The story is not a sad one, but told many times.....
Or: Why I call myself a "Lucky bastard".
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Stirling Castle, Stirling, Scotland 19th, 20th and 21st of July 1999
Day one:
We knew it from the day after the 2nd show on Earls court. We just HAD to see R.E.M. live again. If this was R.E.M.'s last tour, we had to at least see them once more. Even if I had been close to the stage at a few occasions, I had not yet fulfilled my dream to be in the very first row. So that had to be the next thing I would try to achieve.
On the plane home from England, Elisabeth and I started making plans about where we should go. We had several choices, and we considered Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England (Manchester), but finally we settled for Scotland. Mainly because we would have the chance to attend 3 concerts in 3 days, and the plane tickets were much cheaper. I told Cecilie about our decision. She thought we were nuts. But finally i persuaded her into coming with us. So 3 weeks later, we were 3 girls who got onto the plane, heading for Glasgow.....
When we arrived Glasgow, we had no clue what to do, other than to get to the train station and find a train to Stirling. It wasn't such a hard job, actually the worst part was understanding what people were saying! We did not have any accomodation, so we had to try to find something.
What we found when we got to Stirling, was a small town in complete chaos. There were lots of people everywhere, (mostly people in their 20s) and the tourist information had a very hard time getting everyone a place to stay. The woman there told us that we had no chance of getting accomodation near the concert venue, and she was pretty impressed we had come all the way from Norway just for the concerts..... Finally she found a private house where we could stay, with the risk that one of us had to sleep on the floor.
But it wasn't that bad. It was a very nice house, and the people who owned it had been living in the US (in Atlanta actually) for many years, so we could even understand what they were saying! We now had accomodation, the next thing we needed was a total of 7 concert tickets,(as there would be 3 concerts...) since Cecilie had 2 already. We wrote a sign, saying that we needed tickets, and went walking in the town. We managed to buy one from a boy we met on the street. He only wanted the price that was printed on the ticket.
We decided to go up to the concert venue, to get in the line. It was a strange place to have a concert. It was outside an old castle, on the top of a hill in the middle of the town. We got there about 6 hours before R.E.M. would enter the stage, and there were about 50 - 70 people in the queue already. We said hello to a few english people we had met briefly earlier. Cecilie and I went for ticket searching, while Elisabeth stayed in the line to keep our spot. And suddenly we met Silje! She was interrailing through Europe.
As we were walking around carrying our sign, a van suddenly stopped in front of us. As someone rolled down the window, we could see that it was actually Mark Willliamson, R.E.M.'s security guy. He said that the ticket boot was about to sell 50 extra tickets, and that we better hurry up there. We thanked him, and ran up to the ticket boot. The line there was pretty short, so we had high hopes that we would get tickets. Then Mark suddenly approached us again, and he told us that there would be 50 extra tickets for the two other shows as well! We were thrilled, as we had originally thought that we would have to spend a fortune on tickets. Now we didn't pay one pound overprice!
As we went back to the line, I saw a familiar face. It was Phil, the guy we got to know in London. He was as happy to see us as we were to see him. We decided to let him and his friend Chris queue with us. It was an unexpected reunion, as he didn't know we were going there and vice versa.
As the hours went by, the weather got worse. It started raining, and it got really cold. But the doors were about to open, so nobody really cared about the weather. The queue moved closer to the gates. We were now about to do what we would come to fear the next two days: The terrible run up to the arena.
Because from the place where the gate was, and up to the arena, there was a very long, quite steep hill that we had to run to have a chance to get a good spot in front of the stage. And I have never been a good runner. But now I ran like I have never done before, after all it was the most important thing I've ever been running for. So when I finally got up, I got a spot in the third row. And in front of - could it be - Mike Mills.
The surroundings were quite strange. Around the concert area there was a cemetary! So a lot of people were in the cemetary, waiting for the show to start. Feeder opened. I thought they were good, a really charismatic band. But even if they were good, the 45 mins they played felt like an eternity. After they had finished, I felt that strange tension again. You realize that you are a few minutes away from having the time of your life once again, and that feeling is so weird. You're nervous, restless, and really excited. So I was standing there, just waiting for the intro to Airportman to begin. Then it suddenly began. People were clapping when they heard the intro, not all of them knew that this was actually a part of the show. But when the band ran on stage a few seconds later, there was no doubt: R.E.M. had arrived.
