Review of the trip

Glasgow - 20-24 March 2008
I woke up feeling really bad, good sign, I thought, not. So I called in sick at work, hoping I would feel better in the afternoon, when I'd be on my way to the airport. But no I didn't, it was raining, storming and raining some more. So I expected the worse with the flights and the really bad cold I had at the time. But I was pleasantly surprised by it all. I arrived in Edinburgh feeling pretty good, no headaches or ear-aches at all. Good start. We took the bus to Edinburgh city centre and took the bus to take us to Glasgow. Bu the time we got to Glasgow it was lashing down so we took a taxi to our hotel. Which was even closer to the concert venue than we'd expected. It was right behind our hotel. And as it was ten to ten we decided to check in, dump our suitcases in our room and go to the venue to see if we could hear anything or spot anyone. But by the time we got downstairs the first fans were coming out of the venue already, so bad luck. So we decided to go to bed as we were all pretty tired after that long trip.

Friday morning we woke up early and decided to get our tickets for the concerts. At one point the man came back with an envelope with only 2 tickets do we all were afraid something went wrong there and one of us couldn't get in. But everything was fine and we got the right envelope. With our tickets in our bags we went to find something to eat. We got something to eat in a Spar and walked on to the city centre, which was a pretty long and hard walk, as even the centre was kind of hilly but it was a nice walk. We checked the hotel the lads were rumoured to be staying, but just Mark was there and the rest of the lads was said to be staying somewhere else. We were on our way to the station when we got a message some of them had just left, so we decided to go shopping instead. And did a bit of the Glasgow city tour too, to keep our minds of Westlife, who were in the same city somewhere at that time. While waiting at the busstop for the city tour we met a German girl who visits my site (and San's site) frequently, and recognised us. Hello you! Didn't know you, but was nice of you to say hi! At about 4 we went back to our hotel to rest a bit and to make our banner and to think up some nice slogans for our, probably famous by now, orange balls. We went to the McDonalds we spotted on our way into town that morning to eat something and got ready for the concert. We arrived there at 7.15 and were in time for the support act, the MacDonald Brother, funny. They were good, but we all thought they were better last year. Then the waiting, and more waiting started once again. But for once, they actually started at 8.40 instead of 9.10 so that was good! And what a good start it was! Opening wasn't as spectacular when it comes to the show element but the song was perfect: Hit You With The Real Thing - a typical song to get the crowd going! World Of Our Own followed, getting a bit tired of it, but when they sing that live it actually sounds good. After that they sang the first song of their hit album Back Home, Something Right, which everyone seemed to love. I was surprised in a way as they sang this during promotion as well but I liked it! This start promised a good set list and in my opinion they really needed that, they needed a change of songs to keep the crowd entertained. What Makes A Man is one of those songs the lads love and they tend to sing it a lot, but it's that type of song you never get bored of. Then Uptown Girl followed with the sticks and the nice dance routine. The same goes for this, gets boring but live it's ok. Then for me one of the highlights of the show took place. I heard a really nice mixed intro, and yes, more Back Home stuff was played - The Easy Way. Lyrically not the most intelligent song, but definitely a song that the crowd loved. And the way it was mixed with "ABC" (Jackson5) made it even better in my opinion as the songs seem kind of similar. Then the intro to "Where Is The Love?" by the Black Eyed Peas started, which got my attention. That was the new intro to If I Let You Go, nice change and yet again another great, uptempo song that hasn't been performed over and over. They ended this part of the show with good old Mandy, getting pretty boring, but again live, it's one of those songs that can actually make you cry. In the first few shows they ended this set with My Love, but for some unknown reason that was removed from the list after the first couple of shows. The same goes for Hey Whatever, which they played before the encore. It was a total shame as they never replaced those songs.

After a costume change they continued with what for most of the fans is the highlight of the show. Their themed medley. This year though I must say I couldn't actually think of a theme but once again the songs were fabulous choices. Getting back up on stage shaking their bodies to sexy Sexyback by Justin Timberlake they launched that into Blame It On The Boogie (again by the Jackon5) which they pulled off really well. And the same thing could be said about Get Down On It by Kool & The Gang. And of course the highlight of that song were the dance routines, ever so funny. In the next song, Nicky actually got to the lead vocals, which I think was a perfect, perfect choice. As Nicky actually has a bit of the George Michael sound in him, so I'm Your Man was another swing, sing-along song. And then they finished the medley, with for me one of the best songs they've ever performed during those medleys: Let Me Entertain You. The roof went off during this song and all 4 of them were really having a good time. You could just see that in their faces and the jumping around they did, fabulous! They actually were in top form throughout the whole show, running around, joking and laughing. And the interaction with the fans was nice as well. At one point in the show they even read out some banners here and there. It was great to see that after 10 years they still have fun on there! I won't describe all of the show but the rest of the setlist was as follows:
I'm Already There
Unbreakable
Queen Of My Heart
Fool Again
Catch My Breath
Home
Us Against The World
Hey Whatever
Swear It Again
Flying Without Wings
When You're Looking Like That
You Raise Me Up

