Spring Fever Report
DISCLAIMER - I’m not a music critic, I’m a squeeing fangirl, so I’m going to enjoy myself at a James gig even if not everything he plays is perfect. If you want proper gig reports, set lists and good photos, you won’t find them here. This is really a personal record for me to remember the whole experience, not just the James bits, because the travelling and meeting people and getting lost (and loster) and giggling like a schoolgirl on a sleepover made it a fabulous time away for me.
WEDNESDAY - SOHO REVUE BAR
My bargain coach trip was well worth the £2.00 I spent on it, had a seat to myself, there was a screen at the front so you could see any collisions that were about to happen, and I caught up with the last three episodes of the Dresden Files. It was interesting coming in to London from a different direction, too, as we left the motorway at some point and went along some other road in order to call at Golders Green.
My trip from Victoria Coach Station to Train Station to Kings Cross was done more by luck than judgement, and the decision to follow a lady with a large suitcase on exiting Kings Cross was not one of my better ones. Turns out she was heading to a café and not my Travelodge, but I got there in the end. Met up with calturner at the hotel and we made our way to Leicester Square for a pre-show meal and chat withkazzy_cee and lmbossy. And as I promised I’d post a retraction for comments made to Cal on her LJ - I AM NOT A QUIET PERSON. lmbossy wasn’t accompanying us to the gig, but it was so great to see her and catch up on her pregnancy news and see her beautiful baby bump, and we filled her in on all the LJ and fandom kerfuffles she’d missed over the last several months..
After a very pleasant meal (and only one glass of wine) we headed off in the direction of the Revue Bar and met up with spikeslou on the way. Our navigation was a bit hit and miss and kazzy_cee had to do something electronic to help, but we eventually found a queue, decided we must be in the right place and joined it, and on entering the venue immediately saw bendy1 and deborahw37. It was good to see that bendy1 looks exactly like her picture, and I forgot myself for a minute and gave her a hug. I have since promised never to do it again though, and think I got away with it. Saw gishlane when we got into the bar, and she thinks I saved her life by rescuing her before she fell down the stairs - little does she know that I tripped her in the first place. *cue evOl laugh* Booth seating was a bit of a shambles, and so Cal and I ended up sitting on one of two pole dancing platforms. ::remembers that pole fondly:: It was a little uncomfortable, but had a fantastic view of the stage as I could see over everyone’s heads, and I was able to stand up and then got James in stereovision as he was reflected beautifully in the full length mirror I was leaning against.
James was looking ok, I think he had a cardi on. He played lots of songs and had to sit down at one point - I think he’s starting to feel his age. He’s a cheeky little thing though, keeps changing the words so you can’t sing along properly and varies the tempo to catch out those people who try to clap along and can’t.
James was looking gorgeous, it was wonderful to hear his newer songs in the flesh rather than as a download (particularly “Fall of Night”), and I loved the “Sitting Down Song” he wrote for his son and “Like a Waterfall”. And all the other songs he sang. The support act for Union Chapel (little cutie called Dan Aikido Akio) and Jim Robinson from Neighbours were there and watched part of the gig.
After the gig I went to say hello to some CDS Boarders (as opposed to Snow Boarders, which would have been a completely different kettle of fish) whom I’d met (ie imposed myself upon) at the Words & Music event, and as Exotic Mushroom was staying in the same hotel as Cal and myself we decided that half an hour was enough to have waited for some trannies to arrive and went home. We treated Cal to an unexpected adventure on the way home - combining her first trip on the London Underground with Getting Lost in London.
THURSDAY - SPRING FEVER EVENT - RICH MIX CENTRE
Spent the morning Getting Lost in London, having decided to see whether I could find a better route back to the hotel. My first wrong decision was not wearing any socks, my second was turning left out of the hotel entrance, and it all went downhill from there. With blisters. Thanks to a cunningly placed cycle path somewhere in the middle of Islington I found I was only a mile away from Kings Cross, so I followed the cycle signs for a while, then found a bus stop with a map that I could understand, and finally got back to the hotel in time to get ready to go out again. I decided to get the tube to Bethnal Green station, as the walk to Rich Mix was a straight line from there, and Liverpool Street involved some left/right decision making. Got out of the tube station and looked at the street numbers to make sure I was heading the right way. Got a bit disheartened when I found I was at 493 and I needed 35, but the numbers between 201 and 35 disappeared somewhere along the line so although it was a bloody long walk it wasn’t as far as it could have been. And I had different shoes on so wasn’t rubbing the old blisters, just making a new set.
