**********************************LOSTPROPHETS VIDEO SHOOT*********************************
Friday 5th October 2001
Edmunton green Shopping Centre Carpark, London
For all those of you who couldn’t be bothered to come .... ha!, screw u all!. This is a tale of stardom, being cold hungry and with windswept hair. ‘Tis a tale of no woe, 'prophet shaped ppl and being told to commit suicide by "TAKE TWO STEPS BACK!"....picture yourself... as the story begins... in Chicos.... one of the speakers has just blown so the same usual songs played every week sounded a little bit quieter....the clock was ticking.....
We left Chicos at 12.55am, and waited for the coach. Zoe has made a fascinating discovery that she can put lollipops, pens, and loads of other things in her hair and use it for a great storage space. Then the coach came and we sat downstairs next to this strange old couple, who couldn’t open Capri Sun's they were so dim. Old ppl must get remarkably hot because the man made the driver turn off the heating and left us to freeze for 5 hours. (:( )
BUT!, after chatting, handing out lucozade tablets, herbal tablets, discussing my coffee in a can (:D), and getting through the first 3 pages of the Guardian, I decided to try and go to sleep. I was sitting next to a very strange guy with a Psion notebook thing. He was reading a Word document, leaning his head against the glass... everytime we turned a corner, his finger stabbed into his eyeball forcing him to awake like a grumpy old fucker, put his hand in a different position, check his bag then start fucking snoring again.
Half way through the journey at 3.00am we stopped in Birmingham at a dingy manky Digbeth coach station. It was full of I wondered if the air was full of droplets of urine because the station was filled with yellow light and if you couldn’t smell the piss, u must have been out cold. Zoe and Chris stayed on the coach, Chris in the land of nod and Zoe, I imagine trying to not make eye contact with the old ppl in case they made more demands to the driver to open all the windows to make us more cold. I got off to look for a drink for Zoe, but the coach station was a nasty place filled with ppl dossing in the waiting room. A large man stood in a booth collecting 20p's for the toilets, and 3 can machines were out of order. I went outside where the coach was and finally found 2 machines, one selling coke and one selling chocolate for 50p a mars bar. Of course, being the fool I am, I purchased one of the said chocolate products, which was to being the start of my "day of sugar 2001".
We left the station at 2.50am.
I was still debating with myself whether or not to pen my coffee in a can, but i thought "no Julia!. wait until u are cold after the shoot and unable to find a decent hot beverage stand anywhere". Seeing as I always make perfect nonsense I left it in my bag and had water instead. The old ppl were growing increasingly weird. They kept looking at us and smiling everytime I looked to see if they were watching us asleep. It's lucky that Chris didn’t open his eyes because the woman had got her legs right open under the table with some kind of plastic hair thing on her head. The man put a cap on (possibly regretting his stupid decision to make the bus cold) and they started having a quiet conversation. Then we pulled in at the Victoria Coach Station at about 5.40am and got off to look for decent toilets that didn't make u more wet than when u first went in. We wandered around for ages, but everywhere we went to was closed... no where to eat, drink or get rid of what you hadn't just ate and drank, lol.
We went past somewhere that looked like Albert Square, and being the tourist shite from Stoke on Trent that we were, Zoe and I proceeded to make bad impressions of cockney accents along the lines of "you dirty caaaa" "'ere wha d'ya fink your doin?". It was a minute of madness. We walked along the roads near to Chelsea and eventually ending up in it.
Then we wandered around trying to find the nearest tube... which was Slone Square station to get us to Liverpool Street Station. We brought our tickets after some deliberation and asking the help of an attendant... I brought my ticket at 6.09am. Sitting on the side of the track waiting for a circle line tube train to come past I think we all witnessed the true grace and value of pigeons. What happened in those few minutes before the train came will be held close in our hearts for many years to come... we saw the acrobatic flight of a pigeon *sniffs*. wow. We had 11 stops to go until we reached our station.
Then we ventured out into the capital city of London to see what was on offer... i.e REAL professional prostitutes that could give us hints and tips.. possibly leading to a pay rise from our employers. The shoot started in 7 hours, so what the fuck were we gonna do?. Because we hadn't got the confirmation email we thought it was best to be the first ones there so I could blag entry and profess that Chris was having Ian's baby so it was highly important that we got in. (:o) ) .
We wandered around a little bit more and walked out of Liverpool Street where civilisation was awake. We walked past many shops and finally came to a fucking McDonalds!. We used the toilets in there and then I wanted .... *coughs* can't you guess..???... yup.. COFFEEEE!. So we went to Starbucks and I had the biggest fucking Venti Laite I could order and drank it happily while we sat in some rather comfy blue chairs watching some "security guards" inside the building next to us. Then we left there and decided to go and find everyone else who said they were getting there at 8am. We didnt know whether to take the bus or the train but we followed the instructions we had and that meant getting the train. That station is fucking huge!. We brought a return ticket for £3.60 on the Silverlink train to Edmonton Green. It would seem to be our lucky number as we counted we had 11 train stations to pass before we got there. fun. I handed out mouth colour changing lollies which Zoe couldn't finish because she felt sick after eating a croissant. (now i know u all wanted to know that, hence me putting it in!.. yeah!). Chris and I played Chupa Chup Wrapper football. He won he first game but then I cheated on the second so we were even. yup.
Then we got to Edmonton Green and crossed over the road and tried to find the street names.
Then we saw a lad sitting on a bench outside the market... who was it?... it was ScottB from the board!!! . He asked us if we were going to the shoot, and I asked him why he would think we were... he said we stuck out as being the only alternatives in a place full of trendies so it was pretty fucking obvious.
