Photos: www.girlonfire.co.uk/photos

Left home at 6am via Bristol pick up Becky and Cat and made it to the NEC by 8am. Were told at the gate we had to go and park at the North car park but when we arrived there, he sent us back to the South car park where we started. Got to park for free as we got there so early! Walked round looking for everyone and eventually found then at what looked like the delivery entrance. Vern, Julie, Michelle, Jamie, Pam and Susan were already in the queue so we sat down on the concrete floor in sun to wait for 10 hours til the doors opened!

Tony, the head of security came round and introduced himself at about 10am and asked us to move round to the side door as they were expecting rain later. He said he would make sure we would get in first as he knew we had been there all day. All the gang arrived and we knew we were in for a long day. We played the line game and sang badly (well I did). Vern had to drive to Peterborough to get his sister at 3.30 and get back for 6.30 when the doors opened and get back in the queue!

Michelle had drank quite a lot of whisky and decided to get everyone in the queue to sign her arms! Madness but at least it passed the time! I spent hours deciding whether I was going to go to the catwalk or right to the front of the stage in the lefthand corner of the catwalk so I could be close to Roger!! Jen and I finally decided (after changing our minds a number of times) to go to the front of the stage!

Vern made it back just in time with his sister- when the doors opened we had to run through to other set of doors. Becky nearly fell over and Jen got lost. We spoke to the security guard who explained that we would be let in to another area where there were 2 sets of doors and we should go to the left. When this finally happened, we were forced to go to the right and then started to complain! I explained to the security guard that we had spoken to Tony, the head security who said he knew we were there first and he was going to look after us. He disappeared off to speak to Tony. When he came back he asked us to pick one person who could point out all the people who had been in the queue all day and we would be let through the doors early. We nominated Julie who picked us all out and they took us through the doors and asked us to wait. Justine, Roger’s PA called past and Jen gave her our letter about www.roger-taylor.net. After 10 minutes or so, a security guard walked us down to the door into the hall but another door must have opened and they were letting other people in. Jamie got caught up in that but I managed to get her back and all the other people were stopped while we were let in first! Jen and I make it to the spot we wanted and everyone was on the catwalk!!! We decided then that we are the new royal family!!!

Reaching Out
Tie Your Mother Down

I Want To Break Free
Fat Bottomed Girls - As Paul walked down the cat walk he saw me, pointed and sang to me!!! Jen has photographic evidence!!

Another one bites the dust
Wishing Well
Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Say Its Not True

39
Love Of My Life
Hammer To Fall
I’m In Love With My Car
Drum solo

Gtr Solo
Last Horizon
These Are The Days Of Our Lives

Radio Ga Ga
Can’t Get Enough
A Kind Of Magic
I Want It All

Bohemian Rhapsody
————————–
Under pressure
All Right Now
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions

I have written in my notes I made after the show that Roger looked at me. I didn’t say when and I don’t remember now!! Roger’s girlfriend danced just round the corner from Jen and I. In fact Jen had to point her out to me! Paul managed to get hold of one of Roger’s drumsticks and threw it towards Jen and I. I actually had it in my hand at one point but lost it. There was a big scrum on the floor and I didn’t manage to get it, nor did Jen!! Oh well!!!

After the gig, we went round the back to have a look and just as we were going to give up, Jeff Scott Soto came put with Frank Tunney. Jeff came over and gave us all a hug and had a quick chat. When he left, we decided too aswell!! Gavin and I were totally falling asleep on the way home when driving. I was starting to feel very ill- we had planned to get to Cardiff for 7am the next day but on the M4 decided to give up on the that and get there for 9am so got up at 7am instead of 5am!!! :)

Thanks to Jen for the queue and Paul Rodgers photos!

Got up at 6am to try and be ready for 7am but it was more like 7.30am when we left. 4 people having a shower in a tiny hotel room is not a great idea! Luckily it only took us 2 hours to get to Manchester and we parked up next to the arena and joined the queue! The usual people were there and a new person called James who was SO excited to there! We also met some people from Malta who were fantastic! Someone brought the sandwich trolley round to us when we were queuing and we stocked up on crisps and chocolate!! After trying to find out which was the best place to queue, we all decided to move inside and queue there! We sang Queen songs and played charades to pass the time and Michelle went to in to town to buy condoms to throw at Roger later- and they were ‘get 3 for 2’!! Gavin and I went for a walk at lunchtime to get food and when we got back he pinched my plastic fork and used it for charades- he snapped it in half and threw it – breakthru!!!

