Have dick, will follow....
Jan. 10th, 2008 02:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mad_andySO!
Last night, I got off my ass and went to Shepherd's Bush to see the Hellish Rock show. Axxis, Gamma Ray, and Helloween.
Talk about high hopes; I'd seen Axxis supporting Helloween in Milan, and had been bloody impressed so I knew they'd be good. And I was all filled with anticipatory squee about seeing the Rays for the first time; as for Helloween, whoohoo! The last time I saw them they were absolutely awesome, fully as good as (if not better than) I had ever expected. And they'd been fun to be around, too.
Well, everyone is allowed to have an off day, right? Right.
So excited I woke up early, by the time I got to London I was knackered. I was the fourth person there - it was only half one in the afternoon - but I knew the other three, so it was all good. Hadn't seen them for a while, so we spent some time nattering, catching up and keeping a sharp eye open for the bands. The truck was parked up, and had obviously already loaded in; it had made a nice landmark for me when I was walking to the venue!
Saw the Axxis guys wandering around - lordy, but their drummer is a miserable git. Well, maybe he's not, but he glares at people. A lot. I ignored him. Once you've been glared at by Weiki nobody else even comes close.
We could see both tour buses, a white one outside the venue and a red one a little further away. The Helloween guys had obviously already arrived, because markus had been spotted mooching around the park some time earlier. Nobody else had been sighted - but I wasn't worried, loads of time yet, right?
No sooner said than done; Henjo and Kai stumbled out of the white tour bus, looking as though they'd just woken up which, as you might imagine, they had. Both of them recognised me from the fan party, although Kai was definitely 'I know your face but fucked if I know why'....
Hey, no worries. He was friendly and polite and I got a lovely cuddle from Henjo (dear man), so that was me off to a flying start.
Now, the stage door to the Shepherd's Bush Empire is down the side of the building, and the wind was howling down there at a hell of a lick. Even so, that was where several of us spotted Henjo shortly after that (out for a smoke, poor bloke), and wandered down to chat.
There were four of us. Me, a Russian girl with no ticket who had done nothing but whine about it the whole time she'd been standing there, and a very nice couple called James and Holly who'd I'd spent quite some time hanging out with at the last Helloween show I'd seen in London. Holly has a tremendous crush on Sascha and is not afraid to show it which, she being of the slim and pretty persuasion with good boobs, he doesn't appear to mind at all.
This fact becomes important later. Pay attention.
So the four of us mobbed poor Henjo. I ended up mainly watching as James asked all sorts of questions that Henjo - who is a smart cookie - neatly sidestepped by pretending not to understand. James would then turn and ask me how I would put it, and dear Hen would smirk at me as though to say 'yeah, how would you explain that?'
It was interesting, that was for sure.
Then the Russian started up with the ass kissing (I love you guys so much and I've never managed to see you before, oh dear I'm so deprived and I might miss you tonight, o my ears and whiskers) and I fucked off back to the front of the venue before I either froze to death or slapped her for being annoying.
Also. Lovely looking girl. Typical young Eastern European; good figure but lots of curves, skeins of golden-brown hair, big brown eyes, flawless milky skin. And boy did she work it.
And of course, being a foreigner in a strange city you stand out. It's a trick I've used to my own advantage more than once, so fair do's to her on that front.
She was still pissing me off. Everyone else managed to sort themselves out in time for the gig...
Still!
Caught Sascha and Markus in the same place, a little later on. Holly was all over Sascha, which he was enjoying so much he was all hands in return; he told her boyfriend that he was sure that she was a swinger. James just shook his head and let them get on with it, nipping in between gropes to get CDs signed.
Eventually I managed the obligatory photo, and did get a quick chat with Markus about tattoos - he was impressed with the piercer and tattooist pumpkins on the back of my wrists. However, they really didn't want to hang around and brushed us off as politely as they could before heading off.
Which is fair enough! Poor bastards don't want to be caught up doing the fan thing all the time. But as we left them to go do their thing Sascha called Holly back, and when she returned to us she was frowning.
He'd given her a pass to the aftershow party - but only one. She doubled back, asked him if he had any more; Markus kept walking, and Sascha said no, no more, just you. You do want to come, don't you?
OK, so from experience I know that there are a finite number of these things. But come on, boy. You're all over her, and then tell her that you have but one pass left, whoops, so she can't bring her boyfriend. Who do you think you're kidding?
Poor guy, James came to ask my advice several times whilst we waited for doors. Although what did he think I was going to say? Sascha is a little saint, he'd never touch yer missus? Ha. No. I did suggest that they could give the pass to someone who was there alone, of course... which, to be fair, he did say was 'an option'.
