Chi in Chicago….

Woke around 9am, showered dressed and headed out to the venue to pick up a couple of tickets for a friend i was to meet up with later in the day. I got to the venue around 10:15 only to find out the box office didn't open till 11. It was a beautiful day but a little humid, it said 81 on the weather readout on the train here and it certainly felt like it!

I laid out on a bench by the venue and sunbathed for a little till around 11 ish, as i sat up i saw a guy coming out of the venue and a couple of people taking his picture. I could tell he was someone famous but had no idea who he was, 6ft 7”, black and walking out of the united centre he had to be a basket ball player! I took the following pics and within 5 minutes of putting it on my facebook page my friend Wendy replied to say it was Scottie Pippin, an ex NBA guy who was pretty good by all reports! He’d obviously been good enough to make enough money to buy a nice car!

I took the train back to the hotel, got back just as Kim and Joe were heading out to Navy pier for some lunch so the three of us took a leisurely stroll up towards the pier.As i said it was real humid today and i mentioned this to Kim and told her her hairs gonna get all frizzed out when she goes outside. “ no it wont, I've just chi’ed it” she said.  (Chi pronounced Chee) She then went on to tell Joe and i about her hair straigtener’s called “Chi” These get real hot and stop the hair frizzing out!

As we headed out of the hotel we saw the following waiting at the traffic light! are you really allowed to drive a car like this in the US ?

 

We called in at Millennium park for a couple of shots of the been and the outdoor theatre and then carried on walking up the waterfront past the marina and on to the pier.

The pier looked a lot nearer than it actually was! i guess due to the size of the ferris wheel we could see at the entrance, we seemed to walk for miles and it never got any nearer! After nearly getting run over by bicycles on the sidewalk several time we eventually arrived at the pier and called Gina and Mara who had left their hotel a while after us and were going to meet up with us. They were 15 minutes away so we sat down and ordered a drink at Harry Caray’s on the pier.

The girls arrived 10 minutes later and they glad to get some food to soak up the left over alcohol in their bodies from the night before!! We saw Marcia (Ron's wife) Greg and Colin walk past the restaurant and had a 5 minute chat. Ron was working today so Marcia was playing tour guide for the day.

After lunch Kim, Joe, Maria and Gina headed to the ferris wheel, i walked back down to Millennium park where id arranged to meet Lorri to hand over the tickets id picked up for her that morning. Made my way back to our hotel and by the time i got there Joe and Kim arrived in a taxi. Joe had crashed in our room the night before and hadn't got a change of clothes so his friend Eric was bringing him some over when he came over for the show. Joe grabbed a shower in our room however he had no “product” for his hair! Kim had the best product ever she said, she could “Chi “him!!! and she proceeded to do so! much to the amusement of me, Kami and everyone else that wanted to see the video in the bar that night (you kinda had to be there to get the funny side of it)

After Joe had had his “makeover” we got a couple of cabs and headed out to the West End bar where tonight's pre show meet was.It was a little further on the street from last nights meet up place but only half a mile from the venue. Ron had reserved a room for us all that its own private bar and by the time we arrived I'd guess the place was 75% full!

Mark, Beth, Kami, Kim, Joe and i all sat down for some food and 5 minutes later Eric walked in with his brother and sister Jennifer. I hadn't seen Eric for about 4 years and it was great to see him again. Eric and Joe came over to the UK in 2002 for the UK shows of Rogers “In The Flesh” tour, they were both 19 years old, had never been out of the US and were travelling alone, i picked them up at Kings Cross station without having ever  met them before and we had a fantastic week driving round seeing the shows in the UK and Dublin, something we reminisced about a lot both last night and during today. Two fantastic friends with a huge passion for Roger and music in general.Justin had also arrived who again had come over to the UK in 2002 and hung out with us all, i hadn't seen him for 3 years and it was great for us all to meet up face to face again instead of via messages on a forum! Lars had also flown in earlier today from Copenhagen to join us for the next weeks worth of shows and would be travelling to Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Boston with us all.

