10 May - Birmingham, UK (The National Indoor Arena)

Amily wrote:

chrissycubana wrote:what a great idea that fan had, to dance off with the security guard!!! she's good peoples, that one is .

She even apologised for her actions on their fb page after the gig.

[size=100:fxvg9nud]I feel I must apologise for storming the stage last night. I was pretty scary. x

awwww... what a sweetheart!!

(she should take a gander at the berkeley vid where the fan gets way too friendly with jemaine's head to make herself feel better ... *shudder* poor jemaine)

Too Many Dicks

[flash=350,287:uurz6msj]https://www.youtube.com/v/isOeVkWxkhc&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:uurz6msj]


We're Both in Love With a Sexy Lady/Sugalumps

[flash=350,287:uurz6msj]https://www.youtube.com/v/SQhTi_PoRSU&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:uurz6msj]

omnichord!

" title="" border="0"/> The end of Sugalumps was hilarious!
[size=75:kd2nrz73](only the second video I've watched...)


They're so silly! Jemaine's trousers falling down...

I'm so happy the sugalumps song was caught on video!!! <
3 you can see why this show kinda broke me. Haha

sheila wrote:

Venus wrote: Courtney, did you not turn a little Bretero after that M&G? " title="" border="0"/>

she was a little bi- after the vegas show!!! ;
)

That was our secret, you slut! ;
)

Um. Yea. Everyone was so adorable and so so kind to the fans, but Bret was sweet beyond words.







I may have gotten two hugs from Bret... *runs away feeling ~confused~*

onlyalways wrote:I'm so happy the sugalumps song was caught on video!!! <
3 you can see why this show kinda broke me. Haha

sheila wrote:

she was a little bi- after the vegas show!!! ;
)

That was our secret, you slut! ;
)

Um. Yea. Everyone was so adorable and so so kind to the fans, but Bret was sweet beyond words.







I may have gotten two hugs from Bret... *runs away feeling ~confused~*

Aha!


This photo isn't from Birmingham, but I'm posting it to aid your ~confusion~

hellomyfriend wrote:

onlyalways wrote:I'm so happy the sugalumps song was caught on video!!! <
3 you can see why this show kinda broke me. HahaThat was our secret, you slut! ;
)

Um. Yea. Everyone was so adorable and so so kind to the fans, but Bret was sweet beyond words.







I may have gotten two hugs from Bret... *runs away feeling ~confused~*

Aha!


This photo isn't from Birmingham, but I'm posting it to aid your ~confusion~

'uck off.

hellomyfriend wrote:

onlyalways wrote:I'm so happy the sugalumps song was caught on video!!! <
3 you can see why this show kinda broke me. HahaThat was our secret, you slut! ;
)

Um. Yea. Everyone was so adorable and so so kind to the fans, but Bret was sweet beyond words.







I may have gotten two hugs from Bret... *runs away feeling ~confused~*

Aha!


This photo isn't from Birmingham, but I'm posting it to aid your ~confusion~

Thanks for posting all those vids guys. I had a great night in Brum too and got to meet Sarah and Venus briefly before the show. sadly, didn't get any pics and no cuddles for me from the boys after the show either (lucky girls) but a dream come true to see them live and still can't quite believe it but did manage to get a poster after the show which will be treasured.

cecilia wrote:Thanks for posting all those vids guys. I had a great night in Brum too and got to meet Sarah and Venus briefly before the show. sadly, didn't get any pics and no cuddles for me from the boys after the show either (lucky girls) but a dream come true to see them live and still can't quite believe it but did manage to get a poster after the show which will be treasured.

