has a great crowd and they didn’t disappoint. When Mr. M. said he wanted to hear us sing and started Messages, it was fun to hear the whole crowd sing the music part between the verses. 😀 Sadly only Sean and I were yelling the “yes, Yes, YES” bit for  Tesla girls, I really should have tried to recruit better before the show but didn’t think of it until the gig started LOL. This was a crowd that others might have jumped on board had I asked (no one joined on their own but ah well LOL).  When it was over, the guys seemed really happy with the crowd and Mr. M. joked saying “this is why we’ve played here 12 times now.” Mr. H. asked if it was that many times and Mr. M. said yes, he googled it LOL. Funny enough, I was getting myself ready to bounce to HoM since that normally comes next but instead we got another new one and the second single Kleptocracy.  Turns out, I can bounce to that one too LOL so TWO songs for bouncing. 😀 HoM found a lovely shout out from Mr. M. and it was SO fun to be bouncing again to that song. I have to say, just BEING THERE was a blessing for me and I felt SO grateful and elated, my smile was literally from ear to ear!

There was a little girl down in the front row with her mother that had grabbed the attention of Mr. M. earlier so he gave her a little wave hello and reached down to shake her hand. He joked saying “you bring the age of the venue down by 15 years.” She was adorable, all ribbons in her hair, little sound protecting headphones over her ears. 🙂 We got offered a trip to Hollywood “Paul’s paying” with IYL and then it was Mr. H.s turn to come up front. Mr. M. asked if he wanted to come down and joked “just don’t put the kettle on”. to which Mr. H. said “no no, I won’t”.  He too gave the little girl a wave and hand shake which she happily  took.

I was expecting them to go into Souvenir and then JoA/MoO but nope, another switcharoo of the set list with Bauhaus Staircase. Gotta say, it was fun not knowing and also seeing things mixed up a bit. NO complaints about past shows or setlists but still… 🙂 THEN we got the trio of A&M songs and it literally made my heart and spirit sour to hear and see this all again! (I’m sorry if I’m sounding a bit over the top here but if you knew what I’d been thru the past 4 weeks, you’d understand why things mean even MORE now and how just amazing it is to be here seeing these shows so… it truly IS all sincere 😀 ) Needless to say, the crowd was just loving and lapping it all up too!

They did a funky little musical intralude  while crew brought bits and pieces down to the front for the next section and I heard parts of my fav song Genetic Engineering. I had hoped they’d do it but saw Mr. M. didn’t come out with his guitar so ah well. Instead we got a few of the more mellow and melodic new songs. First up Veruschka followed by Healing. They both sounded really nice live and again, fun to hear new things. 😀  But funny enough, it made me start wondering if I’d get to hear any of my 3 favs from the album. #1 is Look at You Now but I also love Don’t Go and Slow Train. Well, next up was Don’t Go so that ticked THAT one off the box LOL. More bouncing and Sean and I had fun doing the “uh HUH” bit to each other LOL. 😀

All this time I was trying to not take too many pics as I truly just wanted to enjoy the first show for myself. I also decided I’d only record one song but each time I tried, it was a bouncing song… Don’t Go, Then SiL and then Dreaming LOL. Finally grabbed Locomotion that was quite colorful with all the wheels and such. New phone so I was hoping it’d turn out but too lazy to whip out my older camera to test too. Nope, tonight was more about just soaking up as much as I could. 😀 By the time EG was up, I knew it was near the end so bounced like crazy. When done, the crowd was cheering so loud and then someone started a “we want more” chant so that got going too. When the band came back out, Sean said “now we get to sway”. I thought “huh?” but didn’t have much time to think about it because next thing I knew I had a towel coming at me LOL. 😮 😀 But what Sean meant was…OMG, Look at You Now! 😮 YES!!!! 😀 Swayed joyfully!

Pandora’s Box was next which we don’t get to hear as much in the states so I loved that and then Mr. M. asked what year did they start. People yelled 1979 and a woman behind me yelled “I was there! I saw you then”. Mr. M. said they started in 1979 “supporting Gary Numan” and people cheered, some started the “NuuuuMAN, NuuuuMAN” chant as a joke. Mr. M. asked if we could dance like 1979 and did a funny, stiff back and forth sway and then off they went. Awesome! When it was done, all the guys came down and Mr. H. said “crowds really make the gig and you all have been fanTAStic, thank you so much!” Everyone waved and the crowd cheered, then it was done. I was determined to get a full group photo so rounded people up and a sweet security guard took it for us. Off to the lobby for a bit of chatting where I got to see Mark C. who came up to say hi. 😀 Saw Jennifer and later  Bert too so a bit of a chat and then goodbyes except since my friend was running late to pick me up, Sean and Dave were lovely and waited outside with me until she arrived bless them! 😀

What an AMAZING night! I truly don’t know if I can pick a ‘highlight’. I mean the shout out was great (obviously LOL 😀 ), hearing the new songs were super fun, being with friends and the laughs we had about me and my bad luck (I’m now having issues accessing the ticket for London Steve transferred to me so will need to go to box office and when I talked to Steve, he jokingly said “I don’t know if I want you to come tomorrow.” 😀 This is going to be the running joke of the rest of the trip for sure LOL).  So as lame as this may sound, I’m just going to say the highlight WAS the night. Being there and just having SO much fun and wonderful moments! 😀 ♥