Technically more like 15 days, but whatevs!

Back in April when I heard about the upcoming tour it made me sick to my stomach, I'm too old for that shit - excitement manifests itself as stress and anxiety when you're my age (oh the joys of being an adult and parent) first thing I was thinking of was having to get a babysitter and would they be OK with us coming home at 5am if there was an aftershow.

I'm such a fammy fam that it would be inconceivable to me to only go to one show (my bank balance disagrees) and being that neither me nor the master have day jobs any more it was looking like that was my only option. I was one of those people who couldn't sleep the night before tix went on sale, awake hours before I needed to be, Ticketek page ready and loaded, the captcha deciphered, and at 9am BAM I got through first try and got pretty good seats! 9:01am the show was sold out WTF?? and reports came in thick and fast about the ticketing agent fiasco. It took hours for my hands to stop trembling and that was just the beginning.

I entered 3 competitions that had purple reserve tix as prize, my cunning plan was to win all 3 of course LOL!!!! The first one came unbelievably easily via the everclear comp, you had to answer the question "Why do Doves Cry?" and I wrote in my entry "Doves love to party like it's 1999, but it's their party and they cry if they want to". The day after that I got an email that read (no joke!):

"You. A friend. Prince. You've totally won two tickets to see Prince next Monday May 14" Dilemma!! I already had tickets to that show

After that I was so cocky I'm sure I was completely unbearable The master warned me several times not to be too disappointed when I didn't win the other 2 comps (I'm no stranger to disappointment hahaha!) I joined the org again and re-activated my org FB page in readiness for competition number 2, which was the most gruelling thing EVER, ugh . I got the master to submit his photo that I had doctored with the word HOPE in eyeliner on his cheek

The aim was to get the most "LIKES" on his photo in the next 10 days. I wrote PMs to over 300 people, hosted a thread on the org, begged, cajoled, pleaded, and begged some more, and STILL it wasn't enough to win. I'm sure I was very VERY annoying, but a fam's gotta do what a fam's gotta do On the last day of the comp I had about 514 likes and another girl had 576 or something. LUCKILY they awarded us a consolation prize - an unbelievably generous gesture by Hope for the Future (the charity hosting the contest). We got amazing seats for the May 30 gig. So… since I didn't win competition number 3, I still had to find seats for May 15. I ended up looking on eBay for any discounted seats and bought one from a nice lady called Jane for $160, it was a really good seat too.

Monday May 14

With the 2 extra tickets I decided to take my 11 year old son and a guitarrist friend who always gave us free Australian Open tickets each year and is in AWE of Prince on the guitar. We drove in to town together, not leaving ourselves a huge amount of time for meet-ups or anything. Despite that, I still found PRB and her son Draxnox not too far from our seats.

The master and the other guys were on the other side of the arena, waving to us throughout the night, apparently even from that far away they could see me grinning from ear to ear the entire time of the show. Me and my kid were in the 5th row in the lower tier just above the flat bit of the symbol opposite the curl. This was their approximate view with us right on the other side.

I was especially happy to share this night with my son, who was fully prepared with drink bottle and earplugs, and it was thrilling to experience things through his eyes - like first time seeing 15,000 people in ONE place, all just as excited, participating in cheering and the mexican wave. When the lights went down he was asking me constantly "is he coming now?" it was so much fun! From where we were we could see the little elevator/riser trap-door where Prince and the girls would make their dramatic entrances and exits to the stage. We thought when Damaris climbed onstage on the pointy end and cat-walked across the symbol stage with her long veil that she was so tall she could give Prince a piggy-back! My son was tickled when I told him that Prince was shorter than him. He had been warned that mummy would be going crazy and screaming and dancing in my seat, and he wisely paced himself, sitting down where he could, except the "annoying ladies" in front of us NOT ONCE sat down LOL. I loved Gold as opener, it was very impressive in terms of lighting and drama - my kid was speechless. The highlights of that show for me was hearing The Dance Electric, Love… Thy Will Be Done and She's Always in My Hair <3 I nearly had a heart attack to hear Nasty Girl in the sampler set. Every time Prince came out for another encore, my kid was like "AGAIN?!?!?!?!?!?" he couldn't believe that if we just kept clapping and screaming we could make him come out again and again. We met up with the others afterwards and left, elated, at the end. My son got to take the next day off school, he was exhausted!

Tuesday May 15

The master dropped me off at Fed Square so I could meet up with JonyLawson at the Transport Bar at 5:30pm. Flyorra was there too! She is my closest orger geographically, literally half a km from my house lol. We got on like a house on fire! Later on PRB met up with us - she had also managed to score a ticket for another show and she and Jony could talk Dr.Who and there might even have been a marriage proposal at that point LOL Lilmissmissy also joined us as well as Flyorra's FB buddy Bianca.

A couple of hours later, we walked over to the arena, all super excited.