Yay! I'm glad you had a great time and were able to meet some other Flighties!
for getting a poster!

credit: [url=Mel Hunt][/url]

Hurt Feelings

[flash=350,287:o22nb8rb]https://www.youtube.com/v/KBvCcK5DtS4&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:o22nb8rb]

[flash=350,287:o22nb8rb]https://www.youtube.com/v/H5prXyvjQn8&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:o22nb8rb]



Albi

[flash=350,287:o22nb8rb]https://www.youtube.com/v/KXH4BWLJwcA&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:o22nb8rb]


Epileptic Dogs Remix
[flash=350,287:o22nb8rb]https://www.youtube.com/v/D7sMFlMzCOg&hl=en&fs=1[/flash:o22nb8rb]

onlyalways wrote:

hellomyfriend wrote:


Aha!


This photo isn't from Birmingham, but I'm posting it to aid your ~confusion~

'uck off.

[align=right:528ka15o][size=75:528ka15o]You know you like it.[/align:528ka15o]

cecilia wrote:Thanks for posting all those vids guys. I had a great night in Brum too and got to meet Sarah and Venus briefly before the show. sadly, didn't get any pics and no cuddles for me from the boys after the show either (lucky girls) but a dream come true to see them live and still can't quite believe it but did manage to get a poster after the show which will be treasured.

It was really nice to meet you, cecilia! I'm glad you had a fantastic time at the gig too!

onlyalways wrote:I'm so happy the sugalumps song was caught on video!!! <
3 you can see why this show kinda broke me. Haha

sheila wrote:

she was a little bi- after the vegas show!!! ;
)

That was our secret, you slut! ;
)

Um. Yea. Everyone was so adorable and so so kind to the fans, but Bret was sweet beyond words.







I may have gotten two hugs from Bret... *runs away feeling ~confused~*

Hehe, no one would have been able to resist Bret's charm!

It was so cute that you were the first person he talked to and he hugged you straight away! The hug photo you took with him was also incredibly cute!

Before the gig
I travelled from London to Birmingham with Courtney and Sara and met up with Sarah to explore Birmingham’s city centre before the show.

Doors opened at 6.30pm and I turned up at the NIA at 7pm. I was quite worried when I read notices on the doors of the entrance stating that cameras weren’t allowed. However, I don’t think any cameras were confiscated and the security guy didn’t even look carefully through my bag. As soon as I entered the venue, I headed straight to the merchandise stand and was told that only 50 tea towels were put up for sale and they sold out really quickly but more were on the way so I had to go back to buy a tea towel after a few more were put out. I also bought the gig poster and glittery t-shirt.

Courtney, Sarah, Sara and I hung around for a little while checking out the venue from the balcony. It was pretty huge as expected.




I have Sarah to thank for purchasing my ticket in Block C on the ground floor and it was an absolute pleasure sitting next to her as we both had a blast throughout the whole gig. As we waited for the show to start, the atmosphere inside the NIA was electric. Not too long before Eugene came on, they played the NZ Tourism advert from the archives (New Zealand is yours. Go there now- this was posted as a video on [url=FOTC’s MySpace blog][/url])

Warning: My account of the show is quite spoilerish so don’t read if you don’t want to know anything about what the gigs may be like! Also I have tried to quote them as best as I remember but I may have misquoted them and mixed a few things up. ;
)

[size=200:pra2hdoa]The show

Eugene’s set

Jemaine introduced Eugene in what I guess sounded like a Northern accent (probably a Yorkshire accent) saying that he’s so funny that we’ll not only pee on ourselves but on the person next to us. Eugene delivered a really good set. He talked about a flyer he received in Birmingham with a pic of a dog and a pic of a pig asking why we’d eat one of these animals and not the other and Eugene said that he’ll go ahead and eat a dog. Eugene mentioned that the only thing he picked up about Birmingham is that the buildings look as though they’re from the Soviet era. He talked about one of his book launch events where there was a 12 year old with Asperger’s Syndrome who wondered why Eugene was getting all the attention and not himself and the boy said that Eugene should worship him as his god and Eugene went along with that. He also talked about a boy who told his mum that Eugene dared him to do something childish but Eugene said that he wouldn’t give wimpy dares and if he did dare the boy, the boy would end up dead.