I have never been in such a restless crowd. When Lotus started, everyone was jumping up and down, and before I even noticed - swoop! - I was in the front row!!! Wow!
It's quite a struggle to stand in the front row, but at least you have the fence to hold on to, so it was actually better than standing in the 2nd or 3rd row. And the good thing is, you can't really notice how tired you are until the show is over. And I didn't pay attention to the rain that was pouring down on us.
Again, I had my disposable camera ready. Lots of pictures of Mike, of course. It's really great to see how he is paying attention to the audience, he smiles and winks to us all the time, especially when he sees that we know the lyrics. And believe me, not many people knows the lyrics to the older songs.
But what really, really amazed me was this: Cecilie was in the row behind me. She had a hard time for a while, she was being pushed and pulled back and forth, and she almost fainted. Then Mike suddenly went to the edge of the stage, and he said "Are you all right?" Cecilie nodded her head, but she could not stand it much longer anyway, so the security guys had to pull her out of the crowd after a while. But can you imagine any other rock star who would actually show such concern and sympathy?
The show went on. My problem when attending concerts, is to remember what actually happened on stage. It's like if you are hypnotized for two hours. But you can remember the feeling you had.
We didn't do much of an attempt to meet the band this time.
Day two:
We woke up pretty early, determined to get in the line as soon as possible. But we realized we hadn't been eating properly for ages, so we had to get some Scottish breakfast. For those of you who don't know what a Scottish breakfast is: DON'T TRY IT! It consists of some spooky, grey sausages, eggs and hot tomatoes. It is really yucky, but we were so damn hungry, so we ate it anyway. Well, except from Cecilie, who's a veggie...
So we went up to the Castle again, and we got there around 11. There were not many people in the queue at this time. After a while we met Silje again. So we decided to take turns in the queue, so the others could go down to the town or do whatever they wanted. What is there to do in a queue? You can talk to other people (and you get a lot of attention when they hear that you speak a different language!), or you can do what we did: We wrote a lot of signs that we would later hold up to the band during the concert. This was really funny, to try to think of something clever to write. We spent a lot of time doing this. There was a pub who served food right next to the castle, so we could go in there and get a good meal before we entered the concert area. So queuing was not too bad at all!
We were finally ready to go inside the concert venue. We four Norwegians made some plans on how to get to the front row (as some of us were slow runners). It was cool, we could discuss this in Norwegian so nobody could understand what we were planning. We decided that the two who came up there first, would try to take up as much space as possible, so that the two remaining could slip in between later. It worked. Cecilie came up first, and as I came running a bit behind her, I yelled out "Excellent, Cecilie!" (in Norwegian)But Silje wanted to be in front of Michael, so the rest uf us settled in the front row, right in front of Mr. Mills. I managed to get the best spot I could ever have! Funny thing was, some of the sequrity guys there recognized us, and we started talking with them. They said we were completely mad, coming from Norway just to stand in the line the whole day! We were a little embarrassed, being recognized by a security guy when there is about 7500 people in the audience....
So, here's the
evidence, we were in the front row. From left: Cecilie, Elisabeth
and me.
Picture taken by Dave, the sequrity guy!
Nothing could go wrong now. Except from the band who opened, it was (OH NO!) Stereolab. I suffered through 45 minutes of Stereolab, it wasn't particulary funny to be front row watching a band I really hate. I refused to applaude. The only time I applauded during Stereolab's performance, was when a huge sign on the side of the stage fell down because of the wind. The audience cheered very loudly! God, that incident was so hilarious!
