Rosie Goes to See James at the Tabernacle Concert
Saturday 6th FebruaryI was awake early and decided I might as well get on with my journey to my sisters in North London. So I was out and on my way before 7am in a grey old morning. Went under the Dartford tunnel for the first time ever and followed my sister’s directions, which meant I got to her house before 8am. She wasn’t there, so I found the key, dumped my bags and sorted out what I needed to take, had a quick breakfast, fed the cat, rabbit and guinea pigs and was away to the tube in about 20 minutes! No hanging around for me when there’s a James to see!!
The journey was about 40 minutes, with just the one change to get to Notting Hill, and then about a 10-minute walk. There were plenty of very small, posh clothing boutiques on my route with the sort of clothes that you have to be very
very thin to wear! Nothing a blob like me could get into – or afford for that matter!
I found the Tabernacle with no problem and very pretty it was too. There was no queue in the outside courtyard, no one around at all, but the doors were open and the lights were on, so I went in to see if there was anyone else and what the plan was. Inside I found Sylvie and two of the Italian fans who had been there since 8.30am. The Tab was open as there are studios there and there were kids coming in for dance classes and the like, and the whole front foyer was a big bar and restaurant with comfy chairs and it had big wooden tables, lovely ones made out of huge slices of tree that weren’t a bit level and so your drinks would slide away from you if you weren’t careful! It was nice and warm and civilised, so I ordered a cup of tea and we sat down to wait.
It has to be the nicest queuing experience ever! There was no problem with us being inside, no question of having to go out in the cold to queue, so all the fleeces and blankets and extra layers weren’t needed after all! The staff were fabulous – early on, one of the guys showed me the hall where the concert would be – and were happy for us to be there all day. They were very friendly and laid back about it all, saying there was no need to form a queue. There was even free wi-fi available! When the chef came in later I had a big cooked breakfast, which was yummy, and more tea (they had a whole collection of retro teapots and cups to use which was lovely)
We were the only four people there for about 2 hours and then we had a couple more people turn up. Early afternoon started a steady trickle of people arriving and James fans started spreading out across all the chairs and tables. It was so nice and friendly. I spent a lot of time talking photography with Ulla chatting with Sylvie and catching up with various other people I hadn’t seen for some time. We thought we would try and give out numbers so people knew where they were in the queue as people were settling in all over the bar, so we made them using the back of Ulla’s hotel reservation and gave them out. (It worked fine until much later when some who had just arrived decided that they didn’t want to, they were just going to push their way in as we were “obviously trying to get in front of them”. Hey ho – we tried to be fair and civilised about it, but there’s always someone who won’t. Mostly the English sense of fair play worked!)
We hoped that James would have to come in through the front door the same as the rest of us. Ulla had her camera all set up ready and focused just in case. I was sitting at the end of the table nearest the door and happened to be looking the right way when I saw Steve coming in. Guessing James wouldn’t be too far behind, I alerted Ulla and the others nearby, and sure enough a few moments later James came in through the doors, carrying his guitar case. He was in jeans with the coat he wore to be Spike at the Marstersclass and his hair was quite gelled back, but with curls escaping. The group stopped briefly by the door giving Ulla a chance to get a couple of wonderful pictures before walking forward into the foyer. People started to call out “Hi James!” and he smiled as he walked past to go up the stairs and was saying “hi” to individual people nearest to him – and then he saw me, grinned and said “Hey Rosie!” before carrying on saying “Hi” to others further along! Squee! I was the only one he picked out by name, and as James and the crew went up the stairs out of sight, those dear friends of mine turned round to me with narrowed eyes and said “Bitch!” through gritted teeth! Snorfle! ;D ;D ;D
It was a very pleasant day – sitting in the warm with food and drinks available and lots of people to talk to – time passed fairly swiftly all things considered. More and more people were arriving and as we could see it was going to get crowded, I made a decision, stood up and started the queue at the bottom of the stairs. As soon as I did, everyone else followed suit and still we managed to keep it all inside the building. We all had to get our hands stamped having shown our tickets at the reception table so we took turns to go up so we wouldn’t lose our places. As long as I got a good position inside for taking photos then I was happy!
We had a bit of a wait to be let in, so were chatting away with the security guy. Everyone was ready for the off, and then they let us in and so I raced up the stairs with Sylvie as fast as we were allowed to. I knew what the layout of the hall was having been shown it earlier so I knew I wanted to be on the right hand side and that was the nearest side to the door. James’s microphone was set up very close to the edge of the stage and we were standing right up against it so I grabbed my position about 6 feet to the right. Mary and Jude came in alongside me and everyone else was crowding in, but I had got the place I wanted so now I could relax a bit. Ulla was over the other side and so was Chris so we would have photos from both angles.
Steve came on stage and said James would be coming on shortly, but in the meantime there was the matter of the poetry competition. He was going to read out the winning entries and the authors would get a signed copy of their poem. He had them with him and also 5 red roses, one of which he briefly tucked behind one ear, but removed it before anyone could get a photograph! He read out Christine’s poem first, asking if she was there and I said no, she was in the States. Steve frowned a little and then muttered into the microphone “Bloody Americans!” which raised a giggle.
Dear Steve – you could tell why he’s the manager and not the actor. Reading poetry out loud is not really his forte! But never mind, it was sweet of him anyway. The only other winner who was there was Chris, and Steve read her poem and presented her with the copy and a rose, and the final one up was mine. Steve looked over at me and asked if I wanted to come up on stage for this (uh – no!) and then read out my silly little ditty. It did get a big laugh, which was the whole point, since I had only written it for fun, and the Steve gave me the copy and a rose. It was signed, “Thanx, This rocks!” by James in black. A really lovely memento. Unfortunately, I hadn’t brought my photo box or anything with me for the gig, so I had nowhere to put it. In the end, I put it on the floor by mine and Mary’s feet so it was practically under the stage, in an attempt to keep it flat!
