Climb in to the sky never wonder why......
I'm back and have managed to catch some sleep.
What a hectic couple of days.
We set out from home at about ten to midnight on Wednesday evening. Managed to say hi to Rod Smallwood whilst waiting at the gate.
Our flight AEU 666 left Gatwick at 5:40. Captain Bruce was in charge and the flight was great. We arrived in Warsaw, checked into our room then had about four hours before we set off to the gig. We were given early access tot he gig so was inside the stadium half an hour before anyone else which was kind off cool to wander about and but t-shirts etc without any queues.
maiatzm and I decided to watch this one from afar even though we had access to the "Golden Circle" front of the gig.
Lauren Harris opened and as usual I have to follow the old adage my mother taught me. "If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all."
Next up were Made of Hate a Polish Power Metal band who even after some technical still manage to play a rocking support.
Maiden came on and even though this was a dry gig (No booze and after about an hour in they even ran out of Coke.) the crowd were very lively, if somewhat dehydrated.
After the show we were whisked away by coach to a nightclub where food and drink were laid on for all of us from the Bruce Air flight and, Bruce arrived about half an hour after us all to join in the fun as this was his birthday party.
He spent the evening being our DJ.
We finally made it back to the hotel around 01:30 were we had a nightcap in the hotel bar before finally going to bed. At this point I had been up for 43 hours which I think is a personal record.
Friday we had to be up and out of the hotel for 09:45. We had been advised the night before that Polish Air Traffic Control had made some amendments to our flight plans. So we ended up having to fly on two seperate planes. Our flight was still 666 but Bruce was flying as a passenger on flight 600 with about 100 of our group. Still we were advised Bruce would fly back as a passenger instead of crew on 666 to Gatwick after the gig.
We got to Prague and there had been some sort of problem and gate were not opening on time. Still this meant we were given our ticket and could go in at anytime. Our tickets were for the "Golden Circle" again so it really did not matter when we went in as we could go straight to the front anyways.
We had some food and took our time before going in to the gig.
We timed it perfectlyy as Luren Harris was just finishing. We also founf out that the gig was running short as we had to catch flights early. Anyways, this meant that the planned support band did not play and Maiden came on early.
They cut The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner a little short to save time too.
Still it was an amazing gig and the crowd were unbeliveable. Maiden even stopped halway through and were just amazed at how crazy this bunch were.
There was as much craziness going on amongst us Bruce Air punters too.
Nordic metallers are insane.
My camera is fairly useless for taking pictures of the stage so I decided to wait until it was the pyrotechnics and take a shot of that instead.
After the gig we were shuttled back to the airport where it turned out our flight was delayed an hour.
Still this gave me time to say hi to Bruce and get my copy of the novel Chemical Wedding signed. (I had already got Julian Doyle to sign it at the world premier so this finished it off nicely.)
Our trip back was subdues as I think everyone including Bruce was very tired.
Still he took time out to hand out a signed photo of him taken of him and the plane.
We landed back at gatwick just after 02:30 adn we manafed to get ur bags and be at the train station in time for the 03:30 to London Bridge.
All in all we were home and in bed by about five.
I'm still kind of wiped and I've not proccessed everything yet but, it was awesome and a once in a lifetime kind of thing.
Type your cut contents here.
What a hectic couple of days.
We set out from home at about ten to midnight on Wednesday evening. Managed to say hi to Rod Smallwood whilst waiting at the gate.
Our flight AEU 666 left Gatwick at 5:40. Captain Bruce was in charge and the flight was great. We arrived in Warsaw, checked into our room then had about four hours before we set off to the gig. We were given early access tot he gig so was inside the stadium half an hour before anyone else which was kind off cool to wander about and but t-shirts etc without any queues.
maiatzm and I decided to watch this one from afar even though we had access to the "Golden Circle" front of the gig.
Lauren Harris opened and as usual I have to follow the old adage my mother taught me. "If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all."
Next up were Made of Hate a Polish Power Metal band who even after some technical still manage to play a rocking support.
Maiden came on and even though this was a dry gig (No booze and after about an hour in they even ran out of Coke.) the crowd were very lively, if somewhat dehydrated.
After the show we were whisked away by coach to a nightclub where food and drink were laid on for all of us from the Bruce Air flight and, Bruce arrived about half an hour after us all to join in the fun as this was his birthday party.
He spent the evening being our DJ.
We finally made it back to the hotel around 01:30 were we had a nightcap in the hotel bar before finally going to bed. At this point I had been up for 43 hours which I think is a personal record.
Friday we had to be up and out of the hotel for 09:45. We had been advised the night before that Polish Air Traffic Control had made some amendments to our flight plans. So we ended up having to fly on two seperate planes. Our flight was still 666 but Bruce was flying as a passenger on flight 600 with about 100 of our group. Still we were advised Bruce would fly back as a passenger instead of crew on 666 to Gatwick after the gig.
We got to Prague and there had been some sort of problem and gate were not opening on time. Still this meant we were given our ticket and could go in at anytime. Our tickets were for the "Golden Circle" again so it really did not matter when we went in as we could go straight to the front anyways.
We had some food and took our time before going in to the gig.
We timed it perfectlyy as Luren Harris was just finishing. We also founf out that the gig was running short as we had to catch flights early. Anyways, this meant that the planned support band did not play and Maiden came on early.
They cut The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner a little short to save time too.
Still it was an amazing gig and the crowd were unbeliveable. Maiden even stopped halway through and were just amazed at how crazy this bunch were.
There was as much craziness going on amongst us Bruce Air punters too.
Nordic metallers are insane.
My camera is fairly useless for taking pictures of the stage so I decided to wait until it was the pyrotechnics and take a shot of that instead.
After the gig we were shuttled back to the airport where it turned out our flight was delayed an hour.
Still this gave me time to say hi to Bruce and get my copy of the novel Chemical Wedding signed. (I had already got Julian Doyle to sign it at the world premier so this finished it off nicely.)
Our trip back was subdues as I think everyone including Bruce was very tired.
Still he took time out to hand out a signed photo of him taken of him and the plane.
We landed back at gatwick just after 02:30 adn we manafed to get ur bags and be at the train station in time for the 03:30 to London Bridge.
All in all we were home and in bed by about five.
I'm still kind of wiped and I've not proccessed everything yet but, it was awesome and a once in a lifetime kind of thing.
Type your cut contents here.