It was almost an anti-climax then to take my seat ALONE. This was my view from my seat:

I felt a bit down, sitting next to a guy so big he was spilling hallways into my seat But then, PRINCE started playing Controversy and everything was cool again I never laughed so hard when Flavor Flave got up to do 911 is a joke and danced with a lady in a cat outfit. It was the only night when a whole bunch of folks could get up and dance on the stage, during Cool a little girl called Alicia, dressed in a red Mickey Mouse t-shirt, looking somewhat bewildered was invited onto the stage, and when Prince danced with her, copying her moves and being really sweet with her, I got all misty-eyed. It was the highlight for me because (of course this seems nearly impossible lol) I fell in love with Prince even MORE.

Towards the end I could see Prince had a bit of a scratch in his throat, so the girls had to sing Love… Thy Will be Done and he let Chuck D come up and rap throughout Days of Wild. That was OK to me too, he was getting more and more human! At the end I high-tailed it out of there to catch my ride home, I didn't stick around to see if there would be a 5th encore. I heard from someone who heard from someone else that they were ready to do a 5th one, but half the audience had left by then. I had a panic attack on the way to Swanston St, thinking I had dropped my iPhone in the arena.

(Days in between spent pestering everyone I knew including neighbours and their pets to vote for our entry in the Hope for the Future contest)

Monday May 28

We went to the John Blackwell Drum Clinic at Allen's Music shop. He was so cool!

A guy we know, Wylie J brought his bass along and they jammed out some funky stuff like Stevie wonder, jungle boogie. The master said Wylie busks in the street and that John Blackwell must have been walking along and stopped to talk to him LOL I saw a girl in the audience I thought might have been the girl in the cat costume from the 15th. The master gave John his CD and Val (the singer in his band) got to kiss him. John HAD asked her earlier in the evening if she was an ear doctor and that he wanted to go see her, he has INSURANCE. That's cause she is hot

We didn't know anything about Bennett's Lane secret show until the morning after

Wednesday May 30

We were supposed to meet up at Cafe Arena, but we couldn't get a table inside for some reason, I found PRB (where she presented me with an AWESOME gift: the 21 Nights book ), her rugrat Draxnox, Flyorra and a girl called Kerry whose orgname I can't spell (Insedia?). We braved the cold for a bit, Bianca met up with us and Callimnate and Tabu2470 from Sydney.

I went and had a look around inside the cafe for Lust who was going to be there, but I couldn't find him, though I did run into MamaLisa who has to find me on FB if she is reading this (I'm Zombee Keeten there LOL). Outside the cafe I found silver wings on a black shirt and it was KiwiFan! The master hadn't brought his jacket so we went inside the arena and he bought me a rum and coke, thanks to which I was sitting on the toilet when Prince came on stage and started with DMSR. WTF!!! It was only 8:15, the other 2 shows he didn't come on until closer to 9pm. I had other friends still 20 mins away from the arena at this stage. We made our way down to the floor right at the pointy end of the symbol stage. It was like being at the disco down there! There was space to dance - very cool. I was glad that I'd been to the other 2 shows because from down here you could only see things happening from mid stage and forwards. I was too short, but the master could see John Blackwell. I couldn't take any photos thanks to security guard right in my FACE But a mate of united1878 took this one where you can see me and the master in the top right hand corner!

The streamers that fell down during purple rain gave me the heeebie jeeeebies LOL I could totally understand how people have glitter phobias now, quite a large number of them made their way into my bra WTF!

Highlights of the show were Prince coming down the pointy end for his guitar solos and conducting us as his choir. Damaris did her funny Dance Electric right in front of us, I'm going to have to practise that elbow move, it could be useful in elevators, or other confined spaces. Sampler set had a tiny bit of Extraloveable which would have been nice to hear in full. I was pretty happy by the end, it was a 3 hour long concert and Prince seemed really happy and relaxed, he even hinted Melbourne might be his "home" (I bet he says that to ALL the cities )

We got word afterparty was at HiFi bar so I texted everyone and drove there as fast as we could. Flyorra caught a lift with us, but when we got there, the line was all the way down Swanston and down Collins St almost to Elizabeth St!

We decided to give it a miss, but I got a text from my friend from TV (who beat me on Rove in 2006 winning a trip to the 3121 house in LA for a private concert). After feeling guilty all these years for taking her EX who didn't really like Prince, instead of me with her to LA, she had saved me a spot in the queue quite close to the front. She hadn't gone to the show that night and was in bed in her PJs when she got word! We found her and huddled in the cold with 3000 others waiting in hope. Lilmissmissy and her friend Janine, Bianca, my friends, Steve and callimnate found us too.

