Hallowe'en at Alexandra Palace

It's a coupla months since this fabulous concert, but I still think about it practically everyday, it was so good. It was on telly again last night, but as I don't have Sky, I can only watch it on You Tube. I am SO hoping that it gets released on DVD soon........

I can still remember how to use the London Underground fortunately - and I am comfortable on it..... (metaphorically speaking, those lovely blue check seats always feel like sandpaper on yer bum - not the greatest now are they LT?). Unlike driving in London which freaks me out beyond all proportion, in spite of the years spent driving up, down, in and around the capital when I had my silly stocktaking job.......(I spent many more hours driving than I ever did counting the sweeties).
So, I made it back to the hotel fairly early, and enjoyed some wine in the bar. On my own, sadly, It would've been nice to be able to chat with other Sick Things at this point, but hey ho, never mind, I will be spending the day with them tomorrow.

After months of worrying about driving to Ally Pally, it was actually a doddle, and also easy to park quite close. That's about it for plus points, there are so many other things wrong with the place, I am really hoping he doesn't go there next year....

I met up with some friends at about 10.30am - there were about 20 people there - and we watched the staff put up the ghouls outside the door, as they looked on bemused, wondering why the hell we were there so early. They clearly don't understand about Alice fans and the devotion he inspires........!
Not many people were dressed up , me included, although I had my costume in the car ready for later. And it wasn't too cold to start with but after several hours, I was glad to go into the cafe next door to warm up a bit. At about................ oh, I dunno , some time later, loads of us were in the loo, changing and slapping on the makeup, and people were taking pictures of us lined up in front of the mirror transforming into ghouls for the night! I would love to see some of those photos but haven't tracked any down yet...............

Confusingly, there were two entrances, one for ticket holders, and one for those who still had to pick up their tickets, (ie me and friend Sarah, and several others) and this is where it began to go pear shaped - the box office were insisting that they would open at the same time as the main doors, which meant that the ones who had to pick up tickets would have to wait to get them, and miss the mad dash to get to the barrier. I cannot tell you HOW important it is to be right at the front when you're as short as I am, and having waited outside ALL DAY just for the privilege, I do NOT want to have to wait in a second queue while everybody else runs past.......grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Anyway to cut a long story short, Si Halley of Sick Things fame, luckily Knows The Right People, and got Andy Micheal, and Alice's tour manager Toby to talk to the management and let a bunch of us in early to get our tickets. So far so good, and all would've been well, if only Sarah and I hadn't got separated from the others by a git of a doorman who insisted we go somewhere else.........all very confusing at this point, and the upshot was, we ended up in the second row............now, I know this might sound like a good place to be, but it's Not Good Enough for me - so I lost it, had an inner tantrum, stamped my feet a lot and was so CROSS, I actually considered going home!! Fortunately, Sarah, who is much more sensible than I am, pointed out that we were there, so we might as well enjoy it. And Si, who was in front of me, let me take loads of pics over his shoulder.


So, here we are at last. My feet were already killing me, and the night hadn't even started!!! We first had to suffer the 'Freak Show' which mainly consisted of scantily clad girls writhing about waving things on fire (yawn) and then the New York Dolls (ok, but I saw them the other night already, double yawn) before the familiar curtain was put up and the stage was set for Alice. At this point, I'd like to mention the Sky camera, on a sort of track inbetween us and the stage. Absolutely bloody huge thing that kept getting in the way.....

Anyway having waited for 12 hours and seen this show 3 times already, by the time Vincent Price started with the voice over, I was already in a state of high excitement and had major goosebumps......and there was The Master , fireworks and all, belting out Black Widow from the top of his tower. Many hits followed and I sang along to most of them - I think this is one of the bits I enjoy most about his concerts. It's so loud, there's absolutely no chance I can hear myself sing, so it's quite safe to yell out all the words at the top of my voice.

I'm still learning the words to Brutal Planet, Hey Stoopid and Clones, (think I saw Karen Hunter being a clone here!) but I think I did pretty well cosidering how crap my memory is. I can't believe how quickly the time went, suddenly he was doing Schools Out and friend Janice was on stage throwing out the balloons - just as Mr Sky cameraman decided to stop in front of me, huh, hence the not very good pics. She did well considering that the stage was about half a mile away, but some of the balloons fell a bit short, so Alice didn't get them with the sword, which meant I managed to procure one complete, oh YEAH!!and bring it home (thanks Si!). I had a little trouble getting it in the car, and even more getting it through the front door - but it now resides in pride of place in my sanctuary. It's a lot smaller than it used to be, but still has the fake blood on it :)



After he'd done Elected, he introduced Arthur Brown who came on with a flaming headress (which he had trouble getting off)...and sang Fire, with Alice on backing vocals. He danced around like a loony, in spite of the fact he must be about 100, and at one point, approched Alice and was repelled by a makeshift cross, made out of Alice's mic and a cane.



The only way I'm ever going to get hold of a cane is if he hands it to me personally. He has done this in the past, but you'd have to be pretty lucky - I live in hope! A fabulous night and I'm still having tour withdrawal - hoping to start a bit earlier this year, he's already announced a couple of dates, one of which is near Brum (Hurray!!) although it is a festival (Yuck), but hopefully I can get a day ticket ( Hurray!!) and meet up with some friends (double hurray!!!) Roll on summer.