Monday, December 05, 2005

Pinch me!

Clockwise from left: Mark, Koos, Jim, Debby, Stephanie, Gary, Jill and me
It didn't really happen...
Or did it?

Was I really there? Did I do what I remember doing?
Or was it all a dream?

No, it was REAL and I have witnesses too!!!

It's 5pm and I'm very cold, I'm walking in Richmond on my way to the Aisla Taverna in the hope that I will find some of my fellow bloggers, before the Basement Jam.

As soon as I open the door, I hear my name. Mark and Jill are there. So is Koos F, who is a boy by the way. Sitting with us are Gary and Stephanie, Jim and Debby, all from the USA, all fantastic. After a while Delbut is there too. This is great!

After a couple of drinks, we head for the Oceanic Studios. It's still freezing. I meet Paul and Pieter from Holland and Andrea from Italy. People start gathering around the gates and the anticipation and excitement are evident from everyone...

Finally the gates open and we go in the basement studio. There are chairs and tables, so we pick one and we sit down. It's freezing because the air conditioning is on.

My heart is beating fast... I'm finally here!

The show starts at around 7:30pm from the Attic.
And then we see Rachel coming down. The applause are bringing the house down. I'm so happy!

Mikey with his lovely voice, which I find more amazing everytime I hear it, sings five beautiful songs, and my favourite Plasticine is among them. In his final song, Pigeon Friend everybody's joining in. This is starting to be a great night!


Simon. Ah, Simon! So happy to see him live again. I love his songs so much, and I was so happy that now I knew all the ones he performed tonight. He perfomed six awesome songs including Save Me From Me, Girl In New York (*sob*) and ending with Sex Change, Simon delivered a brilliant performance. And I was getting warmer...


Then Foy hit the stage. What can I say? I think since the Bedford gig I had the need to see Foy sing again. I absolutely loved the last song Bailie's Blood. Foy's got a unique voice with such feeling. An incredible talent.

During the break I met Mikey who signed my CD and took this picture with me. He's so sweet. Simon was very sweet too to sign my Simontownshendis CD. Thank you both so much, you are so kind!


After the break: RACHEL! Her songs and voice have been the soundtrack of the last two months and for me was like coming home, when she started singing Into My Heart. Her band was incredible tonight! Rachel was amazing! Lovely Spin and Jigsaw made my day!



And then another break. And then something happened, this is where it got surreal. I saw Rachel in front of me, I called her name and I introduced myself. She said hi very sweetly, like she knew me forever and then she said "Marietta, come to the Attic with me"

I was dreaming, right? Mark and Jill came with us and we entered a room, which was probably the control room. A man was standing in the middle of the room and said hi politely. Rachel introduced me, then Mark and Jill, and the man shook my hand. A warm handshake, a warm smile that warmed my heart.

The man was Pete Townshend.

I always thought that if I ever met Pete I would just stare and say something like "bradithn klstewa parlsx". Tonight another Marietta said to him "I am so happy to meet you" and I smiled back at him.

I can't remember how I got in the Attic. By flying? Floating? Dunno. So there we were, Mark, Jill and lil' ol' mois, us ordinary bloggers, with Queen Blogger Rachel, in the friggin' Attic!!!! The very room we watched every week. This was getting too good to be true. And then we were live! I got hyper and I was talking continuously, don't know if anyone noticed, but I feel bad about it now. But it was a magical moment. Rachel is so sweet to invite us. I gave her the Little Book Of Quitting, which I hope it will help her.

Back in the room, I mean the studio, Mr Pete Townshend gave a performance that made me scream, shout, faint, dizzy, all together.

Behind Blue Eyes was just incredible. He was amazing.
Blue Red and Grey uniquely sung.
Pete told us about the history of the studio where we were and he was very sweet and funny, in a great mood.



I had a taxi waiting outside, so I ran quickly to let them know I will be another 20 minutes. The show took another half hour, with Pete ending his performance with a fabulous Let's See Action and then Rachel and Pete together singing amazingly Sunrise and Just Breathe.


