Meeting Billy Boyd in Birmingham...
Last night was quite a surreal one to be honest.
purplekelly loves "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, both the books and the movies, and it was only through luck really that we happened to find out that Billy Boyd (Pippin from the movies) was going to be at the brand spanking new Virgin Megastore in Birmingham City Centre, signing copies of the new DVD sets on the day of their release. The surreal part of all this is that the signing took place the moment the launch day started, so there we were queuing outside the store at midnight last night!
The time actually went quite quickly. We joined the queue at around 10pm and were surprised to find that there was only around 50 people ahead of us. In time, the queue got longer but not by that much and anyone who knows Birmingham well will know what I mean when I say the queue length started from the main steps of the new Virgin store and finished at the entrance to the HMV opposite it.
Virgin had taken down the advertising posters from the main windows so lots of people walked past the queue and had to ask what the hell we were queuing for. It's not every night you see a load of people hanging around outside a high street store surrounded by security guards at midnight! Obviously a lot of these people were drunks and idiots and it was cruel but hilarious when a guy in front of us said the line "Christopher Reeve's signing the new Superman DVDs!" twice, firstly to a girl who was none the wiser and secondly to a guy who said "How is he going to get his wheelchair up those steps?!" One other person, who wasn't drunk in the slightest and was told the truth in that it was Billy Boyd signing DVDs, even said "So it's not Viggo Malteser then?" How we laughed! :D
The doors opened just before midnight but we didn't get to enter the store until nearly 12:20am because the press (OK, one photographer!) was messing around taking photos including some of fans who had actually dressed up as hobbits and elves for the occasion! Apparently there was a fancy dress contest as part of the launch but only five people obliged!
I reckon even the most organised store would mess things up if they were holding a signing. Last night was no exception. Everyone had to enter the store, pick up their chosen box set from a display, join the queue to the tills, pay for their items and then head to the other side of the store to join the signing queue, where you obivously had to unwrap your pre-sealed item, and take the packaging apart so that Billy could sign it! Surely there had to be a better way of organising it?
Anyways, it was getting on for around 1am when we finally got to meet Billy Boyd. He was a genuine enough guy and we wished him a Merry Christmas as he is back in Glasgow to spend the festive season with his family. I wish the security guards could have been in a happier mood though. I took a quick photo of Kel having her stuff signed and they told me "That's it now! Move along! You've had your one photo and we've got to get through all these people!" to which I replied, "Hang on mate. They weren't even looking towards the camera!" Luckily, Kel and Billy took that moment to smile at the camera and I quickly took a proper photo, which probably peeved the security off, but after waiting that long and seeing everyone else ahead of us taking lots of photos, we were entitled to it!
We headed home at 1:15am in a taxi. Kel was thrilled to have met Billy and I was quite suprised as to how quickly and smoothly the night had gone compared to other signings I'd been to. Quite a cool but surreal night methinks. :)
purplekelly loves "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, both the books and the movies, and it was only through luck really that we happened to find out that Billy Boyd (Pippin from the movies) was going to be at the brand spanking new Virgin Megastore in Birmingham City Centre, signing copies of the new DVD sets on the day of their release. The surreal part of all this is that the signing took place the moment the launch day started, so there we were queuing outside the store at midnight last night!
The time actually went quite quickly. We joined the queue at around 10pm and were surprised to find that there was only around 50 people ahead of us. In time, the queue got longer but not by that much and anyone who knows Birmingham well will know what I mean when I say the queue length started from the main steps of the new Virgin store and finished at the entrance to the HMV opposite it.
Virgin had taken down the advertising posters from the main windows so lots of people walked past the queue and had to ask what the hell we were queuing for. It's not every night you see a load of people hanging around outside a high street store surrounded by security guards at midnight! Obviously a lot of these people were drunks and idiots and it was cruel but hilarious when a guy in front of us said the line "Christopher Reeve's signing the new Superman DVDs!" twice, firstly to a girl who was none the wiser and secondly to a guy who said "How is he going to get his wheelchair up those steps?!" One other person, who wasn't drunk in the slightest and was told the truth in that it was Billy Boyd signing DVDs, even said "So it's not Viggo Malteser then?" How we laughed! :D
The doors opened just before midnight but we didn't get to enter the store until nearly 12:20am because the press (OK, one photographer!) was messing around taking photos including some of fans who had actually dressed up as hobbits and elves for the occasion! Apparently there was a fancy dress contest as part of the launch but only five people obliged!
I reckon even the most organised store would mess things up if they were holding a signing. Last night was no exception. Everyone had to enter the store, pick up their chosen box set from a display, join the queue to the tills, pay for their items and then head to the other side of the store to join the signing queue, where you obivously had to unwrap your pre-sealed item, and take the packaging apart so that Billy could sign it! Surely there had to be a better way of organising it?
Anyways, it was getting on for around 1am when we finally got to meet Billy Boyd. He was a genuine enough guy and we wished him a Merry Christmas as he is back in Glasgow to spend the festive season with his family. I wish the security guards could have been in a happier mood though. I took a quick photo of Kel having her stuff signed and they told me "That's it now! Move along! You've had your one photo and we've got to get through all these people!" to which I replied, "Hang on mate. They weren't even looking towards the camera!" Luckily, Kel and Billy took that moment to smile at the camera and I quickly took a proper photo, which probably peeved the security off, but after waiting that long and seeing everyone else ahead of us taking lots of photos, we were entitled to it!
We headed home at 1:15am in a taxi. Kel was thrilled to have met Billy and I was quite suprised as to how quickly and smoothly the night had gone compared to other signings I'd been to. Quite a cool but surreal night methinks. :)