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Train of Thought World Tour 2004 - UK Shows
This is an account of mine and Richard’s adventures for the Dream Theater concerts on the 16th and 17th January 2004. It isn’t a review of the concerts as such and it’s a very detailed personal account – I hope I don’t bore you! It was a very busy week, but it was certainly enjoyable! Kerry xx
Friday:
We both had the day off work on Friday. We were expecting Tom to arrive to us around lunchtime, which he did, after being a bit confused as he got off the tram! We had some lunch and cut up lots of flyers that Richard and I had had printed earlier that morning. Then it was time to head out to the venue!
As we walked up the side to the venue some young lads were there already - they informed us that some of the band had arrived, but not everybody. I wanted permission to put some flyers on the merchandise stand. I was told I needed permission from someone who worked at the venue; I managed to grab Ray to ask him about this, he said he’d get onto it!
A little while later Al Muirden arrived and we chatted to him for a short while and before we knew it the bus was arriving! We kept out of the way as the group of young lads clamoured for the band’s attention. I just went over and said ‘Hi’ to Bert (and ‘nice hat!’) and then positioned myself between MP and the gate into the stage door. After he had posed for some pics and signed some stuff I got his attention and he grabbed my hand and shook it. ‘Kerry! Hi! How’re you?’ – I told him we’d see him later. By this time we were f-f-f-f-f-reezing so went down to the Apsley to get a drink and warm up!
For the next couple of hours we basically hung around the place, trying to find out what was happening about our passes, getting to know the Greek Fan Club board, handing out flyers (thanks to ALL who helped with that!) and popping back to the Apsley to see people as they arrived!
Then finally the doors opened! We were amazed to find out that our seats on Row C were actually on the FRONT row of the venue! We’ll gloss over Richard’s run-in with Security, suffice to say it turned out okay in the end, he’ll be keeping quieter in future, and a big thanks to everyone who cheered us up and stuff!
Then it was time for the show! Because of our Fan Club laminates, Richard and I were permitted to walk around for the first 15 minutes taking photos. I’m very pleased with how they came out! For a first show I thought it went fantastically well! There were odd glitches but nothing major at all! The funniest thing was during ‘Pull Me Under’ when James mixed the two verses up, singing half of one in the wrong place – at first I though I was singing it wrong as we were suddenly singing different things but once the verse finished James turned round to Jordan and pulled a face ‘oops! I got a bit confused there!’
After the show only James and Jordan came out to chat. They were the ultimate gents as usual - they always have time to talk to people. Unfortunately for us Richard had given Tom one of the Voices UK bags, where I had put our ToT cover to get signed! Oh well – at least there’s tomorrow!
On leaving the venue we picked up Tom and his friend Charlie who were both staying at our flat over night, we dropped Al Muirden at his hotel and headed back to the flat. It took us a while to calm down enough to go to bed though. We later heard that the whole band came out to the bus and signed stuff so we could have seen the rest of them had we been patient enough!
Saturday:
In the morning we took Tom and Charlie to the station, picked up my brother who we had to take to my parents, and headed off. We picked up Al (IC) at Sandbach services and headed to my parents house in Derby. We dropped my brother off and ate a sterling fry up – Thanks Daddy! And pretty shortly we were back on the road, London-bound.
It took us an amazing 2 hours door to door. We parked up at the car park under the Hammersmith Flyover across the road from the Apollo and set out to the Pub!
We were amazed to find so many people already there as it was only just 3:30pm when we arrived! Everybody seemed in good spirits and the party was already in full swing. Dave/Vambo bought us a ‘beer’ (I don’t drink and Richard wasn’t ready for beer so had a coke! Vambo said he’d buy us beers again!) and then we were ready for introductions! A lot of people I already knew or could guess, some were completely new! Big Props go to MC Dovstar for learning and remembering all those names! Although I did try to insist he did it with peoples real names, he chose to ignore this suggestion!
Before too long we decided to head to the venue to try to get our ‘early access’ sorted out. We waited in the Entrance Hall, feeling cold, but pitying you guys outside! Eventually we were let in to the auditorium. They were still finishing up a couple of things with the lights so I had time to drop some more flyers off around the place and get a ‘comfort break’! While we were waiting for them to get finished a cat came running through the room! It was a wild, feral cat; it looked a lot like our cat Bluebell, but without the white bits. The cat was running at top speed followed by about four security guards!
Then the doors were opened and very shortly after we were surrounded by ‘Voicees’ and the crowd quickly filled the room! This was officially my most-squashed-ever gig! At one point we were being pushed from the right, the left and behind! The only thing not pushing me was the barrier I was desperately trying to hold onto! I have to thank Richard for managing to give me room to breathe despite all of this! DT played three of my favourite songs on Saturday, these being Honor Thy Father, The Great Debate and ‘A Mind Beside Itself’ – especially ‘Voices’. During Voices MP reaches out over his kit pointing a stick at us ‘This…is…for…you!’ he mouths! I had asked him would they play it at Hammersmith for us when we saw him after the Manchester Testimony show in November. I really enjoyed the show – the set list was amazing. It was a shame about the video screen problems. After the show I was able to take the time to have a word with Bert, he told me that his computer had crashed FOUR TIMES during the show! He said ‘second night is always the worst – oh well…’ I managed to thank Ray for his help over the past few days and he was like ‘no, Thank You!’ Such a gent!
Then it was time for Aftershow! We met up with most of the boards of the other regional fan clubs. This time Mike came out to talk to us too! One of the first things he said was ‘See? We played Voices just for you tonight!’ Mike was asked when/if DT would be back in the UK and what the next Cover album would be. He said he knew what the album would be, but he wasn’t telling! He also said they planned to finish the tour in the UK, he hopes to be able to do a Two Night Stand at the end of the tour in the UK! I informed him that this event better not be occurring on 23rd October as that is when we’re getting married! He looked a bit worried… ‘it might well be around then… - you should get married in the summer!’ Uh-oh!
When we came out of the venue James had come down to the barrier and was signing stuff for people, but we had a big drive ahead so wanted to get going! We collected Al (IC) and acquired an extra passenger (George from the Greek Fan Club – who is at University in Nottingham!) By the time we dropped George back and got back to my parents’ house it was 3:30am. We made some tea and I finally managed to calm Richard down enough to go to sleep at 5am! Zzzzzzz!
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