Mirror in the Bathroom!
When maa3120 said she had an extra ticket to see The English Beat, well OF COURSE I wanted to go. 1.) It's maa3120 and 2.) it's British sociopolitical ska/reggae straight out of Birmingham -- what's not to like. Well, it was EVEN BETTER than I had expected. Being maa3120, of course she had front row tickets squarely in front of their HOT bass player (Wayne Lothian) as well as Lynval Golding (from The Specials, but performing with them). I sat down for the first 4-5 songs but once I was up, I stayed up and danced my way through the rest of their set. Barefoot. I was wearing flip-flops which were getting in the way of all my killer ska moves so, off they stayed. If I have a plantar fascitiis flare-up in the morning, it was WORTH IT.
Since we were in the front row, the band shook hands with us and I took that opportunity to tell Wayne that he was "beautiful to look at and beautiful to listen to." I swear, I thought he was going to melt right there; he seemed so genuinely touched. We hung around after the show, after the drunken middle-aged ladies left, and after the oh-my-god-you're-so-awesome 17 year-olds left. Of course, I am not without my fannish moments. I grabbed Lynval Golding's towel from off the stage after they left :)
Wayne found us and when he found out that maa3120 hadn't gotten a t-shirt because they weren't taking credit cards, he walked us right over to the merch table and told us to pick out the ones we wanted. And not only did he give us t-shirts but he gave maa3120 a set list, signed it, handed it to Lynval to sign and then she was able to round up the other signatures.
By the time we got to Dave Wakeling, who was sitting out in a rocking chair on the porch, sipping red wine, almost everyone was gone. So we hung out, he complimented me on how hard I had been "rocking out." (Ok, so that was particularly awesome -- getting complimented on my rocking out skills). Then Wayne came by to give us an extra-especially lovely hug and kiss goodbye and HIS E-MAIL ADDRESS!
Oh yeah, and I managed to snap some photos. Standard disclaimer: the lighting was low/bad and my camera on my cell phone doesn't do the best with people in motion:
Me, Dave Wakeling, maa3120:
maa3120, Wayne, Me:
Wayne & Lynval:
Man, did I mention that Wayne is HOT?
Dave & Lynval rocking out -- Dave was pretty good at rocking out himself:
Since we were in the front row, the band shook hands with us and I took that opportunity to tell Wayne that he was "beautiful to look at and beautiful to listen to." I swear, I thought he was going to melt right there; he seemed so genuinely touched. We hung around after the show, after the drunken middle-aged ladies left, and after the oh-my-god-you're-so-awesome 17 year-olds left. Of course, I am not without my fannish moments. I grabbed Lynval Golding's towel from off the stage after they left :)
Wayne found us and when he found out that maa3120 hadn't gotten a t-shirt because they weren't taking credit cards, he walked us right over to the merch table and told us to pick out the ones we wanted. And not only did he give us t-shirts but he gave maa3120 a set list, signed it, handed it to Lynval to sign and then she was able to round up the other signatures.
By the time we got to Dave Wakeling, who was sitting out in a rocking chair on the porch, sipping red wine, almost everyone was gone. So we hung out, he complimented me on how hard I had been "rocking out." (Ok, so that was particularly awesome -- getting complimented on my rocking out skills). Then Wayne came by to give us an extra-especially lovely hug and kiss goodbye and HIS E-MAIL ADDRESS!
Oh yeah, and I managed to snap some photos. Standard disclaimer: the lighting was low/bad and my camera on my cell phone doesn't do the best with people in motion:
Me, Dave Wakeling, maa3120:
maa3120, Wayne, Me:
Wayne & Lynval:
Man, did I mention that Wayne is HOT?
Dave & Lynval rocking out -- Dave was pretty good at rocking out himself: