Eastbourne-March 27th, 2024
So…last day and night of my trip and final gig of OMD. 🙁 Dang, hard to believe! But first, Lara and I went to do a bit of sightseeing, only to get rained out LOL. We headed over to Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters which was listed in the top attractions of Eastbourne. It’s gorgeous seaside cliffs that you can climb up and walk along to a light house. We had been warned it could get windy up there but OMG!!! Climbing to the top was bad enough but once there, it was like walking against a tornado or something. The winds were SO strong that we decided it wasn’t worth fighting it. We saw the main bit and as it turned out, good decision because it started to rain when we got back to the parking lot and got worse quickly so we just grabbed a few pics of the beach and then left to get back to town for a bit of shopping she needed to do. Ah well, we tried LOL (and ironically our hotel manager later told us he had been there 2 days prior and it was still as ever. UGH, Lori luck again LOL 🙁 )
I got to the venue 2.5 hours prior to doors and found only 5 or 6 others, Mali being one of them. Got to chatting to her and a nice guy in front of us named Neil who was seeing OMD for the first time, cool! 😀 Paula came a bit later so got to do hugs and a hello with her and Marilyn came even later still so same to her. 🙂 Weather held out, no rain so tho I was cold by the time the doors were opening, we were all dry. The 3 of us got in on Mr. H.s side…one FINAL attempt to get the TG fun in LOL. (Marilyn ended up middle front and Paula on Mr. C.s side front) Shortly after, Angie came up with Paul and stood behind me. I was trying to hold a spot for Steve who had a photo pass for the first 3 songs but things started getting tight so Angie stepped into his spot to help hold it. All set. 🙂
I can’t say my thoughts and views of WD really changed hearing them a second time but hey ho, that’s OK LOL. They seemed extra revved up so I’m sure it being the final gig of a long tour was effecting them. There’s always something special about first and last shows of a tour…first has a certain exciting anticipation and mystery. You don’t know what’s coming, everyone is nervously fresh, it has it’s own FEEL. Same with the final gig only that’s more a mixture of sadness,
nostalgia, excitement, just letting all emotions out, hard to put into words but I love when I can see both….or at least one of them. This time it was the final show. 🙂 The crowd got going straight away when the guys came out and started Anthropocene and at the end, Mr. M. announced that “it’s the last gig of our tour so…anything goes tonight”. Messages had a great sing along and then something got tossed on stage. Mr. M. looked and said something about it being “a picture of me changing my shirt” to which he then said “don’t try to deny it Paula, we know you started it.” Then, to Angie’s delight, he said something I missed but called Tesla Girls “Testicles”. 😮 Oh my LOL. I’m happy to say tho, Mr. H. saw us! 😀 Got the normal reaction we got back in 2022 during the USA tour so I was really happy for that! 😀
The politician song of Kleptocracy got everyone bouncing and even more so during HoM where Mr. M. part way thru told me to show everyone how to bounce. My pleasure LOL! 😀 The undergarments started coming during FLaD which made Mr. H. (and some of us too LOL) laugh. While the guys swapped places again there was a lot of banter about Mr. H. not doing anything vs Mr. M. being front man and Mr. H. running things but all in good fun. 🙂 Lots of kissing “on the Eastbourne staircase” tonight, one to Paula, one to I’m guessing Marilyn and one shared by us 3 gals (Mali, Angie and I), aww. 😀 Then it was the 3 A&M songs and tho not QUITE as loud as
Ipswich and Brighton, Eastbourne was still doing a great job with not only singing along but the enthusiastic clapping after each. Final time doing that for a bit and the guys soaked it all up for sure. Mr. M. joked about Stuart’s drumming for that stating “5 years into a bus pass and he can still play that.” (I will admit, I had to ask Mali what that meant…I guess after a certain age, you get a discounted bus pass. THAT made sense then LOL *blush* 😉 ) Go Stuart! 😀
Sadly, some technical difficulties for Veruschka with Mr. C.s keys not working so he had to go and play it on his regular keys. When it was over, Mr. M. said “Paul, I told you to stop buying Martin’s keyboards from Ebay.” Then teased Mr. C. and said “Martin stop breaking things.” Luckily it got working again so he was back up front for Healing, such a lovely song! When done, before everyone walked back, a pair of wild printed boxer shorts came whirling at Stuart. The look on his face like “um…gee…THANKS” as he looked at them was hilarious! 😀 Back to “mindless dancing” and singing for Don’t Go, the crowd singing loudly. SiL found Mr. C. getting a T-shirt tossed at him that literally landed right on the keys at the end of the song so impressive shot! He smiled, opened it up and looked, and smiled more. Mr. M. laughed and said “I’m not even going to ask what that is.”