Jen and Michelle went round the back at 3 and after a while Jen rang us to say the security gates had opened so Trina and I went round the back. I was car spotting but every car looked like it might be it but no! What seemed like ages after, Brian turned up- The Maltese guy managed to block my view with a banner but I managed to get down underneath it to see!! LOL!! He was so funny and seemed to think that I was mad!! Then we had to wait for Roger! Jen went to the other side of the road but Trina and I weren’t sure but when Roger did turn up he got stuck behind one of the tour buses and we could see he wasn’t on our side so Trina and I had to run across the road in front of tour bus which luckily didn’t run us over!! We waved and shouted to Roger and think that he waved back!!

Went back to the queue- Gavin made a stage out of condoms to show people the layout then he went to sleep in a sleeping bag for a while! Some random 18 year old chave came up and started syaing things about Freddie being dead so Gavin took the piss out of him and he walked off singing ‘I want to break free’. Time passed then some idiots arrived and pushed in the queue and everyone crushed to the front. When they finally opened the doors most of us were still in the front when we got through to the next bit of the queue where they gave us wristbands. Now about 4 queues had formed and we were worried that another door would open before us but they actually turned out to be quite organised and slowly walked all the people down the stairs at the same time and we ran to the front- some people got grabbed by the security guards but I just escaped and had to walk the last section. Gavin and I reached the barrier first and just collapsed. I was so stressed by that point and it took me ages to calm down but we all made it to the front of the cat walk!!

The set list was:

Reaching Out
Tie Your Mother Down
I Want To Break Free
Fat Bottomed Girls
Wishing Well
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Say Its Not True
39
Love Of My Life
Hammer To Fall
I’m In Love With My Car
Gtr Solo
Last Horizon
These Are The Days Of Our Lives
Radio Ga Ga
Can’t Get Enough
A Kind Of Magic
I Want It All
Bohemian Rhapsody
————————–
Under Pressure (I was in tears at this point- so totally overwhelmed with it all- first our queue song then the first time we ever hear Under Pressure and Roger sang most of it- AMAZING!!!)
All Right Now
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions

I was lucky enough to have Paul and Brian look at me during the show but not Roger (he never does!!)

After the show, we went round the back to see if anything was going on but it wasn’t so we went back to James’s hotel and had drink and talked about the gig! God I needed that beer! Slept on a matress on their hotel room floor in my clothes! Dead to the world!!

Photos from the gig: www.girlonfire.co.uk/photos
Photos from after the show: www.girlonfire.co.uk/photos

Got up at 6.20 and did my hair- left at 7.30 after making Gavin’s packed lunch for him to hurry him along! I did the driving on this leg- we made good time and arriving in the queue at 10am. There were about 10 people there already mainly people we knew so we joined them in the queue! I started to rain at one point and I had to wear my Hayley from Coronation Street red rain mac to try and protect my hair but it was ruined anyway!

Walked to the train station nearby a couple of times to go to the loo. Gavin entertained us for a while reading stories out of tacky magazines! Went round the back for a bit and Roger had already arrived but saw Brian arrive and he gave us a wave and thumbs up!

We were finally let into the gig at 6.30 and the security looked after us and made sure we were first to go in and we made it to the front of the catwalk!

No track 13 anymore- this had been replaced with a remix of ‘It’s a beautiful day’ followed by Eminen ‘Lose yourself’ then that first note of Reaching out and it all started!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The set list was:

Reaching Out
Tie Your Mother Down
I Want To Break Free
Fat Bottomed Girls
Wishing Well (First time I heard this live and it was great!!)
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Say Its Not True (Ahhhhhhhhhhhh Roger- he made the condom joke and we decided that we HAVE to throw condoms at him if he does it again!)
39
Love Of My Life
Hammer To Fall (Roger singing the middle bit! Brian spotted someone filming during the show bit at the beginning and stopped the show and said ‘I want to share this moment with you all, so fuck the films’ and made the guy turn off the camera!)
I’m In Love With My Car
Gtr Solo
Last Horizon
These Are The Days Of Our Lives
Radio Ga Ga
Can’t Get Enough of your love
A Kind Of Magic
I want it all (Brian on vocals- Want do you want?….No the answer’s not Freddie Mercury…YOU WANT IT ALL!”)
Bohemian Rhapsody
————————–
Small section of Sunshine of Your Love by Cream
All Right Now
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions

Paul seemed to be off the stage quite a lot at this show so maybe they were saving his voice for this leg of the tour. No ‘The show must go on’ or ‘Feel like making love’ but it was a great show!!