But Holly wanted to go. And James didn't know what to do.
Quite the horns of a dilemma, no?
(Oh, and the Russian bird was round there making cow eyes at Sascha and Markus too. Wah wah wah Russian no ticket poor me.)
Not sure how it panned out in the end, but I did tell James that I was of the opinion that Sascha was out to nail his woman.
Not long after that (and the irritation that Sascha had recognised Lia in Milan from the last time, but nary a flicker when he saw me), Dan (Gamma Ray's drummer) came round the corner.
"Hey Dan!" I called, with a wave.
He stopped dead, turned on his heel, and stalked off in the opposite direction with the guy who was with him.
Nick and I turned to exchange glances.
"O-kayyyyy..." I said.
And sadly, dear reader, that was it for Encounters With Artistes before the gig. Dani, Weiki and Dirk never even poked their noses outside the venue; or if they did, they did it where nobody could see them. Oh well.
So time banged on as it does, and it was a lot of fun in the queue. Most of the Usual Suspects were there (a group of young lads that Slay and I bump into regularly at gigs), including dear Chris... who is now 17, although when I first met him and chatted him up he was a mere 15! Boy did I feel bad at the time.
Anyway, poor Holly and James were still working on their dilemma and I really must find out what happened because I have several people who are also desperate to know. Much exchanging of email addresses was going on in our little huddle. Along with a certain amount of bitchiness about other people in the queue, but that wasn't started by me. Even if the blonde kid behind me did have the worst bum fluff 'beard' in the world.
The conversation ranged - as usual - between music and where we'd been and what we'd been up to and trouble we'd been in, with me pimping the Zicos for all I was worth. I like these lads; they're fun to hang out with, and don't seem to mind a (much!) older woman hanging out with them and taking the piss just as readily as they do.
Security let us in at six, and I managed to get a good spot on the barrier. Almost next to the Russian girl, who had somehow beaten us all in...how?
By whining at anyone who came out the side door and eventually encountering Dirk. And, if her earlier performance was anything to go by, schmoozing her way up to him (stranger in a strange land, no ticket, wah wah wah, I love you help me plz?). Who then put her on the guest list. And gave her a pass to the aftershow. Which she took great delight in telling me allll about.
Me? Jealous?
FUCK yeah. If you're a guy, they take you seriously as a fan. If you're female, then unless you have a great figure you're insignificant, invisible. If they don't want to screw you, then you're sunk.
That's perhaps a little harsh, but I was annoyed. And then the evening just got worse.
Not only was there an Eastern European guy behind me who apparently thought my arse was some kind of kinky scratching post for his crotch - and whose girlfriend thought my back was a great place to rest her elbow - but I recognised the voice coming from behind my other shoulder.
This (very pretty) young woman asked to see my tattoos, and while I showed her I frantically sorted through my memory to work out where I'd seen her before. Then it hit me when she said she'd been to university in Hull.
"Did you go to the Heathen Foray album launch party?" I asked.
She blinked at me for a second, then agreed that yes, she had.
"I thought I recognised you," I said, "I'm the one who tried to pick you up."
Recognition shot through her face and she said oh. Then turned to her boyfriend and whispered frantically in his ear before laughing nervously and effectively ending the conversation.
Nothing like having one's failed conquests come back to haunt one, am I right?
*Sigh*
So with Mr Itchy Crotch grinding himself against my arse I turned back to the stage, sighed, and waited for the lights to go down.
Last night, I got off my ass and went to Shepherd's Bush to see the Hellish Rock show. Axxis, Gamma Ray, and Helloween.
Talk about high hopes; I'd seen Axxis supporting Helloween in Milan, and had been bloody impressed so I knew they'd be good. And I was all filled with anticipatory squee about seeing the Rays for the first time; as for Helloween, whoohoo! The last time I saw them they were absolutely awesome, fully as good as (if not better than) I had ever expected. And they'd been fun to be around, too.
Well, everyone is allowed to have an off day, right? Right.
So excited I woke up early, by the time I got to London I was knackered. I was the fourth person there - it was only half one in the afternoon - but I knew the other three, so it was all good. Hadn't seen them for a while, so we spent some time nattering, catching up and keeping a sharp eye open for the bands. The truck was parked up, and had obviously already loaded in; it had made a nice landmark for me when I was walking to the venue!
Saw the Axxis guys wandering around - lordy, but their drummer is a miserable git. Well, maybe he's not, but he glares at people. A lot. I ignored him. Once you've been glared at by Weiki nobody else even comes close.
We could see both tour buses, a white one outside the venue and a red one a little further away. The Helloween guys had obviously already arrived, because markus had been spotted mooching around the park some time earlier. Nobody else had been sighted - but I wasn't worried, loads of time yet, right?
