Hub 3
Hub 3 : a very silly but also somewhat chilled for a Torchwood convention (earplugs only required a couple of times during the weekend).
James Marsters had to cancel due to an injury that stopped him flying, which personally I couldn't care less about.
Line-up was Lara Phillipart (Jasmine from the fairies ep), Rik Makarem (doctor in CoE), Ben Loyd Holmes (operative in CoE), Katy Wix (Ianto's sister), Nicholas Farrell (Prime Minister Green), Daniella Denby-Ashe (Mary - alien that shagged Tosh), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Sleeper agent), Liz May Brice (Scary scary agent in CoE), Paul Copley (crazy bloke from CoE), Gareth David Lloyd and bonus Kai Owen who turned up Saturday night.
Lara was rather adorable and terrifyingly level-headed for someone who's what, 11? 12? Not got anything lined up right now but fingers crossed. Rik is stunning in real life. And funny. Had a lot of girls dribbling over him, and was encouraging all the ways we were thinking for him to come back on the show - as I put it, 'You're pretty and can act, we're shallow.' 'Oh, I *like* you.' (both of them admired my earrings and agreed that Accessorize is an evil place of shiny addiction) Katy Wix was somewhat quiet and not quite getting it. Nicholas was, to quote fairyd123, highly bemused by the whole thing but clearly very amused. And liked that I remembered him from Twelfth Night. Nikki was very gorgeous and radiating class and poise. Ben Loyd Holmes went from 'er, *who?' to 'Gorgeous, good lord *body*, nuts, fucking hysterical and can compete with Gareth and Kai. Plus likes dancing. We can has again?' Spent much of his signing complaining about his photo which was possibly the worst ever - completely unidentifiable and made him look like he had a tat on his head.
Friday night surprisingly restrained costume-wise for Hen Night theme. Large dose of cheese and a few very odd choices by the DJ. Oh, and Lawrence did a full-on boyband impression of Poker Face on stage. Scary and disturbing but terribly entertaining. Got accused of doing a Shakira. I deny this. Due to the music choice, I only did a Shakira to the Shakira tracks. Started a pattern of being the person people watched to figure out how to do the con dances. (How do some people not know Time Warp, let alone Star Trekking?) This crowd's enthusiasm for the conga to Amarillo is really bloody disturbing. Bar prices were bloody scary, so glad I brought my own drink. FlatlandDan managed to get herself handcuffed to the wall near the end of the night.
Talk on Saturday, Gareth was on usual filthy form (with muchos about being killed off by alien farts - to say the boy is peeved is an understatement but didn't say owt bad about the writers), Rik kept up pretty well and managed to cross the Barrowman line twice in thirty seconds without meaning to (hamsters), and was a bit worried about swearing. Bless. he and Gareth were doing the 'bring us back, go on' Katy Wix was almost completely silent - not sure if she was marking time or just overwhelmed (still, did not reach the Roderick Culver mark). Nikki was fairly clearly going 'wtf?' but rallied nicely, and Nicholas was fairly clearly snickering a lot and had a lot've fun playing bastard politician again. Ben was happily bouncing off Gareth, being filthy and funny. Photos, discovered that asking for a Charlie's Angels pose tend to make the guest giggle and relax - and also make you look good due to the angle. Score.
