it's me again, 4 years after I posted about meeting bono in london, I got lucky again, but this time we met them several times.
just a warning, it got a bit long, I'm sorry about that!
ok, I'm gonna start at the beginning.
thursday:
bono and edge arrive at around 5, but they have all their kids with them, so he just walks past us and into the hotel. quite a few more people show up now, obviously almost all of them either paparazzi or ebayers. we're at about 50 people now when 2 silver vans drive past the hotel entrance, I can see Edge and Bono in them, they took the side entrance to leave again..thank god for that, because it would probably have been chaos. we keep waiting..now it's around midnight, there's 9 of us now. 3 swiss girls, my friend martin and me, one lovely couple from spain, and two americans who were actually staying in the hotel. around 1.30 edge arrives, he wants to walk past us, but martin asks him to sign his poster. he comes right back, signs everyones stuff, I get a photo with him, morleigh smiles at me
.
around 2-3 a.m. edge's security guy tells us bono will be arriving now, and we should make a line. we do as told, he tells us as we're so few people he'll probably also take photos, I'm VERY nervous now.
the silver van drives up, the door opens, it's full with people, I see Ali, but then all I see is Bono. he looks quite happy, joking with the others in the car, then he turns his head to look at us and has a very suprise look on his face and he just says "wow" again and again
Feel like saying wow as well at that point. He goes down the line, and looks everyone in the eyes and shakes everyones hands. He arrives at our end, and tells martin it's good to see him again. I ask him if he'd sign some things.."of course!" like why did I even ask. he signs martin's poster first, "I think I look a bit cross here" and draws a cowboy hat on his head. then he signs my photos and asks me "where was this taken?" I say "gelsenkirchen", he looks into my eyes, smiles wide and says "that was great!" all I can do is smile and nod. Someone asks if we could take photos, he says "ok, everyone get in" and brings us all in for group shots, one of the american ladies is taking photos. I'm thinking..group shots are nice but I did want a solo photo with him, so I just ask him again, he says "of course!" again and puts his arm around me. after a few more photos with others he just stands there for a while, I notice everyone else has gone in by now and just Brian is pointing with his head towards the door of the hotel.
I'm closest to him at that point and just tell him "have a good night" he looks at me and says "see ya tomorrow"
then turns around and goes into the hotel. oh he expected us to be there at the concert
we wait another while, exchange email adresses and just generally try to come down from heaven. At this point I feel like screaming and jumping around but right behind us is Eve with a friend of hers, talking to Edge's security guy, so I try to calm down and leave the screaming for another time.
by the time we get back to my hotel at Wembley it's almost 4. we go to sleep for 2 hours, then join the queue, no. 130 and 131..not bad. I feel unbelievably tired all day, but I'm still on a high from meeting them, so it doesn't even bother me much. queuing is nice and not very stressful, the FOS walk is alright as well, we end up at the front barrier between edge and bono. once the support bands are done, martin helps me put up my sign. "Bono, Edge need a big kiss!" it says. I ask Phil if he can read it when he shows up on stage. he gives me the thumbs up. Show starts, during Breathe I see Bono reading my sign and he grins madly Can't tell if Edge saw it, but he's right in front of me so I figure he has. right after No Line, Bono points at the two of us, smiles and says something..yeah something, because he didn't say it in his mike and we couldn't hear a thing. I still haven't learned how to lipread so we have no idea what he said, he seemed happy to see us though. concert is brilliant although we actually see Edge play air-guitar during With or without you. he looked at his guitar for a long while, then looked at us like "oh well, what are you gonna do?" and kept playing air guitar, not sure what the hell happened there. also, at one point edge handed dallas one of the guitars and he got an electrical shock, looked like it hurt too. definitely a lot of stuff going wrong this night. I ask the head of U2 security for a setlist, he hands me one right away, yay!
saturday:
we sleep in, couldn't have functioned anymore without some much needed sleep. we're gonna watch this one from the back, I've been to quite a few shows now and have never seen the screen. think about going to the hotel again for a while, but decide not to, because it will be probably be pure mayhem there. (turns out we were right, 200+ people screaming, pushing, bono signed maybe 20 things, Edge went out the sideway) walk around london for a while, then get to the stadium at around 7, start to feel a little guilty because we didn't queue up..I feel like we weren't dedicated enough fans that day, but that changed pretty quickly when I saw the amazing visuals. The mood was much better than the night before, even at the back. Setlist change, Stay..yeah for Berlin! bono sings "3 o'clock in the morning, it's quiet, just some people around" oh my god!!!!!
we freak out at this point! a few more new songs, my hope for Bad is pretty much gone by now..then I hear the first few notes and just start crying like a baby. fortunately martin is right next to me so I hold onto him while I'm having my breakdown. these are happy tears though..well sad tears as well because this is my last concert this year.
