Anaheim Night 2 – November 9th, 2025

Monday was a short night sleep and long day wait…for reasons I won’t go into…but suffice it to say there was plenty of time to write my blog for the first show and still visit with Christine, Marilyn and Laura a lot. 😀 Along with Jocelyn! Didn’t know she was coming but tho not as early as us, she showed up way in advance and joined in the chatting. Tho I hope OMD NEVER ever EVER plays this crap venue again, I WILL say that the location was great as there’s bathrooms near by, lots of places to go get food and until HOB opens and needs the booths, places to sit down for awhile. That’s the ONLY good stuff about this place tho! Even security were jerks and insisted I couldn’t have “food in the venue”. I have low blood sugar and had 2 protein bars, it’s not like I was bringing in a 4 course meal plus protein bars are obviously for nutrition, not just a snack to have for convenience but nope. He was going to throw both out!😯 In ALL the concerts I’ve gone to in the 20+ years since I’ve had this condition, NO ONE has made me throw them out because as soon as they hear low blood sugar, the realize if I passed out, they’d be liable if they took the food away but this guard was just a jerk.😠 He FINALLY allowed me ONE…tossed the other and darn it, he tossed the GOOD flavored one and left me with the not so great one…just my luck LOL.🙄🤪

But…enough of the pre-gig part and onto the gig itself. When we got in, Jocelyn had been a bit behind us so we kind of scattered (tho met up after). Many disabled people and Foundation Room holders there but we were able to get me and Christine in the front with Laura and Marilyn behind and it was on Mr. C.s side this time so we it gave us variety which I personally prefer. 😀

We were given Midway as an opener again tonight and to our surprise, Richard Blade introduced them!😯😀👍 I’ve only seen RB in the flesh one other time and that was waaaaaaay back in 2011 when he introduced OMD at Ameba Records and a few days later at their actual show. He looks the same, just a few more wrinkles…like us all LOL. Midway was great fun again, this time Daniel coming right between myself and the guy to my right to come over the barrier and into the crowd. I’m sure they’ll be going far now after getting a great intro from RB. 🙂

I decided I was going to record Atomic Ranch so I was posed and ready when the lights went down. Of course it meant I couldn’t do the little arm reenactments I would normally do with Laura (and did with her and Mark the night before) but ah well. Then it was time to bounce to Isotype and off we went. 🙂 Once done, Mr. M. said “the dress rehearsal went well last night. Now for the real show…” and the cheers were loud for Messages. Mr. M. turned the politics to UK comments this time prior to TG by saying “Paul, can I say anything about Prince Edward?” to which Mr. H. hit his “no” button. Mr. M. continued with “did you vote for ANY of the royal family?” and Mr. H. again hit “no” and they laughed. Mr. M. said I better just shut up, this is TG. Despite being less mouths and not as loud without Mark, we still did the “yes, Yes, YES” echo for fun.

More bouncing to Kleptocracy and once over, Mr. M. said “this next song is a song about the end of the world. But you all look like a dark lot so you can handle it.” He then proceeded to instruct everyone to bounce and, pointing to me, said “and it was started by this lady over hear 15 years ago in Chicago.” Awww.😯😀❤️ Arms in the air and bouncing up and down from many people to which when over, Mr. M. said “I think tonight is louder than yesterday”. Mr. H. laughed and said “yeah, I think so”. Mr. M. then joked and said “well, we did our song from a John Hughes movie”. Mr. H. said “yeah but we have another one”. Mr. M. said “no we don’t, that was Tesla Girls.” Mr. H. said “yes we do” so Mr. M. joked “play a little bit, let’s see if I remember” and when Stuart did the drums to start IYL, there was massive cheers and lots of singing along.😂 RB got a hand shake and also part way, Mr. M. looked up at the balcony, pointed to a guy and said “oh, you’re UP….nice of you to join us” and then laughed at him with a nice laugh to let the guy know he meant it all in good fun.😉 When done, all the guys were happy smiles!