Evening, Gareth started a skit (ow, my ears) and that's when Kai turned up. Fangirl squee went stratospheric, showing you precisely who the fen want. Large amounts of in-jokes, funnier than the previous con's skit, complete with obligatory 'you're just here to see us kiss, aren't you? Filthy buggers.' They buggered off straight after - no hanging around the dancing to entertain the fans, though Kai did return at the end of the night to do 'Don't Look Back in Anger'. However, the DJ had convinced Ben to turn up just to see the spectacle that is con dancing, he couldn't stop laughing, and proceeded to dance away to the cheese with his girlfriend, with no dancefloor mobbing. (he did get backed against the wall a bit outside, but fortunately extricated himself fairly quickly and got back to the dancefloor) Paul Copley turned up near the end and headed straight for the dancefloor. Distinctly odd to see him casual and clean shaven. (his roles normally mean he's in a suit if clean shaven and casual if scruffy) Costumes ranged all over the place from a whoopie cushion, Henry the Hoover (who got a lot of 'Awesome!') to Gemma's La Cage Aux Folles poster outfit, which got her boosted onto the stage to mime to 'I am What I am', which she did very well. One girl who thought she'd made an effort with her UNIT outfit was sighing since she'd had the misfortune to see Alycia's full kit. Jackie looked very fabulous in her Wren outfit. Cabaret got a lot of admirers as these people haven't seen it before, and I did get a few 'I thought you said you weren't making an effort.' Giles also needs to learn to change his card on the camera faster, since I went into chair pose and got stuck in it for ages while he fiddled. Hotel management mean and wouldn't let us continue to the second 2am, which Jason did argue with them for. Crashed out in the bar, where we... I have no idea what it was we talked about aside from some reminiscing about Terry Pratchett and Rob Rankin and Jason making comments about my shorts as I was getting a lot of stares from the muggles hanging around the bar. Jason, Gemma, the DJ, Lawrence, Giles, Sam were there, though. Perhaps they remember...
Sunday day, aside from the flood of photos for Kai (Taz got squeezed to death), poor lad ran out of signings pretty quickly. Paul is officially adorable and in glee mode. Daniella was on cool professional fast mode unless you asked her a question, in which case she lit up. Liz May Brice was clearly a bit nervous, but handled it better than Katy. Both of them were *not* huggy during photos, Daniella having a rule that you couldn't put an arm round her but she could do it. We were wondering if she'd had a bad experience previously. Fortunately the Charlies Angels pose works on this setting. Gareth was, of course, hungover.
Talks were great. Kai was on full entertainment mode in his talk (Gwen and Rhys's baby is going to be called Duncan, no matter the gender. The man's favourite cheese is Halloumi. We approve), Daniella comfortably held her own against Gareth (interesting stories about how filming in front of a live audience compares to theatre) and got across the Barrowman line before he did due to the tale of how they did the steaming effect of the soldier's heart being ripped out (tampon that kept being stuffed in a microwave), wants to do more costume drama as North and South had them filming all over the country, the dresses were gorgeous, advantage that the book is in first person, and she had to snog Richard Armitage. Group talk, Paul was having way too much fun (very giggly plus lots of tales of previous work), Liz started off nervous but chimed in well (and started off the bonnet line as she wants to do costume drama), Ben and Kai and Gareth on top form. If they have to save one person from earth detonation, the majority chose Gareth's Gemma. Though Kai would like Gordon Ramsey as well, and Ben wants a fat person and Ray Mears. Ray Mears can eat the fat person and Ben can then eat Ray. Ben and Gareth got well stuck into encouraging RTD to write them into Torchwood 4, and Gareth would choose to come back as an alternate universe Ianto who'd caught Jack and Gwen having a moment and thus mightily pissed off. Kai started in on Paul the question master (always entertaining) and the end of the talk, they started vetting the choice of last question from the audience. Final question ended up being 'If you got in trouble and ended up in the tabloids, what would the headline be'. Responses varied from Ben's 'Torchwood actors found in orgy with an elephant and an ostrich', Paul's 'Man walks into bar' and Kai and Gareth's 'Barrowman revealed as straight! Barrowman found inside woman!'
Sunday night, score for the decoration, theme being 'A Night out in Splott'. (Gareth : there's only one pub in Splott! It's all hookers and hoodies!') Graffiti on the walls and the table centrepieces being traffic cones nicked from the M6 with fake daffs stuck in them. V. chilled as about 40% had gone home. Restrained urge to tell the girl in the blue dress to fuck off as she kept trying to control the dancefloor, especially during the con dances, despite her having no natural rhythm whatsoever and not actually knowing the dances. Sweetie, if you have no idea of con dance protocol or which way you go on Tragedy, STFU. Still feeling a bit unclean due to doing the Carson dance and dancing to Journey.
Monday morning, learned lesson : do not eat huge brekkies when you don't need the fuel. Ow. ow. Ow.
ETA : highlight of Sunday was actually the remote control Dalek with a tie on. (several people going 'remember the fic where a Dalek got infected by Ianto DNA?') Who metamorphosed into Pimp!Dalek later.
