LIFE IS A FOUNTAIN: Alice and I go to MILANO

Oh all right, there was a few other people too. Well, Alice in Milan - what can I say? It was a warm evening, (and that's putting it mildly), and the mozzies were out in force. Good job they gave us a moz-repel wristband on the way in. This was the last time I would see the NMMNG set, and I was really looking forward to it. I left home at about 3 am, and after a lot of car/plane/train/walk stuff I arrived at my hotel at about 11.30am. I did try to sleep at this point, but it was never going to happen, so I went out for a walk. I found a bar/cafe and ate some real Italian pasta - yum yum.

I was supposed to be meeting some friends so I sent off a text and discovered that Steve L and Steve C(all AC fans seem to be called Steven or Sarah) had managed to get inside the arena already! OHNOOOOO,!!!!!!!!!!I was gutted.....you mean I gotta q outside all on my own???? But, when I got there, there was a few people already hanging about, some of which I already knew. And some more I made friends with! It was flipping hot, even though we were in the shade, and a long wait til 5.30 and door opening time. And about halfway thru that, the Steves arrived, as they had been ejected while the band did their sound check. None of us had our tickets, so when the time finally arrived, we didn't rush and instead wandered up to the ticket office/portacabin to get our tickets and VIP passes. Janice got the balloon throwing gig!!
Luckily for us, there was an another q'ing point after that, and also luckily a lovely Italian speaking lady was able to convince the 'management' to let us in early..........
Far be it from me to criticize, but the 'Management' don't seem terribly organised.........I mean, why didn't they send someone tomeet us at the gate so we could go in early? It wouldn't've been difficult. If we hadn't asked, we'd've had to fight with everybody else for our places......grrrrrrrrrrr.....
Anyway we got in and there we were, at the barrier! What a relief, it's all so stressful, never quite knowing whether you'll make it or not, it gives me a headache every time. I swear the front row was 95% Brits, most of 'em people that Alice would recognise! Ones I knew apart from Steve and Steve, were Janice, Mandy and Claire, and a lady called Sarah who had brought her 14 yr old son to his first gig. Also there were the twins from Germany (whose names I still don't know!) and Jean Yves from France. (who had snagged a balloon from and earlier gig, and had it stuffed in his car.........I did that last year!!!)

Caffeine Caffei


I'll Bite Your Face off

Bit of a wait then, so we all sat down, while the venue gradually filled up. Support band was.....er....something beginning with B............ so I chatted with Steve and Steve, Janice, Claire and Mandy. So nice to meet up with other Alice fanatics!! Gotta mention Janice's amazing platform boots, they were awesome, and I wish I could wear something like them, then I would be able to see over everybody. But I would probably fall off and break my leg. (Again. I first did it when I was 17.)

And then Alice was on - Black Widow, still sending shivers down my spine, Brutal Planet et al. I took a lot of pics, none of which were very good, wish I had a better camera.

Still 18, and still liking it

Billion dollar Babies, I caught a couple of notes, and then a whole handful! - I passed them to a girl behind me, who was clearly desperate, as she kept crashing into me...............

Ethyl's still not saying much

Kept calling and waving at Chuck to give me a guitar pic, he was laughing at me all the time, but I finally got one, right near the end!

Love this jacket

Very tight trousers....

No whole balloons this time, but I caught a bit of one. Just as well, don't think I'd've been allowed it on the plane. New song was Caffeine, off the new album - he has a giant coffee mug that already looks a bit chipped in places! Another brilliant gig, although Dali the snake was missed.

After the gig we gathered together near to the edge of the stage where Toby was hovering, think there was about 18 of us, and they gave us our goodie bags. There was a new T shirt, set list, small poster, and of course we already had our laminates. Then there was a bit more unorganisation and general faffing around, while they tried to decide where to have the meet and greet. There had been a bar set up at the side by the promoters, with a raised podium and comfy (ish) seating, and they'd gone and left all the lights on, so we used that.

Alice has found a chair and is a happy man

Alice appeared and couldn't find a chair - 'Guys, I've been on stage for an hour and a half, I need a chair!!' Only ones available were those silly and incredibly uncomfortable tall bar stools, but he seemed quite happy with that. We did the usual one-at-a-time thing, and Kyler took the photos - and half way through they turned most of the lights off!! Thankfully there was still a few left on, so we could just about see each other. My turn came, and I had taken along my second Book of Alice - he remembered me showing him the first one!! He looked at a few pages and then stopped at some magazine pics of him and Sheryl.'I haven't seen these,' he said, 'and neither has Sheryl. I think she'd like to see them', - he asked Kyler to take my email address!!!!
I'm sure they will never email me, but it gave me a warm and fuzzy moment all the same.....sigh, how nice would it be to get an email from Alice? (yes, I know it would be from Kyler, but one can dream....)

He signed my book - Your pal and confidante, Alice Cooper - 'there you go, how many confidantes do you have now?' 'Just you', I said with typical fangirl wussyness, lol. He's so good, he will sign anything you put in front of him - I got some photos signed and the new poster, my Last Temptation comic book and one of the posters from , um.....think it was the fanpack. It's on my wall now, along with a fantastic shot of Alice at about 24, looking unbelievably HOT. Kyler took several pictures - tried the one with him strangling me, but it's awful, and so is filed under 'Crap pics never to be seen again.' (I would delete it, but I have trouble getting rid of any pictures of Alice, especially ones with me in it. :) The one of me choking him is so much better.!

After my photo with Alice, he said to me 'Bye Penny and thanks for coming'. I love hearing him say my name, how sad am I?!!!!
So I left reluctantly and went back to sit on the comfyish seats - and I forgot the most important thing I needed signing........Did I mention that I had booked a tattoo on the day after getting home?.......AND I FORGOT TO ASK HIM TO SIGN MY ARM....... Thank goodness for Steve and Steve, who both went after me and didn't mind me butting in to get it done.......panic over.

Pre - tattoo. Just gotta keep it on til I get home.

Steve L (Die Yuppie Scum)

I carried on taking pics of him with everybody else whilst sat on the floor. No idea who some of these people were, but if I put them on FB, they might get to see them, you never know. Toby was getting impatient to get Alice back on the bus, as they were off to Monte Carlo, and he was keen to see the hotel, so we were all kicked out. The stadium people were wanting rid of us too, so we reconvened outside and tried to find a bar. But the hotel I picked, although right near the venue, was too small to have one and everything else was closed - it was nearly 1 am by this time. So everybody else ordered taxis and we sat down to wait outside.....some very strange people around at that time of night, including a, well perhaps 'scantily dressed girl' is a polite way to put it .......the guys liked that!!!

Stephen C and Alice


Waiting for taxis outside my hotel

I've no idea how I was still awake, it had after all been 22 hours, but I managed it somehow. I had some vague ideas of exploring a bit the next day before my flight home at 5pm, but what I ended up doing was finding a park and crashing out under some trees instead. So Milan is till waiting to be explored....some other time.