We spent 3 hours in the queue, slowly inching forwards as they let in what must have been about 10 people at a time. A guy in a rabbit suit playing bass entertained us with hits such as theme from SuperMario Bros and Tetris. I saw Wylie J run out and present him with a VIP pass :-O The band arrived in various grey vans, and it didn't look like any more punters were being let in, so me and the master and Flyorra bade our farewells and departed for our 20 minute drive back to the burbs. Another hour after we left the other guys got in to the HiFi, but I don't know if they saw Prince getting hit on the head or being called a C@#%. That's a story they can report themselves! I didn't sleep at all that night, worrying that we missed something special.

The next day I slept and looked at my new book relieved Prince is finished toying with my emotions!

What a MONTH!!!!

[Edited 5/31/12 23:40pm]

Clearly, this forum is not as popular as General Discussion.

Cerebus said:

i spotted you in that photo on the floor near the stage...cool. i can't believe you found Kiwifan, and all the others. amazing story. to me it all seemed a bit surreal how things unfolded on the 30th. oh and you did well winning tickets. thanks again for sharing

Someone uses this forum for its intended purpose and uses it brilliantly, and this is the thanks she gets?!

NDRU said:

Someone uses this forum for its intended purpose and uses it brilliantly, and this is the thanks she gets?!

nobody is going to read your comment Andy

flyorra said:

i spotted you in that photo on the floor near the stage...cool. i can't believe you found Kiwifan, and all the others. amazing story. to me it all seemed a bit surreal how things unfolded on the 30th. oh and you did well winning tickets. thanks again for sharing

No worries my dear!

ZombieKitten said:

NDRU said:

Someone uses this forum for its intended purpose and uses it brilliantly, and this is the thanks she gets?!

nobody is going to read your comment Andy

So now you can be outraged about my injustice too!

NDRU said:

ZombieKitten said:

nobody is going to read your comment Andy

So now you can be outraged about my injustice too!

yes!

KingFD said:

A fan gathering is when Prince doesn't show up. Wrong forum.

sextonseven said:

:bump:

awesome thread

Thanks Zombie Kitten, the dude in the circle to right is me, I am wearing my welcome 2 Australia tshirt. I was so pissed that everyone had camera phones and I left mine at the hotel as I thought they were banned.

[img:$uid]http://i50.tinypic.com/143qdeb.jpg[/img:$uid]

ZombieKitten said:

Which circle? I didn't take that pic by the way, I borrowed it from FB. Im not even which show that one is from. I didn't bother taking photos in the arena with my phone because they wouldn't be any good.

Far right about 1/3 down, I have put me net to it.

Its definitely 2nd night, I remember the bald guys in the purple circle and the girl next to me is wearing the same outfit I remember seeing her in.

KingFD said:

This looks like the first Melbourne concert to me. I think I can see myself near the bottom of the symbol but it's very dark.

I think it is, because the band (cassie and ida) wore red on the second night, and I had this as my cover photo on FB BEFORE I went to the second show

ZombieKitten said:

KingFD said:

This looks like the first Melbourne concert to me. I think I can see myself near the bottom of the symbol but it's very dark.

I think it is, because the band (cassie and ida) wore red on the second night, and I had this as my cover photo on FB BEFORE I went to the second show

(I just checked - I posted this photo on my facebook page at 9:18am on May 15)

ZombieKitten said:

ZombieKitten said:

I think it is, because the band (cassie and ida) wore red on the second night, and I had this as my cover photo on FB BEFORE I went to the second show

(I just checked - I posted this photo on my facebook page at 9:18am on May 15)

So there must have been some identical looking dude standing in my spot and a woman that looked exactly like the one I remember, this was early in the show, when he was playing Controversy and Sexy Dancer

Adorecream said:

ZombieKitten said:

(I just checked - I posted this photo on my facebook page at 9:18am on May 15)

So there must have been some identical looking dude standing in my spot and a woman that looked exactly like the one I remember, this was early in the show, when he was playing Controversy and Sexy Dancer

yup!

I know it was Monday as it was the only time he wore an all white outfit in Melbourne and I remember thinking "Damn he looks sharp in all white." - I was real jelly.

Plus there are a few other things which match photos I took on that night.

Okay so I am wrong (But at least) its gives you and idea of how close I was to my idol, and he looked me thinking (..Work that fat...).

AHA SO I FOUND IT!!!!!

That was smart of you to add it to your siggy.

I did not know u could write that well since you keep the bulk of your posts brief and simple.

Great job, good to see prb again, do miss her.

What the.....?
Oh.
I was lookin' for the org washroom & wandered in here instead.
Cool thread.
I'll have to come back and take a closer look at the comments & pics, after I taken the savage dump that beckons.

Visionnaire said:

The fact that this thread never made it to having a second page PROOVES that some forums are useless wastelands that have long needed to be removed.

Deadflow3r said:

The fact that this thread never made it to having a second page PROOVES that some forums are useless wastelands that have long needed to be removed.

yup