We had a very early flight from Paris to Rome so got a taxi to the airport. We were very tired and hungover so the flight was not very much fun and I had a panic attack on the flight! Once we arrived in Rome, we got a taxi to the hotel – which took forever to get there as I think we flew in to the airport which was miles away from the city. Terry had to sort out some work so we sat in a café having a drink while Terry was on the phone then headed back to the hotel for some sleep. Gavin decided to go and look around Rome but having seen it before, Terry and I didn’t bother as sleep was more important! In the evening, we met the lovely Alessia who we met on the 2005 tour. She is from Italy but had moved over to London and is now in Rome. We had a lovely evening having dinner and wine sitting outside in the nice warm weather!
Alessia had to work but Gavin and I met her for lunch in a restaurant called Acqua which was near the venue on the edge of a lovely park. Terry stayed in bed! It was a gorgeous sunny day even though it was late September. Gavin and I walked to the venue and found ourselves walking along the edge of a very steep hill.
We arrived around 3pm to find a very long, tightly packed queue! I don’t know how they stood there all day in the sunshine! We had arranged priority entrance with the Italian fan club as we are members of the Official International Queen fan club (link to website). We met Charlie who had been there since around 7am and was starting to look a bit sun burnt! There were about 50 people already there for the priority queue but nobody was sure where we had to stand so we were all spread out along the fence. There were loads of fake merchandise stands around selling fake t-shirts and I almost bought a nice purple one but decide it would probably fall to bits! There was also a van parked in the car park with a big Queen and Paul Rodgers advert on the back – the atmosphere was electric!! Martin (who we first met in Riga) was there and was getting the crowd to sing! It was great to see the true dedication and excitement of the Italian fans as they all sang along to Mustapha and Somebody to Love! Martin also tried to get them to sing Cosmos Rockin’ (which they didn’t know) and Small (which a few of them knew).
Davide who runs the Italian Queen fan club arrived around 4.30pm and moved us to the disabled entrance which the venue were also going to use to let us in before everybody else! Our queue was totally squashed by around 6pm and there was lots of pushing and shoving. Terry arrived about 6 and joined our queue but was not worried about getting to the front. We were finally let in around 6.45pm and it was chaos but I did end up at the front of the cat walk next to Alessia and Andrea so it was worth it! Terry stood round to the side of the cat walk with Martin. When the main doors opened at 7pm, it was total chaos again with Italians running everywhere. We ended up totally squashed at the front and it only got worse when the concert started at 9pm! Before it started, a guy about 4 rows back tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘You- you are in Return of the Champions’ and then a girl recognised me from my website!
The concert started and my ribs were squashed against the barrier but the atmosphere was so amazing! The band were totally loving it and the audience sang along to every song including Say It’s Not True. Roger looked down at the crowd and said ‘Good’! Brian looked down at us during ’39, looked along to front row and smiled at us all! Paul laughed at ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ dance and Brian laughed at our ‘Feel Like Makin’ Love’ dance! They didn’t play the second verse of Radio Ga Ga or the last chorus of Cosmos Rockin’ but they did sing ‘We’ve got Roma rocking….’. A Kind Of Magic was back!! Brian dropped a six pence on the floor near the barrier at one point and about 50 Italian men were trying to get it by clambering over me, they kept shouting ‘Brian, give me the penny’!!
Alessia was lucky to have meet and greet tickets so she met the band back stage! We had to get to Milan the next day so headed back to a café near the hotel were we had a pizza then went to bed!
The set list was:
We had a bit of a lie in then walked from the hotel to the train station to get the train to Milan! The train left at 11.30 and arrived at 16.00 so we were on the train for ages! We sat in a compartment with 2 very religious people who seemed slightly strange. Luckily I went to sleep and left them talking to Gavin and Terry for most of the journey!
We arrived in Milan and got a text from Ray from the JDFK giving us details of where they were going for dinner. It was a pizza/fish restaurant in Porta Genova! I think they were surprised by the amount of wine we could drink!