Chelmsford / Stafford UK - August 18th & 19th, 2001
by Dirk
We Come 1
ok, where to begin? Probably best at home so prepare for a long journey :^)
Antwerp, August 17th, 11.00
My bag is packed, the fuel tank is filled, of I drive off direction Gent to pick up Bea and Kathy, my two lovely companions. I got plenty of time but I know at least one of them will already be nervous that I wont be there on time so I better get going.
Gent, August 17th, 11.45
See that I'm early, Bea's face already clears up. First I wanted to make a phone call standing at their front door and telling them I would be late but I didn't risk standing in front of Texas with a blue eye so I gave up on that idea.
Gent, August 17th, 12.00
We decide to already leave for Brussels Airport, our flight isn't leaving till 14.45PM but hey....... you never know what might happen. Which CD would we listen to in the car? We got a choice between Texas, Texas and Texas, hard to decide.
Brussels, August 17th, 13.00
We made it, that's at least one relief. We check in our lugage first and then go and do some "plane spotting" acting like we know all about it. Bea does so we couldn't stay behind could we?
Brussels, August 17th, 14.15
Time to go to the gate, finally.
Brussels, August 17th, 15.00
Ready for take off, 15 minutes late which seemed like an hour. We get a delicious (not) chocolat icecream on board and something to drink.
"I'm like a bird, I wanna fly away"
Manchester, August 17th, 17.00
YIPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE there we are, almost running towards the exit (You can't keep up with Kathy) and picking up the lugage in a speed tempo and then there they are, my two favorite UK girls, Julia and Nicky. It is soo fantastic to meet them again after Amsterdam and Gent. Our trip towards Chelmsford starts.
Nottingham, August 17th, 19.00
We make a stop at Nottingham to get some Mexican food, mine was pretty good but since all four the girls had to use Gaviscon I'm not sure if their stumach took the onions so well :^) Nicky and Julia used their most overwelming look to pursuade the gatekeeper at Nottingham castle to let us in after closing hours to look at the castle but without any luck. I still don't understand how he could resist those looks :^) Off we went, Julia wanted to let me stand in fromt of the Robin Hood statue to have him shoot an arrow in my b.... mmmmmm back but I wasn't go to play the fool of the day in front of a hundred people sitting on a terrace right in front of it. So we had some drinks in England's oldest pub and off we went.
Travel Inn (idontknowwhereintheuk), August 18th, 00.30
We made it, our first stop for a shower and some sleep, which felt great.
Travel Inn (idontknowwhereintheuk), August 18th, 08.15
Who ever invented an alarm clock? Probably for the best but the moment they go off, Oh my, I hate them then. Trying to get awake, Going to eat some breakfast and off we go again.
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 12.00
After a trip and a traffic jam we arrived at Chelmsford and made our way to the entrance. When we entered the arena Jimmy Barnes has just started his thing which in my opinion didn't sound bad at all. We made our way to the front, some of us directly to the first row, poor me to the second row (but not for long).
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 13.30
The American hiphoppers Spooks did a pretty funny act, at least I thought so. Kathy seemed a bit (much) embarrased to stand next to me during that gig. Hey, it wasn't my fault, I was just repeating what they asked us to do "Say hey you hey you f*** you f*** you. You should have seen the drummer, when he appearded on front of the stage I almost disappeared laughing between some legs. He looked so funny.
"Wont believe the things I've seen, far beyond your wildest dreams"
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 14.45
Time for Nelly Furtado. It was really great. I thinks she's got a big carreer in front of her. There were some die hard fans there who seemed to have come especially for Nelly.
"Pabarapapachingching"
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 15.45
Embrace, to be honest I hardly knew anything about them. Their music was pretty good, I wasn't that crazy about their fans who made a game of it to start pushing and to be pulled out of the crowd. I don't really mind as long as they don't kick with their boots on the top of my head.
"Come back to what you know, Take everything real slow"
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 17.00
Faithless, I didn't really know what to expect, but of course I did knew them and I also knew Bea and Kathy were pretty big fans. It ... was ... amazing. Pure quality, people enjoying what they are doing and know what they are doing, 100% professional, 100% dancable, 100% enjoyable. Does it seems like I loved them? Well, I did. The second best band I've seen that weekend.
"We Come 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1"
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 18.15
Coldplay has returned to the UK and Chelmsford heard it. They were also very good. I didn't enjoyed them as much as Faithless maybe because during their gig it started to rain and oohhh how I hate wet clothes, but the band and the fans were all having a good time.