James Marsters had to cancel due to an injury that stopped him flying, which personally I couldn't care less about.
Line-up was Lara Phillipart (Jasmine from the fairies ep), Rik Makarem (doctor in CoE), Ben Loyd Holmes (operative in CoE), Katy Wix (Ianto's sister), Nicholas Farrell (Prime Minister Green), Daniella Denby-Ashe (Mary - alien that shagged Tosh), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Sleeper agent), Liz May Brice (Scary scary agent in CoE), Paul Copley (crazy bloke from CoE), Gareth David Lloyd and bonus Kai Owen who turned up Saturday night.
Lara was rather adorable and terrifyingly level-headed for someone who's what, 11? 12? Not got anything lined up right now but fingers crossed. Rik is stunning in real life. And funny. Had a lot of girls dribbling over him, and was encouraging all the ways we were thinking for him to come back on the show - as I put it, 'You're pretty and can act, we're shallow.' 'Oh, I *like* you.' (both of them admired my earrings and agreed that Accessorize is an evil place of shiny addiction) Katy Wix was somewhat quiet and not quite getting it. Nicholas was, to quote fairyd123, highly bemused by the whole thing but clearly very amused. And liked that I remembered him from Twelfth Night. Nikki was very gorgeous and radiating class and poise. Ben Loyd Holmes went from 'er, *who?' to 'Gorgeous, good lord *body*, nuts, fucking hysterical and can compete with Gareth and Kai. Plus likes dancing. We can has again?' Spent much of his signing complaining about his photo which was possibly the worst ever - completely unidentifiable and made him look like he had a tat on his head.
Friday night surprisingly restrained costume-wise for Hen Night theme. Large dose of cheese and a few very odd choices by the DJ. Oh, and Lawrence did a full-on boyband impression of Poker Face on stage. Scary and disturbing but terribly entertaining. Got accused of doing a Shakira. I deny this. Due to the music choice, I only did a Shakira to the Shakira tracks. Started a pattern of being the person people watched to figure out how to do the con dances. (How do some people not know Time Warp, let alone Star Trekking?) This crowd's enthusiasm for the conga to Amarillo is really bloody disturbing. Bar prices were bloody scary, so glad I brought my own drink. FlatlandDan managed to get herself handcuffed to the wall near the end of the night.
Talk on Saturday, Gareth was on usual filthy form (with muchos about being killed off by alien farts - to say the boy is peeved is an understatement but didn't say owt bad about the writers), Rik kept up pretty well and managed to cross the Barrowman line twice in thirty seconds without meaning to (hamsters), and was a bit worried about swearing. Bless. he and Gareth were doing the 'bring us back, go on' Katy Wix was almost completely silent - not sure if she was marking time or just overwhelmed (still, did not reach the Roderick Culver mark). Nikki was fairly clearly going 'wtf?' but rallied nicely, and Nicholas was fairly clearly snickering a lot and had a lot've fun playing bastard politician again. Ben was happily bouncing off Gareth, being filthy and funny. Photos, discovered that asking for a Charlie's Angels pose tend to make the guest giggle and relax - and also make you look good due to the angle. Score.
