A Tour Story

For me, it all began two years ago. Since than, my passion for James has brought some amazing experiences and meetings into my life. But the most incredible and awesome part happened during last James' tour, in December '99 where I was rewarded with a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Having had a preliminary meeting during a previous holiday in UK with another James fan, I decided to pray for luck to happen and asked for this friend's help (who, by the way, I met via the Fan Finder on the One Fan Clapping web site!). So things moved quickly and there I was walking in Manchester with this generous person and with three James' tickets well hidden in the bottom of my rucksack....

Brighton was the first gig. It was a great night... I am still astonished by the fact that I was miles away from home, watching a James gig from the first row, where I even caught one of David's drumsticks that a roadie threw into the crowd -- Which was nothing compared to the fact that David actually autographed it later when my dear friends found a way of bringing me backstage. So lucky again, I was standing in the room, trying to have an acceptable English conversation with a nice man who turned out to be Saul's father! I was a bit embarrassed when I realised who he was, but apparently he didn't mind talking to a fan because he introduced me to his son and to Michael Kulas and I even exchanged a few words with Mark and Tim.

Meanwhile through this entire adventure, I must say that I was constantly meeting nice and friendly James fans that often helped me to make the best out of this trip. So, night two was Birmingham. Again in the front row, I'm smiling, dancing and singing like a mad girl all night through! I was with two nice persons and we were having loads of fun. Obviously, Saul must have recognised me from the previous night or at the very least he noticed that I was really enjoying myself, because during "Sit Down", he pulled a couple of people on stage, including me!! I was dancing on stage with James!!. (ed.'s note: Actually, we have it on good authority that she was the only one dancing, right in the centre of the stage ;). There was a huge rush of adrenalin running through my body, but at one point, I was so excited that I could have fainted right there. Thank god that's around the point when everybody actually sat down, so the blood flowed back into my head!

With all this excitement, my friend and I decided to add one -- Newcastle, then another show – Glasgow-- to our list. Okay, we were more forced to go to the fourth one because of transportation issues, or otherwise I would passed on this one. But still, we had a great time, even if I overloaded a bit on James. Woo, I never thought it was possible to saying that! For my sake, you have to understand that I was abroad with strangers speaking a foreign language, so exhausted was how I felt by that time. Anyway that didn't stop me from going to the last show, Manchester. Nice performance. But with the same setlist three night in a row, I had seen it all and I was now more inclined to hit James Night. Yep, that was a superb night. I could finally be in a room where I didn't need to explain who James are…. I could finally dance to my favourite band's music. It felt like being home, you know when everybody surrounding you shares the same passion….

So that's it! A magnificent week and a tremendous life experience…. I have been backstage, on stage and I have shared it all with nice and friendly fellow James fans. What more can you expect? Nothing. Believe me. Nothing.