Adam, Myself, Justin, Joe and Eric       Eric, Philippe, Jennifer, Adam and Joe         Eric, Myself and Adam

 

People were arriving all the time and it was kinda hard to keep up with who was here, who wasn't, who id met the night before and who i hadn't!
Album with pictures of all the pre show meet up people below, as you tell from our faces we had a fantastic time and all get on so well together, just like one big extended family.

View Full Album

I had a good chat with almost everyone, managed to get round and take pictures with most people too. I had wanted to have a good chat with Johnny “floyd”  but he wasn't at the meet up. Lauren had given him my cell number and he texted me to give me his seat details in the venue where i said id call by and have a chat. The bar had a shuttle bus again to take us all to the venue so we caught that around 7pm and arrived at the show about 7:15.
 
Then onto the show…………..

Chicago show 1…….

We arrived at the venue around 7:15 with enough time to wander around and take in the atmosphere.

The girls on the floor,                      Col, Ron and the Doc                    Greg, Suzanne, Col and Marcia

   

Everyone at the show was spread all over the hall, some on the floor and some in various sections around the side. I was sitting with Suzanne, Greg, Col, Ron, Marcia, Doc and a couple of others about half way back on the first tier. i went down on the floor to find people and hang out and stood with Jens, Philippe and Thomas for a while.

Went back to my seat and i watched peoples faces who hadn’t seen the show as they were watching the “homeless guy” wander around the venue and have his picture taken with people who really think there's a homeless guy got it! The guys from the UK and its all part of the show! he even has a paper cup to put money in that people hand him as he goes up and down the aisles with security getting into the whole theatrical event and pretending to move him along and get him out of the venue.Only Roger could come up with something like this for pre show entertainment!!

A lot of the people at the first Chicago show had not been in Toronto so this was their first experience of seeing the show, at the dinner we all had the night before it was so difficult for all of us that had been in Toronto to not talk about the show and spoil it for the others. A lot of people had not looked at pictures, videos, audio recordings or read the message boards so to them it was just like an opening nights show!

It was fantastic to watch Greg’s (whom i was sat next to) face as the show opened,  the whole opening track is full of lights, smoke, pyros, sparks and fireworks, its  kind of 3 minute BRAIN overload that takes a while to sink in after the track (In The Flesh) and just leaves everyone on their feet wanting more.

There were a few technical problems during the show that someone who hasn't seen the show wouldn't really notice at all, The plane at the end of In The Flesh wasn't released on the wire that sends it crashing down into the wall. for some reason. There were a few projections on the wall when they shouldn't have been and a couple of real small audio glitches along the way.

After the show people were as we expected, totally speechless, apart from Wendy who wasn't blown away as i told her she would be, this wasn't so the second night and it was just a case of her seats for the first night weren't that great. I managed to meet up with my great friends Chris and Meagan as we bumped into them at the exit.They both had the VIP package and had not been able to go to the pre show bar  due to having the VIP meal before the gig and me being unable to find them on the floor during the show. I also managed to meet up with another friend, Will Taber. Will and i had e mailed and traded recordings for 10 years or so and it was great to finally meet in the flesh and put a face to the text on a screen!

Myself, Meagan and Chris                                 Meeting Will for the first time.

   

We tried to find the shuttle bus to take us back to the bar however all four sides of the venue looked the same (as did the streets surrounding streets) so after walking a mile all the way round and not being able to find the shuttle we got a cab back and meet up.

The place was buzzing with excitement when we got back, EVERYONE was now able to talk about the show and not worry about spoiling it for the others. I think i heard every superlative possible, Amazing, Fantastic, Superb, unreal!! i myself thought the only word to describe is was OUTSTNADING!! something I'm sure Chris would agree on:)

Chris W and Marco                     Chris “outstanding” Manger & Gina   Kami and I

 

The party was still in full swing at around 1am when i decided to do the sensible thing and head back to my hotel, before going back though i managed to pick up  a great form of transport that's not gonna cost me much at all to travel round to the shows in, plus I'll be pretty fit by the end of the 3 months!! i got back to the hotel around 1:15 and fell right to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow!, Kim and Joe got back to the room around 3:30am and the three of us proceeded to snore through the rest of the night/ morning!

