Nottingham, August 25th 2001
We left for Nottigham on Friday evening and on Saturday morning we started the long wait at the gates... the weather was great... actually, even too hot - for the moment, at least!! - and the Victoria Embankment was a lovely place. At 12 the gates opened and we all rushed to the front :). We reached a lovely spot in the 1st row and we got ready to spend the next 10 hours there!
After a while, the weather decided a sunny day would have been too boring... so it started raining... then stopped... then rained again... we even got some hail (ouch!)! But Anna and I were used to much worse than that since last year in Rankweil ;), so we all stayed there :). Luckily, it got nicer just in time for Bryan.
Here we are, after some rain and just before some more :))! Thanks to the security guy who took this pic! If you can spot yourself here, let me know! :)
The other acts were quite good - I especially liked Gabrielle, she had an awesome voice. But it was only Bryan's name that made the crowd cheer VERY loudly every time he was mentioned! :)) One nice thing was hearing Bryan's voice coming out of the speakers every now and then throughout the day, introducing the festival on the local radio and telling about his career (I guess it was an interview they had made some time before the show).
The guys looked really *good* in white T-shirt and blue jeans... Bryan was smiling all the time and thought the show was GREAT, as he told me later on when we met him at the gates :). The highlights for me were...
- Straight From The Heart - it's my fave song ever and it was just breathtaking for me. I waited 7 years to hear it live again :).
- Into The Fire, 'cause I just love it...
- House Arrest & Do To You, so much fun!!!
- The balloons... I know they're not new but we finally managed to punch them, it was fun :))!
- Bryan's angels wings on his bum... looking exactly like the ones we had on the back of our T-shirts! (Spooky!!!)
- Bry and Keith laughing at our banners... and the security guys too... *blush*!
- Bryan dedicating the lyrics of The Way You Make Me Feel to all of us... so sweet and moving!!! Especially when he pointed at the audience while singing "couldn't feel much better... than when I'm here with you!" :):). I LOVE that song live....gave me shivers.
- And finally...meeting Bryan afterwards - he was really sweet with everyone! Thanks to you, Bryan!
I must say that this gig was outstanding, Bryan put all his heart in every song and you could tell it. The audience, about 17,000 people, stood all day through hot sun, rain and even hail to see him, and sounded really enthusiastic.
Time for some pictures now!