Raine, Mike, Steve and Duncan in Manchester - see how cold they look :o)

My day started off pretty well, I got on a train that wasn't running late - big plus in the UK right now! I got into Manchester at around 1:30pm and met up with Gail and Susie from the CC at the train station. We had nothing else better to do so we went straight down to Academy 3. There are 2 other OLP fans waiting there too (and I cannot remember your names I am so sorry :o) ) and we are there for about maybe an hour when we see Jer who comes over to speak with us. He's such a sweetie :o) he signs my copy of Gravity and my t-shirt. I think we were waiting for another half hour at least until all the other guys turn up together - none of whom know where the hell they're supposed to be LOL. I have my picture taken with Steve and Raine and they all sign my CD cover and t-shirt.

The wonderful Steve Mazur and Raine Maida - my new minders :o)

I showed Raine my phone screensaver that I made which is of Chantal and he loved it :o) I think it's so amazing when you say something nice about her to him and his face just lights up - he loves her so much, I think she gets a lot of bad press that she definitely doesn't deserve. There is one thing that I will always remember, Raine had just been eating Cheese and Onion flavoured crisps and he smelt of them so bad LOL, so whenever I have any I'm going to think of him now. They were all freezing their asses off by this time so they went inside, Steve gave us all a guitar pick before he left with was really nice of him. :o)

Being the stalking type that we are :o) we went to suss out the venue and I was surprised that we got all the way upstairs without being stopped by anyone! We went into the room OLP were playing and saw Raine and Jer in there and in the end we ended up having a conversation with Jer and Steve on the stairs for about 15 minutes. A guy came out of one of the rooms and told us to be quiet because they were making a film in there and Steve says "A film? What kind of film ;) Can we be in it?" - I cannot stress enough how adorable that guy is! Here's a pic of Susie, Jer, me and Steve on the stairs - note how happy I look to have both Jeremy Taggart's and Steve Mazur's arms around me at the same time :oD It was like my prayers had been answered all at once! Jeremy actually looks quite happy about the fact he's next to 2 chicks and yes Steve you were right, you do have psycho eyes on this pic :o)

Jeremy and Steve disappear into the dressing room and we go down stairs to start the queue - what with it being 4:30 in the afternoon and all! :o)

It's a very long and cold wait until the doors open at 7pm, luckily a few people we know from the CC and CM show up and we make them all jealous with our stories from earlier in the day :o) (Hi to Den and all the eDog guys - sorry I was so quiet and didn't really introduce myself! :o) ).

The actual gig was fantastic! I saw them at the ULU gig in September and they were brilliant - this time they were even better! After Wilt had been on and the stage crew were setting up the stage for OLP, Jeremy comes out to the side of the stage which we put down to the fact that they we playing the Eminem "8 Mile" soundtrack that he wanted to listen to :o) . During the gig we were stood in front of Steve and I think he was having a hard time with all his pedals but is such a pro about it that if you weren't stood in front of him you wouldn't have known.

Earlier in the day, Gail asked Raine if they would play Mafia and Thief in the set and they did! :o) It definitely wasn't a planned thing because it wasn't on the original setlist. They took out Story About a Girl to get Mafia in and added Thief to the encore. I also have to say that Birdman is one hell of a fantastic live song!!

Here is a selection of the photos I took at the gig - I was amazed how well these turned out. You can tell how small Manchester Academy 3 is by the fact I have 4 members of the band on one photo more than once :o)

Overall I had an amazing day - most of which was down to Gail and Susie :o) (I love you two xx!) I came away with all my signed stuff, the setlist and Raine's guitar pick (again down to Gail :o) ) and as an added bonus I get hit in the head with Jeremy's drum stick when he threw it our way (I so wasn't looking LOL) and it kinda hurt :o). Thanks to Jeremy, Steve, Raine, Mike and Duncan for being such great people :o) I have not once been disappointed by them and for once I feel so happy to be a OLP fan in UK. It was really nice to be in a room full of people who actually knew who they were and knew all the words to the songs!

My signed shirt.