Guillemots @ The Octagon, Sheffield
Possibly the best concert experience I've ever had.
My sister and I had just stepped out of the hotel and were walking towards the venue when in the distance, 20 metres away, I recognised someone who was walking towards us. As she got closer I realised it was Arista and that Magrão, Greig and a few roadies were following a few metres behind. After they'd passed us, me and my sister stopped and turned around to see them walking into a restaurant just opposite our hotel.
After a failed attempt at snapping a photo of the restaurant window from outside, my sister convinced me that I was a wimp and would be missing out on meeting one of my favourite bands if I didn't go in.. so I did. After apologising for disturbing their meal, we got a photo with them, left the restaurant, went around the corner and squealed a bit.
Two hours later...
On the way into the concert Magrão stopped me and my sister, much to our surprise/delight, and handed us VIP passes.
The concert itself was fantastic. They played a lot of crowd favourites such as 'Made-Up Lovesong #43', 'Annie, Let's Not Wait' and 'Trains to Brazil' as well as less popular EP tracks like 'She's Evil' (where Magrão takes centre stage), 'The Dormouse and the Meerkat' (a b-side rarely played live) and four new songs. Fyfe also played a memorable solo acoustic version of 'We're Here'.
After asking the "Golden Ticket" holders to come backstage, they band proceeded into their final song, 'São Paulo'. We were given labcoats and then, during the final half of the song, we were led onstage by a roadie and told to hit a large metal bird with the drum sticks we'd been given. We happily obliged. When the song ended we were led backstage to have a few beers with the band and the rest.. well, that's saved for the deep inner faults of my mind (and possibly my livejournal..).
The morals of this entry.. stalk your favourite bands, always accept VIP passes (apparently they have a lot of trouble finding people to accept them!!) and.. look out for members of Guillemots before the show if you ever go and see them.
Photographs courtesy of my sister.