The show ended with the whole gang singing Shine, which was fantastic. I don't think I've heard it before, I loved it!


It was time to go. I walked out in the cold, but I was warm inside. My cab driver was waiting patiently for me. I said to him "Sorry to keep you waiting so long. If there's anything extra I'll gladly pay it. In fact, I don't care if you charged me a million pounds, a night like tonight is worth it!!!!"

22 comments:

PTfan said...

No friggin' way!!!!!!

I am so much more than happy for you!!!!!

Couldn't see you In The Attic because our feed went dead. But I believe you and I really want to see a loop or a DVD if they do it. And if they do, I pray they don't leave out your part! I KNEW you would update toonight before nodding off. I'll bet youdon't even go to sleep tonight!!!

What a life you have been living lately! What a great night. I am so happy you got to be with other bloggers too.

Fantastic!

Casey Quinn said...

thanks for writing up your experience so those of us who had to try and watch through the technical difficulties can get a little taste of what it was like. It sounds like you had an amazing time and you did a fantastic job describing your night. I'm so jealous!!

Fleur de Bee said...

I am so happy for you. I have been to frusterated to post or blog anymore. Our show was ruined as we got hardly a bit of the feed.

Hopefully the loop will come on at some point! Till then I am making myself scarce as I am a little burnt out on the whole ordeal.

Talk to you soon. Drop me an email and I will call you and talk then.

Get some rest!
Molly

Mike S said...

Hi Marietta,

Thanks for sharing your story
and photos,very happy to live
vicariously through them.
You've cheered me up a bit
as alot of us missed it because
of not enough bandwidth to handle
it.Makes you think about taking
a bird overseas for the RAH
TCT concert in March or April.

AlianaDrex said...

I couldn't see it, but I'm so glad you had a wonderful, memorable evening. I love all the pictures, they at least made me FEEL like I was seeing something. Thanks for sharing it with us. I hope to see it loop.
Speak to you soon,
Ali

jillytee said...

Marrietta you're a STAR!!!!
What a fabulous night AND you did your Blog when you got home, amazing, and so lovely to meet you.
Jill xoxox

Dale said...

Oh Marietta!

I had tears in my eyes when I read about you meeting Pete!

OH MY GOD!

Is all I can say. I am SO happy for you!!!!

Love
Dale

JoeBoy said...

Thanks for sharing the pics and the story. I had to run off and rehearse for a show I got booked into at the last minute and was mad that I was going to miss the broadcast. When I got back to my studio, I found I had not missed it because the broadcast failed. Sounds fantastic. You guys look great in the pic at the table. You hair is awesome. I am not jelous, just happy for all.

Kid Ric said...

Wow! Great pictures. You lucky, lucky girl.

Rachel says she will have the loop up ASAP and run it all week. If it is up Wednesday we are going to have a chat party at Ballerina gurl's in the evening. We will post the time on our blogs.

By the way, I have a new blog address. It is http://kidric.blogspot.com/

My old blog quit letting me post to it. Something about ftp permissions.

Peace, love and light.

Tausha71979 said...

Marietta!

What a wonderful post, I loved reading it. So glad that you had a wonderful time, & in the attic you were!!!! I wish that I could have made it, hopefully next time I will. Thanks for the photos, I really enjoyed them kindof felt like I was there! Hope that you are well, I'm sure that you are still somewhat high on life today!

xx

Tausha71979 said...

Marietta!

What a wonderful post, I loved reading it. So glad that you had a wonderful time, & in the attic you were!!!! I wish that I could have made it, hopefully next time I will. Thanks for the photos, I really enjoyed them kindof felt like I was there! Hope that you are well, I'm sure that you are still somewhat high on life today!

xx

P.S. I was so great to see some of the bloggers faces, hope that you had a drink for me!

Mark T said...

Hi Marietta, well wasn't it fun last night. Met Pete and we went In The Attic!!! Incredible! Loved the post on your Blog. Just put mine up. Took over a hundred photos. Some really good and some crap ones. Have posted a few and will post again tomorrow. See ya!! Mark

Marietta Zervou said...