"Look at the stars, Look how they shine for you"
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 19.45
The Charlatans, not at all my favorite concert, although I did like their studio work. They didn't interactive with the people at any moment, it was still raining and for some reason it seems to be the start for certain individuals to start acting agressive. I was pretty scared to see Nicky turn pale all of a sudden but luckely she managed to get over it. The best thing to do is to concentrate on something else. I know now too, I 'll come to that later. The hour lasted forever so I was really glad it was over. I dived to my bag to see if there was anything eatable left, but a 10 hour old sandwich with cheese and tomatos who had to survive the heat, rain and pushing isn't exactly what you call a meal, believe me, don't try it.
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 20.45
The rain has stopped and I'm very glad about that, took more then long enough.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm glad to be free,
Sometimes I still want your arms around me
Sometimes I'm glad to have left you behind,
The Crazy English Summer has put you back on my mind."
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 21.15
I remembered again why we came here for in the first place and what made it all worth it TEXAS. I was happy we all still survived at the first row, our chain couldn't be broken.
Zero Zero started, I felt my body start to shiver. I still get warm and cold at the same time when I hear that and there they were. Suddenly all the worries disappeared, I was just incredible happy. Time for the dance competition, for the third time in a row my "harem" decided to try and get me up on stage. NO WAY, I would faint in front of Shar's feet, what a sight that would be. So I managed to dive for cover long enough till Shar picked three other "victims". Nicole won because she just did a great job "taming" her guy.
I took out a pretty big banner my wife and the kids made for me saying "Belgium greets Texas" and of course the name of the website, some free advertising never hurts :^) It didn't take long before Ally (with beard), Charlotte and Nicole noticed us and gave us a private dance, we had to try a little harder for Eddie but he did lift his head above his keyboards and gave us a huge smile and so did Johnny , woooooohhoooooo. Sharleen gave us a wave while we were jumping up and down, we're in heaven. I'm not too sure about Tony and Steve, but you can't notice everything.
My personal favorite was the acoustic version from "In Demand", just a masterpiece, but wasn't every song. It is a pretty amazing sight to look behind you and see tenthousands of people behind you cheering for that same band you came here for and knowing that you are on the first row, it makes you realise how lucky you are.
"Caught in a trap, I can't walk out, because I love you too much baby"
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, August 18th, 23.00
:-( Oh my, it was over already. Time flies when you're having fun.
On our way out the first thing to do was to find the toilets because 11 hours without going to the toilet is pretty long. Then we had to find Nicky's car back, not an easy task. They were soo lucky I remembered it was parked next to a tree, what would they have done without me? :^)
"So tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree"
Travel Inn (idontknowwhereintheuk), August 19th, 02.30
After stopping somewhere to eat some potato chips and french fries (that's what we call food) we reached the motel again where we stayed the night before. We had to wake the poor man behind the desk but it took him a while to really wake up and to hand us our keys.
Travel Inn (idontknowwhereintheuk), August 19th, 08.15
Alarm bell again, GRRRRRRRRRRR, but it's for a very good cause so it's not that bad. Shower, breakfast and of we went again. The journey was a bit easier this time because it was much closer then we expected and none of us was disappointed about that.
Weston Park, Stafford, August 19th, 11.30
People were already cueing so we joined them. It didn't take too long before they let us in and again,straight to the main stage, the girls wouldn't let me to see Atomic Kitten or Kylie, pffffffffffff, they were just jealous.
So the same concerts as the day before, I got blamed by Kathy for taking too many pictures from Nelly Furtado and the Faithless girls, but she couldn't prevent it anyway. Another funny moment was when the Coldplay singer called his mum and asked us all to give her our best "yell". Chris : "Hi mom, someone wants to say something to you" The crowd : "yeeeaaaahhhhhh". The poor woman probably doesn't hear anything for the next few days.
Weston Park, Stafford, August 19th, 16.00
By this time it already was clear to me that it wouldn't be so "easy" as the day before. The rain stayed out for most of the day, but the crowd started to push soo hard during Embrace and didn't stop untill the Charlatans ended that more then one time I just wanted to get out to get some air. I noticed Alison who also almost got squeezed but was holding on, I guess she must have felled a bit like Julia's chips looked at that moment, squeeeeeeeezed. This and A LOT of encouragement from my dear friends who told me all in their own way to hold on (hugs to you). I don't remember a lot from the Charlatans concert because I was really on another planet by then, lucky enough my friends noticed in time and gave me water which made feel better almost immediatly. Imagine standing for about 5 hours, your feet about 20cm from eachother, your knees against eachother, your body bended over about 30 degrees and trying to push thousands of people back, believe me, you didn't want to have seen it or felt it. But hearing Sharleen said the night before they would take a two year break from touring made me hang on.
Suddenly Phil started to yell at me, "Diiiiiiiiiiirk" "Hi Phillyyyyyyyy", some other people recognised me from some of the photos I guess, it felt great.
Weston Park, Stafford, August 19th, 21.15
THIS is where I've done it for.