We had a bit longer to wait and then Steve announced James and on he came, carrying Chow the guitar and wearing jeans with a brown long sleeved top with a few buttons at the neckline. His hair was gelled quite a bit, but the curls were refusing to be tamed and were fighting back!
OK, this is where I fall down a bit as I’m writing this so long after the event, I cant tell you anything that James sang for definite! I do know that it was a great gig – as ever he sounded wonderful and did talk a bit between songs. There weren’t any new ones, which was a bit sad. He was as close up to the front of the stage as the mike indicated he would be, so very close to the audience and it was a noisy, happy crowd. I had a lovely spot for photographs and got some of the best ones I’ve ever taken. The kind that when I’m looking through the pictures for the first time afterwards, makes me think ”wow!” when I first see them! It was lovely.
There was little guy behind me in the crowd – he had been there all day and been drinking for a lot of it and so now he was decidedly half cut. He would insist in singing along loudly with James, to the point that I had to tell him politely to keep it down because I’d paid to hear James sing, not him! He was a very amiable drunk and apologised, but it only lasted for a few minutes and then he was off again. Several people had to ask him to be quiet after that. We did get a bit of respite when James sang anything that wasn’t from the two albums, as then he didn’t seem to know it!
It did get quite warm in there and James was soon starting to sweat – and the sweatier he became, the curlier his hair got! We wondered if he would change his shirt afterwards for the photo ops, as he was getting so hot and sweaty. I actually hoped not, because - yummy! Hot, sweaty James!
In the last couple of songs the lighting guy obviously decided to try out different effects and kept changing the colours – so we had Smurf James, Piccolo James, Jaundice James, sunburnt James…! My poor camera didn’t know whether it was coming or going – though a couple of the pictures I took in the white light came out incredibly detailed.
As ever, it was over too quickly, though we did get the usual 3 songs for an encore. Jude just ahead of me leaned forward as James finished the last song and plucked the set list from the floor in a beautifully timed move! (and yet I still can’t remember anything that was on it!)
As there was to be photo ops, there was no hurry to get out, though not everyone was having them of course. We had to collect our pre-booked ones from the merchandise table (I had booked one) and as Steve had said there were still some available, I accidentally bought another one. You know how it is – the money just falls out of your purse and the ticket falls into your hand...
looks very innocent with glowing halo! Froggy was taking the photos on one corner of the balcony that ran round the room. The queue had started to form and I was quite a long way back, which was fine. I was still holding my poem and the rose as I had no where to put them, and it was as I was chatting with the two girls in front of me (think it was their first time seeing James – certainly the first time they had had a photo with him) that I realised that in the rose, I had the perfect prop to use in the photos!
James then appeared in the main hall and made his way up to Froggy and he hadn’t changed his shirt, he was still in the brown one – so was still a yummy, sweaty post-concert James! And he hadn’t gelled his hair back again so it was still all curly – just the best! And he did seem to be on a bit of a post-concert high, being all bouncy and smiley!
I slowly made my way to the front of the queue and, as I had to wait for the previous two girls to exit before I could move across, James saw it was me next in line and his face lit up, he raised his eyebrows at me and was calling out “Hey Rosie!” before I even got there! He held out his arms for a hug, which of course I was very happy to give, and we had a bit of a snuggle as well as we exchanged ‘good to see you’s.
I held up the rose and said as I had this, could we use it – if he held it romantically or something? Sure said James and put his arm around me and we snuggled up and he held the rose up in front – it’s a nice picture. For the second one, I asked if he would hold it in his teeth – which he did, quite happily and then stood straight on to the camera with his arms folded. I stood behind him and kind of just leaned on his shoulder, as I didn’t know where to put my hands at this point. As Froggy wasn’t quite ready yet, I said “I’ll put my hands down round you if that’s OK?” and without replying (well he couldn’t with the rose in his teeth!) he lifted up his folded arms, leaving me room to slide mine round him and then brought his down again to trap mine underneath. It’s a great picture – James, looking as sexy as hell, looking up from under his eyebrows at the camera with that naughty grin on his face!
As I turned to say thank you, James said “You wrote me a lovely poem and all you got was that rose” I said that it was totally fine and then we were hugging again – I’m pretty sure James started it! – and I said “See you tomorrow” as we let go and then I had to turn away..
People were still milling about downstairs in the bar – which was obviously a very lively and popular nightspot – and there was lost of happy talk and comparing notes. We were still there when James left as well – calling out goodnight as he came through the crowd and cheering and whooping him as well!
A group of us were going out to eat, though it took a while to collect everyone together and get people moving and having wandered around trying to find somewhere that could accommodate 11 of us, we ended up in a gourmet burger place in Portobello Road and very nice it was too – excellent burgers and delicious garlic dip – so nice, I broke my rule about not eating garlic the night before seeing James, since we were all going to be stinking of it anyway!
I shared a taxi back to Jill and Ulla’s hotel which was just a short hop from the tube station and then had to do my 40 minute tube trip back to my sister’s clutching my poem in one hand and my rose and my bag in the other, trying to make sure neither got crushed! It was not easy, especially negotiating the escalators and stairs and the jostling of other travellers. (not that anyone took a blind bit of notice of me carrying the rose – hey, it’s the tube – anything goes!) They did make it back to the house relatively unscathed, and then I was able to stay up for a bit squeeing madly and getting everything ready for the following day, which was going to be nice and leisurely with a midday start and no queuing involved.