Hello everyone,

I managed to post a few comments earlier and now the connection is too slow so everytime I try to go to a blog it fails to connect.

Technology can be wonderful when it works, but exceedingly irritating too when it doesn't, i.e. yesterday.

So:

- Casesequence: Thanks for your comments and I will visit soon.

- Mike: It's an absolute must to come over for the TCT concerts!!!

- Ali: Thanks, don't miss the loop, it will be on Thursday at around 8pm, hopefully we'll have a chat at BG's room, if she'll have us, LOL.

- Dale: How many days left? Five isn't it? Yes, I had tears in my eyes when I was writing about meeting Pete. Still can't believe it.

- JoeBoy: In the first picture I'm grinding my teeth because I'm saying to the guy who was taking the picture: "Press the button hard!" my face is so swallen, don't know why. Probably all those nachos I ate, LOL. I think everybody else looks great.
Thanks for the compliment, I'm trying to grow my hair...

- KidRic: I wouldn't miss the chat for the world! See you Thursday, I might be a little late I'll be working, but I'll join soon. I know about your site! I've already visited your new one

-Tausha: Thank you sweetheart, I had a great time. I had a drink to everybody's health, thinking all of you who couldn't join.

See you all soon.

James Casey said...

Marietta, great photos of a great night. Thanks for the bloggers photo too!

That bit about being invited into the Attic by Rachel is fantastic. They're all such wonderful people, aren't they? I suppose we ought to be used to it by now.

Anne-Marie said...

Hi Marietta,

thanks for sharing your great pictures and stories from the Basement Jam. I'm so glad you all had a wonderful time!

Cheers,
Anne-Marie

Koos F said...

Hi Marietta,

Meeting you was great fun, won't easily forget you.
I thought I was past jealousy, but no, a little sting in my tummy when I read you'd met The Man in the flesh.

But you deserve it!

Your writing is great. On my blog I can only offer you my images
http://koosfernhout.blogspot.com
and
http://tinyurl.com/7c9vq

Love,
Koos

Melissa & Gary said...

Nice story and nice pictures even with my head in most of the shots, thats me in the white shirt and Melissa with the red / brown hair next to me.

M+G

Kara said...

Now I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing the loop!!
It sounds like you all had a great time and your pictures came out great
Thanks for sharing :)

Bri said...

Oh, Marietta, this is the best account yet! I'm thrilled to see your photos and to read your experiences. I had heard that you were up in The Attic for some talk...I'm dying to see the loop of that! You look beautiful in these photos. Love the collar.

I'm very thankful I could see most of the show, right up until the feed died for me mid-Rachel's set. But I won't be truly happy until I've seen you in the Attic!!!!

I know what you mean about always imagining yourself saying nonsense when meeting someone you've admired (in this case, Pete). You were probably remembering to breathe (esp. now that you're not a smoker) and you were among friends. I'm happy for you. I met David Crosby and had a bit of time to talk, and I found him to be very easy. My son was about 12 then and the two of them stood together talking about fishing and other non-musical things. It was fun.

Now, years later, my son realizes David's place in musical history, but he just smiles and says, "He has twinkly Santa Claus eyes." (He does!)

Hope you are beginning to catch up on your sleep now. Love, Brina

Nabonidus said...

Wow! This is great! I loved this post -almost made me feel I was there!
BTW,you are much prettier than you're profile photo. I'm being honest here!
Almost should put the one of you with
Mikey as your profile photo!
Although I suppose peple, strangers might ask you who the studmuffin is with you! LOL

musicmikey said...

Hi Marietta, really good to meet you on Sunday. Glad you enjoyed the show, and loved reading your blog here, let me know what you think of the CD? Take care.
mikey

Suesjoy said...

Hi again!
Just read this post of your Basement/Attic experience...WOWZA!!!
SO COOL!!!!
I'm glad I'm big enough to be happy for you, because when I was younger I would have been GREEN with envy!
You're such a lovely person, I can tell...you deserved it.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Oh and congrats for not smoking for 27 days! woohoo! way to go!