Nov. 12, prior to Gabriel's first "full" concert of tour
Brad and I showed up at Pompeii about ten minutes to four o'clock. We both were wearing our newly made solsburyhill.org coffeebaby t-shirts, and I was wearing my black raincoat, black fedora, jeans, Doc Marten boots and black fingerless gloves. Why? I wanted to be recognizable, and when you look as good as I do in a fedora, you use any and all excuses to wear it:) And I had to wear fingerless gloves...I've had a thing for them ever since I saw the Barry Williams video. However, I felt kinda self-concious standing there in this outfit without my fellow Solsburians in attendance. I waited just inside the entrance while Brad fed the parking meter. It was then I saw a man in black leather jacket, boots quickly and purposefully walk by. I could tell had a goatee...UK resident Tony Farthing? He was supposed to come with Kari to the meeting, but why was he by himself and walking quickly down an alleyway? Maybe it wasn't him. He was moving too fast for me to get a good look at him when I rushed outside.
I was about ready to walk back inside when the man started walking back..."Tony?" "Mac Cat?" Before I could ask him what the heck he was doing, he rushed to hug me, literally picking me up in the air as he did so.
He was apparently trying to find a place for Kari to park her van. Before I knew it, Brad, Kari, Tony, Stickgirl and I were sitting at tables catching up. We all got drinks, and I treated myself to a glass of Merlot. It was my first time meeting Stickgirl (aka Julie) and she was as charming in person as she is online:)
After a while, two men stopped by our tables, and asked if we were the PG group. We answered in the affrimative. They introduced themselves as Peter Koehlen and Norbert from Germany. I can't remember what I said, but as he sounded familiar, like someone I had e-mailed, I asked if he came to this meeting through the Hill. He said he really came because he was familiar with Kari, who had been pushing the meet-ups on alt.music.peter-gabriel. I felt a little embarassed for just assuming that he was there because of me, but it didn't matter as soon we were talking about who traveled the farthest...Peter or Tony?
Notice how everyone is far away from the goof with fedora and fingerless gloves...
L-R Mac, Kari (sitting) Julie aka Stickgirl and Tony.
Tony Farthing uses Mac's gloves to pretend he's a moose.
Kari and Tony listen intesely to Peter as he regales them with prior PG tour tales.
Stickgirl joins in on the fun, with Norbert
in sky blue.
Soon, we were greeted by Texans Carisa, Pam and Mickey. By that time, we were crowded where we were, so we moved into the sunroom and annexed it in the name of the Solsbury Committee.
Mac Cat with glass of Merlot sits next to Carisa and Mickey. Peter strips for the camera, while Pam looks on.
I said I just *had* to take a picture Kari's license plate...it
reads "SLSBURY":) Kari, Stickgirl and I headed out to
the car, got the picture I wanted, and started to head back inside.
As we did so, a car screeched up and honked. How rude!
we thought. But then the window rolled down..."Are you guys
leaving already?!" a panicked voice said. "Um, no. Are
you for the concert?" "Yeah! I'm Laura, aka PG Freak!
I saw your t-shirt and knew it had to be a fan!" We told
her we'd be waiting inside.
I was glad my t-shirt turned out to be useful, and we headed inside. She showed up...she was from Iowa, and had driven quite a distance to get there.
Then I saw another PG t-shirt...it was Ben aka "holycats"
and three friends. I've always been fond of his posts because
he always signs his posts "Director of [relevant expression
here]" I found out that we were actully in the same section,
same isle of the show! With him was Chris and Gina, from Illinois,
and Kris from Iowa.
Bald Boys of Box, meet the Blonde Babes of...er...uh...BABYLON!
Mac, PG Freak, aka Laura and Lauren
Ben aka holycats, Director of Blankly Staring at Camera, and to the left, Kris
Sadly, Brad had to leave to pick up Melissa, and we all got food, and from there the conversation was fast and furious. I got myself a cup of coffee before I finished my wine, so I was talking with everyone and getting wired both ways.
I remember this conversation:
[someone]: The English never pronounce their "r"s.
Kari: That's mostly true, but there are sometimes when they do
pronounce their r's.
Tony: No! We *never* pronounce our r's! As a matter of fact, in
our movies pirates say " "!
Laura aka PG Freak was bubbling with anticipation for the show. At one point, I got out my "gabesaber" pen to take notes, and Peter was truly fascinated by it...it seems he does writing in the dark, and wanted one of them. I had to keep an eye on him to see that he didn't steal my pen. He also gave me his website URL (which I've managed to lose...) and we talked about the art of webmastering.
Finally the Texans had to leave, but a few more people wandered in, most notably Lauren. We had about twenty people overall. Eventually, Melissa and Brad showed up, and I introduced them to the group.
It was getting time to leave, but we arranged to meet at the Michael Jordan statue after the show so we would relate our awe to each other, and also so I could find Brad and Melissa so they could take me back to their place, since they were in the skybox, while I was in the first level stands.
After the concert, I headed to where Brad said the statue was, and soon ran into Kari, Tony, Stickgirl, her hubby Duell, and then Laura.
We walked around, to the side of the arena where Brad said the statue was. I asked one of the arena workers if the statue was out those doors, he said no, it was back a few gates in the other direction. We got to another gate, and I asked one of the arena workers if the statue was out those doors, he said no, it was back a few gates in the other direction.
Repeat this scenario several hundred times. Finally I said the heck with it and went outside, hoping we could see the statue from there. We found a statue, but it wasn't the right one.
We were getting cold and tired, but we were also babbling about the incredible show we just saw. While we were trying to figure out which direction to go to meet Brad and Melissa, we saw a man with an official pass and a huge camera, interviewing a concert goer.
Kari said, "Tony, you should be interviewed and tell them you flew all the way from England!" I thought I should try to get some airtime too...I was wearing my Solsburian t-shirt, and I could always plug my site, as well as relate how freakin' awesome the show was.
We approached the guy with the camera as he was interviewing someone. For some reason, I decided to take a closer look at the cameraman's official pass that he was wearing around his neck. I saw the name and my jaw dropped...
The interviewer saw me pointing wildly at his pass. Finally he asked what I was looking at. "Hey, you're York Tillyer!" I said. He's the webmaster of Radio Real World. I've been mailing him (occasionally, pretty rarely) for many years, and I talked to him on the phone once when I tried to get a tour of Real World Studios a year earlier. I wouldn't have imagined I'd meet the mostly annoymous webmaster at the concert!
He interviewed Tony, who gushed about the show, and then York pointed the camera at me. I said, "I know what I want for Christmas! That hamster ball, and the matching jacket!" I also told of how it blew me away, and that it was even better than Secret World. "Better than Secret World?!" York said, as if he couldn't believe such a thing. Dude, Gabe's your boss. At least pretend this tour is the greatest thing ever!:) I thought. I told him it was like comparing apples and oranges...but yeah, I thought this was better. And I meant it!
We chatted a bit more and PG Freak said she was going to call Ticketmaster first thing in the morning (she had already called from inside the arena right after the show, but they were closed) to see about going to the other show. She hadn't planned on it, but after seeing the show, she just *had* to.
We gave each other hugs, and left for home.
I thought I had more pictures of Brad and of Chicago, and now I realize that I don't, dammit. Well, here's a picture of the multi-talented Brad at his computer!
A few days later, I wrote this report from a Internet cafe called Combat Cafe, just so you'll see the kind of environment I was working in.