We decided to try the Hilton to see if they were staying there so we all piled in my car. Bad things always happen to me in Newcastle but I only managed to drive the wrong way down a one way street once this time! Found the hotel and by this time it was chucking it down with rain but luckily there was some cover. There were about 10 of there and firstly Roger turned up!!! He stopped and chatted to us all for a while and signed some stuff. He was in a great mood tonight so must have had a good gig! Gavin asked him for a photo but he didn’t want one taken so I hovered next to him and got a few snaps!

I said ‘You will have to wish me happy birthday in Holland Roger’ and he replied ‘We’re not playing in Holland’. We all looked at him and said ‘Yeah you are’. He laughed and seemed to remember that they are playing there over the summer!! He is such a sexy guy. Just before he went in his said ‘This is the time when I say Brian’s behind you’ and Jen fell for it!! His girlfriend was there too, she smiled and said hi to Michelle then disappeared off into the hotel! Brian arrived next and didn’t want to sign anything as there were some professional autograph hunters about but he chatted for a while. Gavin asked him if he minded us taking flash photos from the front row after his problems with the guy videoing and he had no probs with that! I had my picture taken with me (and its actually a good one at last!). Brian was carrying a ‘Free’ CD which I thought was quite cool!

Paul arrived and we were made to get in line inside the hotel. When he got to me, I got him to sign something then Gavin took a photo of Paul and me. I said ‘Do you remember Gavin from the front row?’ and he did!!!!!!! LOL!

Jamie and Spike arrived- got Spike to sign a pic and he asked when it was taken- the Freddie Mercury birthday party in Shepton Mallet. Got Jamie to sign a photo of me and him from Brian’s tour and he said he looked so young and so did I so he signed it Jamie Moses 05 and then I suggested we had a more up to date pic taken- he was so drunk bless him, you could smell the alcohol! After all that excitement, we tried to find our hotel which an hour to get out of Newcastle as we were so lost! We all just collapsed about 2am and slept so well. We had Michelle with us as she had no where else to stay!

I am now away on tour:

Monday 2 May- Drive to Glasgow to get Gavin
Tuesday 3 May- Newcastle
Wednesday 4 May- Manchester
Thursday 5 May- Drive back from Manchester
Friday 6 May- Birmingham
Saturday 7 May- Cardiff
Sunday 8 May- Drive to Sheffield
Monday 9 May- Sheffield
Tuesday 10 May- Drive back from Sheffield
Wednesday 11 May- Wembley
Thursday 12 May- Day off
Friday 13 May- Fly to Belfast and go to Belfast gig
Saturday 14 May- Train to Dublin then gig
Sunday 15 May- Fly home at 7am to Cardiff after staying up all night and get Dan to pick us up
Monday 16 May- get Gavin to Bristol airport for 5.30am then go to work!!

Queen and Paul Rodgers ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Cat and I set off form Bristol at 9 for the long drive to Glasgow- we were all sorted with the iPod loaded with Queen and live downloads from the European shows plus packed lunches to save us some money! Had a few breaks on the way and stopped at some very odd service stations- one which had a caravan park there in the middle of nowhere near Carlisle! Arrived at Gavin’s new house at 8pm after 8 hours of driving! The house was lovely and he had even moved all the boxes into one room so some of the rooms were sorted out- unfortunately he is leaving for 2 weeks so its going to be ages before its all sorted! Went out and got pizza from Pizza hut which we had with some wine and vodka but not too much and decided to leave at 7.30am for Newcastle so went to bed early! Spoke to Jen and Trina and they said the venue in Newcastle does not look good- AHHHH! Panic!