Now I have to apologize for this next bit because I thought I’d be able to google the girls name and find it but nope. So…I’ll leave the last name out since the only Julia I could find attached to the
guy was Roberts but I don’t think that’s what Mr. M. said..or at least it’s not what my ears heard. ANYHOO, the venue is a strange one…VERY long! So literally part of the venue wouldn’t be able to see the full stage. 🙁 So Mr. M. made mention of the strangeness and then said “so all you on the sides can’t see that we have a screen behind us with graphics and this song is going to show Harry Styles and Julia (someone) shagging.” Mr. H. laughed and said “it DOES? Is that the next song?” and Mr. M. laughed saying “it is NOW, I programmed it in” LOL. When done, Mr. M. laughed and said “all you on the sides missed it.” Then laughed and said “I told you anything goes tonight.” More joking around with Locomotion as he made a motion to Mr. H. like “no, YOU come over HERE this time” and suddenly Mr. H. ran over to do a quick hand shake and then ran back to the keys, much to Mr. M.s surprise and amusement. He laughed and said “don’t do that again” and they both laughed. 😀 SO lovely and wondeful to see this. Last gigs…special! 😀
SotSS was Stuart’s other moment plus had another sing along and then it was time for EG. Of course it also meant the show was coming close to ending. 🙁 But that didn’t stop anyone from bouncing around and singing. When the guys came down to say thank you, Mr. H. laughed, waved to the people on the side and said “I know you couldn’t see me but I was there, REALLY” LOL. Lots of thank yous, waves, etc and the crowd kept cheering, then did the clapping on the beat for more like the night before in Brighton. When the guys returned, Mr. M. asked us to “endulge us for a minute as I have some thank yous” and went on to thank their manager Mirelle, their
“amazing crew who makes these shows happen”, everyone for coming and then he said there’s many who have been in the front for the past 2 months. “there’s too many to name but you know who you are. You’re like family now…we can’t get rid of you.” LOL, bless him. 😀 And then of course they thanked Walt Disco and mentioned they were bringing them to the states. Very sweet moment!
Final 3 songs were bitter sweet really! 🙁 But also amazing and the crowd didn’t let up especially for Electricity. Nor did the band either. It was obvious they were just pouring themselves out all night and this was IT. Once over, it was truly heart felt waves and goodbyes, Mr. H. promised they’d be back and…well, the tour ended. But it ended on a GREAT note! Don’t think they’ve played Eastbourne before but I’m sure they were glad it was on the list as the crowd did them justice and gave them a fine farewell I believe. 😀
Post gig pic and LOTS of hugs goodbye to LOTS of friends, then it was a walk back to the hotel to try and get a bit of sleep. I’ll be honest, I was tired but also wired so it took me a bit to fall asleep but I only had 5.5 hours to get shut eye before up and onto an early train to London for flying home so I did my best to put everything aside to sleep LOL.
So…highlight of the night. Well, I would say the feel and experience really because like I said, the final show is special. And there were lots of moments that didn’t necessarily happen at other gigs nor was the vibe the same so I just love that I got to be there! A HUGE thank you to the guys for putting on such amazing shows! 🤗 Long tour of which I only got to see a small part of it sadly but OMG, SOOOO glad and grateful I saw what I did! Also a big thank you to all my friends who made the shows even more fun. 😀
One final bit…I have to share this beauty that I saw on the way to the train station the next morning. There was a prediction of a huge storm with dangerously strong winds so I got a notice trains could be cancelled by noon. I was getting a 6:59am train so figured I’d be OK but flight wasn’t until 13:10 from Heathrow so I worried it might get delayed, especially after all the other bad luck things that had happened LOL. I took this as a good sign and a lovely goodbye from England. As Mr. H. says “I will be back” LOL. 😀 ❤️