The reading of the play (A Phoenix too Frequent by Christopher Fry) was better than I thought it was going to be; I got bored by some parts but it made me laugh and kept me amused, and Jamses preamble about his previous attempts to put on the play was fun to listen to. Steve did the draw for the Dinner with James, and calturner was one of the first names drawn. She was so excited, and even happier when it proved possible for her daughter to accompany her too. The gig bit wasn’t as good as the Soho one, there were problems with the sound and James cut the set a bit short; I got the impression he was getting a bit pissed off the the situation. Next came the mingle, which I had been planning on running away from, but in the end I stood my ground and even managed to say a few words to James - you can’t really stand on ceremony with someone when they say “boo” at you, poke you in the stomach and then stand there waiting for you to poke them back. I got a hug and a kiss too (he must moisturise really well - such soft skin). Met up with several LJ and non LJ friends and familiar names - it was particularly good to see jamalov29, ukchrisp, spikechris, and sueworld2003.
Went for a meal afterwards with the CDS gang who are always great company, and also meant I had people to keep me from getting lost on the way back to the hotel. calturner was in the bar, topping up the several glasses of wine she'd had at dinner, and SHE WAS TALKING! Lots and lots. She and K had had such a wonderful evening and it was so good to see and hear her being so happy.
(Just to let you know, you're about halfway through. Told you it was looooong)
FRIDAY - UNION CHAPEL GIG
Friday morning was spent with CDSers Exotic Mushroom, Deadhead and Kaleidoscope (all of whom have proper names, not all of which are Karen) wandering up and down Oxford Street trying to find Primark. Tried on a beautiful pink straw cowboy hat which I was very tempted to purchase - if only I’d known at the time of the forthcoming Marsters/Himber nuptuals. *kicks self sharply* We made our way to the UC queue at about 6pm, and although it looked quite long it didn’t take us that much time to get inside once the doors were opened. Met schehrezade1 and gillo, who were just in front of us in the queue, and then amybnnyc wandered up too, causing much squee from me. The Union Chapel is a beautiful building, with a really imposing clock tower and wonderful stained glass windows and ornate pulpit inside. We were seated at the side, but with the tiered pews the view was unobstructed (though if James does another gig there I’ll go upstairs to hear what the sound is like up there). Did some frantic texting to kazzy_cee and lmbossy, getting them to stand up so that I could see where they were, waved madly at just_sue who was up in the balcony and met up with debris4spike in the queue for the ladies.
Dan came on to big applause and played a mean guitar, and was cute and amusing. James came on to bigger applause, and proceeded to play a fabulous set, getting more and more hyped by the audience reaction, to the point where he had to remove his jacket and get his nicotine patch on display. EM, Deadhead and I practiced clapping out of time - not easy to do when there are three of you all trying to be out of time with each other as well as with the music. And he played “Katie” and went off so that we could entice him back with much clapping, shouting and stomping and did a five song encore. I think hearing a crowd calling for an encore must be one of the best things ever if you are a performer - I know it would be if I did singing and stuff. Hung around outside like a groupie after the show and managed to finally meet up with beanbeans, who I think I nearly squashed with the ferocity of my hug. Made our way to a pub across the road to get something to eat, and had the pleasure of seeing just_sue from much less of a distance and chatting to her. Food was off in the pub, so we ate in the McDonalds next door, and then made our way chez Travelodge, this time with kazzy_cee accompanying us, as she was to be my roomie for the night. It was just like being a school girl again, we had such a fun, giggly, girly sleepover, filled with flashing lights (both red and green), alien space ships, lifts going ‘ding’, strange humming noises and so much chat about people, places, LJ, James and his songs, life, the universe, everything. I laughed so much I had tears in my eyes (which probably accounted for the alien space ship lights changing shape and colour). And then it started all over again when we woke up in the morning.
Then it was time to say goodbye to EM and Deadhead and wend our way to Victoria again (though Karen very kindly accompanied me all the way to the coach station, just so that I wouldn’t get lost. Ha! Is all I’ll say to that *g*).