No sooner said than done; Henjo and Kai stumbled out of the white tour bus, looking as though they'd just woken up which, as you might imagine, they had. Both of them recognised me from the fan party, although Kai was definitely 'I know your face but fucked if I know why'....
Hey, no worries. He was friendly and polite and I got a lovely cuddle from Henjo (dear man), so that was me off to a flying start.
Now, the stage door to the Shepherd's Bush Empire is down the side of the building, and the wind was howling down there at a hell of a lick. Even so, that was where several of us spotted Henjo shortly after that (out for a smoke, poor bloke), and wandered down to chat.
There were four of us. Me, a Russian girl with no ticket who had done nothing but whine about it the whole time she'd been standing there, and a very nice couple called James and Holly who'd I'd spent quite some time hanging out with at the last Helloween show I'd seen in London. Holly has a tremendous crush on Sascha and is not afraid to show it which, she being of the slim and pretty persuasion with good boobs, he doesn't appear to mind at all.
This fact becomes important later. Pay attention.
So the four of us mobbed poor Henjo. I ended up mainly watching as James asked all sorts of questions that Henjo - who is a smart cookie - neatly sidestepped by pretending not to understand. James would then turn and ask me how I would put it, and dear Hen would smirk at me as though to say 'yeah, how would you explain that?'
It was interesting, that was for sure.
Then the Russian started up with the ass kissing (I love you guys so much and I've never managed to see you before, oh dear I'm so deprived and I might miss you tonight, o my ears and whiskers) and I fucked off back to the front of the venue before I either froze to death or slapped her for being annoying.
Also. Lovely looking girl. Typical young Eastern European; good figure but lots of curves, skeins of golden-brown hair, big brown eyes, flawless milky skin. And boy did she work it.
And of course, being a foreigner in a strange city you stand out. It's a trick I've used to my own advantage more than once, so fair do's to her on that front.
She was still pissing me off. Everyone else managed to sort themselves out in time for the gig...
Still!
Caught Sascha and Markus in the same place, a little later on. Holly was all over Sascha, which he was enjoying so much he was all hands in return; he told her boyfriend that he was sure that she was a swinger. James just shook his head and let them get on with it, nipping in between gropes to get CDs signed.
Eventually I managed the obligatory photo, and did get a quick chat with Markus about tattoos - he was impressed with the piercer and tattooist pumpkins on the back of my wrists. However, they really didn't want to hang around and brushed us off as politely as they could before heading off.
Which is fair enough! Poor bastards don't want to be caught up doing the fan thing all the time. But as we left them to go do their thing Sascha called Holly back, and when she returned to us she was frowning.
He'd given her a pass to the aftershow party - but only one. She doubled back, asked him if he had any more; Markus kept walking, and Sascha said no, no more, just you. You do want to come, don't you?
OK, so from experience I know that there are a finite number of these things. But come on, boy. You're all over her, and then tell her that you have but one pass left, whoops, so she can't bring her boyfriend. Who do you think you're kidding?
Poor guy, James came to ask my advice several times whilst we waited for doors. Although what did he think I was going to say? Sascha is a little saint, he'd never touch yer missus? Ha. No. I did suggest that they could give the pass to someone who was there alone, of course... which, to be fair, he did say was 'an option'.
But Holly wanted to go. And James didn't know what to do.
Quite the horns of a dilemma, no?
(Oh, and the Russian bird was round there making cow eyes at Sascha and Markus too. Wah wah wah Russian no ticket poor me.)
Not sure how it panned out in the end, but I did tell James that I was of the opinion that Sascha was out to nail his woman.
Not long after that (and the irritation that Sascha had recognised Lia in Milan from the last time, but nary a flicker when he saw me), Dan (Gamma Ray's drummer) came round the corner.
"Hey Dan!" I called, with a wave.
He stopped dead, turned on his heel, and stalked off in the opposite direction with the guy who was with him.
Nick and I turned to exchange glances.
"O-kayyyyy..." I said.
And sadly, dear reader, that was it for Encounters With Artistes before the gig. Dani, Weiki and Dirk never even poked their noses outside the venue; or if they did, they did it where nobody could see them. Oh well.
So time banged on as it does, and it was a lot of fun in the queue. Most of the Usual Suspects were there (a group of young lads that Slay and I bump into regularly at gigs), including dear Chris... who is now 17, although when I first met him and chatted him up he was a mere 15! Boy did I feel bad at the time.
