I chose to sit at Twickenham as I knew standing a long time at Manchester and 4 days in Paris in between would be difficult. The seats were fine..... but..... i realise that the only place I really want to be is the front. However as Guillemots were on I saw Bill Rieflin walk past the steward at the bottom of our staircase and go into the crowd to watch the drum solo. I jumped up and made my way down hoping to catch him on his way back. Alas he went thru the front right crowd to backstage area. I told the steward who BLESS him let me thru to wait for him. How good was thst?????
I waited there and at the end of Guillemots set along comes Mike Mills... 5 metres from me I took a step forward to speak but realised he was talking closely with someone...so I sort of hesitated and the moment was past. Oh why was I so well brought up???? grrrrr anyway i saw scott go by and then Bill came. I spoke to him.... said I had seen him go into crowd,... that I couldnt beleieve ppl hadnt spoken to him. I thanked him for his contributions as i have only ever seen him with the band and I rate him ...as the band must. how fed up at times must he be with hearing some of the stuff about Bill Berry? He smiled and I asked him to autograph my ticket. It was nice. I returned to the steward and thanked him.He couldnt believe that the crowd didnt react to Bill. I said I had stood up cos my knee hurt so much...seats didnt have leg room for a post operative cronk like me... The steward then said to come and sit on the platform as there were lots of free places and to see box office to swap tickets ( er not my autographed one tho) the same steward when Bill went back to the crowd to watch Editors.... again unremarked by fans, told the lady next to me and went to Bill on the pitch to ask him would he come to the lady in the disabled area in her chair which Bill did at the end of the set signign a ticket for her and shaking hands. How nice was that?
what a star. so saw the concert with leg room next to the 2 nice ladies from Dublin. perfect Circle was PERFECT and brought tears to my eyes. first time i think I have ever heard it. I think Manchester was slightly better ...well he did hold my hand there ...Michael that is.... but the set list was super...... I could have watched forever.... but again there is only one place to be.....
I had the near perfect week what with that at manchester.... and rushing back from Paris on Eurostar to arrive in London at 6 35pm with a taxi to Picadilly to get in that queue.
If EVER anyone needed an example of what a GREAT person Michael Stipe is and how great the REM set up is...note that he over stayed to sign to the last person in the queue's book (me!)
To the person who wanted the rem fan club version of Let me in..../Find the river. email me and i will send (
helen.remfan@gmail.com )if you dont have it already.
Like so many others.... it is that awful aftermath of knowing it will be a good while before they return and there is always that little nagging dread that they might call it a day... to all the pseudo journalists etc who tried to make capital about ticket sales....IF they had done some research they would discover just how many venues and dates the band are doing all over Europe. Previously. at uk concerts I have seen how many people from all over northern Europe have come here to attend.
this tour the band are touring extensively in N europe. Not rocket science.
then it was (beleive ot or not) summer and ppl go away. Scottish ppl only really had that festival show to see as schools were back that last week in august. i know my friend couldnt come to England and Welsh show because of that and was very disappointed.
Also journalists the Guardian's reviewer comes to mind... must have been blind not to notice how much the crowd CROWD rocked to the band. The band's effect on the crowd. grief... i bet they would have crept to the mundane U2.
lemme count the concerts. manchester MEN (awful venue) Stirling castle (awesome) Old trafford Move, sheffield x 2, Hyde Park, Hammersmith. Old trafford, Dublin, old trafford, Twickenham.
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