here yo go then.....
The Rift – Saturday 26th April 2008 at Porchester Halls, London
Great start – after all the queuing outside, the first thing we had to do was queue again for tickets for photos ops, and autographs, and the queue just wasn’t moving. I had got my seat – forgetting that they weren’t numbered I had ended up one in from the edge on the left side looking at the stage – second row. But I’ve learnt that sitting in the middle isn’t the greatest place for photographs as you will see..!
They were calling for people to go and have their photos with James and we were all yelling back – “we’re still in the queue” so Lisa said we could join the queue and pay when we got there – so I took a back route and ended up ahead of most other people. As I was passing my seat I was able to dump of anything un-necessary and just be unencumbered. I remembered to wear long sleeves so was wearing a black shirt over purple vest top. Got round the corner of the queue to behind the red velvet curtains where the photos were being taken and got my first view of the Man himself. He was looking REALLY hot and gorgeous – in black t shirt and dark blue jeans. Because it was a fan con – no one minded people taking pictures so people were taking pictures of the photo ops! I wasn’t able to exploit that at all. And James seemed very relaxed and very talkative – taking much longer with each person and chatting at the end and seemingly being quite touchy feely. So I thought, “I’m going to ask for a hug this time…and maybe he might”
Then it was my turn. I walked across towards him grinning and said “Hi James” and I never even got to ask him because the next thing I knew was I was enveloped in a full on hug and a squeeze from him!!. And he kissed me on the cheek and said “great to see you again” I was just stunned – it was lovely. Think he might be starting to recognise me now, but maybe not. I said” well it’s only been 2 weeks” as we took our places for the camera. I kept my nerve up and said “I always have my eyes shut in pictures with you – can you shut your eyes too?” and he grinned and said “Ok – we’ll both shut our eyes and it will be like we are asleep, but in love!” Gulp! ‘No acting required on my part’ I thought!
So James puts both arms round my shoulders –he’s standing on my left and I have one arm round him and he rests his cheek against the side of my forehead. It’s a lovely shot – we do look like we are asleep. Then, as I was having 4 pictures James moves round behind me and as he does, I say “can you laugh, cos I love it when you laugh?” – and he is in the shot. Both arms firmly round my neck and shoulders – my hands are holding onto his arm – and his cheek against mine again – laughing and I’m grinning in a stunned kind of way!. Then James says –“come behind me” – and we did a shot like the one at Manchester with me peeping over his shoulder – except that this time James didn’t stand with his legs very far apart so I could only just see over his shoulder! It’s a funny shot – James is grinning away and has both hands back round me to hold me close (yum!) and I’m peeping over his right shoulder and laughing and I have both hands spread out flat against his chest and tummy and yes, he’s still got lovely firm muscles!
Then James said “you want to do profile?” so I replied yes of course , and then he said “we’ll do it very close, foreheads almost touching, staring into each others eyes like we are in love” Again – Gulp! And definitely no acting needed on my part!
Oh my God! What an experience – and I had no James fog as I made myself remember it all. James took hold of my hands and stood facing me – SO close – our noses are about 2 inches apart and he looked into my eyes with such intensity I nearly went cross-eyed. It was incredible! I flicked from one eye to the other on him, but he never wavered. I swear his eyes changed though – like he was looking into my soul. There I was, staring into James gorgeous blue BLUE eyes and he is looking at me with such intensity, like he really meant it and I really remember thinking “God, this is really James I’m staring at” and then “Oh my God – it’s Spike!” (I really did think that!) I have a slightly dippy look on my face – it’s a wonder I wasn’t drooling! – but James looks incredible – so believable, like he really cares about me. We only held it for about 10 seconds, but it seemed to go on and on – wonderful. And then it was over – but I got another full on hug from the man and a “see you later” I floated back to my seat – not knowing what to do with myself for a few moments – it was incredible. Can still see it now in my head – the view I had when his eyes were no more than 6 inches from mine. A memory to really treasure.
James on stage alone was great – there has been loads of reports on what was said, so I wont bother – I was concentrating on taking pictures with my new monopod to help – and it did – I got some cracking pictures of James, some really good close ups – continuous shooting is good when he stands still (which isn’t often)
I was one of the first to get James autograph for some reason – I had 4 things for him to sign – 2 pictures I had taken at Grand Slam and the bitey picture and one other – and I videoed the whole thing and I’m glad I did cos its was very dark, but you can hear the whole conversation. So here it is:-
R; (as we are shaking hands) Hiya. I bet you didn’t wear those socks I gave you last time
J: oh yeah?
R: I gave you the Union Jack socks at Grand Slam (J laughs) and you said you had learnt not to let other people dress you or you would end up in a salmon pink jumper. I was really tempted to buy you one and see if you thought it was funny!
J: (laughing) I need clothes! I don’t shop much.
R: (about the picture J is signing) I took that one!
J: (laughs)
R: got you laughing!
J: You actually have me..(unintelligible – shocked/scared/stamped – something beginning with S anyway!) – violated! (but laughing)
R And I took that one as well.
Then it’s the bitey picture
J: oh – wow!... (awed voice) Oh my God!..
R: it looks better that way up
J: you look fabulous!
R: So do you honey!
(J laughs)
J: Look at that!
R: It was taken that way but I thought it looks better like that
J: yeah?
R: You look better on top!
J (still looking at the picture – in awed voice again) Oh my God!... aww, you look beautiful – yeah.
R: aw, thank you honey.
(and we shake hands again and then the camera goes all over the place….!)
If I’d been clever I should have gone round again and talked with him more. As usual, he wanted to talk to everyone and later on he was getting very emotional and over the top - I found out later that he actually took his shirt off at one point briefly after a dare from one fan – there are photos but I wasn’t looking the right way. Not sure what I feel about that – all those years he has refused to do it. But of course, as we found out later – he was getting more and more
and its not surprising his actions got stranger and stranger. His Q & A with Gareth was funny but he was getting a bit rambling and off the point (unlike a lot of people, I love it when James goes off on one of his plot ideas – it’s so funny!) and I got some great pictures again
Somewhere around now, I was able to go and collect my pictures with James. I spent a long time looking as I couldn’t find them – the profile one was on top of the pile and I passed over it at least twice because I didn’t recognise myself – I look completely different. And it’s a wonderful, wonderful picture. I was so pleased – I couldn’t stop looking at it!
Course, then James was too
to do the concert which was a real shame – even if Kai was a very funny substitute (and Steve, James’ manager, dancing to Gareth’s singing was a sight to behold!) so it was a bit of an anti climax, but still a great day. I talked to Marion – his publicist and she said she thought it was a combination of jetlag (he’d flown in late on Friday night!) and not eating anything – and never stopping all day. Daft bugger! So we all asked her to pass on our best wishes to him and hoped he would be fine for Borderline
When on the Thursday night before I left for London, I was in Asda after class doing some last minute shopping and found the wallet on the floor and handed it to the cashier – the woman who had lost it was so very very grateful and saying “there are good people in the world” (what else would I have done with it?) and she said she really hoped I would win the lottery this weekend. Well – I think I did!! ;D
Borderline and Union Chapel reports in apprpriate threads...
(well - still working on Collectormania) but not sure if anyone would be interested this far on? Its mostly the bits that were important to me cos I write it for me to remember so I've not bothered with reports on the Q&A's and stuff cos they have been done elsewhere.