Anyway, poor Holly and James were still working on their dilemma and I really must find out what happened because I have several people who are also desperate to know. Much exchanging of email addresses was going on in our little huddle. Along with a certain amount of bitchiness about other people in the queue, but that wasn't started by me. Even if the blonde kid behind me did have the worst bum fluff 'beard' in the world.
The conversation ranged - as usual - between music and where we'd been and what we'd been up to and trouble we'd been in, with me pimping the Zicos for all I was worth. I like these lads; they're fun to hang out with, and don't seem to mind a (much!) older woman hanging out with them and taking the piss just as readily as they do.
Security let us in at six, and I managed to get a good spot on the barrier. Almost next to the Russian girl, who had somehow beaten us all in...how?
By whining at anyone who came out the side door and eventually encountering Dirk. And, if her earlier performance was anything to go by, schmoozing her way up to him (stranger in a strange land, no ticket, wah wah wah, I love you help me plz?). Who then put her on the guest list. And gave her a pass to the aftershow. Which she took great delight in telling me allll about.
Me? Jealous?
FUCK yeah. If you're a guy, they take you seriously as a fan. If you're female, then unless you have a great figure you're insignificant, invisible. If they don't want to screw you, then you're sunk.
That's perhaps a little harsh, but I was annoyed. And then the evening just got worse.
Not only was there an Eastern European guy behind me who apparently thought my arse was some kind of kinky scratching post for his crotch - and whose girlfriend thought my back was a great place to rest her elbow - but I recognised the voice coming from behind my other shoulder.
This (very pretty) young woman asked to see my tattoos, and while I showed her I frantically sorted through my memory to work out where I'd seen her before. Then it hit me when she said she'd been to university in Hull.
"Did you go to the Heathen Foray album launch party?" I asked.
She blinked at me for a second, then agreed that yes, she had.
"I thought I recognised you," I said, "I'm the one who tried to pick you up."
Recognition shot through her face and she said oh. Then turned to her boyfriend and whispered frantically in his ear before laughing nervously and effectively ending the conversation.
Nothing like having one's failed conquests come back to haunt one, am I right?
*Sigh*
So with Mr Itchy Crotch grinding himself against my arse I turned back to the stage, sighed, and waited for the lights to go down.
Greeting from that annoying Russian :D
Date: 2008-01-24 11:16 pm (UTC)Dunno why you turned out to be such a hypocrite however, being nice and sweet when we were there, and writing all this rubbish afterwards.
Funny how things were made up and misinterpreted in the end :)
I wasn't whining about the ticket at all, only asked you whether they sell them before the show at all and when it will happen. I probably even asked someone else...
And I was going to buy a ticket (no problem for me at all, just didn't have a chance to do it in advance, since I came back from home only 3 days before, and spent all of this time, doing the assignment, which I luckily managed to complete by the time I had to leave for London (from Birmingham)), but Dirk and Kai said I simply don't need any, cos I was on the guest list and had a pass. :D
Why I was on the guest list at all? Not because I had no ticket (and was "whining" about it) and not because I was "butt kissing" (oh lol), but because I interviewed Dirk in November (and he then remembered me from the other show in Russia, when we met and I gave the band an artwork which is still in their studio [yeah, I'm proud of that, wouldn't you be?] ) and he invited me to come and promised to put me on the list, in fact I even forgot of that detail, and was totally surprised when he actually brought me the pass... Initially I was only planning to see the band, take a couple of pics, and return to the queue (that's why I basically arrived so early - to queue).
And of course I told you I got it (the only thing you surprisingly understated, it was not just after show, but a general one, sorry =( ), simply cos I thought you'd be glad for me, oh well I was sincerely glad to hear you met them in Hamburg, didn't know you'd be jealous and envious about it...
Lol and surprise surprise - no one screwed me :D
Damn my figure is still not perfect enough, or maybe I should of put on a corset with a super low décolleté instead of a Blind Guardian tshirt...
But you are not the first one who suspects me in such dirty things,
fortunately or not, I'm not into this stuff. Yes, I love these people, but come on! Not taking into account other things, like I'm in a relationship, and I'm not someone who would go for a one night stand; they are of my parents age! How can I even think of anything...brr. This is sick!
Funny how you come up with such thought of a person, you don't even know...
Btw there were two more guys there after the show... if that comforts you.
Moreover reading all these comments about myself (especially on something you didn't really see) was a huge boost for my confidence [now I should seriously think of a plan of seducing Tobi Sammet! yeah! or maybe folks from Iron Maiden first? hmm].
Cheers!
Nice reports anyway!
Too bad Gamma Ray didn't play Silence, however.
Good luck with meeting other bands in the future!
I can share some pics if you want, I have several worthy of Metal Hammer in my opinion hehe (seriously, some turned out really good).
Polina :)