This lead to the addition of She’s Leaving but not before Mr. M. adjusted his mic box and said “sorry about that, I thought the batteries were going to fall out of my ass.” Mr. H. said “you have batteries in your ass?” Mr. M. said “yes don’t you?” Mr. H. laughed and said “actually…yeah…” Mr. M. said “They don’t call me the Energizer bunny for nothing.” LOL!😂 He then told us we were getting “FOUR songs from The Architecture and Morality album”. The song started, people cheered and Mr. M. said “well you cheered…..what’s it called?” so many of us yelled out the answer LOL. The powerful A&M Trifecta was next and I was so glad to get to see JoA/MoO again. Who knows when the next time will be as I don’t have plans on doing any of the announced shows next year so I soaked it in again tonight. The cheers were amazing and Mr. H. pointed first to Stuart and then Mr. M. to have the crowd cheer for each.😀

Veruschka calmed things down for a short amount of time but when done, Mr. M. said “that’s the end of the cultural bit” TLaC was funny because Mr. M. said something like “this song is like taking acid in the Tiki Room at Disney”. When people laughed he said “admit it, you’ve all done it. Or at least though about it”. 😂 A section of the balcony kept swaying their arms once the singing started so in the musical break of verses Mr. M. said “I bet you can’t keep it going the whole song”….but they did.😀👍

SiL and Dreaming went down really well to a lot of singing and dancing. Mr. M. said “ahhh….you sound good. Definitely better than last night. We got the “brand new song….from 1991” in the form of SotSS and that was when I noticed Stuart was having trouble with one of his symbols drooping vs staying up/out. Awww ☹️.

When it was time for Enola Gay, Mr. M. joked by saying when it came out “in 1981, Richard Blade was just starting to broadcast”. Richard laughed (he was only a few people away from Christine and I) and Mr. M. came over and laughed with him during the song. Once done, the guys came forward to massive cheers. They all waved, huge smiles on their faces when they were starting to walk off, Mr. M. joked “we’re going to go do some acid in the Tiki room”.😂

Once back on stage, Mr. M. said “Paul and I had a bet going on whether tonight would be better. If you were, Paul was to shave his hair off”. Mr. H. looked at him like WHAT?!, laughed and said “I don’t remember that”. Mr. M. said ” yes, you were going to shave your head. You can donate the hair to Thomas Dolby for his wig”. Mr. H. laughed and said “ahhh…..I think you’re talking from where your batteries were coming out of” to which Mr. M. cracked up.😂😂 Part way thru the song, he went over to Mr. H. and made a head shaving motion to which Mr. H. shook his head and laughed.

Secret didn’t have an actual secret attached to it tonight but ah well LOL😂😉. One final bounce to Electricity…”1978…Richard Blade was still in Uni,” and RB laughed and nodded. Despite Laura being behind me vs next to me, we still managed the, er, bending over deflation move at the very end as the song winds to a halt, both then laughing.😂

When it was all over, the guys came back out front and all 4 were grins from ear to ear. Lots of thank yous and waves with a promise they’d be back and then they were gone. Jocelyn found us, as did Pat, so we got to say hi and chat plus a post gig picture before saying goodbye and heading back to Laura’s.

So…. highlight of the night is tied between my shout out and a guy I haven’t mentioned yet but was making me smile and laugh. He was half front row, half second row….older…long, grey curly hair. Hippie looking really but he was just TOTALLY grooving and swaying and “digging it man” that I found myself looking over at him often (only about 3 people to my right). I know it may sound strange but you’d have had to see him.😂👍

It was not much chatting once back to Laura’s as I was needing to get up at 4:50am 🤪🤪 but ya know how girls are….we still talked a bit as we all got ready for bed. Goodbyes and hugs done then since I stayed quiet in the morning getting ready but goodbye hugs to Laura at the train station and I was off to the airport. I knew it was going to be an extra fun weekend having all 4 of us together and I was right. Very grateful and thankful for the friends OMD concerts have helped me find and make! Until next time.🤗