We went round and found the bus and vans needed for the shoot. We got told by the guy.... who's gonna be famous on bbs boards everywhere as the "take 2 steps back please" guy .... to "come back later guys and have some coffee or something. The shoot doesn't start 'till 1pm" . Not knowing where to go etc, we hung around, came full circle to where we saw Scott b4 and who should we see.... none other than Star, emma, David and Ariel from the old board!... after a short session of "hi.. this is blah blah blah" etc, we decided to let Scott lead us back round to see the car park and if anyone else was round there yet that we'd missed. So got to the road opposite the carpark and saw a line of ppl leaning against the side looking down. So we decided to wave. Just then Shinobi.. kicked in (we must have heard it 50 times easily all day) and we all went crazy and had to move to the music!. lol. Then some guy with a radio shouted to us "do u wanna come up"... after the initial shock that we were infact gonna get in and not have to blag our way in, we screamed, ran across the road regardless of getting run over and went to the gates. Then the 2 steps guy asked us where we were going and we weren’t allowed in .. the higher ranking guy who asked us to go up first said we were cool.
Ive never run up some steps covered in litter and chicken shit so fast im my life before. We got onto the roof after racing for 5 levels and saw the stage, crew and skaters all shooting stuff. we were told to stand round the stage and mosh heavily so some primary shots could be taken. We didnt complain!. I was talking to some of the guys form the casting agency about trousers... there was some kinda coal tar stuff on there and my shoes and trousers bottoms were fucking black!.. he said that he was going to take his trousers off.. and I pleaded to him not to, lol. Then after a few times we had a few minutes break and we leaned over to see a few other board members arrive.. Ceeds, Sara etc. They had to come up and join us so we started shouting to them and they got let in. Ceed's had brought some brownies and Sara had her wicked Pikatchu bag!. Then we spent the rest of the time until about 12.30 doing the stuff we'd done before.
We were given water and free Turkish Red bull!!!.. yeahhhhh!!! (:oD). I was in a scene where the skater jumped from a height.. we had to look really interested and amzed... lol.... but how could i do that when my hair was such a mess!. It kept flying round so for continuity I put in some clips. I was gonna change it later when we got a break but we didnt get on!.. so I was stessing majorly and moaning to Zoe. I got a flyer signed by a couple of the guys for my friend Toby who had given me a false alius uncase I couldnt get in (:oP)... and i picked up a plectrum (hooorahh!). We kept being moved to different sides of the stage.
Then I was telling Jamie that we'd been travelling since 1am and he said we were mad. Later on he was rather, erm shall we say pissed off?.. because someone had put their coffee on his decks and the wind had blown it off all over everything. For once it wasn't my coffee which was good.
Erm... what next?. oh yeah... we all had to get "behind the line because you're in the camera angle". so we all mucked about, took pictures and waved to ppl on the ground. Then at around 12.30 we were sent down to join the other waiting outside.. but I'd like to point out further that WE WERE THE SPECIAL MORNING CREW!!!!!. lmao. There was no time to get food or anything because we may not have been able to get in. Once we had got in we signed the release forms and waited on the ramp ready to be called in.
Then the asshole 2 steps guy came and barked at us to take "two steps back" YET AGAIN!!!!. Im not gonna tell u much about the shots used because I dont wanna spoil the surprise!... and plus- U SHOULD HAVE FUCKING BEEN THERE TO SEE FOR YOURSELVES! *ahem* anyways... we all had a great time and got ordered about by the two steps guy. We had a short break where biscuits and beverages were provided.. but i couldn’t have any more sugar!... i had lucozade tablets, coffee, red bull, dozens of lollipops, skittles, herbal tablets, coke, a mars bar.. and lots of other sugary things to give me energy.. but felt very ill afterwards!- eugh!. lol. but it was great to meet all the ppl I've gotten to know from the old and new messages boards...we were let out at about 6.40pm and we got the train back to Liverpool street and then to Slone Street and stopped in McDonalds on the way.. where we saw *Johni Pop* from the board where we discussed ear piercings and stuff... lol. We then went to wait in the coach station for an hour after not being able to find it for ages! lol.. that was funny.. Zoe went off on a mission to ask a bus driver and we finally found it!!.
Then we met up with Ariel and Philupallnight (Louise and Phil from the boards) and waited for a bit till the coach came at 9pm. Phil was going on the same coach as us so we waved Ariel off and she went home back to near Derby. We got back into the fantastic city of pottery, lights and chewing gum paved streets at 12.30am.... and there my children ended our day of stardom, spending 10 hours with some of the nicest ppl I've ever met.....and by now I'm sure Zoe's screaming "what about my fucking finger!!!!"... well I thought I'd leave this 'till last because 'tis by far the most enthralling part of the tale... Star sprained her wrist in the pit... but our poor lass Zoe broke her fucking finger!!!!... Beev took her to the first aid guy and he bandaged it up.. he gave her some sooper doooper strong painkillers and it swelled up to the size of a large Christmas honey glazed ham :o(... but it was all in the name of ROCK and METAL BABY, YEAH!!!!!!!!...
THE END!!!!!
I would like to thank these ppl who helped in the production of this email.... well they didnt really but cheers to these guys for making it a great day....
Zoe, Chris, Star, Ariel, Ceeds, Holly, David (vamp), N1ck, Emma, Sara, the Two Steps guys (no, really!), all the "'prophet shaped ppl" and anyone else I met but can't remember due to being hyperactive with a sugar filled blood system!.