He also talked about a poll he saw on MySpace about gay marriage which led to an ad to win 2 BlackBerry Storms. This caused Eugene to come up with a few polls of his own which he shared with us to direct traffic to his site. He also showed us a video he did for grist.org at the Climate Change conference at Copenhagen on the big screens. This seemed to be amongst Eugene’s biggest laughs from the crowd particularly when he talked to someone who doesn’t believe in Climate Change when she mistakenly thought Eugene was from somewhere else and said “I can’t belive you got a fact wrong! Zing!” . It can be found on YouTube [url=here][/url]. Towards the end of his set, Eugene talked about a speeding ticket he received. His charge was eventually lessened but he decided to write a letter to them which he read out.

FOTC!

Bret and Jemaine opened their set with ‘Too Many Dicks’ with their lit up robotic cardboard heads. They then went into Most Beautiful Girl’ with a good addition into the song from Jemaine of “plus size model”. After a couple of songs, Nigel was introduced as the New Zealand Symphony orchestra which led to the story about the other two members who couldn’t make it since one missed his flight and the next flight is next month when the tour is over and the other member forgot her tuba. They said they brought her out for 40 minutes at the Manchester gig but it didn’t work out. Nigel had on a big red bow tie and looked very smart as usual.

Towards the beginning of the gig, Jemaine pointed out that Bret had some pink stuff in his hair and wanted it to be taken out. So Jemaine called Matt on stage and to take it out of his hair and said that was what Matt was there for. " title="" border="0"/> Throughout the gig, there were bits of banter about Bret and Jemaine’s rock n roll lifestyle on tour such as the time when they were offered complimentary muffins but they didn’t want to eat them as they were watching their weight but they were caught out as Bret spotted crumbs around Jemaine’s mouth. However, this took place 5 years ago. Another rock n roll anecdote was when they were standing in the elevator for 7 minutes but then realised that they failed to press the button. Jemaine tried to get Bret to talk about the “groupies and the goldfish” but Bret was refused and thought it wasn’t appropriate. Then Jemaine mumbled something about it involving vaginas… " title="" border="0"/>

Bret also asked Jemaine to do a Manchester accent but Jemaine pointed out there were in Birmingham so there was a low, disapproving groan from the audience and Bret tried to get out of the sticky situation by saying that there were insulting Manchester by mimicking their accent. Bret mimicked the accent of someone in the front who said ‘I’m from Birmingham’ so then they asked the audience where everyone was from and at one point Jemaine said that he just wanted to hear the funny accents. So a few people shouted out where they’re from and Bret repeated someone who said Coventry and looked disgusted. After hearing some people shout where they were from in a football chant style, Jemaine said “I’ve been watching football on the news and I don’t want another riot.” Jemaine also had a go at the Birmingham accent although it sounded like a mixture of many regional accents.

Jemaine heard someone make a sheep noise so they played off that throughout the evening. He said that it wouldn’t be unusual for there to be a few sheep in the audience in NZ. He also said, “If someone is making sheep noises, how insulting! If there is an actual sheep here, welcome.” They then said that the sheep noises lead on well to their next song “Hurt Feelings”. At the beginning, Jemaine talked about their “brother” Tupac and how he had hurt feelings before he died. The “Issues” were also discussed including famine which according to them involves waking up with no food in the cupboard and feeling famished. There’s also the issue of whales who need to dial emergency services because they are drowning in the sea because they are mammals and thus should be on the land and due to their flippers, they find it hard to call 999.

Spoiler:

H v R was another crowd pleasure especially when Jemaine got he first 10 rows pregnant and said “Congratulations, bitches” which got a big laugh. “Ladies of the World” was played with them including ‘Birmingham’ in the lyrics. They encouraged audience participation during “Epileptic dogs” and got the crowd to join in by singing along and joining in. “I’m Not crying “ was also played and Jemaine tried to give the fading out effect when he repeats “not crying” by leaning further away from the mic and then he got out of his chair and backed even further away from his mic. Foux du Fafa was great and I loved the addition from Bret of “Le coq sportif” and l’interlude du musicale from Folk The World where Bret was saying random “Formidable!” “Amazing…le!” “Wow!”.

