Dan and I flew to Amsterdam on Saturday morning. We drove to Bristol airport and parked in the car park. I also got in a panic because I thought the bus would never come and we would miss the flight or something. It was all fine and I coped ok with the flight- I even managed to look out the window a bit! We arrived in Amsterdam and got the train down to Arnhem. I love Dutch trains!
My birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got up and had breakfast as Dan refused to go and queue at 6am and wanted to have breakfast first. I had to run back upstairs to straighten my hair while Dan and Isabelle finished breakfast. Left the hotel with Isabelle at 8.30 in a taxi. The hotel staff and the taxi driver were horrified that we were queueing so early! When we got to the venue, the only people there were Jamie and Alessia plus two of Isabelle's friends!
They had been there since 6am and Alessia was sick. She had to go back to the hotel and sleep for most of the morning. We had to save spaces in the queue for Gavin and Matt who were both due to turn up at 2pm- Gavin had bought tickets from a guy for him, Matt, Jamie and Alessia so Dan and I were the only ones with tickets! Michelle and Jens turned up early- they had been to see the SAS band the night before in Germany and had a blast by the sounds of things. Michelle was wandering round with no shoes on. We decided it would be best if we spread out so they went to queue on the other side (there were two entrances). I went with them to see what was going on on the other side and also to try and find a security guard who would know if it was ok to queue anywhere if we had the old Nimijen tickets. There was nobody queuing at all on the other side so Michelle and Jens went off to McDonalds (and were gone for hours) after we spoke to a security guard who knew nothing and said I had to speak to someone called Mojo when he arrived! LOL!
Jamie, Isabelle and I made a fly for the bombings- No hate, no fight on a UK flag!
I think it was still before 10am at this point and the sun had come out- it was boiling. Not sure if I remember much about the rest of the day. It was so hot and my contact lenses were playing up. There was a McDonalds nearby so we had that for lunch and drank loads of water. Brigitte and Queenie turned up at some point as did the Austrian guys who were still sunburnt a week later from Lisbon! Michelle came over to see us during the afternoon with a bottle of JD and some water she had got for us- we spent some time baaaahing at each other!
A merchandise stand was set up and I got to look at the new tour programme- I was in it!! I borrowed and copy and showed everyone!!! LOL! I even told the random people selling it!
More people started turning up about midday and the queue was the largest I had seen so far on the tour by 2pm! Gavin called when they were on the way and said the guy with the tickets wouldn't turn up until after the doors open so Jamie and I had to try and get 4 tickets from somewhere else. Managed to buy two from people in the queue so 2 left to go. The box office was due to open at 2 and we found a guy who had 2 standing tickets but was queuing to buy seated tickets so we bought the standing ones from him! While we were waiting for the box office opened, some of the band turned up- we waved at Brian, Paul and Jamie through their car windows but missed Roger. Cynthia, Paul Rodgers wife came out and spoke to me, Jamie and Michelle for a bit. She said that her and Paul were watching the DVD and saw us on there! Yay!
Gavin phoned and said Matt's flight was delayed so they didn't actually turn up until 4pm in the end! I was panicking like mad and went to the toilet about 60 million times just in case! My contact lenses were really bad at this point and I only had one refresher drop left before we went in. I had to shut my eyes for an hour to rest them! I think the sun was drying them out! 2 people tried to queue jump a few times then the girl fainted and they got to go the other side of the barrier for a while. Dan remembers them from some other concert we have been to and is sure they tried queue jumping then as well. Just before the doors opened, they were let back in and I had gone to the toilet (again!). When I got back there was nearly a fight going on as they tried to nick my space! Luckily I got it back!