Evening, Gareth started a skit (ow, my ears) and that's when Kai turned up. Fangirl squee went stratospheric, showing you precisely who the fen want. Large amounts of in-jokes, funnier than the previous con's skit, complete with obligatory 'you're just here to see us kiss, aren't you? Filthy buggers.' They buggered off straight after - no hanging around the dancing to entertain the fans, though Kai did return at the end of the night to do 'Don't Look Back in Anger'. However, the DJ had convinced Ben to turn up just to see the spectacle that is con dancing, he couldn't stop laughing, and proceeded to dance away to the cheese with his girlfriend, with no dancefloor mobbing. (he did get backed against the wall a bit outside, but fortunately extricated himself fairly quickly and got back to the dancefloor) Paul Copley turned up near the end and headed straight for the dancefloor. Distinctly odd to see him casual and clean shaven. (his roles normally mean he's in a suit if clean shaven and casual if scruffy) Costumes ranged all over the place from a whoopie cushion, Henry the Hoover (who got a lot of 'Awesome!') to Gemma's La Cage Aux Folles poster outfit, which got her boosted onto the stage to mime to 'I am What I am', which she did very well. One girl who thought she'd made an effort with her UNIT outfit was sighing since she'd had the misfortune to see Alycia's full kit. Jackie looked very fabulous in her Wren outfit. Cabaret got a lot of admirers as these people haven't seen it before, and I did get a few 'I thought you said you weren't making an effort.' Giles also needs to learn to change his card on the camera faster, since I went into chair pose and got stuck in it for ages while he fiddled. Hotel management mean and wouldn't let us continue to the second 2am, which Jason did argue with them for. Crashed out in the bar, where we... I have no idea what it was we talked about aside from some reminiscing about Terry Pratchett and Rob Rankin and Jason making comments about my shorts as I was getting a lot of stares from the muggles hanging around the bar. Jason, Gemma, the DJ, Lawrence, Giles, Sam were there, though. Perhaps they remember...
Sunday day, aside from the flood of photos for Kai (Taz got squeezed to death), poor lad ran out of signings pretty quickly. Paul is officially adorable and in glee mode. Daniella was on cool professional fast mode unless you asked her a question, in which case she lit up. Liz May Brice was clearly a bit nervous, but handled it better than Katy. Both of them were *not* huggy during photos, Daniella having a rule that you couldn't put an arm round her but she could do it. We were wondering if she'd had a bad experience previously. Fortunately the Charlies Angels pose works on this setting. Gareth was, of course, hungover.
Talks were great. Kai was on full entertainment mode in his talk (Gwen and Rhys's baby is going to be called Duncan, no matter the gender. The man's favourite cheese is Halloumi. We approve), Daniella comfortably held her own against Gareth (interesting stories about how filming in front of a live audience compares to theatre) and got across the Barrowman line before he did due to the tale of how they did the steaming effect of the soldier's heart being ripped out (tampon that kept being stuffed in a microwave), wants to do more costume drama as North and South had them filming all over the country, the dresses were gorgeous, advantage that the book is in first person, and she had to snog Richard Armitage. Group talk, Paul was having way too much fun (very giggly plus lots of tales of previous work), Liz started off nervous but chimed in well (and started off the bonnet line as she wants to do costume drama), Ben and Kai and Gareth on top form. If they have to save one person from earth detonation, the majority chose Gareth's Gemma. Though Kai would like Gordon Ramsey as well, and Ben wants a fat person and Ray Mears. Ray Mears can eat the fat person and Ben can then eat Ray. Ben and Gareth got well stuck into encouraging RTD to write them into Torchwood 4, and Gareth would choose to come back as an alternate universe Ianto who'd caught Jack and Gwen having a moment and thus mightily pissed off. Kai started in on Paul the question master (always entertaining) and the end of the talk, they started vetting the choice of last question from the audience. Final question ended up being 'If you got in trouble and ended up in the tabloids, what would the headline be'. Responses varied from Ben's 'Torchwood actors found in orgy with an elephant and an ostrich', Paul's 'Man walks into bar' and Kai and Gareth's 'Barrowman revealed as straight! Barrowman found inside woman!'
Sunday night, score for the decoration, theme being 'A Night out in Splott'. (Gareth : there's only one pub in Splott! It's all hookers and hoodies!') Graffiti on the walls and the table centrepieces being traffic cones nicked from the M6 with fake daffs stuck in them. V. chilled as about 40% had gone home. Restrained urge to tell the girl in the blue dress to fuck off as she kept trying to control the dancefloor, especially during the con dances, despite her having no natural rhythm whatsoever and not actually knowing the dances. Sweetie, if you have no idea of con dance protocol or which way you go on Tragedy, STFU. Still feeling a bit unclean due to doing the Carson dance and dancing to Journey.
Monday morning, learned lesson : do not eat huge brekkies when you don't need the fuel. Ow. ow. Ow.
ETA : highlight of Sunday was actually the remote control Dalek with a tie on. (several people going 'remember the fic where a Dalek got infected by Ianto DNA?') Who metamorphosed into Pimp!Dalek later.