August 1, 1999--Minnedosa Manitoba Canada--21,000 sing
"Happy Birthday" to Joe! Joe says, "don't believe when
people
tell you your gettin old; I don't care if you're 14, 15
or
39--I still feel like a 16-year-old!"
Dawn and I spent months plannin this trip--what we
hadn't
planned on was no rental car! We had to stay with
BlackDahlia at her aunt's house in Winnipeg, and take a
bus to Minnedosa! We even traveled an extra 20 km to
Brandon to try and get a rental car there, and got
stranded
there as well! We paid a cab $60 to go back to CRW,
where
we were told to go from one gate to another, till we
finally were able to obtain our VIP passes and get a
hot meal! Boy, were we glad to be under the shelter of
the deck, it rained, then I got to take a hot shower!
Def Leppard were last to play that 4-day weekend event,
so we waited till nearly mignight for them to take the
stage.
Once they took over, it was a whole new Classic Rock
Weekend and I could tell the whole crowd stood in awe
of these magnificent performers givin it their all,
even after the night before they played a Canadian gig
and didn't get paid for it!
There were no mistakes, the crowd sang "Happy Birthday"
after Phil prompted them, and Joe said, "Thanks a lot,
Phil. Bastard!" jokingly. This brought much laughter
from the crowd:-)
Dawn was a little concerned, here 200 km from the
airport
stuck in the middle of nowhere, how would we catch our
5 a.m. flight? WARNING--Never buy tix from priceline.com
if you only plan on attendin one certain event:-(
No rental car meant take a $200 cab! whew, were we ever
happy that a cab was ready and waitin to get us outta there!
Really wished we could've met the Lepps that day, but we
were ripped off; the CRW website said, "Mingle with the
bands," but the only ones that came out that day was
Nazareth and 38 Special! I know, but I only came for
Def Leppard!
We love 'em like brothers, and I wouldn't miss Joe's
40th birthday for the world!