Paul McCartney: Third time's a charm.

First off, excuse my blog right now.  I'm in the middle of re-doing it, and it's sort of a mess.

So as many of you may know (and have probably gotten sick of hearing), On May 29, 2013 my crummy nose bleed Paul tickets got upgraded to FRONT ROW about 15 minutes before the concert started!  Full story to follow.  Bear with me through the story.  It's not too long, but it will seem like it veers off into a few random directions at times.  It all has a point, I swear!

And the story begins..

While my mom and I were driving to Louisville for Abbey Road on the River, a friend of ours, Dave, put on Facebook that he just received a ticket to the Paul concert from a friend of a friend.  Dave plays Paul McCartney in Kansas City's Beatles tribute band, Liverpool.  We've known Dave since he started in the band 6 years ago.  So I shot him a message saying that he's free to ride down with us since we'll all be going to the same place.  We set up a time to meet on the morning of the 29th and that was that.

After my mom and I got back from AROTR, I unpacked, repacked and unloaded all my photots from my camera onto my laptop to have room for the concert.  I cleared the memory, packed the camera and waited excitedly for 36 hours until we were back on the road headed toward Paul.

The morning of the 29th came.  We all met at my house and started on the road to Tulsa about 30 minutes before scheduled!  It was a short 3.5 hour drive.  We got to the hotel with plenty of time to spare before the concert.  We cleaned up and got dressed then went out to eat across the street from the BOK Center.  We finished dinner probably a little to fast due all of the excitement we had!  Side note: Literally, no matter how many times you see Paul in concert, it never gets old.  This was Dave and I's third time to see him, and my mom's fourth or fifth time to see him.  I could go to a Paul McCartney concert every week for the rest of my life and never get tired of it.  The excitement of seeing him live never gets old!!

After we paid for dinner we headed toward the BOK Center.  The city of Tulsa temporarily renamed the streets surrounding the BOK center for the two days Paul was in concert.  They were Penny Lane, Blackbird Blvd, and and Abbey Road.  They were so cute we had to take a few photos in front of them.  After four photos on my camera it said that I was out of memory.  I was like no way Jose, I just cleared it all. I looked to see what the problem was and as I opened the battery latch, I realized there was no memory card in the camera.  I had miniature panic attack.  I couldn't believe that after all the preparing for this concert, that I had forgotten to put my memory card back into my camera!  The doors to the concert opened in 30 minutes and there was absolutely no way that I was going into the concert without a memory card.

We were looking around the BOK Center for 20 minutes for a place that sells memory cards, but we had no luck.  We looked on Google Maps and found a Walgreen's that was 10 minutes from us.  So we hopped into a cab and 10 minutes later we made it to a Walgreen's.  I was in and out in a second and we were finally heading back to the BOK Center.  The doors to the concert had already been opened and my mom was waiting for us before she went in. 

We had about 45 minutes to spare before the concert began.  We went in and found all of our seats.  Coincidentally, Dave's seat was only about 12 down from us!  Once we found our places my mom went to use the restroom and Dave and I went down the the merchandise table.  I was planning to cut a few people and shimmy in on the side, but Dave being the nice guy he is, went to the back of the line.  So I followed him and we waited in line for around 25 minutes.  Once we got our shirts it was 15 minutes until showtime.  We hurried up the stairs and we were making a bee line to our section so that we could wait very impatiently for the show to begin.

Here's where the story get's good.

During our 'bee line' to our seats, a man about the age of 25 jaunts up to us with a salesman smile on his face.  He asked if we had a spare moment and, me being me, I was like uhhhhh no thanks and started off to our section.  But again, Dave being the nice guy was like yeah sure.  I was still wary of the dude trying to sell us something just moments before the concert.  He saw both of the uncertain looks on our faces and said "Hey guys, I'm not trying to sell you anything, I work for Paul and it looked like you two are ready for the concert!'  He showed us his official Out There tour lanyard and once we saw it we were just waiting to see what this random dude wanted from us.  Dave and I were both like "Yeah we're stoked for the concert!!"  The lanyard dude said we looked like two people who would be singing and dancing and jumping around the whole concert.  We were still unsure what he wanted but we were still like uh yeah, we're pretty damn excited.

Next, Lanyard man reached into his pocket and pulled out two tickets.  He said "well I know both of you are going to have blast at the concert, so I wanted to give you these front row tickets."  I really had no emotion when he said this.  There is no way this is happening to me, and if it is happening, there's no way it wasn't a scam.  He gave us the tickets, we looked at them and sure enough they said Row A: front row.  The ticket was an official Paul McCartney Out There tour ticket, bought at the BOK Center saying the price was $0.00.  This is real and this is happening.  Dave and I were in utter disbelief.  Completely speechless.

