London to San Francisco April 2007
In yet another moment of madness, I decided it would be a fantastic idea to go and see Muse in America. In all my years of gig going, I have never been to see any band outside of the UK/Ireland. If it was going to be any band, it had to be Muse.
It started off as just an idea. Then Helen (Forwen on the Muse message board) sent me a message to say she was thinking of doing the same thing so shall we go together.
When the San Francisco and Los Angeles headline dates were announced, the idea suddenly became a reality. Before either of us knew it, Flights were booked, hotels were booked and our friend Alice (California Museophile on the message board) helped us out by buying our tickets for us.
Soon enough, the big day arrived and I found myself on a bus to Heathrow, about to sit through a 10 hour flight, just to see Muse.
I met an equally as excited Helen at Heathrow. As we were queuing up to check in, we were talking about the boys (as you do). We were joking around, saying wouldn’t it be funny if they were on our flight. Looking at the flight times and the location, it was a distinct possibility.
After a bit more waiting around we got on the plane. I love flying, but that flight seemed to go on forever. I spent most of it listening to music and eating. Virgin Atlantic are brilliant to fly with. But they feed you, what seemed like, every 5 minutes so if you ever do fly with them, don’t eat for a week before hand. I swear I put on 2 stone on that flight alone.
Eventually we landed in San Francisco. I started to get very excitable again at that point!
We got off the plane and went through the security checks. I didn’t feel quite as intimidated as I did when I flew to Las Vegas a couple of years back, as the guy checking my documents wasn’t as nice looking!
We arrived in the baggage hall and headed to the carousel hoping our suitcases had also made it to San Francisco in one piece.
We went to one side and Helen said ‘it’s a bit busy over here, shall we head over to the other side’ ‘No, its ok. Lets just wait here’ came my reply. So there I am, aimlessly looking at the cases going by. A couple of minutes later, Helen says ‘I don’t mean to alarm you or anything but the lads ore over there’ I looked at her disbelievingly. ‘Honestly, the band are over there’ I looked around and saw Tom Kirk in all his glory. I looked back at Helen, then looked over again and saw Matt and Chris.
Then we both did exactly the same thing at the same time. We were both wearing Muse T-shirts and we both buttoned up our jackets automatically!
We then decided actually it really was less busy on the other side or the carousel, so we went over there. This of course meant we walked straight past them. We both pretended we either didn’t know who they were or hadn’t seen them and concentrated on looking for our cases, having the occasional sneaky glance over.
Here was the dilemma. I couldn’t believe it. I was in exactly the same position as I was in the hotel in Wembley. There they were, with no one else bothering them. That would have been an ideal time to go and ask for a photo. But I really didn’t think it would be fair on them if we did. They had just got off a 10 hour flight. The last thing they needed was a couple of crazy fans bothering them before they had even stepped out of the baggage hall! So we just got our bags and made our way out of there.
Just as we started walking, they did too and they followed us out! We were trying to look cool and calm, but then we realised, Alice was meeting us. She didn’t know what we looked like so she said she would be holding a sign with MUSE on it!
As soon as we realised, we walked a bit faster, hoping we would have time to warn her before they came through behind us.
We soon saw her and instead of ‘Hi Alice, its so good to meet you’ Alice was greeted with Helen and I both flapping our hands franticly saying ‘get the sign down they are behind us’ She looked very confused, as did a lot of the other people waiting there, but did put the sign down. We then went the other side of the barrier and Alice and Helen took some photos. It was really funny because the people around us were kind of looking at us, then looking at them thinking ‘Who are they? They must be famous or something!’
After a couple of minutes, they left. About 5 minutes later, Liron (Stansfield on the message board) arrived after her even longer flight from Israel. She literally just missed them!
After all that excitement, we all piled into Alice’s car and headed to the hotel. That was quite a moment too. Driving along in the Californian sunshine with Muse blasting out of the stereo. Even more amazing was the fact that here I was with 3 other people, 2 of whom I’d only just met (I had only met Helen once before too!) from 3 different countries all brought together to see Muse!
We got to the hotel and checked in there. But there was no time for rest. We got ready straight away and headed out to get some food then went off to see The Killers, who just happened to be playing the same venue as Muse would be on Monday, that night!
The show was fantastic but I was so tired, I didn’t go too far into the crowd but stayed a safe distance at the side. It did give us a great chance to check out the venue before Monday though.
