This report is the property of the author and may not be copied or reposted, in full or in part, without the author's prior permission. Rosie goes to see James at the SFX WeekenderFriday 5th FebruaryJames was back in the UK for the weekend! Ever since it had been announced that he would be appearing at the SFX weekender, there had been much giggling at the thought of James appearing at an English holiday camp, especially as it was at Camber Sands – I’ve been there once before and to say it was a bit grotty is being kind! I wouldn’t have gone at all as the day tickets were very expensive - but Dawn had applied for and got 4 free tickets and had asked if I wanted one (Do bears shit in the woods? Do lemmings like cliffs??) and so I was meeting her there.
I was driving along the south coast to get me to Camber Sands in Sussex – the journey should take about 3 and a half hours, but even before I left, there was news of a big accident on the M27 with long hold ups, so I was expecting trouble. I was held up for about an hour in the end – tried sneaking round the back roads to avoid the accident, but so did everyone else, and having got lost in the northern outskirts of Southampton, I finally made it back to the motorway. It’s a pretty tedious journey anyway – and then I was held up in Eastbourne by a big truck from the continent that was obviously having trouble as it was scarcely managing to get up the hill and when we had to stop at the lights, all we got was much hissing of air brakes and not much movement. I managed to just sneak past him, and Im glad I did, as I think everyone else got stuck for some time as I didn’t have any cars following more for miles after that!
When I finally turned into the road to Camber, there was one car in front of me and a small lorry carrying a load of bricks. The road has lots of tight turns and on the first one half the bricks fell off the lorry and scattered across the road! Both I and the car in front managed to swerve round them all without any damage, but by now I had the complete giggles – what else was going to happen??
I made it to Pontins, parked up and then phoned Dawn to tell her I was there. She told me where to come and find her – she had just seen James, having managed to be the first in the queue for autographs. There were lots of people in costume around so I knew I was in the right place. Having got to the main building I then couldn’t get in as they wouldn’t let me in without my wristband, which Dawn had. So I had to ring her again and then she wasn’t answering! I kept trying and when she finally answered I tried to explain to her what was happening whilst I was being accosted by a very scantily-clad woman on high stilts and wielding a whip!!
We finally met up and Dawn was able to give me my entry wristband and autograph pass and so I could get in. We had to go upstairs to a big sort of ballroom with a large bar, and everything was in there. There was a stage and chairs set up for the Q and A’s and panels and the vendors on one side. I promptly went straight to the end of James’s autograph line which was fairly long. He seemed to be the only guest that was signing and since everyone could get his autograph, everyone was! The line didn’t move at all for about 20 minutes ( I realised later is because the VIP ticket holders could jump the queue) so I was entertained by all the various people in costume – including my stilt lady again who was prancing about accosting everyone with her whip and doing high kicks! I had asked Dawn how James was looking and what his hair was like and she said it had been cut and was back to normal. I couldn’t resist going over to take a look and see how he was, so wound my way through the crowds and got to see a glimpse of a very smiley James sitting at his table, in a GOTR t shirt and the black cardigan he had been wearing at Hallowhedon – and his hair hadn’t been cut at all! The curls were still there and it was just gelled back at the sides!
The line did move eventually and as we got closer, I saw Steve standing behind the barriers, so went across and got a hug and had a bit of a chance to talk. And back in the line again, Lisa appeared by us saying “Oh good, you managed to get here” which was nice and we had a bit of a gossip about this and that. There was very few of the ‘regular’ James fans there, so it was mostly first timers – amusingly, Dawn overheard someone saying in disappointed tones “But he’s not blonde…!”
The guy in front of me asked if I would take pictures of him with James on his camera, so I did and then I got to stand and watch for a bit as he talked about Torchwood, though James had already taken hold of my item to be signed and was giving it quick glances as he talked– it was the cover from the CD of ‘The Importance of being Ernest’– and then he turned to me and his face lit up as he exclaimed “Hey Rosie! How are you doing love?” and we shook hands.
I couldn’t do anything other than grin back at him as I said “Fine thank you darlin’” and then straight away as he started to sign he said “You wrote me a poem! A wonderful poem”
My immediate reaction was “Oh God – don’t tell me you read it! Oh please no!” which made James do a full-on giggle at my consternation “Oh no – I was really worried you might see it…!
“No, it was read to me. It was very good!”
I was still a bit mortified at the thought of James reading my silly ditty and gabbled “I wrote it in about 2 minutes as a joke for one of the boards and then someone said I should enter it…” I tailed off and then exclaimed “Oh God…”as I put my head in my hands “I can’t believe you read it!”
James then pointed at me, laughing and said in a slightly reproving tone “That’s what you get when you put it out there!” which made me giggle more.
