Hey guys it's yer ol pal Warpangel here!
So, after a few hours rest and recovery, I can finally start to make some sort of report on the gigs I went to this week. My adventure started on Sunday morning, 8th July.......
Jude and I both got to the airport early as we were flying just after 9am. The flight was smooth, only 45 mins long and it had a great take off and landing. On arrival at Dublin we hailed a cab. The guy who drove us was a complete psycho who was hung over from a huge session the night before. He was trying to clip bikes as he took us to our hotel and I just sat there in the back wishing that we could just get to the hotel in one piece! Luckily we did and we soon wandered out to do a little sightseeing! And boy did we walk that day!!! We saw loads of Dublin, we took an open topped tour bus as well to get a look around the city. It's really beautiful.
The funny thing was was that I took a camera around with me all day..and only got 2 pics of the city. One of a cathedral..the other of a Wheatus billboard!!! lol!
Later in the day Jude and I went to meet Mr. and Mrs.B for Dinner. It was a delight to finally meet them both. Mr.B is even more charming in real life and Mrs.B was lovely. We also got to meet Liz (Mr.B's daughter and Wheatus sis!), Kelly and Jon. These guys were backpacking through Europe and were meeting up with the guys in Ireland as well.
Liz, Kelly and Jon were some of the first people to go on this board way back when it first started, and Jon used to drive the guys to their gigs in his truck before they got big and got a tour bus!
The meal was fantastic, and we all got on fine. There was a lot of laughter which continued through to a local pub. It was a grand old time indeed!.
After closing time, Mr and Mrs.B retired back to the Hotel. While Jude, Kelly, Liz, Jon and myself went to the Temple Room to carry on the merriment. It was here that Liz and I concocted 'Operation: Wheatus' !!
We had gathered from something Mr.B had said earlier in the evening that the guys were going to be arriving in Dublin around midnight. So we thought it would be fun to go find the venue, and go pay a visit to the boys! So, after we finished our round we tried to get a taxi that could take 5 people to the venue....we didnt have a chance!!! It was a busy night and no taxis big enough were available..so Operation: Wheatus became...Operation: McDonalds!!! We went and got something to eat!! lol.
However we did find out the next day that the guys actually never got in until 7am..so it was just as well.
The next day we met up with the Browns again. A lovely breakfast was had. Just enough to fuel a frenzy of shopping in the morning.
Soon we headed up to the venue and it was nice to see the BBB and Pete meet up again with their folks. Soon it was time to go into the soundcheck and I enjoyed that greatly. It was one of the best soundchecks I'd seen on the tour and their was some good jamming coming from the guys. The lighting was spectacular, as they had arranged extra lights for that evenings show. (The lighting failed during the evenings performance, making it a little ironic!)
Jude and I then went out to grab some dinner before the show. On returning we were lucky enough to get the opportunity to see the show from sidestage. It was certainly an unusual experience and worth seeing, but as the speakers were not facing our direction, some of the vocals sounded a little muted.
The concert however ROCKED!!! The crowd were great and the guys were on form!! This tour has seen the guys really gel onstage together. And they turn out one hell of a show. For this show, the venue had arranged for the guys to get Blue and yellow coloured glowsticks. When they re-entered the stage for Teenage Dirtbag..they started throwing them out into the crowd and to see them all being waved around was an amazing sight indeed.
Of course, as ever, during Dirtbag Brendan gets folk onstage and as I was sidestage I got beckoned on. It took me a nano second to run on stage!!!! lol! Looking out onto the crowd was an amazing sight! Liz, Kelly and Jon came onstage. as well as loads more from the crowd in front. There were loads of bods onstage. we grooved on down to the remainder of Dirtbag and then it was straight into Truffles, the final song. And then it was all over!! A wonderful gig!
I got to meet some of the Browns Irish relatives. They all seemed very cool and enjoyed the gig a lot. then it was goodbyes all round as Jude and I made our way back to the hotel. We had an early flight in the morning and so needed to catch up on rest.!
The return trip was just as smooth and on arrival back to Manchester is where we hooked up with Sonja. We went to pick my car up, said our goodbyes to Jude and Sonja and I headed off to the next venue...Nottingham!!!
To be continued!!!
Glenn
