For what its worth - Rosie goes to Collectomania MK...
Collectormania, Milton Keynes 3rd – 5th May 2008
Saturday
I got to MK by 20 past 8 in the morning and found the hotel fairly easily – and got to park right outside it. MK is a weird place! :)Thought I might as well go and check the place out, so walked up to the shopping centre and all through it till I found Collectormania and where James would be. It was still before 9, so they weren’t open or giving out virtual tickets – but a queue had formed by James place and there was a lot of familiar faces in the queue already! There must have been a procession of people driving up the M1. So I joined the end and very soon got my virtual ticket so I could relax, and do a bit of shopping! The shopping did take the form of trying to buy another John Barrowman photo ticket (all sold out) so I bought another James one for today instead…! Decided to go back to hotel and drop things off in the car before going back for James photo ops which were at 11am. Met the others there so was able to check in and dump everything in my room. They took a taxi back up, but I walked again (a route I was to become very familiar with….!)
I had 4 tickets now for pictures and 3 of them were the first colour to be called so I got in fairly early (thank goodness after what happened later!) dropped off my bag and went to the queue – think the queue is great fun – especially when you get newbies who have never met him before (says she, who isn’t exactly a veteran at this yet!!) Lovely – I got round the corner and there’s James, in white t shirt and jeans (we suspect the same t-shirt from last night at Union Chapel cos he smelt lovely of James!) he was standing at this point for pics and was looking very relaxed and happy. Though they do shove you through at a great rate at Collectormania, Malcolm the photographer does take time to get it right. So I walk the few steps to James and say Hi – knew there was no chance of a hug this time as it was too much pressure to be in and out – I stood on his left side for the first pic and its lovely – we look like friends who have known each other for years – James is smiling with his teeth showing, his arm draped around my shoulders and his head resting on mine. Then James stood behind me – only put one arm round my neck because he was still having problems with his right arm –but his cheek is against mine (and I do remember that! Remember the feel of it – sigh!) and he is smiling again. The we stood sideways on to the camera (each time, James is directing me) and he was behind me – again with just one arm round my neck, but again head against mine .and for the final one, James said “turn round and you go behind me” which I did, so we were side on to the camera again, only facing the other way. I had my arms round James and my hands spread out on his tummy – aah – bliss! I did flex my fingers a tiny bit! – and my cheek against his shoulder. James has his left arm across and is holding my arm (and he flexed his fingers a bit too!) and his head tilted back a bit so it’s touching mine. He was so warm and solid and smelled lovely of James. I was grinning away and Malcolm said “hold it there for a sec” whilst he checked the picture – to which I replied “Gladly” through my grin! Any excuse to hold on a few seconds longer – and he did take that picture again - I think as James is smirking a bit in the first one - but both of them are great. I look like the cat that got the cream AND the canary!! I just look amazing in all the pictures. I just had time to turn to James and say – “it was a great concert last night” to him and he said thank you and then I was out again. Ah – total bliss!
Course, not long after there was the first of the groping incidents which we didn’t hear about till later, and it was not long after I had been through that he sat down – so maybe it was somebody not far behind me. Grrr! – wish I could find out who it was…!
Whilst I was waiting for my friend Jenny to arrive (i wanted her to come and meet James with me) I went and bought 3 more photo op tickets for Monday as they were selling a limited number. Well, I wasn’t going to miss another chance now was I?? I met up with Jenny not long after and we had lunch and did shopping – and went to see James in the autograph queue. I was going to get Jenny to have a photo signed for me, but they put us together anyway. I told Jenny she had to remember what we talked about cos I was bound not to remember afterwards! (I seem to be worse on James Fog at autographs rather than photos these days!) It was fascinating watching James from the queue, as he caught people as they were leaving to shake their hands again, which most weren’t expecting. He really knows how to work it. And then it’s my turn. We shake hands and James holds on for just that little bit longer as usual and I get THAT Look with the smile. (Afterwards Jenny said “I might not have existed – at that moment he only had eyes for you – and you certainly got The Look™!”) I said “great concert last night” again and he said thank you and we talked a bit about how good the acoustics were at Union Chapel. Then I asked him about if he was going to do “When I was A Baby” live at all, as it was one of my favourites, that I had written a dance to – he said there was a big difference between what he did with it on the album and live performance – so he would have to work on it. “Maybe I’ll do it!” he said grinning at me. Yeah! He didn’t comment on any of the pictures of him and me together that he was signing (
) but I told him I had taken some of the others and he liked them. Shook hands again, and as I stood back to wait for Jenny she said “I’m just along for the ride!” to him as she did shake hands – and then said “Wow – aren’t you warm!” and he was laughing!