In the break between Stereolab and R.E.M., Sue suddenly walked right in front of us, on the other side of the fence. Elisabeth and I said hi to her, and she was so suprised to see us! She was like, "Oh my god, what are you guys doing here?" We told her we just had to see R.E.M. (at least) one more time on this tour. She asked us where we were staying, and she told us that the band were staying in Edinborough. She also said that she would tell the guys that we were there, and that she would see us later. We were feeling quite proud, and people around us started asking who that woman was.
Then the band entered the stage. I was determined to keep my great spot, and I managed to do so. We girls had decided to hold up one of our signs to Mike during the chorus of Lotus. We had one note each, and when we held them together, they formed the words "Mike Edward Mills - Mr. Meat Science". Of course he saw this, and he gave us a big grin. Now that was cool! A bit later I held up a sign that said "Greetings from Norway". He smiled again. And a bit later I showed him my hand, in which I had written in huge letters: "BASS PICK". He saw this, but he was using his plectrum so he couldn't give it away yet. I got it a little later, after a fight with a lot of other people reaching out for it. What's really cool about his bass pick, is that he has his nick name printed on it: "Mr. Meat Science".
The most hilarious incident was Cecilie's idea. In Norway there is a famous food factory called Mills. One of their products is caviar, that comes in tubes. Cecilie had brought one of these with her, and attached a little message on it, determined to throw it on stage. And she did. Unfortunately she missed it at the first attempt, but one of the security guys (who we had got to know quite well) gave it back to her and said "I'll pretend I didn't see that". So she gave it another try. And this time it landed just in front of Mike's feet. Obviously he thought it was some kind of stupid joke (which in fact it was...), and he tried to kick it away, but it hit his monitor and stayed in front of him during the song. We shouted out to him that he had to pick it up, and finally he did. He looked at it, put it next to his glass of water on a small table behind him, and came back to the microphone, smiling. It looked like he had got the joke.
I also held up a sign requesting Country feedback, as that is my favorite song, and he said something to me but I could not hear what it was. Well, they didn't play Country feedback that day.
Too bad my scanner
is not very good....
Because this picture is COOL!
But the highlight of the concert was very unexpected: In reviews of earlier concerts, people had written about how stupid E-bow the letter sounded without Patti Smith, and with Mike doing her part. When they started playing it this time, I was very excited to hear what this would be like. I was really surprised. Because Mike didn't disappoint me at all! I think it was one of the most beautiful performances I've ever heard, but then again, I am one of those persons who's waiting for another album with a Mike-on-lead-vocal song. But in my opinion, he really added something new to this already wonderful song. I gave him the thumbs-up.
Other highlights: As usual, I was right in front of Mike all the time, and during Fall on me, The one I love and Man on the moon, I sang along on his parts of the songs. When Michael does his little waving to the audience when he sings the "yeahs" during Man on the moon, everybody was waving back at him, except from me.....who was waving to Mike instead. I think it is very special when they play old songs, and when I heard the intro on Pretty persuasion, and later Cuyahoga, I could not help myself from clapping like a maniac...
And then we have the kissing incident. After Michael and Mike's performance of "Why not smile", they are kissing each other, sometimes even on the mouth.
Here's the evidence!
After the show I was more excited than ever, and when we met Chris and Phil, we had to give them a hug. Phil was like "oh, watch my ribs, I was in the front row!", and I said back to him "Oh I know, I was there too!"
After a while we said goodbye to them, and we decided to wait for Sue. Cecilie had made some excellent drawings of the band members, and she wanted to hand them to the guys personally. When Sue came out, we explained this to her. She said she would try to fix it, but the band was going out for dinner with their families, which had come along with them. We waited outside a big gate, and there were about 20 other fans there. Suddenly Bertis Downs appeared. He went to the group of people who were closest to the gate, and we heard him saying: "Are you the norwegians?". Of course we were feeling a little on top of the world when we cleared our throats and said loud: "No, that's us!" He came over to us instead. He said that if we wanted to have anything signed, we should send it to the fanclub, but we said that it was not in our interest. He told us that unfortunately we could not meet the guys this time. So we were a little disappointed, but most of all Cecilie, who had never met the band.
More
pictures from Stirling Castle
Day 3 in Stirling soon to come!!!
The story is not a sad one....... PART V