Liverpool-May 14th

Well, I woke up knowing that the girls and I had gone to our last gig together because Paula wasn’t going to be at the gig tonight due to having to be at work the next day and Steph was going home after this one so, really, our trio had come to an end already. 🙁 So one final car/road trip for us before Paula dropped us off and then drove home and Steph and I saw our final OMD gig together (though we weren’t sure if we’d be close in seats as she didn’t know which seats she had…a friend had the tickets…and I didn’t know either as I had Gold for the evening but received an email that the tickets were going to be in a number of different rows. I was hoping maybe it would turn out my seat would be back by hers…)

We got a little bit of a late start but was making good timing due to light traffic (that changed later on) but after a couple of hours, we decided to stop and get something to eat etc. Good thing we did due to what happened. So we’re inside looking and realize there’s not too much in food choice so decide we’ll just get something small and then get right back on the road so we can get into Liverpool early and get something else to eat. Steph is waiting for her Starbucks and I’m just kind of standing and looking around when I see someone who looks familiar. Mind you, I had literally just told Steph that the guy behind her looked like Miles from Coachella so my initial reaction was “hmm….which gig do I know him from? He looks really familiar…” but then it suddenly hits me and I’m like 😯 and grab Steph…”OMG, Benge is here!” (Benge as in 1/2 of The Maths!). She’s like “what? :shock:” and just as I’m telling her I saw him walk by (and by that time he’d put his laptop down on a table) I see John Foxx walking around. I nearly fell over! I mean SERIOUSLY?! We’re in a motorway break point for gosh sakes. 😆 😀 So as soon as I see JF I say “OMG, now there’s John Foxx!” so Steph says maybe we can get a picture and we decide we’ll sit down for awhile. I go to get a table that’s safely away from them but as I head over to it, so does JF from another direction so I immediately stop dead in my tracks. I’m thinking “no WAY am I going to go for that table now….you can have it” but he kind of just wanders and eventually goes off so I realize it’s free and grab it. I then remember that Paula is off somewhere thinking we’re going to come back out so we can get back on the road so I go to find her in line for Burger King and blurt out “you’re not going to believe who’s here!” She’s asking who and I’m telling her when I turn and see that JF is now about 8 feet behind us looking at the BK menu. 😯 Well, I tell Paula how Steph and I are hoping for a pic and/or autograph and she offers to take it. I’m standing there, JF is right behind and I finally think “the heck with it, I’m just gonna go up and say ‘hi’. What if he leaves before we get back to him? He’s right there so…” I walk over to him but because I was nervous and shy, and I think he was still engrossed in the menu, he doesn’t hear me at first but I apologize for bothering him on his off time, tell him how much we’re enjoying him as OMD’s opener etc etc. LOL, he chats for a minute or two, then says “where are you from?” LOL, I forget I have an accent here. 😳 😆 So he finds out I’m here for the gigs and such, then I thank him again and go back with Paula to find Steph who had gone over to talk to Benge. We eat and kill time (didn’t want to bother them while they’re eating) but after about 15 minutes, it’s a case of having to go so that we don’t cut it too close for sound check so we look and see JF isn’t eating and decide to go up as we’re heading out. LOL, Steph nominates me to do it “you’ve talked to him already so you broke the ice.”…can’t argue with that. 😆 So as I’m coming up, bless his heart he sees me coming and says something about safe travels or something. I thank him, then manage to ask if he’d mind an autograph or a photo, he says no, I make sure and the next thing we’re getting our Gateshead tickets signed and a photo each. Hannah had come by this time too so got to say “hi” to everyone. As we thanked him and walked out, Steph and I marvelled at the chance of it all…how cool! 😀