I had to sit down immediately outside and write my notes on what was said – and I think we remembered between us. Jenny said “I can see the attraction – when he gives you That Look ™ - and you really got it – I might well not have existed, he was only looking at you!”
Then we did more shopping, had a great time and went out dancing in the evening which was good – I was all fired up and full of beans despite being on my feet all day. Hmm I wonder why???
Sunday
Ho hum – back up to the shopping centre again and it was heaving this time. I was trying to find where JB was (got my James virtual ticket in passing) and by the time I found him – the virtual ticket I got was 1442! The others didn’t even get one as they had run out – so I thought I had a fat chance of that ever happening. John was doing his photo ops first and again – I was in the early ones. I have to say – JB is SOO much prettier in the flesh than any picture of him ever shows – unbelievably good looking! He was very warm and very cuddly – lot more to him than to James -,but afterwards when we got the pictures back – everyone looks the same! Its JB’s patented look I think!
Steve H was looking a bit stressed and growled at me that James wasn’t late for his photo ops – it was “Barrowman” over running! I can’t remember now (James Fog!) if I did autographs before or after photo op so I’ll say about auto now.
James was wearing the same sleeveless black shirt he was wearing for Borderline. I completely forgot to give him his present yesterday what with Jenny being with me, so I did it today. Shook hands as ever and I said I had brought him a present – gave him the guitar picks and he was really pleased - I said – “I don’t know if they are the kind you use – I know nothing about playing the guitar” to which he replied “I’ll rip ‘em open in a minute and take a look” and then I gave him the pick holder and said what it was – and he said “ oh that’s really good – be very useful, it’s so easy to lose picks” and I said you could stick it on the back of his guitar with its sticky pad. I think he signed a couple more pictures of him and me, but didn’t comment again. But at the end I got The Look ™ again as he shook hands – that one that is just for you, and you alone and said “nice to see you again” and hung onto my hand that little bit longer and then he kept looking at me with that gorgeous smile on his face and KEPT looking at me as I went out, like he couldn’t take his eyes off me; and kept looking till I was out of sight! Lovely! I was grinning like an idiot and had to sit down again outside!
Photo ops – word had got round now about the groping incident and we were all a bit pissed off to say the least and we knew that James would probably be sitting down because of it. Again – I had the first colour tickets – 5 pictures this time, as I had the two extra I bought off eBay- and again this proved to be very important.
James was sat down and he was looking tired and seemed quieter – but he was still as gracious as ever and fun. As I got round the corner in the queue and could see James – the first thing I noticed was the grim, bald security guard was standing very close to James and as people put their arms round him, he was leaning back slightly to actually check where they were putting their hands! It was very obvious, so I cannot believe that that STUPID woman tried it on again! But anyway – my turn again!
First picture is the usual – James with left arm draped over my shoulder. These pics were taken much closer and though James is smiling, he does look tense. I’m grinning like an idiot though! Second one I asked if he would do a profile shot, and he said "yeah. Of course – we'll do that now” and turned around on the chair to face me. He took hold of my wrists and pulled me in so I was standing against his knees and although it wasn’t as close as the Rift picture – Oh. My. God. James is staring into my eyes with a slight grin on his face and as he was sitting down, we were almost the same height so I was staring straight back at him. Into those blue eyes – I swear he can dilate his pupils to order! I was grinning like an idiot and then I was consciously trying to tone it down, but it was difficult when pinned down by that intense gaze. And I am not joking – all sound around us ceased completely for me – it was silent, no noise at all – just me and James. I’m getting lost in those incredible eyes and for those few seconds, there was nothing else in our world but each other. Again – like he was looking right into my soul. Incredible. Just amazing. – so very, very special.