At one point during the show, someone shouted out” I love you, Bret” so Jemaine strummed is guitar and sand “I’ve got hurt feelings”. This led to a few people shouting out that they love Jemaine but he replied “No, you’re just saying that”. People shouted out that they loved Nigel so he put his hand in the air with pride. Jemaine then said it was enough and that they were “not Boyzone” (a famous Irish boyband).



There were some people further back shouting things like “I love you” and Jemaine said he couldn’t hear them because they are too far back and said that if they paid more money, they would have better seats. He went on to say that he knows the middle class people at the front appreciated that joke. Bret asked the people in the section at the back of the arena to cheer and they gave a really enthusiastic cheer and Bret said they sounded as though they were attending much better gig than this one.

Bret said his favourite heckler of the night was some guy who randomly shouted out in a thick accent, sort of aggressively “My name is BrahBrah!”

Before Bowie there was banter about time tripping on acid and when they ended up at David Bowie’s party in the mid 70’s where Bret and Bowie laid down some “rancid chops"
. They also talked about Bret jamming out with Bowie but Jem missed out because he was comforting ladies in the bathroom who happened to be present day Tina Turner with a younger version of herself. Present Day Tina Turner was telling her to leave Ike and Jem advises that she probably should and wanted to say “What’s love got to do, got to do with it”. Bret talked about playing Bowie an easy to play Bowie book to make the next 20 years a lot easier for him. Jemaine also talked about the formation of FOTC when it was only him in the band but Bret just joined in and he just kept playing behind Bret and to demonstrate, Jemaine got out of his seat and stood behind Bret but Bret said he did the same with Bowie but it wasn’t successful.

Re: Bowie and Demon Woman:

Spoiler:

After leaving the stage to rapturous applause, Bret and Jemaine returned to stage for the encore. Jemaine was struggling to put his trousers back on so someone shouted “Take it off!” and they both said that he already did and then someone shouted “Put them on!” which Bret liked. During the show someone shouted out ‘Business Time’ and Jemaine mock whispered that they were going to go off stage and then come back on to play it. And so they played it during the encore. Jemaine even played the recorder during that song. Jemaine then introduced Bus Driver’s Song as a love song and it sounded absolutely beautiful live. After this it look as though they were about to play mutha’uckas as Bret set himself up on the drums but they heard a group of people shouting ‘Albi’. At first Bret tried to play the drums to Albi but realised it didn’t work so he decided to use Little Red. Jemaine’s accent seemed to progress into a sort of Northern accent during the song. Then all of a sudden at the end of the song, he played the remix of ‘Epileptic Dogs’ just to try it out which was quite funny!

Someone asked Jemaine to marry her and Jemaine accepted and said we could all witness the marriage. There were some cheers and Bret pointed out that we seemed mildly excited about this. There was the popular heckle of “Where’s Murray?” to which Jemaine replied that he’s with other fictional characters such as The Flintstones and the dinosaur eating steak.

Towards the end of the gig, Jemaine said that we were a nice audience despite the sheep noises that were made so people began to make sheep noises again and someone decided to moo. Jemaine thought they said ‘boo’ and said that wasn’t the sound a sheep makes. Bret pointed that he was mooing and said “They’re going all farmyard on us”.

The night ended with Sexy Lady/ Sugalumps.

Spoiler:

Both Bret and Jemaine underestimated how high up the stage was so were trying to figure out how to get up. Bret invited a girl to come towards him and she did so he shouted out security and a security guy came so she held the security guy and danced backed to her seat. " title="" border="0"/> I think Matt was trying to help Bret up on stage and some security guy tried to help Jemaine up on stage and his hand was indeed quite close to Jemaine’s sugalumps so Jemaine sang about that.




Bret, Jemaine and Nigel left the stage to a standing ovation and Matt came out soon afterwards with a camera to take a photo of the crowd.

