Sydney-February 16, 2025
So a beautiful day prior to the gig! Not nearly as hot but sunny with no threat of rain, yay! Pammy and I met for a delicious pancake breakfast (I had lemon curd/meringue pancakes, extra lemon curd LOL) and then headed over to the Royal Botanical Gardens before finishing with some ice cream along the pier. We split ways after that and I wandered a bit hitting Barangaroo area for more pretty sites, some souvenir shops for things for my sister and a friend (one thing for myself even LOL) and also the way cool Lego store that had a bunch of Australian themed displays that were great fun to see. 😀
The plan for the night was to arrive later…7:30-8pm…so that the locals could have the front row plus we could sightsee more. Ironically Nicky and I ended up on the same train just loading one stop different so we met up after getting off and headed to the venue. It was weird as this time they had 2/3 of the floor blocked off and chairs were placed in rows. 😮 Huh? The plan was to all meet up at the back in front of the sound booth (I was going to post a picture of us “back row wankers LOL”) but that wasn’t a possibility now. 🙁 But as it turned out, Pammy saw us and waved us over to the very very side tip of the rail for front row. It was the same side that we had been on the night before, just over even further but hey ho. 🙂
Well, it wasn’t as packed with the floor being as it was and also the balcony hadn’t filled up yet. Crowd reaction to Underground Lovers wasn’t as enthusiastic either so I thought hmmm….not as lively a crowd tonight. 🙁 When the guys came on, everyone DID cheer a good amount but it wasn’t tremendous like the night before. The guys didn’t seem to miss a beat because of it tho and just jumped right in. Not as loud a sing a long to Messages but it was there. Since I was so far to the side and away from Jennifer, I decided to take the night off doing the ‘yes, Yes, YES’ bit for TG but surprisingly, about mid way thru the song I thought I heard someone do it behind me. What? 😮 Sure enough, end of song I heard it again so I joined in…COOL! 😀
Tonight before HoM we were told by Mr. M. that “the floor collapsed awhile back so we’ve been told by management to test the floor out. You can either do the windmill…or you can BOUNCE…..True story!”. Needless to say we chose the later and when the song was done, Mr. M. confirmed what we all knew…floor was doing great! 😀 When it was time for Mr. H. to come out, Mr. M. teased him saying “it took him 4 weeks to get out from back there last night”. But he got thru fine and someone from behind me yelled “we love you Paul” to which then a girl yelled “yeah we love you Paul”. 😀 When it was over and Mr. M. was out front again, he laughed pointing to a guy near the front and said “I love how you’re playing air guitar to every song. This next one has a killer bass line”. I hadn’t really noticed the bass line of IYL, more the sax but OK, cool. 🙂
Overall, tho the crowd was good, they weren’t fantastic like the night before UNTIL after the A&M trio was finished. THEN finally they kicked into gear and gave all the guys a true great reaction. Which was funny as it then died down a bit for Veruschka but once done Mr. M. joked saying ” a slow new one but dang she looks good on that screen!” and Mr. H. laughed saying “she DOES look good yeah.” 😀 Some singing to Don’t Go for sure and then LOL, Mr. M. asked if we were tired and when we said no, he was like “Ready? Are you READY?” Meanwhile Merve was standing on the side with Mr. M.s bass and I’m
thinking “um…we don’t bounce and go wild for Secret”. It then suddenly hit Mr. M. and laughing he said “I’m thinking of the wrong song aren’t I?” and went to meet Merve for his bass. We all laughed, Secret started and he joked saying ” I guess I should just look at the fucking setlist.” 😀 😀 .
TLAC had us swaying back and forth as I’d forgotten about that since they’ve not done it for awhile (not done on the last UK tour) and when it was over, Mr. M. laughed saying how NOW we (the crowd) were coming around. “It’s the old folks tonight. You sent your KIDS out last night to see us and they came back saying yeah they sounded good, go tomorrow.” When it was time for SotSS, Mr. M. announced that “the reason I’m drinking so much is because I had vocal cord surgery 4 months ago. The chorus to this is a bitch so if you know it, help me out.” Well, we did and he thanked us after. By the time EG was out, tho still not the Saturday crowd, there was a good amount of bopping around (a lady behind and to my left was for sure doing the bopping justice 😀 ) and the cheers had picked up from the earlier part of the show so that was great. Once over, everyone got introduced and waved before heading off stage, happy for sure. 🙂
Once back, Mr. M. thanked us again and said sorry they made everyone wait 38 years…”we won’t do that again”. He then said “I liked the swaying arms, let’s do that again” and back and forth we went for LaYN. Pandora’s Box went fast and then when Mr. M. was introducing Electricity that “we wrote way back,
seems like ages ago” Mr. H. laughed and said “yes, it was a long time ago. Back when I had more hair” Bless 😀 ♥ One final bounce and then it was done and time for post gig pictures and hello/goodbyes. Steph came up to say hi and then we went and saw Greg and Paula so a nice little reunion. 😀 Nicky and I took the train back, Pammy was Ubering it and that was that for Sydney. But what fun and to be able to enjoy it with the locals…so special! 😀
Highlight of the night tonight…well, tbh, I think maybe hearing someone else do the “yes, Yes, YES” bit. I’m wondering if they were near Jennifer and I the night before and saw/heard us do it at Mr. H. or if they came up with the idea themselves but either way it was a nice surprise LOL. 😮 😀 😀