(Yeah, I know – bleah, yuck and other sick making noises!! But I don’t care – that’s what it felt like to me!!)
And I still had 3 more pics to go!! I went to James’ right side with our arms round each other and that had to be taken twice cos Malcolm chopped off the top of James’ head in the first one – and I’m looking kind of sultry in both – probably cos I was a bit stunned at the time! Then James made me stand in front of him – pulled me up between his legs (!) and put both arms round me and his chin on my shoulder. I really didn’t know what to do with my hands - I wanted to rest one on his leg as that would have been natural – but I’m not sure if I did or not – I wasn’t sure how he would feel about it. But it’s a good pic – I’m smiling and James looks gorgeous. Last picture – James jumps up and says “we’ll punch the camera” and starts to show me the Dragonball pose, so I replied “ oh I know this – I've done it with you before” and this time I remembered to put a serious face on. That picture just cracks me up! Our heads are touching in the middle and we look very serious – if only I could do the eyebrow quirk like James, it would be perfect. I think I said thank you to him and he thanked me back – but that’s when the fog really comes down…..!
Did a lot more shopping and then much later, just when I was about to go back to the hotel at around 5pm, I thought – I’ll just go and see how JB’s line is doing. The board said he was up to number 1400 – so I just waved my ticket at the girl and she let me join on. Two families with young children came behind me – and then they shut the queue!! So I just made it. I had the picture of the two Captains that James had signed earlier. Lady in front of me asked if I thought he would personalise hers as it was for someone’s birthday – I said as it’s nearly the end – you can only ask. She did – and he did quite happily! After signing all day – he was still gracious – Ok not James level but he did say “thank you for waiting, sweetheart” to me so that was nice!
I then stopped to talk to a couple of JB fans that I met at the Rift and we talked about the second groping of James about which word had now gone round – they might have been JB fans but they thought it was disgusting as well and were all up for joining in hunting the perpetrator down! And then we cheered JB as he left.
Back to the hotel for a change and off to the mini gig at the Collectormania party – we shared 2 taxis as it was out at the MK stadium – think every taxi in MK was running there that night! We queued up and there was a few in front of us, - but we were fairly near the front. Saw James arrive and go in.
The stage was in the middle of the long wall of the big function room – they had put chairs round it to make sure people didn’t get too close, but everyone just piled in. I was about 3rd line back – but decided to move to one side, right on the edge which did prove to be very useful. Merce was in front of me and Ulla was in front of her. I couldn’t use my monopod for the camera as I suddenly realised the bit that attaches to the camera was in my hotel room! But I could lean round to the side and see fine.
Had about a 20 minute wait – more standing! - and then there was Steve introducing James. He started off by saying there was a lot of love in the room and that was good. It was a great angle for me for a change – had James in profile and I was fairly close. In the end, I knelt down and took pictures upwards so I wasn’t blocked by anyone in front of me and I got some good shots (222 pictures in the length of 4 songs – not bad huh?!) yes, James said he was supposed to only play 2 songs but he was going to do 4. Whoo hoo! Sang “Millionaire”, ‘Looking at You’, ‘Chocolate Jesus’ (love that song!) and finished on the Kurt Cobain (what IS that called??) and we whooped like mad – but we couldn’t get him back! They did have Kai being compere, and we ended up singing “Hymns and Arias’ again. We weren’t sure if we were going to stay – the next act on was pretty poor, so we decided to go. Stopped and had a nice meal in the Italian restaurant round the corner from the hotel and when we got back – I met Sara for the first time. She made me laugh so much, I ended up staying talking to her and Jim till gone 2 in the morning!