All in all there were a lot of pleasant song surprises. Except the background singers the show was great vocal wise, but somehow I seemed the miss the show element at times, but hey you can't have it all I guess eh. Oh and some funny moments to end this part with: Shane swinging his arms are dropping his mic. Nicky dropping his mic and Shane in fits of laughter at the start of Home. Shane & Kian in a playful fight during their thank yous and at the start of Flying Without Wings. Shane & Kian banging their heads again each other at the end of the medley and Shane saying they enjoyed it a bit too much. They're discussing songs they could sing, Hey Whatever, Mandy and someone came up with Tunnel of Love. Nicky made Shane apologize for his language. Here's what he said about "Tunnel of Love" - "that's a shite song!"
"Shane, I think you owe Glasgow an apology for fault language."
"I'm very sorry!"
"I think you should show them [something I couldn't make out / "with your..."]"
"Sorry! But it isn't a great song!"
Then there was Nicky making fun of someone in the audience saying "You know what? You were texting during the 1st song, the 2nd song, the 3rd song, the 4th song.. who are you texting! He said he's texting you all night!"
Saturday we continued the city tour we started on Friday, as the ticket was valid for two consecutive days. After that we wanted to see if we could see anyone at the hotel, but we got a text that there was no use in going. So we went shopping, as the shops were now open. We had an early dinner in a nice little restaurant and got ready for our second show. Our fellow Dutchies were sat right behind us that night so there were 7 of us. And of course, we couldn't go unnoticed. Before the show started they had the screen part again. With people from the audience on the screens and after a lot of ignoring we finally got shown with our banner saying: "Dutchies in the House". And from that moment on the SECC knew we were back! And halfway through the show, during that interaction moment with the audience, they signed a girls yellow jacket this time, how Nice! So Wendy held up the banner again and after while Nicky had most definitely seen it because he asked the girl where she was from ad he was like "Where are you from? Holland?" Giving us a quick glance. And all of us started screaming the house down. So when he was reading out the banners he read out our banner and waved at us! So that was more screaming from our side! Mission succeeded! Apart from the ballthrowing as the security got hold of it again, even though a nice man at the front tried to throw it on stage. And the funny thing was that a lot of stuff got thrown on stage, with the lads had quiet a bit of fun. Like balls and flags and other stuff that was thrown on stage. It was a pity Shane kicked a ball into he audience which he'd obviously got from someone in the audience and we were not allowed to throw them anything. But anyway, the rest of the show was once again really good, the lads were having fun again, but over way too soon.

After the show we met up with Evi from Belgium and her boyfriend and had a lovely time at our hotel.
The next morning we got up early to go to the lads' hotel as 3 of them were still there, Shane had left to Sheffield straight after the concert on Saturday, probably to be with Gillian & Nicole. When we got to their hotel it was quite empty and that's when we got told to go away, as the local fans had ruined it. So there we were, no craving, no meeting, for the first time since 2003. So went back to our hotel, not knowing what to do. We all were pretty tired as none of us was 100% fit so we went back to our room and rested a bit with the other Dutchies. Back at the hotel the taxi had to drive around a bit as there was a motorcycle tour for Easter. Wendy was told there were over 10.000 of them and it was an annual thing. The noise! It was great to see though. After the other girls had left for the airport all 3 of us fell asleep and we only woke up at 6.45pm! We went outside for a bit to wake up again and took some photos here and there around the SECC. We got back to our hotel and decided to make it an early night as we had a bit of travelling to do the next morning as we're going home on Monday. All of us regretted not going back on Sunday that night, as the lads were out of town, no meeting, no nothing. The city wasn't our favourite place to be so we packed our bags and went to bed.

On Monday we could sleep in a bit as we only had to leave at 10.45 and our cases were already packed. It was then that we didn't feel like going home, as we had a great time all and all and leaving is never my favourite part. But we got the bus back to Edinburgh, and it was actually snowing a bit that morning. Well it was more like a small snowstorm as it was kind of windy but we've been very very lucky with the weather. As usual the weather was better than in Holland. So that's a good thing, especially when you're in Scotland or Ireland, as you know what they say about the weather over there!

And on our way into Edinburgh city we got a nice surprise - we drove past a petrol station and what did Wendy spot? Yes, the milk campaign poster with Westlife on it! She was too for to take a pic though. We took some pictures in the centre before going to the airport. When we got near the billboard she tried again and yes, she got a good picture of it that time around!

Anyway, the flight was pleasant and really short, we were back in Amsterdam in just over an hour time and got home at 8. And now we can look back at a nice weekend and look forward to a hopefully even better Croke Park weekend!

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