A few moments later is when it really started to sink in, then my heart started pounding.  My jaw hit the floor, my stomach dropped to my butt, and my whole body started to get really shaky.  I had to bend over and prop my arms on my legs so I would faint.  Lanyard man said "Now that was the reaction I've been looking for!"  I was like, "Well dude, ya got it!" as I was almost to the floor.  I gave him a huge hug, thanked him a thousand times and he walked off having no idea the impact he just had on Dave and mines life at that very moment.  At that point, I could barely stand.  I had to lean against the railing and clutch onto it for dear life while I was going over in my mind what the hell had just happened. 

Before he walked off I asked if he had one other ticket, because my mom came to the concert with us, I explained to him.  Unfortunately, he said no and that we had gotten the last two tickets.  Dave and I were contemplating what we were going to do.  There were three of us, but only two tickets and neither one of us were going to give up our ticket.

I rushed up to my mom, still shaking and explained the whole story to her.  I had to sit down to tell her; I wasn't fully recovered from the events just moments before.  Fortunately, back in the 70's my mom was front row at a Paul McCartney concert and she said that it was our turn now.  I hated to leave my mom up in the nosebleeds by herself for the whole concert, but we had no other choice.  I know my mom was happy for me anyway.

There was still part of me that doubted the authenticity of the tickets as we were running down to the floor.  This cant be real, is all I was thinking while we were heading to our seat.  We were let in on the floor in a breeze, proceeded to the front of the stage and found our seats.  We got wristbands and a man came around to mark our tickets just a few moments before the show began.  It's actually happening, this is really happening omg omg omg omg.  Dave and I sat down waiting for the show to being.  We made friends with the people sitting next to us.  They were a cute couple around my age from Lawton, OK named Hank and Ellysa.  They had just had a baby girl a few months ago and named her McCartney!  HOW CUTE!  They were in the same situation as us.  A man handed them front row tickets, told them to enjoy the show and walked off.

Hank, Ellysa, me and Dave after the show!

As Dave and I were talking with them we realized that no one around us had bought their tickets either.  I'd say around 4/5 of the first and second rows hadn't bought their tickets.  The ONLY way you can get front and center at a Paul concert is if someone comes up to you and hands you the tickets.  There was a lady about 6 seats down from me who had bough her ticket for $4,500.  We all got our tickets by chance, luck, serendipity, or whatever else you want to call it.  I don't think I've ever been happier in my life.

We also realized that everyone (who didn't pay for their ticket) wasn't over the age of 35; they pick out young people to be in the front rows.  Paul wants young people to dance and sing and have the time of their lives at his concerts.  He wants us to give him back the same energy he's giving out to all of us.  Paul is the ultimate performer, he can control every aspect of the show.  So why not control who sits where in the audience?

The concert was absolutely completely incredible to say the least.  A few songs in, Dave and I had the realization that there were actually other people in the venue.  It felt like a private concert for just us.  We had no one it front of us except for Sir Paul himself.  We made eye contact with Paul dozens of times, shouted a few things at him, in which he replied, and danced our happy little butts off the whole concert.  Paul played a little shy of three hour straight, no intermission, and never once stopped for water.  He seriously isn't human.  At one point I was four feet from him.  I was four feet from a living legend.  I was four feet from a BEALTE!  I can't put into words how amazing the whole show was.  Every time I think of it a smile, ear to ear, comes to my face. 

So now the pieces fall together.

If Dave hadn't rode down with us, Lanyard man wouldn't have run into us.  If we hadn't left my house 30 minutes early, Lanyard man wouldn't have run into us.  If we hadn't rushed through dinner, if I hadn't forgotten my memory card, if I hadn't taken 30 minutes to run to Walgreen's, if we hadn't properly waited in the merch line without cutting people, if we hadn't been acting stoked for the concert with big smiles on our faces as we were rushing to our seats...Lanyard man wouldn't have come up to us.  I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason.  Every single detail of our day had led up to that very moment when Lanyard man came up to us and handed us the tickets.

I'm so very thankful of the experience I got to have.  I can't thank Dave enough for just being who he is.  Without him, neither of us would have gotten those tickets.  I still have to pinch myself every once and while when I think back at how incredibly lucky we are.  Over one month later, I'm still on cloud 9.

And a big thank you Sir Paul McCartney!  Without whom, who knows where my life would be.  The Beatles have enriched my life with music and love since the day I was born.  Thank you Paul for being so giving and letting us young people experience your shows to the fullest.  The memories I made that night will  be with me until the day I die.

xx

Abbey Road on the River in Louisville, KY!!

