Friday 14th March, my fourth visit to Hammersmith of Neil's six night
residence. I'd managed to get some front row stalls seats, A9 & A10
on ebay, bought back in December at a 'Buy It Now' price of £250.
Having seen the ticket prices recently on ebay I'm sure that the
seller, cockneyfatbloke (yes that is his ebay ID)wishes he'd asked
for more. My wife Caroline and I had not seen Pegi's set on our
previous Hammersmith nights as we had decided to do this when we were
at the front. So, it's 7:20 pm and we get to our seats, just as we
are about to sit down a guy with a pass round his neck approaches and
says 'Are you in seats 9 & 10?', I said we were, 'I'm Clive Ambler,
the Promoter for tonight's show' the guy continues. I'm immediateley
thinking he's going to say that he has reason to believe that we
bought the tickets on ebay and that we had to leave, or that we were
the victims of some ticket scam by a fat cockney bloke and that we
would have to leave. But no, he tells us that Neil had decided that
he wanted to film the 14th & 15th March shows and wanted a camera man
and technician to have our seats because they were the perfect camera
angle. If we gave up our seats we'd be seated in good seats (J37 &
J38), he'd buy our tickets back for the face value (£165), oh, and we
could go backstage after the show to meet Neil as he wanted to thank
us for giving up our seats. We could of course keep our seats if we
wanted to. Hmmmmm, what to do? ....................... As Clive
Ambler was showing us our 'new' seats, he said that he was really
grateful as was Neil and everybody else involved that we had moved.
Our son Sam was sitting in the Circle and we managed to get him a VIP
pass like ours, and Clive Ambler asked what our sizes were as we'd
each get a T Shirt, and we'd get a programme too. Now I've always
thought what would I do or say to Neil if I met him, would I mumble a
few words and push something in his direction for signing, the shock
of being confronted with the great man would probably be one of those
moments. Here we were sitting in our new seats knowing that in four
hours time we'd be with him and HE would be pleased to see us!
After another great show it was, we waited whilst the happy throng
filed out, Sam joined us from his lofty Circle vantage, and we were
taken backstage by Clive Ambler. He explained that Neil would be a
little while as he has a shower and changes. So we waited in the
narrow backstage stairwell that leads to the 'hospitality room'.
Whislt we were there various people passed by, Rick Rosas, Anthony
Crawford, Eric Johnson the painter dressed as the Greendale devil
who'd been painting onstage throughout the show, the tour manager.
Then along comes Elliot Roberts, 'You must be the folks that gave up
your seats, we're very grateful' He looked at our three T Shirts, 'We
must give you more stuff, or would you like to come again tomorrow?
We'll put you on the list'. I'm thinking this is getting a little
surreal. Then we are taken up a few more steps and led into a tiny
room, the 'hospitality room', there's Neil with his tweedy hat on,
eating from a plate of grapes and sliced melon. 'Hi, come on in, you
must be the folks that gave up your seats' (these backstage areas
have some echo), 'did you get some good seats?' he asked and we said
they were good. 'Possibly better just back where you were' he
continued. Caroline told Neil that we'd been sat in front row, right
in front of him for one of the Greendale shows in 2003, he smiled and
we joked about 'all that talking'. He asked if he could sign anything
for us. Before I'd left home last evening I put into my 'manbag' my
cherished copy of The Sultan on V Records, V-109, thinking that I may
be able to catch Larry Cragg's eye when he was setting Neil's guitars
up, and maybe ask if Neil might sign it, but thinking that it was a
longshot. Here I am now standing right next to Neil knowing that he'd
probably be pretty surprised with what I had. Sure enough, he
couldn't believe it, everyone in the room was eager to see the
record, only Neil had seen one before (obviously). So we had a good
chat about the record and he signed it for me. Rick Rosas was there
too and he was eager to see it, he liked my Bluenotes badge attached
on my jacket as he had been in that band. He also told me that my
Lost Dogs T Shirt was in much better condition than his, he was in
that band too. Our time was up, we said our goodbyes, Neil thanked us
again for giving up our seats, and we left. We did get a group photo.

http://s255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/cyrilkieldsen/?
action=view&current=100_0441.jpg

That's Caroline, Sam, Me, and Neil, Elliot Roberts in the background.

SOME NIGHT! And we get to go tonight again.