Monday
This was a much more relaxed day – nothing like as busy as Sunday. Very confused because I discovered they had moved James from his corner and now he was in the middle of the signing tables opposite the organiser’s booth. We sat in Costa
Packet Coffee and talked and ogled James from where we were sitting. I hadn’t bothered to take my camera as they weren’t allowing pics in the autograph queue and now I could have got him with me zoom lens from where I was sitting. There was much talk about the groping – I tried asking around to see if anyone knew anymore, but no one did.
Decide to go and get my autographs early – I had ticket 73 and they seemed to be rattling through. I wanted to speak to James before the photo ops and I had been practicing what to say. So I was very quickly to the front – and there’s our dear man – in black t shirt today and looking tired. But as ever – friendly and gracious. Shook hands as normal and then gave him today’s present – fudge! – which he was pleased with - said there’s always room for fudge! I said I was sure the team would help him out if he didn’t eat it. Then he asked me if I had made it (said – not this time – mine always comes out disgustingly sweet!) then I waited till he had finished signing and so looked up at me and then I said I just wanted to say how much we appreciated everything he does for us, the fans. The autographs, the photos, the gigs and all that – and that we loved him and he was gorgeous! (got a bit tongue-tied there at the end despite my practising!) And he said I was gorgeous too! I just wanted to tell him how much we appreciated everything – to make him feel better and know that 99% of us were nice people that loved him and wouldn’t dream of groping him, without actually mentioning the incident.
A notice went up just after that, saying that James would not be signing again after he had done the photo ops – which seemed fair enough – poor boy had done more than enough as usual. There was a much smaller queue for the photos as there was only a limited number this time. I was in the queue with Sara and they said that wheelchair people could go in from the other end and be done first so Sara says “ come on, Slave” and I went with her to lend a hand – which mostly consisted of her berating me and me threatening to slap her and then me taking the micky and calling her a faker cos of the speed she leapt out of her chair to stand by James! I could have had my pics done then, but I decide it was better to go back to the queue. So I did and consequently ended up being 4th from last to go. As we had suspected, James was sat on his chair and wasn’t moving at all for different poses. Can’t say I blame him after what went on. But I had a cunning plan – and it worked. Think it helped being nearly last as things had calmed down and the end was in sight and there was no need to rush. I noticed that one person in front of me put both arms round James, and told myself to remember to do that to. So it was my turn – I walked up – said “hi James” and put my arm round his shoulders and the asked him “Is it okay if I put my other arm round you?” – just seemed the best thing to do cos of what had been happening – and he said “course you can darlin’”. That is a gorgeous pic – I look amazing! And we are being very sweet and cuddly. Then I put my cunning plan into action. James wasn’t moving, so I just turned and looked at him and said “I’m going to look at you” – so I had a few seconds to contemplate James from very close up! – and as that picture was taken, James said “ and now I’ll look at you!” and turned his head to look at me. And that's it – I’m gone again! - there I was, looking into his blue eyes yet again. That picture got taken twice but I didn’t even realise it at all – I was lost! We were both smirking in the first picture – I’m still grinning in the second, but James has got his intense look on again. Wow wow wow! Those eyes looking at me – looking IN me! As Malcolm called the third shot I just had to say to James “ You’ve got the most gorgeous eyes” to which he replied “so have you” and I think I thanked him, but I’m not sure cos at that point a huge bank of fog swept in and I cant remember much else!
He left not long after that of course – there was a good few of us there to whoop and cheer him as he walked off through John Lewis’s – Pauline yelled “come back soon!” and then it was over – except for staying to collect the pictures and of course I was delighted with them.
Had a decent drive home (unlike the others who had awful awful delays on the trains) and was in time to do my class – needn’t have bothered though – didn’t get enough people to even cover the rent – so we went home again instead.
An amazing week – so much fun, so much good company – thank you to Merce, Pauline, Sheila, Cara and Big Momma for lots of laughs and fun – and especially to Dee Dee, for all her hard work in organising so much of it – you rock, girl! Hugs all round.
Can’t wait for next time….!