General comments about the show

The audience were generally well behaved. Sure, there were a few hecklers but they didn’t get annoying and I definitely didn’t seem them as a problem. For such a large crowd, I was impressed with how respectful everyone seemed to be. Everyone seemed to be attentive and maybe a little quieter than expected on some occasions but overall everyone seemed to be really into the show in a respectful manner.

The sound system was top notch. I was kind of worried about how the sound might be like in a large arena and wondered if I’d be able to make out all of the lyrics to the new song but at least from where I was sitting and what I could hear, everything was crystal clear. Kudos definitely goes out to Matt and everyone else working behind the scenes for making the technical aspects of the show a success.

Lastly I don’t mean to gush on, but I will anyway, as well as showcasing their comedic talents with good banter in between songs, both Bret and Jemaine yet again proved that they are accomplished musicians. They reached all the right notes and sang impressive harmonies. They sang and bantered with a large crowd but somehow the feel of an intimate gig still wasn’t lost.

Coming up, my experience at the Meet and Greet.

Meet & Greet

Sarah spotted a stage door as we walked out of our exit after the show and there was an open space so we hung around there for a little while with a few other fans. Then one girl told us that she was pointed in the direction of somewhere near the car park where she saw a couple of minibuses. A few fans asked NIA security and we were told where we could wait. We made our way to a place outside some gates near the car park where we saw a big tour bus which we thought may have been theirs.

We didn’t have to wait as long as I expected. I think we waited for about 45 minutes. I think Sarah and I spent more time trying to find Courtney and Sara after the show! " title="" border="0"/> We watched the gates open to let a tinted people carrier drive through. We guessed that it was probably them and although the windows were tinted, I spotted Nigel. The car stopped and Bret and Jemaine walked towards us. Bret practically jumped out of the car and was very smiley, bouncy and outgoing. Initially it was only a very small group of us so he said, “Are you the 7 people who enjoyed the show?” The group eventually got bigger as there were some people hanging around near the NIA entrance upstairs. I’m not sure what the exact amount of people there were but I’d say it was under 20 so it was a pretty small group. It was kinda rushed as they looked as though they were heading out somewhere and there was a lady trying to speed things along but I guess they decided to stop for us as we were a small group.

We were initially formed as a semi circle and I was in the middle and Bret and Jemaine were at either side and I didn’t know where to look. I kind of observed what other people were doing at first such as someone making Jemaine laugh so I was able to hear his unique laugh up close. " title="" border="0"/> I soon gathered around Jemaine and then moved Bret for them to sign my poster. Both Bret and Jemaine received their gifts. One of the gifts was an animal shirt that Courtney and Sara bought which Bret recognised and correctly figured out that it was from TopMan because he had seen it in the shop! After receiving his gifts, he looked over at me as I was trying to take some candid shots and so we caught each other’s eyes and smiled at each other for a couple of seconds.




Jemaine reached me first so I thought I'd try and be calm and polite so I said hello and shook his hand and introduced myself. He does have a very intense gaze and was looking right into my eyes. I think this triggered off my inner fan girl tendencies to take over so I flung my arms around him to hug him. I couldn’t help it, it was an impulsive reaction. I was actually planning on asking to hug him beforehand but it didn’t seem to take him by surprise and I did see some other girl’s being quite forward with him before he reached me. We tried to take a couple of photos but my camera didn’t seem to cooperate at the 1st one didn’t come out and the second one was blurry. I left it for a while and went over to Courtney who offered to take some pics for me. Bret was then right next to me and was still his bubbly and smiley self. I asked him for a picture so he grabbed me close and put his arm around me. I wanted a hug photo but for some reason I was little hesitant. He seemed to have read my mind and said “You can put both arms around me if you want” So I did and he put both arms around me and gave me a real good squeeze! I thanked him and offered to take a picture of him and Courtney and it was such a cute picture! Bret made me feel totally at ease and was complete sweetheart to everyone throughout. I wish I could have talked to him some more though.

