The UK Halloween Tour 2012 - the Beginning

Well, I have just about recovered from this, so I guess now is a good time to start writing about it.  I would like to think that I can remember all the different shows, and what happened where, but, given my sieve-like memory I'm not too hopeful......I will try my best not to get stuff mixed up, but if you were there and remember different, please feel free to shout a comment at me. Actually any comments AT ALL would be nice, even shouty ones.

The first thing I had to do of course was buy the tickets - and thanks to a presale on AC.com, and a nerve wracking 6 hours on the computer, I managed to land 3 front row and one 5th row tix for the seated venues, two standing for Wolverhampton and Edinburgh, and a mistakenly bought seat for Wembley. It was a good seat, though, and they wouldn't let me change it, so I decided it was ok - might even get some good pics cos they perhaps wouldn't notice my camera and then ban me from using it ( a recurring theme, throughout the tour........). Then there was a lot of thumb twiddling, checking bank accounts, and harassing my poor husband until I had bullied him into letting me buy two, yes TWO VIP tickets, ( for the 2 standing venues, oh HURRAY, no bloody q'ing all day hopefully, I'll get in early, lucky me!!!!).................( Huh....more on that later)

IwanthatcaneIwanthatcaneIwanthat
caaaaaaaaaaaane

Ballad Of Dwight Frye

Then there was a lot of planning, hotels, car parking (I am paranoid about knowing where to park before I get there), and route planning. Luckily, my knight in shining armour, one Steve Coleman, volunteered to not only pick me up, but also to bring me home again on various occasions, and also drive ALL THE WAY to Scotland, bless him. Gotta say this made my whole tour so much easier, don't know whether he really understands how much it meant to me - I loathe driving/parking/route planning, yuck yuck yuck. THANK YOU STEVE XX.


The first 2 shows, Cardiff and Wolverhampton I did manage to drive myself there and back. Met up with Sarah from Bristol, who had a VIP at Cardiff and also brought along her daughter Asia who is a teeny bit younger than my Sarah - who I wish would show some interest in coming to see Alice with me. But she likes Ben Howard, duh. Maybe next year.
So I met up with Sarah and Asia outside the venue, and we hung around a bit, went to the pub oppo, and then came back to hopefully meet up with Ryan Roxie, who had posted on FB about his 'Parking Lot Tour' - and at 6.30 prompt, he showed up out the front with Chuck and Tommy! They were great, signed stuff, posed for pics, sold us Beasto Blanco Tshirts and Roxie 77 box sets, and were generally all round charming.

Ryan Roxie - gorgeous or what!!

Tommy Tommy Tommy is so sweet

Sarah Tommy and Asia

Duff Mckagan enjoys the show from the best seat in the house

Anyway, Cardiff was one of my front row seats, pretty central too so I had a GREAT view. The security people were unbelievably strict and obsessively concerned with us not touching the barrier - WTF? -  and also with sending away EVERYBODY who didn't have a front row ticket.  Obviously this was fine with me as I had one, but I did think it was a bit pointless to do that during the support bands.......And while we're on the subject of support bands, I gotta say that while

Duff Mckagan was ok, Ugly Kid Joe were AMAZING,  frontman Whitfield Crane made everybody (except me and Janice, Asia and Sarah...) get on their feet, he had so much energy, he jumped off the stage and over the barrier at one point, and then climbed up on the seat next to me........I was so afraid he was going to shout at me to stand up, lol, I just kept my head down!


I like having a seat. It means I can go to the loo, and the bar to get a drink without losing my precious front row place........ And of course as soon as Alice came on, we were all up anyway! And rushing to stand, uh, a foot away from the barrier.....................(we got there in the end!)
None of the advertised pyro accompanied Hello Hurray that night, apparently someone pulled the wrong plug at the wrong time, and TBH the sound wasn't brilliant either.................and  the band were a teeny bit untogether.......................no snake......................................and the setlist had too many covers in it.................................

Fireworks like wot it shoulda been

There's been a lot of negative feedback on the forum about the covers issue, (and an FB vote on what songs we'd like Alice to sing) but fortunately The POWERS THAT BE actually do read it all, which is good to know so things did change along the way. But this was the first UK night, so we got five of the six originally scheduled (one was dropped for......a surprise!) I know some people were unhappy with this particular show,  but the thing is, I've been waiting for this tour for what seems like ages now, and was so happy to be there, that all the nit picky problems didn't really seem to matter any more.                            

Gimme gimme gimme

 So he came on in his red and black stripe suit and did Hello Hurray, House Of Fire etc, and I thoroughly enjoyed it all. Welcome To My Nightmare was brilliant, he had an amazing jacket and hat, and was lit creepily throughout; Billion Dollar Babies, I caught some dollar bills; Dirty Diamonds I got some beads off a guy behind me who had caught a whole handful,  and Kate next to me caught his cane! She looked so ecstatic that even though I was INSANELY jealous I was really happy for her........my turn will come. Bloody better.

The surprise track was ......'He's Back'  - I was SO excited when he played this, mainly because it was great to realise that we,  as fans, could have some input, however tiny. .........(over a 1000 people voted for this on the aforementioned FB page). Kyler got dragged off during it by the Man in The Mask! I think the whole thing was bloody brilliant, even though I didn't vote for it. (Blue Turk,anyone?) FrankenAlice was back for Feed My Frankenstein, just after Alice was strapped to a metal thing and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

 

Alice Does Lennon

Ryan and Ori do the tango

Welcome To My Nightmare

Gimme the sword

Then we had a recorded bit, where Alice talked about his drinking days in LA and the Hollywood Vampires, this was the promised Raise The Dead section - most of the members drank themselves to death. We are so lucky that Alice didn't, although he came very close, and he obviously wanted to pay tribute to his friends. There was a backdrop of giant tombstones with the names on, Jim Morrison, Keith Moon, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix. He did Back Door Man, Break On Thru , My Generation and Revolution, I thought these were actually pretty good, but didn't like Foxy Lady too much.  Main problem here for me is that I don't know the words so couldn't sing (shout) along, losing my voice is an integral part of the fun for me. But then he came back with Poison and Schools Out, and the usual confetti, tissue feathers, a cane (for someone else, grrrrrr) -  and Sarah got to throw out the balloons!!

Sarah does the balloons

I had a fabulous FABULOUS time, in spite of all the teething problems, and drove home on Cloud 9. After I'd got lost trying to get out of Cardiff that is. And I managed to sleep a bit when I got home in spite of the adrenaline rush an Alice gig gives me - just as well, as I have Wolverhampton tomorrow - and my first VIP.
Watch this space.

A little speed is all I need. . . . . . .