At around 4pm some idiot decided it was a good time to stand up. The entire queue stood up and had to stand like cattle for the next hour and a half. Doors opened at 5.30ish and Jamie and I didn't get searched as we already told the guy what we had and it was my birthday! Dan and Alessia were going in one gate and Jamie and I in the other. GO!! We ran into the pitch black from bright sunshine and couldn't see a thing. Got to the spot we wanted on the left hand side of the stage at the front corner!! Yay! Seemed like ages before Dan got there but in reality it was only a few seconds- he was delayed as his ticket didn't scan the security guard on his gate actually searched him and Alessia! Time goes so slowly when you are getting into the venue. Then we had the usual wait there until something happened. It was the only stadium on the summer bit of the tour that had a roof and the place was BOILING even before the show started! My contact lenses were still bad but I refused to take them out, as I wouldn't be able to see Roger very well! I had one last go with the refresher drops- took the one that was playing up out and washed it. Put it back in and it was slightly better but not perfect - forced myself to cry to make it better and the security guard took pity on me and got me some water which I just poured in my eyes (not what you are meant to do) then closed by eyes for an hour and they were better- thank god for that!
There was a support band that were not so bad and I even managed to dance along to some of the songs! The leader singer was a very angry teenage girl and Brian watched them from the wings for a bit.
All our group sang happy birthday to me while we were waiting for the show to start and lots of people joined in! Cool!! Dan text Dave, our friend who has moved to Holland and we managed to spot him in the crowd and he managed to get over to where we were for the show! Had a text from Michelle who was at the front of the cat walk- spent ages looking over for her and finally spotted her and we all waved! This was the last time I saw her :(
Then QUEEN!!!! Think were on stage about 8.30 and the temperate rose another good few degrees- BOILING!!
The set list was:
No surprises but the crowd were amazing!!! HOLLAND ROCK!!!
I was trying to get Roger to say happy birthday to me but no luck! Also tried it with Paul and he read my 'Are you Roger Taylor?' t-shirt and replied 'No he is darling' and pointed to Roger and laughed right in the middle of 'I want to break free'! Aaaaah! You can hear it loud and clear on the bootleg! Brian spent a lot of time looking at us again- bless him! I said I love you to Paul and he was it back!! Aaaaah! He spotted Gavin and touched his hand (AGAIN!). Managed to get Roger's attention with a condom on the way back from Say It's Not True!
At the end, we threw our No hate, No flight flag (which they all acknowledge) to Roger and he put it over the camera lenses!!! Cool!!!
The band actually made quite a few mistakes during the show (All right now, Last Horizon!) but it didn't matter at all! The crowd rocked and the atmosphere was amazing!!!
I can't believe how amazing and hot I felt after the gig- all I needed was water! Jamie, being American, pushed through the crowd and managed to get to McDonalds, get water and find us outside before we had even got out of the venue! Downed the bottle of water and we screamed at a few people we knew! Jumped in a taxi and went back to the hotel. We all had 15 mins to go and get changed but I had to have a cold shower- I was still sweating buckets! Dan had one too! Met everyone in the bar and had a couple of drinks to celebrate my birthday! Went off to find food about 1am and found a kebab shop open- I had to explain about 5 times that I wanted chips in pitta bread with cheese on the top and he was bemused by this but managed it very well then everyone else had that too apart from Jamie!! Heaven for everyone came on the radio when we were eating our food (there was only about 4 other people in the place) so we got up and sang! Everyone sang happy birthday to me as well!! Yay!
Went back to the hotel but the bar had shut. We found Terry and Isabelle having a chat on the sofa but decided it was all too much and went to BED!!!!
Got up late and had breakfast with Isabelle. Talked to the Austrian guys who were there as well! Dan and I went wandering round Arnhem as Jamie, Alessia, Gavin and Matt had all left early that morning.
Bumped in to Isabelle and her two friends at the train station and got the train to Amsterdam airport with them. I played them some of the downloads on my iPod and they were screaming and giggling!
Dan and I left them at the airport and I was on high alert in case Queen were there but I didn't see them :(
By the time we got back all I needed to do was sleep!!! THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Queen!