Day 2 in Chicago………

I awoke around 8am and went straight out for a run over by the lake. Last time i ran in Gravenhurst a couple of days go i was still a bit jet lagged and went a little dizzy. This morning i felt great, still took it steady though and ran over to the lake then followed the path down past Soldier Filed and around by the aquarium. I heard a shout out of “ hey, how's the run?” i looked over and it was Anders and his friend from Sweden out walking off their hangover! Got back to the hotel and ran a steady 4 miles in 36:20 which wasn't too bad, the main thing was i felt great and didn't get dizzy.

Walked in the door of the hotel and bumped into Philippe and Thomas, Thomas was another one nursing a pretty bad hangover and this just made me even more thankful  returned from the bar early!

Kim was still asleep in the room with a hangover and said she wasn't gonna move for the rest of the day and was just gonna sleep. I showered and headed over to see Gina and Maria. We met at their hotel and the 3 of us walked down to Millennium Park and to see a few sights.

Picture from Gina and Marias room, Gina and Maria’s reflection in the “bean” and The Bean

 

 Picture to the left is an art sculpture from Millennium park, there's two of these standing opposite each other and the faces change every 2 seconds or so. Water cascades down the side of them and pools on the floor before draining away and getting recycled all over again.

 

We stopped for lunch at the outside restaurant in the park and had some appetizers between the three of us. Then headed back to the Hotel to chill out for an hour and rest up before going out to the Crossroads bar and grill where everyone was meeting up a couple of hours before the start of the show.

 

 

It was 5pm when we all met in the lobby of the hotel, about nine of us were all staying here and another four or five [people were a few blocks down the street at another hotel. It was as cheap to get a car as it was to get 4 or 5 cabs to get to the bar so we asked at the front desk and 15 minutes later we jumped into the limo.

Again it was great to see everyone from the night before plus a few other people who weren't able to make the first night. Was great to see Scott franks, Paul Bridgeman, PikoJoe, Wendy, Jessica and a couple of others.

      Gina & Wendy        Michael, Kim & Pikojoe  Wendy, Marco & Col     Marcia, Suzanne & Jens

       

We had a great time at the bar, sat and ate some awesome nachos and had the first Long Island Iced tea of the night(i only had the 2 two) Beth had an amazing Mud Pie dessert and both Col & I took great pleasure in helping her eat it!

Not much left after Col and I attacked it!

           

The bar had their own shuttle bus that took people to the venue and went back and forth till everyone that was going to the show had gone. We got the first shuttle and arrived around 7:15pm.

     

Outside the United centre for the first Chicago show, Jessica, Wendy and Ron at their first show:

       

More pictures below of the pre show meet up at The Crossroads:

View Full Album

Hello Chicago……….

We finally made it out of Toronto around 3:15pm, we were due to depart at 2:10 and for some unknown reason it got pushed back an hour. The guys (and Maria) had been  making the best of the delay managing to have another couple of drinks before boarding the flight.

My good friend Gina had decided only at 2am in the morning that she was going to fly into Chicago for a couple of the shows from San Francisco. We arrived at O’Hare airport to find her standing there waiting for us to arrive off our flight! It was fantastic to see her, especially not knowing she was coming until i was actually on our flight into Chicago and then finding out she would be waiting for us!

Maria meeting Gina at Chicago Airport and mine and Jens  reaction on seeing Gina.

       

Meeting Gina at the airport.

I’d arranged to meet up with Andrew (Groovybass from the message board) when my flight landed but due to the delay he had taken the train an hour ago into the city, Jens, Thomas, Gina, Maria and i got the train into Chicago from the airport, $2.50 each and 40 minutes later your in downtown! Philippe for some reason had booked a later flight and was arriving around 5pm however he was seeing some WWF wrestling straight after he arrived so wouldn't be meeting up with us till tomorrow morning and would miss the big meet up we had planned tonight.