We made our way back home from DC sometime on May 21.  It was a grueling 18 hours drive.  Not that we haven't made that drive about 20 other times in my life... That's us, The Nelsons.  We've never heard of an airplane.
Like I said, we got home on the 21, I unpacked, then packed again for Louisville. Soooo many road trips!
Wednesday the 22nd was the last day I could see Erin and Lauren before they become some fancy city slickers in the Big Apple.  Yup.. they left me here in Kansas by myself while they're prancing around New York all summer.  We caught up at Coaches then went to Talk of the Town in Overland Park.  There's never a boring moment with these ladies!

 

The next day was the big day! Abbey Road on the River!!! My mom, Caity and I had planned this trip in August of 2012, so about 9 months previously.  We dropped a small fortune on the Ticket to Ride, backstage passes, meet and greets and everything in between.  We decided to go big or go home, and it was worth every penny!

On May 23, 2013, 362 days after Caity and I parted in the greatest city in the world, we were reunited once again in Louisville, Kentucky!!  The second we saw each other was like nothing had changed.  We were just SO HAPPY to be back together again!  The first night of the festival was sort of low key.  We walked around, grabbed some beer and listened to some great tribute bands!  The Rockits played on the first night also, so it was definitely fun to see some familiar faces on stage!  Listening to them brought back a flood of memories from the Cavern, it felt like we were back in the dirty, sweaty cellar in Liverpool, England again and I loved it!  It's hard to recreate, but our favorite Cavern bands did a great job bringing part of it to America!!

The last band went on around 1 am, and Caity and I were planning on heading back to the hotel, but apparently at AROTR, only the lame people go to bed at 1 am.  Every night after all of the bands have performed for the day everyone gathers in the Galt House bar and hallways with their guitars, drums, pianos, violins and beer.  At any given point in the night you could find at least 7 groups of people all sitting around, drinking beer and singing Beatles songs.  If you weren't singing songs you were mingling with band members and other festival goers and just having a jolly old time.  People would be up until 5 or 6 am on most nights.  It was completely fabulous and Caity and I partook in the beer drinking, singing and mingling every night.

Reunited

Singing songs til the wee hours of the night!

The next day was special because it was The Shakers first show of the festival!  Caity is the reason The Shakers came to AROTR.  She got in touch with the person in charge and told him how great of a band they were, and eventually he said yes!  We were so excited to see them play in America!!  They came up on stage and it was just how we remembered them.  Fun, engaging and energetic, and people loved them! 

The whole week was a blur of great music, new and old friends, Beatles, laughs and beer.  I'd go into a play by play of the week if I could, but I don't have time to write a novel.  So here's a breakdown of the days:

Thursday:
First day of the festival
Rockits first show!
Our first late night experience at the Galt House

Friday:
Shakers first show!
Rockits play
Listen to awesome music
Mingle and drink beer
A Tribute to the Cavern with The Rockits and The Shakers at 12 pm!

Saturday:
The Peter Asher Show
Shakers play twice!
Beer, music, Beatles, friends

Sunday:
The Laurence Juber show (AMAZING by the way!)
Rockits and Shakers
Peter Noone and the Herman's Hermits show!
Meet and Greet with Peter Asher, Laurence Juber, Peter Noone, Denny Laine and Tony Bramwell

Monday:
Leaving day :(

Obviously, there were more bands there.  Some of our favorites were Beatolution (baby Beatles!), Itchycoo Park, Choking Smokers, The Newbees, BritBeat, The Rigby's and tons more.  Every day Caity, my mom and I would wake up, grab a late lunch and head to the festival!  We'd be there all day long!  My mom went home around 11 each night while Caity and I came home around 3 every night.

So Friday was superfun because it was the first day of the festival, where we could really soak it all in see all of the bands!  At any given point in time during the festival, there would be at least 3 shows going on, so we had to pick and choose which ones to go to.  Obviously, we went to every single Rockits and Shakers show.  On Friday night, there was a tribute to the Cavern show with both of them playing back to back.  It was just like being back home in the Cavern! :)