Well, once we got going again, we hit a major snag and crawled in traffic for awhile…to the point I was getting nervous we’d miss sound check but when we finally started moving, Steph ‘put the pedal to the medal’ (as my mom used to say :lol:) and we rolled into the city by 15:32. Paula saw the theatre but since the GPS was taking us to the hotel (originally we thought we’d have time before I needed to get to sound check) we ended up going in a few circles and eventually I just had the girls drop me off near the city center so I could go find it. I knew we were in the general vacinity but as it turned out, I ran around like a crazy person for a bit due to some unclear and then incorrect directions. By the time I finally made it to the theatre, I was puffing and found the doors locked. I thought “OMG, they’ve gone in” but luckily, a guard saw me, came and opened the door saying “are you alright?” and when I said I was here for the VIP he let me in. I was surprised to see some people still waiting for their package goodies but once talking to some friends, it turned out that poor Ed was having to explain things to people as they came up…over and over again. A mix up with the allocation of seats meant some of us got put further back. I took my envelope but didn’t look until I was with my other friends, then asked where everyone was as I had hoped I’d be with someone. Well, they were all close but as I pulled my ticket out, I found I was further back (though that would make sense as seats got allocated per purchase and I didn’t buy mine right when sales started due to originally having other plans for the gigs). One of my friends looked at my envelope and, pointing to the black “X” on it, said “oh, yeah, there ya go.” Apparently the envelopes with the X were the further seats. He said “you’ve been black listed.” 😆 (but as it turned out, MarkC had an extra ticket from a friend who couldn’t make it so he let me have it. It brought me up 6 rows so I had the best of both worlds….a bit further away than Bristol so I really got to see the full effect of the staging but still close enough to see the looks of joy and pride on the guys faces which is what I really wanted from the Gold package of this gig anyways so he saved the day, bless his heart! :D)

Once they let us in, I found an absolutely gorgeous old theatre! By far the prettiest place I’d seen on this UK tour. Quite a big gap from front row to stage due to an orchestra pit, red seats, a huge dome above us, it was just lovely. Sound check was fun as always though the bass drum was in all our throats/chests LOL. (it wasn’t as loud once I was back further but I forgot to ask those who remained up front if it effected them during the show). It went fast though and before I knew it, we were being directed out the Gold side and I then realized how hungry I was. Chatted a few minutes, asked for hotel directions, then headed out.

Steph had set up all the meet and greets but since she was also starving due to not having food since this morning, we said “hi” to everyone, then had to leave the meet up bar as they had stopped serving food just prior. Ended up eating at a restaurant with Nigel and his son Oliver before heading back to the bar. There we found a myriad of fans. Actually, between there and the sound check, we had Steve and Sally, Claudia, Bren, Mark, Paul W. and a couple of his family members, Aiden, Andy, Janine and her friend.   Steph, Janine and her friend had what they thought was row C but ended up being CC so nice and close…but no JF dancing together sadly. (though Mark had Underpass moves down so that was good. OH, and he was nice enough to record Catwalk for me so I could dance :D). When JF finished and stood for the last time to look over the crowd, I stood up (so did Steph and Mark soon followed) and by the time he introduced “The Maths” there were people standing in a number of places. Good for him, I’ll miss him in Europe.

Well, the 30 minutes before OMD went quickly as I heard my name called and saw (and chatted briefly with) Julie and her husband along with Jenny…though no Tim this time. A JF CD purchase among other things, then it was back to seats and lights down. That immediately caused the crowd to let out a loud cheer and PRS came on, along with Mr. C. and Mr. H.#2 and by the time Metroland was going and Mr. H. and Mr. M. were on stage, the crowd was rearing to go. Mr. M. said hello to us all, Mr. H. followed and they all looked around and up at the balcony with smiles before Mr. M. announced they’d be doing new…and old…and Messages got more cheers. Lots of “No, No, No”s and Dresden got almost as big a cheer as the others so I knew this was a crowd who was happy to have their boys back home! 😀

Though moving up seats, I still decided to make this the night I recorded HoM so when it started and Mr. M. called for everyone to join him and he started bouncing, I held the camera but Mark saw and was like “let me get it, you bounce”….. yay! 😀 😆 It was fun to watch Mr. H. come down for FLaD as he got a massive cheer so he shyly smiled and said hello before starting the song. And as it turned out, after the song was over, he mentioned to Mr. M. that he had been flashed by an audiene member…who I found out later was Steph! 😯 IYL had a lot of people moving which was nice to see but then, before Night Cafe, Mr. M. said “I’ve never done this before. We’ve played here many times in the past 35 years but I never did this so Mr. Little, if you could put some lights on.” He did, and Mr. M. pointed to a spot behind us a bit, semi-near the sound booth. “Seat Q36…that was my seat when I saw Kraftwerk here many years ago.” A few hands went up to wave and he said “HELLO seat Q36, thank you for coming. And thank you to all the other 2000 of you here tonight. I don’t know why I never did that before.” The rest of the band laughed. (funny thing was, Mark had mentioned how he had wondered if anyone would actually ask for that seat just to have it for the meaning of it all so when Mr. M. pointed it out, we both laughed).