SUNDAY & MONDAY - COLLECTORMANIA
Got up early and drove to MK to join the James queue outside door 15. Met some nice people in said queue (Brenda, Laura and Lily) and they were kind enough not to blank me when I butted in to one of their conversations, but instead let me accompany them for much of the day. Collected Cal from outside John Lewis, and then started the whole queuing thing again. I’d printed out one of the pics I liked from the QM and decided I’d get that signed, and so got another handshake from James, together with a ‘Hello love’ (not as good as the ‘Hey Sweetie’ I got at the mingle, but nice enough) and said something about him not poking me today. He laughed and said ‘but you were just looking so pokeable that evening’, at which I came over all fangirly, grabbed my picture and left all a-tremble. Then came Photo Op Time, which entailed more queuing (sensing some sort of a pattern here), with Cal continually asking me ‘was I nervous’ and I really wasn’t. Not at all. In fact I was so not-nervous I decided that I’d been cured of my fangirlyness completely. It was nice to get another hug though, and I ended up with two photos as the photographer decided I must have looked really weird in the first and took another. (My eyes do look as though they are trying to get as far away from James as possible). We had a wander round the various dealer stalls and generally wasted a bit of time until it was time to head for the Hockey Stadium and Jamses Q&A session. I was impressed by the orderly queuing in batches, and headed for a seat on the end of a row on the right hand side of the room, which was right by one of the speakers, so I could hear rilly rilly well. Steve and James did some funny stuff, then people queued up right by me to ask their questions, quite a few of which were original and interesting and occasionally embarrassing. One or two of the questioners could have done with being tripped up before they had a chance to open their mouths though (eg Can you sing us the song you sang as Spike? Duh!! Of course not, he can’t remember the words, don’t you know anything?).
We were planning on making Monday’s trip to Collectormania a family event, but in the end I took the girls on my own - Chris wanted to finish putting the bathroom back together after his decorating stint, and I think he needed a bit of alone time. *g* They quite liked the idea of seeing Spike, even though I explained he didn’t look like Spike any longer, and so we queued up for another autograph. I got a ‘nice to see you again’ and explained that I’d brought the girls to see the reason I’d abandoned them for the last three days. He laughed and stood up and shook their hands and said hello to them, said they were lovely and said I should be very proud of them. *melts* Unfortunately they were more impressed with the cat lady from Doctor Who, even though she didn’t have her cat mask on. They liked seeing the Daleks, TARDIS and K9 though, and were very spoilt with Burger King meals, ice creams and a bath bomb from Lush.
I have got a few pictures I'll post, but this entry is long enough, and I haven't even thought about getting them loaded up anywhere other than my pc at the moment. They will be forthcoming though.
And that was the end of that. All I have to do now is avidly read all the reports I can find and look at endless pictures of the prettiness that is JM. And wait for him to come back to the UK again to do it all again. And I need a CD for Christmas With the waterfall song. And the sitting down song.
Oh yeah, I’m cured all right.
WEDNESDAY - SOHO REVUE BAR
My bargain coach trip was well worth the £2.00 I spent on it, had a seat to myself, there was a screen at the front so you could see any collisions that were about to happen, and I caught up with the last three episodes of the Dresden Files. It was interesting coming in to London from a different direction, too, as we left the motorway at some point and went along some other road in order to call at Golders Green.
My trip from Victoria Coach Station to Train Station to Kings Cross was done more by luck than judgement, and the decision to follow a lady with a large suitcase on exiting Kings Cross was not one of my better ones. Turns out she was heading to a café and not my Travelodge, but I got there in the end. Met up with calturner at the hotel and we made our way to Leicester Square for a pre-show meal and chat withkazzy_cee and lmbossy. And as I promised I’d post a retraction for comments made to Cal on her LJ - I AM NOT A QUIET PERSON. lmbossy wasn’t accompanying us to the gig, but it was so great to see her and catch up on her pregnancy news and see her beautiful baby bump, and we filled her in on all the LJ and fandom kerfuffles she’d missed over the last several months..
After a very pleasant meal (and only one glass of wine) we headed off in the direction of the Revue Bar and met up with spikeslou on the way. Our navigation was a bit hit and miss and kazzy_cee had to do something electronic to help, but we eventually found a queue, decided we must be in the right place and joined it, and on entering the venue immediately saw bendy1 and deborahw37. It was good to see that bendy1 looks exactly like her picture, and I forgot myself for a minute and gave her a hug. I have since promised never to do it again though, and think I got away with it. Saw gishlane when we got into the bar, and she thinks I saved her life by rescuing her before she fell down the stairs - little does she know that I tripped her in the first place. *cue evOl laugh* Booth seating was a bit of a shambles, and so Cal and I ended up sitting on one of two pole dancing platforms. ::remembers that pole fondly:: It was a little uncomfortable, but had a fantastic view of the stage as I could see over everyone’s heads, and I was able to stand up and then got James in stereovision as he was reflected beautifully in the full length mirror I was leaning against.