Saturday was the Peter Asher show.  It was a little over two and a half hours.  Peter sang with the late Gordon via a video of just Gordon singing.  It was the closest anyone will ever come to hearing them sing again and it was very very cool!  Denny Laine, a former member of the Wings, came and sang a song as did a later member of the band Badfinger.  Peter told stories of how he came to be and how the Beatles had an impact on his life.  If you didn't know, Paul McCartney wrote a song for Peter and Gordon, which went straight to No. 1.  It kick started their career.  Lennon/McCartney proceeded to write a couple more songs for them, which were all a huge success.  Peter and Gordon can credit the start of their career and their success to the Beatles.  Later Peter became a music producer and produced many big names like James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and many more.  Lately he's been working on a lot of popular movies and his daughter is the lead singer in Cobra Starship.  The look of Austin Powers was centered around him, and his sister is Jane Asher, whom dated Paul during the Beatlemania years.  It was very very cool to see Peter Asher and to listen to him tell his life story!  After the show, we all stood in line to meet and get autographs from Peter and Denny!
My mom brought a cake mix box from Jane Asher's Cake Shop in London for Peter Asher to sign.  He thought it was hilarious!

There's Mr. Asher!

My mother haning Peter his sister's cake box to sign hahaha

Paul's handwritten lyrics to A World Without Love

No one was sure what was going on...

On Sunday we did the usual with music and beer and whatnot.  We also saw Laurence Juber play!  He is hands down the best guitar player I have ever seen play.  It was incredible what he could do with an acoustic guitar.   He played many different artists songs, and about half Beatles songs.  He never sang, but he literally didn't need to.  With his one guitar he played the melody to the song AND the lyrics at the same time.  His hand was moving up and down the neck of the guitar like crazy and his other hand was picking at the chords so fast, you couldn't even see what he was doing.  I was completely blown away by his talent, it was incredible.

That same day we also saw Peter Noone of the Herman's Hermits!  I was especially excited for this because The Herman's Hermits Greatest Hits cassette was my absolute favorite album when I was younger.  I listed to that cassette day and night until I knew the songs forward and backward.  I don't know why, but I loved them!  We bought meet and greet tickets so we could hear Peter Noone, Peter Asher, Laurence Juber, Denny Laine and Tony Bramwell talk and answer questions before the Peter Noone show.  It was amazing to see these people on stage with only one degree of separation from The Beatles.  They told stories and engaged the small crowd that was there.  After we got to take pictures with all of them!  Peter Asher LOVED Caity and I.  He went to high school two blocks from where Caity and I lived in London, so when we told him we lived on Tufton Street, he said he knew right where it was and he was really interested in us after that!  He said he didn't get many younger fans.  During his show he talked about all the artists and movies he's collaborated with like Fall Out Boy and Madagascar.  He said that he's happy his younger fans can relate to all of that when the older crowd doesn't.  He loved talking to us and kept asking us questions, it was great! By the enf of our 5 minute conversation we were basically best friends, while the people in line behind us were getting irritated.  He was so great!

Asher, Bramwell, Juber, Noone, Laine.

Strange man, Tony Bramwell..

Us and our best friends Peter!

Anyways, back to Peter Noone.  After the meet and greet we headed straight to the Peter Noone and The Herman's Hermits show!  We also had bought tickets for the first 5 rows of the show, so we could get a good seat!  We were about three rows back.  Peter Noone was hilarious and loved to act goofy on stage!  He put on a performance rather than a show, it was great!  He impersonated Mick Jagger and cracked some great jokes on stage.  And hearing his songs that I grew up with, live, was SO COOL!  I sang along to every single one and I couldn't get enough of it!  Midway through the show, he tried to throw a CD to me, but the lady in front of me caught it.  He was like cool I'm glad you caught that, lady, but I was trying to throw it to the girl in the while behind you!  I was like woah, me?!?  He said I knew all of the words to his songs and to make sure the CD he threw went to me!  It was pretty darn cool!  After the show, we all stood in line to get his autograph.  Once we got to him and talked to Caity and I (he was obviously so fun to talk to) and said he was impressed that I knew all of his songs!  He was cracking jokes to Caity, my mom and I.  Caity bought a shirt for him to sign, and he spelled her name wrong so he kept writing over the "K" to make it look like a "C", like no one would notice hahhaa.  We loved him, he loved us!

Yes, that album picture is him from 50 years ago that he took from someone in the audience.

 Sunday night was probably the funnest of the nights.  Everyone was at the Galt House bar since it was the last night.  We did singalongs, hung out with The Shakers and Rockits and met a lot more people!

Abbey Road on the River is an experience that I will never forget!  I had the time of my life and those four days went by faster than I could have imagined.  Caity and I met some incredible people and the memories we made together will last a lifetime.  I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to attend the largest Beatles festival in the world, especially with our Shakers and Rockits in America with us!!  I don't think AROTR would have been half as amazing if those two bands weren't there!  I know that Caity and I have started a tradition that will last many many years to come!

Next blog: My unforgettable night at the Paul McCartney concert!!

xx