I went back to Jemaine and asked for a picture and felt quite bad asking him again but he didn’t seem to mind so I took another photo with him on Courtney camera. I then thought that I had to try and engage in some kinda conversation with him so I told him that I was looking forward to Predicament and watching him portray the character of Spook. He smiled, nodded and said yes (I think he may have also said something else but I can’t remember!). Then I said that I’ve read the book so I know what happens to him so he made a gesture which I won’t state since it spoils the plot but people who have read the book can probably guess the gesture Jemaine made. He smiled and that was the end of our convo. I moved on to Eugene and took a picture with him.

The car they were in was just a few metres away from where we were standing and the door was still open and Nigel was sitting right by the door. I wanted to meet him but he didn’t come out so I refrained from walking towards the car as I don’t think he met any fans. Soon after they were whisked away so we waved at them as they got in the car. It all went by quite quickly! I do realise that I’m lucky to have met them after my first ever FOTC show which was truly stunning so I shall cherish all of these amazing memories.

More please! Roll on May 17th!

P.S. I saw that the boys received the Flighty cookbooks but with everything going on so quickly around me, I didn’t get to see their reactions. I asked Courtney about it afterwards and she told me that they weren’t able to go through the books properly but they thanked them and Bret seemed to be really impressed when he initially flicked through it.

[align=center:kcusxukq] Vesna, that recap was AMAZING! One of the best I've ever read!



[/align:kcusxukq]



ADD: ^That response was for the show recap. The meet & greet recap just made me Could they be any cuter???

[size=100:kcusxukq]"
Are you the 7 people who enjoyed the show?”

Bret!


AND:

[size=100:kcusxukq]“You can put both arms around me if you want”

Thank you so much, Nik! I'm really glad you enjoyed my recap!

hellomyfriend wrote:
AND:

[size=100:y5viwuno]“You can put both arms around me if you want”

I nearly died when he said that. His mouth was so close to my ear and it felt so good to just hear his voice and accent. It all just dawned on me at that moment that I was actually hugging a guy who I admire so much!

Venus wrote:Thank you so much, Nik! I'm really glad you enjoyed my recap!

hellomyfriend wrote:
AND:

I nearly died when he said that. His mouth was so close to my ear and it felt so good to just hear his voice and accent. It all just dawned on me at that moment that I was actually hugging a guy who I admire so much!

[size=150:6arcs79w]Vesna


I wouldn't survive!

Vesna!!! Both of your recaps are brilliant!!


Just like Nik said, I felt like I was right there with you! What an amazing night you had. I'm so glad you've finally seen them and that you were able to interact with them too. They're so great.


Thanks so much for sharing! " title="" border="0"/>

Aww, no problem! I'm glad you enjoyed reading it too, Jessica! Just corrected a few silly mistakes and there are probably more but you get the point. ;
)

Vesna is perfection! 

I only can read the meet and greet part for now to help me relive it. It was great and I can't wait to read the rest!

Since so much is out now- to explain the two hugs, Bret ran out of the van and did a 'ta da!' like stance in front of us. I was so shocked that I just froze with my jaw open that he just stood there for a second then said SOMETHING like "
well come on!"
and dove in to give me a hug. I didn't even have a choice! ;
)
Then we were able to function and we gave him the gifts.

I have some more bits and pieces that I'll get to post eventually!

onlyalways wrote:Vesna is perfection! 

I only can read the meet and greet part for now to help me relive it. It was great and I can't wait to read the rest!

Since so much is out now- to explain the two hugs, Bret ran out of the van and did a 'ta da!' like stance in front of us. I was so shocked that I just froze with my jaw open that he just stood there for a second then said SOMETHING like "
well come on!"
and dove in to give me a hug. I didn't even have a choice! ;
)
Then we were able to function and we gave him the gifts.

I have some more bits and pieces that I'll get to post eventually!

Courtney!

Haha, yes I think we were all shocked to properly function for a few seconds! Bret was so energetic and outgoing and didn't seem tired at all.