James was looking ok, I think he had a cardi on. He played lots of songs and had to sit down at one point - I think he’s starting to feel his age. He’s a cheeky little thing though, keeps changing the words so you can’t sing along properly and varies the tempo to catch out those people who try to clap along and can’t.
James was looking gorgeous, it was wonderful to hear his newer songs in the flesh rather than as a download (particularly “Fall of Night”), and I loved the “Sitting Down Song” he wrote for his son and “Like a Waterfall”. And all the other songs he sang. The support act for Union Chapel (little cutie called Dan Aikido Akio) and Jim Robinson from Neighbours were there and watched part of the gig.
After the gig I went to say hello to some CDS Boarders (as opposed to Snow Boarders, which would have been a completely different kettle of fish) whom I’d met (ie imposed myself upon) at the Words & Music event, and as Exotic Mushroom was staying in the same hotel as Cal and myself we decided that half an hour was enough to have waited for some trannies to arrive and went home. We treated Cal to an unexpected adventure on the way home - combining her first trip on the London Underground with Getting Lost in London.
THURSDAY - SPRING FEVER EVENT - RICH MIX CENTRE
Spent the morning Getting Lost in London, having decided to see whether I could find a better route back to the hotel. My first wrong decision was not wearing any socks, my second was turning left out of the hotel entrance, and it all went downhill from there. With blisters. Thanks to a cunningly placed cycle path somewhere in the middle of Islington I found I was only a mile away from Kings Cross, so I followed the cycle signs for a while, then found a bus stop with a map that I could understand, and finally got back to the hotel in time to get ready to go out again. I decided to get the tube to Bethnal Green station, as the walk to Rich Mix was a straight line from there, and Liverpool Street involved some left/right decision making. Got out of the tube station and looked at the street numbers to make sure I was heading the right way. Got a bit disheartened when I found I was at 493 and I needed 35, but the numbers between 201 and 35 disappeared somewhere along the line so although it was a bloody long walk it wasn’t as far as it could have been. And I had different shoes on so wasn’t rubbing the old blisters, just making a new set.
The reading of the play (A Phoenix too Frequent by Christopher Fry) was better than I thought it was going to be; I got bored by some parts but it made me laugh and kept me amused, and Jamses preamble about his previous attempts to put on the play was fun to listen to. Steve did the draw for the Dinner with James, and calturner was one of the first names drawn. She was so excited, and even happier when it proved possible for her daughter to accompany her too. The gig bit wasn’t as good as the Soho one, there were problems with the sound and James cut the set a bit short; I got the impression he was getting a bit pissed off the the situation. Next came the mingle, which I had been planning on running away from, but in the end I stood my ground and even managed to say a few words to James - you can’t really stand on ceremony with someone when they say “boo” at you, poke you in the stomach and then stand there waiting for you to poke them back. I got a hug and a kiss too (he must moisturise really well - such soft skin). Met up with several LJ and non LJ friends and familiar names - it was particularly good to see jamalov29, ukchrisp, spikechris, and sueworld2003.
Went for a meal afterwards with the CDS gang who are always great company, and also meant I had people to keep me from getting lost on the way back to the hotel. calturner was in the bar, topping up the several glasses of wine she'd had at dinner, and SHE WAS TALKING! Lots and lots. She and K had had such a wonderful evening and it was so good to see and hear her being so happy.
(Just to let you know, you're about halfway through. Told you it was looooong)
FRIDAY - UNION CHAPEL GIG
Friday morning was spent with CDSers Exotic Mushroom, Deadhead and Kaleidoscope (all of whom have proper names, not all of which are Karen) wandering up and down Oxford Street trying to find Primark. Tried on a beautiful pink straw cowboy hat which I was very tempted to purchase - if only I’d known at the time of the forthcoming Marsters/Himber nuptuals. *kicks self sharply* We made our way to the UC queue at about 6pm, and although it looked quite long it didn’t take us that much time to get inside once the doors were opened. Met schehrezade1 and gillo, who were just in front of us in the queue, and then amybnnyc wandered up too, causing much squee from me. The Union Chapel is a beautiful building, with a really imposing clock tower and wonderful stained glass windows and ornate pulpit inside. We were seated at the side, but with the tiered pews the view was unobstructed (though if James does another gig there I’ll go upstairs to hear what the sound is like up there). Did some frantic texting to kazzy_cee and lmbossy, getting them to stand up so that I could see where they were, waved madly at just_sue who was up in the balcony and met up with debris4spike in the queue for the ladies.