I suspected the A&M Trio to go down really well tonight and man was I right…massive cheering that just kept going. I could hear it coming from all over and even up where I looked at the balcony and though, due to the way the venue was set up I could only see the first few rows, they were up applauding. The guys were all smiles and kept looking around. I saw Mr. C. mouthing something (actually saw him mouthing, pointing, smiling and waving to some people who seemed to be in front of us a few rows through out the night. It was just an obvious reminder that this was their home town and a special night). It was briliant really! During TLaC, Mr. M. decided to take advantage of the willing crowd and asked us to sway our arms back and forth, which we did and he said we did a great job “or just hailed down 2,000 taxis”. 😆

When SiL got the crowd moving again, Mr. M. warned the beautiful dancing was going to be non-stop til the end now but from the looks and sounds of things, no one was minding. I saw 2 teenagers come down the aisle while Mr. M. was out on the, er, well I’ll call it a side wing because the stage went off to each side of the main stage part to kind of extend towards the stage (LOL, during sound check Mr. M. was walking around to see how far he could go and also check if he could go out in front as in Oxford, that area wasn’t bolted down and steady…tonight it was but Mr. Little joked about how far out to the audience Mr. M. was going to go. Mr. M. said “that’s all, I’m not going to go INTO the audience.” Mr. Little responded with “oh come ON….”) So the teenagers got his attention, had their moment, then happily walked back to where ever their seats were as Mr. M. returned to the main staging area. SMS was another bounce out for me, especially since I could feel the crowds energy. Mr. M. went over to Mr. C., climbed up the platform so that he was next to him and said “Hello Martin” as Mr. C. laughed. I wondered if he was going to try and play his keys but he didn’t (hahahaha, wonder if Mr. C. thought the same thing). I think the band felt the crowd connection too because the last few songs seemed to have an extra fervor to them. I truly think them being in their home town surged them on (not that they need to be surged, they give high energy already but it was just, er, supercharged tonight. :wink:)

No surprise SotSS was the amazing sing-a-long tonight, Mr. M. taking his ear piece out and saying “you sound great!” part way through and when EG began, he could barely get all the words he wanted to say in thanks to us before the song took off. Everyone was dancing around and when it was time for the guys to say initial goodbyes, they again all stood there looking around, with smiles that were ever so subtlely different…they recognized people so this was personal. Introductions found Mr. C. waving to the crowd and his own clan with an ear to ear smile, Mr. H.#2 gave a bunch of thumb ups but also kisses out, Mr. H. was introduced as “Mr. Paul Humphreys” and Mr. H. then returned by saying “Mr. Andy McCluskey.” Again, a subtle change but making all the difference to show how they were effected by the night.

When they were off, the cheers were massive, almost thunderous because again, it was just coming from all over. So wonderful to hear! Once out, Mr. M. said again how a great gig is made up from a fantastic crowd and thanked us for that. He also gave specific thank yous…first to the crew “you can’t see them but they do an amazing job.” Cheers, then a thank you to Ed and more cheers. Then we heard “and thank you to the four crazy girls who came to all of the gigs. You know who you are.” 😯 I saw Mr. H. point to Steph’s direction….aww, a sweet shout out! 😀 WotMW and Electricity was a blur of dancing and singing before the final goodbyes came. They lasted a bit longer because again, extra waves to friends and family, looks of amazement and joy, thank yous and laughs before they walked off but I’m sure they were really happy with how things went! It was a gathering of friends to hug and say how much fun it was, a final thanks and goodbye to Ed, then we all headed out to the lobby for a couple group photos before goodbyes to some (the rest of us went to hang for a bit at a pub right next door) since it was a work night and many had to go. 🙁

So, highlight of the night is easy and what I was expecting it to be. Seeing the guys finish their UK tour in their home town. As you all say across the pond, the guys faces were pictures!! 😀 There truly was a feeling of joy and pride, a connection that was something only to be held by being in Liverpool. The fact that it was also the last gig of the UK tour was a bonus but not a necessity as I think it wouldn’t have mattered much. This was (and for Mr. C. and Mr. M., still is) their home. I heard Paul McCartney say “you can take the boy out of Liverpool but you can’t take Liverpool out of the boy.” From the looks and reactions of the guys, and the crowd back at them, I think last night was proof that statement holds true and it was really special to be able to experience it, feel the energy and love, and see everyone’s joy. Thanks again to Mark as I don’t know if I would have been able to see all that otherwise! 😀

So now it’s a few days off for everyone before the European tour.  UK was amazing and it was great fun to not only see everyone at the gigs but travel and hang with the girls.  I’m flying solo for a couple gigs but Paula and I will hook up again in Brussels and I’m also gonna see some other friends again through the next 10 days plus I’m sure the guys will give more special OMD gig moments so…roll on Europe! 😀