We finally got to sleep at 4am (too busy chatting!) after being awake for over 30 hours.
What an exciting start to our holiday!
It started off as just an idea. Then Helen (Forwen on the Muse message board) sent me a message to say she was thinking of doing the same thing so shall we go together.
When the San Francisco and Los Angeles headline dates were announced, the idea suddenly became a reality. Before either of us knew it, Flights were booked, hotels were booked and our friend Alice (California Museophile on the message board) helped us out by buying our tickets for us.
Soon enough, the big day arrived and I found myself on a bus to Heathrow, about to sit through a 10 hour flight, just to see Muse.
I met an equally as excited Helen at Heathrow. As we were queuing up to check in, we were talking about the boys (as you do). We were joking around, saying wouldn’t it be funny if they were on our flight. Looking at the flight times and the location, it was a distinct possibility.
After a bit more waiting around we got on the plane. I love flying, but that flight seemed to go on forever. I spent most of it listening to music and eating. Virgin Atlantic are brilliant to fly with. But they feed you, what seemed like, every 5 minutes so if you ever do fly with them, don’t eat for a week before hand. I swear I put on 2 stone on that flight alone.
Eventually we landed in San Francisco. I started to get very excitable again at that point!
We got off the plane and went through the security checks. I didn’t feel quite as intimidated as I did when I flew to Las Vegas a couple of years back, as the guy checking my documents wasn’t as nice looking!
We arrived in the baggage hall and headed to the carousel hoping our suitcases had also made it to San Francisco in one piece.
We went to one side and Helen said ‘it’s a bit busy over here, shall we head over to the other side’ ‘No, its ok. Lets just wait here’ came my reply. So there I am, aimlessly looking at the cases going by. A couple of minutes later, Helen says ‘I don’t mean to alarm you or anything but the lads ore over there’ I looked at her disbelievingly. ‘Honestly, the band are over there’ I looked around and saw Tom Kirk in all his glory. I looked back at Helen, then looked over again and saw Matt and Chris.
Then we both did exactly the same thing at the same time. We were both wearing Muse T-shirts and we both buttoned up our jackets automatically!
We then decided actually it really was less busy on the other side or the carousel, so we went over there. This of course meant we walked straight past them. We both pretended we either didn’t know who they were or hadn’t seen them and concentrated on looking for our cases, having the occasional sneaky glance over.
Here was the dilemma. I couldn’t believe it. I was in exactly the same position as I was in the hotel in Wembley. There they were, with no one else bothering them. That would have been an ideal time to go and ask for a photo. But I really didn’t think it would be fair on them if we did. They had just got off a 10 hour flight. The last thing they needed was a couple of crazy fans bothering them before they had even stepped out of the baggage hall! So we just got our bags and made our way out of there.
Just as we started walking, they did too and they followed us out! We were trying to look cool and calm, but then we realised, Alice was meeting us. She didn’t know what we looked like so she said she would be holding a sign with MUSE on it!
As soon as we realised, we walked a bit faster, hoping we would have time to warn her before they came through behind us.
We soon saw her and instead of ‘Hi Alice, its so good to meet you’ Alice was greeted with Helen and I both flapping our hands franticly saying ‘get the sign down they are behind us’ She looked very confused, as did a lot of the other people waiting there, but did put the sign down. We then went the other side of the barrier and Alice and Helen took some photos. It was really funny because the people around us were kind of looking at us, then looking at them thinking ‘Who are they? They must be famous or something!’
After a couple of minutes, they left. About 5 minutes later, Liron (Stansfield on the message board) arrived after her even longer flight from Israel. She literally just missed them!
After all that excitement, we all piled into Alice’s car and headed to the hotel. That was quite a moment too. Driving along in the Californian sunshine with Muse blasting out of the stereo. Even more amazing was the fact that here I was with 3 other people, 2 of whom I’d only just met (I had only met Helen once before too!) from 3 different countries all brought together to see Muse!
We got to the hotel and checked in there. But there was no time for rest. We got ready straight away and headed out to get some food then went off to see The Killers, who just happened to be playing the same venue as Muse would be on Monday, that night!
The show was fantastic but I was so tired, I didn’t go too far into the crowd but stayed a safe distance at the side. It did give us a great chance to check out the venue before Monday though.
We finally got to sleep at 4am (too busy chatting!) after being awake for over 30 hours.
What an exciting start to our holiday!
posted by Helen T On Tour at 3:50 PM
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