I gave him his present then, which was a book of wonderful cloud photographs, saying I got it for him as a bit of fun – “Pretty cloud pictures”. I didn’t think he would stop to look at it, but his eyebrows went up when he saw it and made an appreciative “aww” and then there was a pause as he started to look through before adding “I think it’s the beginning for every artist – looking at clouds. They’re amazing” and then as he was flicking through, one photo caught his eye” Oh look at that!” and as I giggled, he did that thing when he suddenly realised he had to stop looking and get on, so suddenly came back to attention. He was laughing up at me as he held out his hand, and I said “I always look out for books I think you’d like” to which he replied “Totally! You’re the best, Rosie”
As we shook hands and grinned at each other, I added “See you tomorrow!” which earned me a “Right on!” in reply. And as I turned and walked away I started giggling like mad at the thought of James being read my poem!
James was doing a Q and A much later in the day, so Dawn and I decided to go and check out the seating situation. It seemed that it was a free for all, no special reserved seats for anyone, so I suggested that we grab a decent seat now and hang onto it. So we got seats in the second row and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon, sitting through an amusing panel where they drew a comic strip as we suggested the story, and great one with various Doctor Who writers and fans including James Moran, who has a very dry wit; and another about a
programme (the Misfits?) that neither of us had seen. I kept checking and James’s autograph queue was always curling round the room and nearly back on itself all afternoon – God knows how many he signed!
The chairs started filling up before his Q and A and again when I checked the crowd was about 3 deep around the seating area - I think everyone in the place was gathered to hear him. Amusingly, the seats in front of Dawn and I were never taken as one of the techie’s had plonked some cables on them and everyone was being very English and never questioning why they were there. Which was fine with us as it meant we had a great view!
As we were waiting, Dawn said “So what version of the kissing question are we going to get?” and we were deciding whether it was going to the usual JB question or with a comparison to any of the other actors. And how long would it take. ( the answer – 20 minutes!)
They brought out 2 chairs and luckily James was in the one facing towards us which made for great photos. He was being “interviewed” by one of the SFX writers who was obviously a huge fan and then taking questions from the audience. When he bounced onto the stage amid huge cheers and whoops, it was obvious that the gel in his hair had not been up to the job – he was running his hands through it constantly and now it was sticking up like a young Einstein! A glorious riot of waves rather than curls – lovely!
As ever, the Q and A has been posted elsewhere and I think it’s all on YouTube as well. Nothing new to report, but that is fair enough as most of the crowd were newbies and we were all there once, so what’s old hat to us is fresh to them. I don’t care – just watching James on stage is a pleasure and I was too busy taking photos.
Right near the beginning the SFX guy said that he wanted to ask James something as he had heard it on the phone but wanted to hear it for real – when James had said he could make the sound of a water sprinkler, would he do it again?! Of course he was happy to demonstrate – and it was very good - very realistic! Also both of them spent the whole Q and A getting the names of Captains Jack and John muddled up and the crowd kept correcting them with much laughter each time – it got too confusing said James with the characters being Jack and John and the actors John and James…
The kissing question did come up and it was comparing JB to Sarah – Dawn and I checked the time! – it was asked by a young lady who said that James had asked her to ask him something naughty in the Q and A. When he heard the question he looked disappointed and said “That’s not naughty!”
The only thing I hadn’t really heard before was James saying about how one of the runners/helpers on the Smallville set was always coming onto him and would not stop. This had led on from him saying that he had stated that he didn’t want to take his shirt off in Smallville and it was in his contract and the first thing they wanted him to do was… get naked! I do remember the wonderful line too when he was talking about nudity on set and saying how you had to do stuff on set if that’s what they wanted “..You could be contractually obliged to make love to a gerbil!”
It was mostly all very cheerful with much joking and laughter. And although he did sit on his chair for a lot of the time, he was up and bouncing about too answering some questions. I got some great photographs as his hair got wilder and wilder with him running his hands through it constantly!
After that, there wasn’t a lot else to do as James wasn’t staying for the Buffy sing-along but we decided we would. Had something to eat and chatted a lot and talked to some of James’s crew before we went down to the screening room for the sing-along. It was good fun though the British crowd are much more reserved than the US ones – very little yelling out, but lots of singing and whooping. They had the subtitles on as well so I actually managed to see what some of the words I’ve never picked up on before were.
Dawn was going home and I was driving along to Dartford where I had a room for the night before travelling on to my sisters in London ready for the rest of the weekend of James events. It was a longish drive on very quiet dark roads – I wondered where everybody was! And I did find the Travelodge right by the Dartford crossing eventually and was able to get online and report in ( except the server kept logging me off every 2 minutes which was really frustrating!) before turning in for the night