OllieJames
31-10-2008, 07:15 AM
Hey :)
Just thought i'd let you know, even though it is 2 weeks late...
I went to go see the Queen+Paul Rogers show at the NIA, Birmingham, and because we know one of the roadies/spotlight operators we got backstage passes. Before i go on, i'll write a bit of background info...
Many, many, many years ago, my dad was in one of Queens music videos. Not sure if you've heard of it, but it was a song called Breakthru (youtube it if you haven't heard of it) and my dad was firing the train ;) My dad was lucky enough to get some artwork, signed sticks, etc. However due to some issues he had before i was born, all the merch & sticks had gone...
So when i was 4, my dad wrote to Roger Taylor (Queen's drummer) and a couple of months later, we got a pair of signed sticks! :) Years went by of me drumming to some Queen stuff, as well as being in contact with Roger over post, and then the tour with Paul Rogers started.
We missed the first tour, but managed to get tickets for this tour! Months after booking the tickets, we attended one of the steam rallies we exibit at and got talking to a mate who does a lot of trucking and lighting for the likes of Kings of Leon, Bruce Springsteen etc and he said that there was a chance of getting us backstage passes! :D
So to cut a long story short...
We arrived at the NIA, and he took us round backstage (i took many anorack like photos of various lights, speakers and DMX controllers, and also a £1,000,000 LED video screen given to them for free by a German company! :p of which i will upload at a later date) whilst going round for a good hour backstage we were introduced to the drum, bass & guitar techs, of which my brother was given two of Brian May's signature picks :eek:. We then went to our seats, and watched the gig, which was fantastic!
After the gig, we waited behind and i got another pair of signed sticks! We also watched the dismantling of the staging which took a crew of 100 people just 2 hours to breakdown and load up into the 13 tour trucks (30 tour trucks for some gigs!).
Overall it was fantastic, unfortunately we didn't get to meet the band, and security was insanely tight, but it was certainly an experience i will never forget!
Sorry for such a long post, but have been meaning to post this for a while!
Just thought i'd let you know, even though it is 2 weeks late...
I went to go see the Queen+Paul Rogers show at the NIA, Birmingham, and because we know one of the roadies/spotlight operators we got backstage passes. Before i go on, i'll write a bit of background info...
Many, many, many years ago, my dad was in one of Queens music videos. Not sure if you've heard of it, but it was a song called Breakthru (youtube it if you haven't heard of it) and my dad was firing the train ;) My dad was lucky enough to get some artwork, signed sticks, etc. However due to some issues he had before i was born, all the merch & sticks had gone...
So when i was 4, my dad wrote to Roger Taylor (Queen's drummer) and a couple of months later, we got a pair of signed sticks! :) Years went by of me drumming to some Queen stuff, as well as being in contact with Roger over post, and then the tour with Paul Rogers started.
We missed the first tour, but managed to get tickets for this tour! Months after booking the tickets, we attended one of the steam rallies we exibit at and got talking to a mate who does a lot of trucking and lighting for the likes of Kings of Leon, Bruce Springsteen etc and he said that there was a chance of getting us backstage passes! :D
So to cut a long story short...
We arrived at the NIA, and he took us round backstage (i took many anorack like photos of various lights, speakers and DMX controllers, and also a £1,000,000 LED video screen given to them for free by a German company! :p of which i will upload at a later date) whilst going round for a good hour backstage we were introduced to the drum, bass & guitar techs, of which my brother was given two of Brian May's signature picks :eek:. We then went to our seats, and watched the gig, which was fantastic!
After the gig, we waited behind and i got another pair of signed sticks! We also watched the dismantling of the staging which took a crew of 100 people just 2 hours to breakdown and load up into the 13 tour trucks (30 tour trucks for some gigs!).
Overall it was fantastic, unfortunately we didn't get to meet the band, and security was insanely tight, but it was certainly an experience i will never forget!
Sorry for such a long post, but have been meaning to post this for a while!