MILTON KEYNES BOWL 03/07/11

Finally the time has come to redeem my Christmas present. My sister got me a ticket to see Biffy Clyro supporting the Foo Fighters. The only thing is that I didn't know that she had a VIP pass for me, too.
I've been to a lot of gigs since the start of my "career" back in 1989 (my god!), but I've never really cared about going backstage. I go to gigs to enjoy the music and the atmosphere not to stalk people. I must admit that at the beginning I felt a bit uncomfortable, but the set up was so amazing that it wasn't too hard to get adjusted.
The Foos had recreated a British pub called "Ye Olde Fighters Arms", with free drinks and food for everyone.

There was a pizza oven and a BBQ.

All the glasses and coasters had the pub's name on it! People were knicking them, but I didn't because I'm honest... stupid more like it.


In the beergarden there was a double decker where you could see the crowd from.


The Foos were mingling. Here is Mr Grohl having a chat. The last time I saw him live he was still a drummer. That was back in 1994.

I went to one of the viewing platforms to watch Jimmy Eat World and I bumped into Ben!!! He was really friendly and it seemed that he didn't mind having his picture taken with me :)

From the stage platform I could see the whole bowl. Pretty overwhelming. As I walked up the stage stairs I felt a mixture of fear and elation... I'm not sure I could perform in front of so many people. Karaoke does the trick for me ;)

I secured myself a good spot to watch Biffy. I watch as they prepared to play. Here is the set list.

Simon's guitar!

MON THE BIFF!!! Here are my pics of the gig. If you click on them you can see them larger :)


Simon rocking... there is some honey by his drinks... good for your throat!



Changing guitar...



Everyone was singing along. The sound of so many people singing at once is unbelievable from the stage. It must be immensly gratifing. I found it almsot moving...

Happy fans :)




The gig was fantastic and the Foo Fighters were amazing as well.
After the show we went back to the pub backstage for more drinks. I had a really amazing day, but the surprises weren't finished. One of the Foo's security guys (K) kindly offered us a ride back into London, but we had to wait until Dave Grohl had decided to go. We didn't mind waiting. To be honest, I couldn't really face the trip back by train. My foot was still hurting from my recent injury and chilling in the VIP area was absolutely fine. It was a very fine summer night and it felt really good to be out.
K asked us to go with him to the "Inner Sanctum" so that he could find us easily when it was time to go. The meaning of that word didn't really register with me at first. I just followed numbly.
I started realising were I was heading to when I had to squeeze pass Taylor Hawkins... I could only mumble something pathetic like "Thank you for a great gig" and he gave me one of his big, sunny smiles.
The narrow passage opened onto a secluded area for the band's dressing rooms and families. They were all there. The first person I saw as soon as I entered was Simon. He was just standing one step away from me... argh! I really wasn't expecting that, I wasn't psychologically prepared for something like that ;)
The only words that escaped from my mouth were "I need the toilet" and walked away. My sister made me notice that the toilet was actually were Simon was standing. I brushed pass him and locked myself in. I could hear him talking while I was doing a wee-wee. Thankfully my body didn't betray me... it would have been mortifying, but typical. Jesus, can you imagine? Haha!
My boyfriend and my sister are still taking the piss out of me. They say my face was "brilliant", one of shock, as if I had seen a ghost. They kept on telling me to go over and ask Simon for a picture, but I couldn't. He was laughing a lot with his friends and I didn't want to interrupt or disturb him. Furthermore I felt rather strange and I just sat down quietly.
I have rationally analysed my weird reaction. The experience felt extremely surreal. I had been listening to Simon's voice a thousand times and I've seen him performing before. However, I think that somehow in my head he wasn't real, almost not human. I think that my brain didn't know how to react when I saw him standing in front of me and sent me into trauma mode :D
How stupid! There goes my only chance... In my defence, I must say that at least I didn't behave like an hysteric teenager. In addition, I'm not very good at bullshitting and I wouldn't have known what to talk about... Sigh!
[For the record, he is so good looking in real life, much better than in pictures. There is something about him, like an aura, a bright energy... it is so difficult to explain... and no, I don't fancy him (maybe a bit, in a silly way!). Well, never mind...]