Sheffield 2006
I had a bad time in Sheffield. I wasn’t sure whether to write about it here or not. But I decided I would, just to show there are highs and lows with touring. And this was a definite low.
I had a bit of a lie in at my hotel in Nottingham, then got the train to Sheffield. I checked into my hotel there and just lazed around for a bit, re-charging my batteries for later!
I had planned to meet up with friends. We were going to go for an Italian as it was somebody’s birthday, and then head off to the gig. But things didn’t quite work out that way. They were running late. Then I realised I needed to pick up my ticket from the Box Office. By the time I went up to the arena, picked up my ticket and got the tram back into the city it was already quite late and they were already at the Italian place. Then we had the hopeless task of them being in a city they didn’t know, not being sure where they were, trying to give me directions. With me, also in a city I didn’t know, with no idea where I was, and no sense of direction whatsoever.
In the end, we decided it would be best if I just stayed put at the tram station. While I was waiting there, this random bloke just came up to me, grabbed me, and gave be a big kiss on the cheek and walked off. It was both scarey and funny at the same time! At least it cheered me up as I was not in the best of moods at that moment in time.
I finally met up with my friends on the tram and we went off to the arena. We waited around outside there so they could meet up with some other friends of theirs. They all had seats and I was standing. So I said goodbye and we arranged to meet up after the show.
My mood still hadn’t really improved. So I decided to have a couple of drinks. Two pints of beer later and I remembered why I was there. I went and stood in the crowd about halfway down just before Muse came onstage. I stayed there for a bit, then went further down the front. Another fantastic show followed.
But of course as I had beer, I needed the loo. This was actually a good thing. It gave me one of my best moments of the whole tour. I went during the end of Citizen Erased. I just KNEW they would play Bliss next, but I had to go. I was on my way back and sure enough, I heard the intro to Bliss. Then I had this moment where I was running down the steps to the standing area, singing to Bliss. I then ran from the back, right into the crowd. I just had this feeling of total freedom and happiness. It’s a moment I will never forget. And it came in an otherwise shitty day.
After the show, I met up with my friends and their friends again. We were hanging around outside chatting. One of the guys was on the phone to Tom Kirk. He then said that we needed to meet up with Tom and he would let us in to the aftershow. I assumed that as I was with them I was invited too. So we went round to where Tom was.
When we got there, I’m not quite sure what happened exactly. The next thing I know is that Tom said ‘So who here is not invited?’ My heart sank and the horrible reality of the situation set in. I knew that question was aimed at me. So I said ‘I’m not invited, but I have been going to all the shows on the tour’ He said ‘Really?’ and just for a moment it looked like he might have been thinking about letting me in. By now, I was just shaking. It wasn’t even about the aftershow anymore. It was more about the embarrassment of the situation and the horror of me thinking I was invited to something I wasn’t.
He then said ‘Sorry its message board moderators only’ I said ‘OK’ and I just walked straight past everybody and didn’t look back. I was absolutely mortified.
Maybe it wasn’t that much of a big deal but to me, at that very moment in time, it was the end of the world. It was just that I genuinely thought I was invited too. Why I thought that, I don’t know. The others had all been on the guest list. I wasn’t. So why did I even think I was invited?
But, worse than anything, I had just met Tom for the first time and it looked like I was trying to blag my way into a party I wasn’t invited too, when that wasn’t the case. It was just a big misunderstanding, which led to a highly embarrassing situation.
I then found myself in a very bad place. I thought I had missed the last Tram into the city and I had no taxi numbers. I just wanted to get back to the hotel as quickly as possible because I knew I was about to burst into tears and I didn’t want to have a full on mental breakdown in front of a load of drunk people on their way back from the pub on a Saturday night.
Luckily, I did in fact get the last tram. I just closed the door of my hotel room and the tears came and they didn’t stop all night. Thinking back on it now, my reaction to it was probably heightened by the fact I had had hardly any sleep, I hadn’t eaten as I never did get to that Italian place, the 2 pints of beer I had and the adrenaline from the show.
If it had been any other band I would have got the first train home.
I had a bit of a lie in at my hotel in Nottingham, then got the train to Sheffield. I checked into my hotel there and just lazed around for a bit, re-charging my batteries for later!