We had a private room booked at one of Chicago's well know Pizza restaurants for tonight, Gino’s East. About 45 of us were all meeting up for dinner at 7pm and most of the people who were attending were meeting at 5pm in downtown Chicago as my good friend Ron who lives in the city was gonna give everyone a guided tour on the mile and a half walk up to the restaurant. Unfortunately there was no way we were gonna make the “tour” now due to our flight delay but we’d still be meeting everyone at Gino’s.

We checked in our hotel, Myself, Jens, Philippe and Thomas were all staying at the same place and Gina and Maria were at a hotel a couple of blocks away.  After unpacking and freshening up we headed over to meet Gina and Maria at their hotel. It was now 6:15pm and Kim's mum Beth had called me to ask where we were. They were 20 minutes away from Gino’s and would wait for us outside once they were there.. After the girls eventually deciding on what boots to wear, what eyeliner to put on etc etc we left the hotel and decided to get a cab up to Gino’s.

Waiting for the girls:

  

Kim was real excited to see Gina got out of the cab with us and we did a good job of hiding her behind us so as Kim didn't see her till the last minute, no one at the meet up either had any idea she had decided to come so that would be a surprise for a lot of her friends who were there.

The private room we had was on the 3rd floor and as soon as we got up there we saw the masses of people who were all sat waiting for the last few to arrive.

This was a group shot taken before people started to leave (Jackie, i did the pose just for you!)

It was fantastic to see so many friends there, some i hadn't seen since i was in Chicago for the last Roger shows a few years ago, some i hadn't seen since three days before who had flown out of Toronto earlier than us and a few that I'd heard and communicated with a lot but had never met! Almost everyone was pleased to see Gina had made the trip over from California, there were people from all over the world that had travelled in for these shows in Chicago (and other cities on the tour)! California, Montreal, Denmark, Sweden, New York, Florida, and lots more. It was great to see people face to face who i only knew as names on a PC screen or had seen picture of on their facebook pages.We had the room booked for 3 hours and that time just seem to fly by so quickly!! there never seems enough time to talk to everyone at these meet ups.

More pics here from Gino’s meet up:

View Full Album

People started drifting off around 10:30pm and Ron invited a few people back to his house to carry on the festivities. A group of about 12 of us decided to try find Buddy Guys blues bar, no one knew exactly where it was but after looking on iphones and cell phone maps it was evident it was a 45 minute walk and about .5 miles away. As we were trying to find said club, Maria had gone into a bar to ask if they knew where Buddy Guys was, she emerged shouting it was just round the corner and across the street. After walking round what seemed 25 corners and crossing several streets it was becoming clear that no one had a clue where they were going and we all just looked out for the nearest bar. Flashing lights were spotted behind some tree’s about quarter of a mile ahead, “a bar” someone shouted. When we got there it wasn't a bar but a wine shop that was all closed up with a flashing light in the window. However, we did see a bar across the street then and headed over to it. Sure enough it was the real thing! with jukebox and pool table as well. I thing the bar tender wondered what on earth had walked in when the door opened and 12 of us just rambled up to the bar and stated ordering drinks. Its probably the busiest Sunday night she’s had in years and she certainly made us feel welcome. There were only 4 or 5 people in there when we arrived and  the sound of Gilmour's guitars squealing away playing Echoes on the jukebox soon got rid of a couple of those people and we pretty much had the place to ourselves!

OY, Where's the fucking bar john ?:

 

   

After hearing pretty much a “best of” Floyd track listing on the jukebox myself and Kim's sister Kami left around 1:00am to go back to the hotel. I'm sharing a room with Kim and i remember her coming in around 4:30am

Speaking to everyone this morning I've heard they “lost” Jake as everyone went down to Gina and Maria’s hotel room around 2:30am! From all accounts they then took a taxi to the 7/11 to get beer and partied into the early hours until being thrown out of the hotel politely by the hotel security around 4:15am!!  After seeing Thomas, Kim and Maria this morning and hearing of the hangovers I'm so pleased i called it a night when i did!!