Dan came on to big applause and played a mean guitar, and was cute and amusing. James came on to bigger applause, and proceeded to play a fabulous set, getting more and more hyped by the audience reaction, to the point where he had to remove his jacket and get his nicotine patch on display. EM, Deadhead and I practiced clapping out of time - not easy to do when there are three of you all trying to be out of time with each other as well as with the music. And he played “Katie” and went off so that we could entice him back with much clapping, shouting and stomping and did a five song encore. I think hearing a crowd calling for an encore must be one of the best things ever if you are a performer - I know it would be if I did singing and stuff. Hung around outside like a groupie after the show and managed to finally meet up with beanbeans, who I think I nearly squashed with the ferocity of my hug. Made our way to a pub across the road to get something to eat, and had the pleasure of seeing just_sue from much less of a distance and chatting to her. Food was off in the pub, so we ate in the McDonalds next door, and then made our way chez Travelodge, this time with kazzy_cee accompanying us, as she was to be my roomie for the night. It was just like being a school girl again, we had such a fun, giggly, girly sleepover, filled with flashing lights (both red and green), alien space ships, lifts going ‘ding’, strange humming noises and so much chat about people, places, LJ, James and his songs, life, the universe, everything. I laughed so much I had tears in my eyes (which probably accounted for the alien space ship lights changing shape and colour). And then it started all over again when we woke up in the morning.
Then it was time to say goodbye to EM and Deadhead and wend our way to Victoria again (though Karen very kindly accompanied me all the way to the coach station, just so that I wouldn’t get lost. Ha! Is all I’ll say to that *g*).
SUNDAY & MONDAY - COLLECTORMANIA
Got up early and drove to MK to join the James queue outside door 15. Met some nice people in said queue (Brenda, Laura and Lily) and they were kind enough not to blank me when I butted in to one of their conversations, but instead let me accompany them for much of the day. Collected Cal from outside John Lewis, and then started the whole queuing thing again. I’d printed out one of the pics I liked from the QM and decided I’d get that signed, and so got another handshake from James, together with a ‘Hello love’ (not as good as the ‘Hey Sweetie’ I got at the mingle, but nice enough) and said something about him not poking me today. He laughed and said ‘but you were just looking so pokeable that evening’, at which I came over all fangirly, grabbed my picture and left all a-tremble. Then came Photo Op Time, which entailed more queuing (sensing some sort of a pattern here), with Cal continually asking me ‘was I nervous’ and I really wasn’t. Not at all. In fact I was so not-nervous I decided that I’d been cured of my fangirlyness completely. It was nice to get another hug though, and I ended up with two photos as the photographer decided I must have looked really weird in the first and took another. (My eyes do look as though they are trying to get as far away from James as possible). We had a wander round the various dealer stalls and generally wasted a bit of time until it was time to head for the Hockey Stadium and Jamses Q&A session. I was impressed by the orderly queuing in batches, and headed for a seat on the end of a row on the right hand side of the room, which was right by one of the speakers, so I could hear rilly rilly well. Steve and James did some funny stuff, then people queued up right by me to ask their questions, quite a few of which were original and interesting and occasionally embarrassing. One or two of the questioners could have done with being tripped up before they had a chance to open their mouths though (eg Can you sing us the song you sang as Spike? Duh!! Of course not, he can’t remember the words, don’t you know anything?).
We were planning on making Monday’s trip to Collectormania a family event, but in the end I took the girls on my own - Chris wanted to finish putting the bathroom back together after his decorating stint, and I think he needed a bit of alone time. *g* They quite liked the idea of seeing Spike, even though I explained he didn’t look like Spike any longer, and so we queued up for another autograph. I got a ‘nice to see you again’ and explained that I’d brought the girls to see the reason I’d abandoned them for the last three days. He laughed and stood up and shook their hands and said hello to them, said they were lovely and said I should be very proud of them. *melts* Unfortunately they were more impressed with the cat lady from Doctor Who, even though she didn’t have her cat mask on. They liked seeing the Daleks, TARDIS and K9 though, and were very spoilt with Burger King meals, ice creams and a bath bomb from Lush.
I have got a few pictures I'll post, but this entry is long enough, and I haven't even thought about getting them loaded up anywhere other than my pc at the moment. They will be forthcoming though.
And that was the end of that. All I have to do now is avidly read all the reports I can find and look at endless pictures of the prettiness that is JM. And wait for him to come back to the UK again to do it all again. And I need a CD for Christmas With the waterfall song. And the sitting down song.
Oh yeah, I’m cured all right.