I had planned to meet up with friends. We were going to go for an Italian as it was somebody’s birthday, and then head off to the gig. But things didn’t quite work out that way. They were running late. Then I realised I needed to pick up my ticket from the Box Office. By the time I went up to the arena, picked up my ticket and got the tram back into the city it was already quite late and they were already at the Italian place. Then we had the hopeless task of them being in a city they didn’t know, not being sure where they were, trying to give me directions. With me, also in a city I didn’t know, with no idea where I was, and no sense of direction whatsoever.
In the end, we decided it would be best if I just stayed put at the tram station. While I was waiting there, this random bloke just came up to me, grabbed me, and gave be a big kiss on the cheek and walked off. It was both scarey and funny at the same time! At least it cheered me up as I was not in the best of moods at that moment in time.
I finally met up with my friends on the tram and we went off to the arena. We waited around outside there so they could meet up with some other friends of theirs. They all had seats and I was standing. So I said goodbye and we arranged to meet up after the show.
My mood still hadn’t really improved. So I decided to have a couple of drinks. Two pints of beer later and I remembered why I was there. I went and stood in the crowd about halfway down just before Muse came onstage. I stayed there for a bit, then went further down the front. Another fantastic show followed.
But of course as I had beer, I needed the loo. This was actually a good thing. It gave me one of my best moments of the whole tour. I went during the end of Citizen Erased. I just KNEW they would play Bliss next, but I had to go. I was on my way back and sure enough, I heard the intro to Bliss. Then I had this moment where I was running down the steps to the standing area, singing to Bliss. I then ran from the back, right into the crowd. I just had this feeling of total freedom and happiness. It’s a moment I will never forget. And it came in an otherwise shitty day.
After the show, I met up with my friends and their friends again. We were hanging around outside chatting. One of the guys was on the phone to Tom Kirk. He then said that we needed to meet up with Tom and he would let us in to the aftershow. I assumed that as I was with them I was invited too. So we went round to where Tom was.
When we got there, I’m not quite sure what happened exactly. The next thing I know is that Tom said ‘So who here is not invited?’ My heart sank and the horrible reality of the situation set in. I knew that question was aimed at me. So I said ‘I’m not invited, but I have been going to all the shows on the tour’ He said ‘Really?’ and just for a moment it looked like he might have been thinking about letting me in. By now, I was just shaking. It wasn’t even about the aftershow anymore. It was more about the embarrassment of the situation and the horror of me thinking I was invited to something I wasn’t.
He then said ‘Sorry its message board moderators only’ I said ‘OK’ and I just walked straight past everybody and didn’t look back. I was absolutely mortified.
Maybe it wasn’t that much of a big deal but to me, at that very moment in time, it was the end of the world. It was just that I genuinely thought I was invited too. Why I thought that, I don’t know. The others had all been on the guest list. I wasn’t. So why did I even think I was invited?
But, worse than anything, I had just met Tom for the first time and it looked like I was trying to blag my way into a party I wasn’t invited too, when that wasn’t the case. It was just a big misunderstanding, which led to a highly embarrassing situation.
I then found myself in a very bad place. I thought I had missed the last Tram into the city and I had no taxi numbers. I just wanted to get back to the hotel as quickly as possible because I knew I was about to burst into tears and I didn’t want to have a full on mental breakdown in front of a load of drunk people on their way back from the pub on a Saturday night.
Luckily, I did in fact get the last tram. I just closed the door of my hotel room and the tears came and they didn’t stop all night. Thinking back on it now, my reaction to it was probably heightened by the fact I had had hardly any sleep, I hadn’t eaten as I never did get to that Italian place, the 2 pints of beer I had and the adrenaline from the show.
If it had been any other band I would have got the first train home.
posted by Helen T On Tour at 8:40 AM
2 Comments:
Hi Helen
I understand how you felt, it's embarrassing for you at the time but I'm sure for the others they'd be too busy trying to get in.
You said it that it's probably the fact you didn't eat or sleep properly for days and being in a strange city that made you feel more fragile than usual.
Don't worry about it just remember the good time you had in the gig.
Yeah, now I'm thinking more rationally about it, there was a lot of us there. Its totally understandable why things happened the way they did. I'm told that 2 other people in the group were also turned away, which I didnt see as I didnt look back. So it was nothing personal.
And Sheffield wasnt all bad, as I said, I had one of my best moments of the tour there during Bliss.
And its the shows that count, anything else is a bonus!
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