I even got to the first row thanks to Kathy. The crowd may have been pushing most of the day but they also gave a very nice welcome to Texas and were very enthousiastic so I forgive them :^)
All the band members seemed to enjoy themselves, Shar noticed me (us) in the crowd and gave me a wave (thanks :^) ), so did Nicole and Charlotte. I had to force Ally because to look at us because he was to concentrated on his guitar so I gave him a pretty loud "Allyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" yell and there his smile was.
During the dance competion from which I managed to get under once again, Sharleen picked the wrong guy, one with a big, filthy mouth but when he had to dance he took off. So they had to bring someone else on stage in a hurry and he did pretty good. But Charlotte's nice friendly guy Tony stole the hearts of the audience so Charlotte was the winner today.
During the concert my heart did stop for a second when Sharleen almost stumbled over the wires on stage when she was walking on the edge of it. I thought "Oh no, don't let her fall on this last concert"but luckely she didn't.
The concert was as great as ever, maybe even better, at least something I will never forget.
Weston Park, Stafford, August 19th, 22.45
And then there was the encore, "Inner Smile", one last pointing at me from Sharleen, one last wave from Nicole who also made a photo from us and then "Suspicious Minds". Ok, call me foolish, call me whatever you like but I had been jumping up and down during the entire concert and all of a sudden I realised it was almost over, for two whole years. Don't misunderstand me, they deserve it more then annyone else, they need to do something else, in their personal life, to look for inspiration, to have a family life but I just felt .... strange. For about a minute I had to fight myself to "keep up the spirit" and start to jump again till the last note.
Weston Park, Stafford, August 19th, 23.00
The concert was over, the crowd moved away and who were left there, yes the crazy bunch :^) Phil, Pam, Alison, Stuart, Cara, Julia, Nicky, Kathy, Bea, myself and the mud. We even bought the last Texas T-shirts and hat with holes in it (Im' not saying who bought it). Julia wouldn't let me go to the fair :-(Shame on you mom.
Off to the car, we did remember which tree it was this time and on to another motel.
Travel Inn (anotherplaceidontknowwhereintheuk), August 20th, 11.00
Meeting outside the motel and off to Manchester city for the first real food in over 24 hours. I guess my stomach must have shrunked by then because I couldn't really eat a lot (and two pizza's is too much for some).
Nicky and Julia knew a great record store where we all bought the Faithless CD and some others (they didn't have any Texas stuff which we didn't have already) HMV, Virgin, HMV, Virgin, .... and get some drinks, plundering Marks and Spencer for Tea and time to leave for the airport :-(
Manchester airport, August 20th, 18.00
Checking our tickets which terminal, T2 is terminal 2 according to me, so we got out of the car with our lugage giving a big hug to Julia and Nicky and two minutes later we were there back again :^) It wasn't terminal 2 but 1. (You will never know if we did that on purpase or not) So arriving at terminal 1, one last goodbye and into the airport. After checking in we went past the customs and probably out of frustration I saw a Virgin store and bought some more CD's and ..... (yes Ida) the Elvis "That's the way it is" DVD. Maybe the title itself is kind of ironic isn't it?
Brussels, August 20th, 22.00
Back in Belgium, first finding my car again which wasn't easy because there weren't any trees there, then a trip to Gent to drop Bea and Kathy off at home, who didn't remember where they lived. Naaah it was actually my fault becayse I had to play "We Come 1" with the volume turned up to level 25 so I didn't hear Kathy shouting at me.
I "dropped" Bea and Kathy off in Gent (after taking a wrong exit) and on to Antwerp where I arrive for the welcomingscomity around 00.30. Telling my "once in a lifetime" experience to my wife and kids and I thought I would fell a sleep like a turtle going into hibernation but I watched the clock going till about 04.00, emotions I guess, too much to think about. But IT WAS FANTASTIC
So while I'm finishing this review, I'm also watching Elvis singing "Suspicious Minds". Can't think of anything more appropriate.
Oh, let our love survive,
I'll dry the tears from your eyes.
Let's don't let a good thing die,
when honey, you know I've never, lied to you
We're caught in a trap
I can't walk out
because I love you too much, baby...
Finally :
ok, I may have already said it all but I just want to do this.
Thanks Texas, for all the wonderful concerts, the music, the joy and maybe most of all the great friends I made thanks to you, it is worth a lot, probably more then you realise.
Julia, Nicky, Bea and Kathy ; Amsterdam was great, Gent was fantastic, but V2001 will stay in my memories forever. Without you it just wouldn't have been the same. You've done more for me then you know. Thanks, love ya all. We really "became 1" :^)
All the other great fans I've met ; It's been great meeting you all and I hope we will meet again soon in the future, I'm sure we will.
Dirk
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