Sunday:
arrive at the hotel at around 2, 3 of the girls we were queueing with friday are there, nobody else around though. we see the silver van ready to leave though. I walk over, say hello to brian, he says good to see you and tells us they're leaving soon but his kids are with him so no photos and signatures. figure we'll just say hi then. 30 minutes later, Ali phones up the driver, they'll be leaving through the side entrance instead..we're thinking, stupid wankers on saturday scared them off of ever using the normal entrance again
anyway, we leave a little after they have left, and come back at around 8. brian walks up again and says sorry guys, but they'll probably be in for the night. is it allright if we still wait for a while? sure no problem. so we hang out on the other side of the street, nobody else but us around. at some point, ali and the boys walk up, no clue where they have come from, but Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol is with them, holding onto Eli's shoulder as they walk through the doors. Ali looks over to us and I smile at her. Now we're thinking about putting the rumour out there that Ali is having a hot affair with Gary 
but figure he's probably just the new nanny on tour 
they were in for that night, so we leave not much later.
monday:
we get there at around 10, nobody there again. around 11 Brian comes over again and says he's with the kids so you know the deal. I just hope he won't take the side entrance again. but he didn't this time. Eli and John jump into the car with Edge's youngest daughter, very cute playing with a stuffed animal and just having fun. 10 minutes later (yeah he even lets his kids wait lol) Ali comes out, gets into the car and right behind her is Bono. he comes right up to us, not even looking at the car and says "lovely to see you again" shakes our hands and signs our tickets. then asks "so did you go to both shows then?" we say yes. "which one was the better one?" "well the 2nd has to be the better one" "yeah, that was something wasn't it?" "had some technical problems there the first one huh?" "yeah" "was dallas in the naughty corner that night?" *laughs* "ohh yeah" I say: "you guys should play Bad more often" martin mentions me crying during the whole song, bono just looks at me and hugs me
I'm in heaven again, but still ask "do you think we could have a photo?" "Sure" We move a bit to make sure the kids aren't on the photos. He looks up towards the sky as if to check what the weather is like, smiles because the sun is shining bright and then says goodbye and jumps in the car.
Edge comes out a few hours after that, but just signed a few things because his older daughters were with him and they were in a bit of a hurry.
Bono's car with Brian in it came back at around 4, but I had to leave at that point to get my flight back home.
here's the photo of Bono, Martin and Me yesterday morning
he looks a little tired, it was 11.30 am, but he looked like he'd just fallen out of bed 30 minutes before.
i'm still waiting to get the other photos from thursday night from the swiss girls and the americans, i'll post them as soon as I get them.
just a warning, it got a bit long, I'm sorry about that!
ok, I'm gonna start at the beginning.
thursday:
bono and edge arrive at around 5, but they have all their kids with them, so he just walks past us and into the hotel. quite a few more people show up now, obviously almost all of them either paparazzi or ebayers. we're at about 50 people now when 2 silver vans drive past the hotel entrance, I can see Edge and Bono in them, they took the side entrance to leave again..thank god for that, because it would probably have been chaos. we keep waiting..now it's around midnight, there's 9 of us now. 3 swiss girls, my friend martin and me, one lovely couple from spain, and two americans who were actually staying in the hotel. around 1.30 edge arrives, he wants to walk past us, but martin asks him to sign his poster. he comes right back, signs everyones stuff, I get a photo with him, morleigh smiles at me
. around 2-3 a.m. edge's security guy tells us bono will be arriving now, and we should make a line. we do as told, he tells us as we're so few people he'll probably also take photos, I'm VERY nervous now.
the silver van drives up, the door opens, it's full with people, I see Ali, but then all I see is Bono. he looks quite happy, joking with the others in the car, then he turns his head to look at us and has a very suprise look on his face and he just says "wow" again and again
Feel like saying wow as well at that point. He goes down the line, and looks everyone in the eyes and shakes everyones hands. He arrives at our end, and tells martin it's good to see him again. I ask him if he'd sign some things.."of course!" like why did I even ask. he signs martin's poster first, "I think I look a bit cross here" and draws a cowboy hat on his head. then he signs my photos and asks me "where was this taken?" I say "gelsenkirchen", he looks into my eyes, smiles wide and says "that was great!" all I can do is smile and nod. Someone asks if we could take photos, he says "ok, everyone get in" and brings us all in for group shots, one of the american ladies is taking photos. I'm thinking..group shots are nice but I did want a solo photo with him, so I just ask him again, he says "of course!" again and puts his arm around me. after a few more photos with others he just stands there for a while, I notice everyone else has gone in by now and just Brian is pointing with his head towards the door of the hotel. I'm closest to him at that point and just tell him "have a good night" he looks at me and says "see ya tomorrow"
then turns around and goes into the hotel. oh he expected us to be there at the concert we wait another while, exchange email adresses and just generally try to come down from heaven. At this point I feel like screaming and jumping around but right behind us is Eve with a friend of hers, talking to Edge's security guy, so I try to calm down and leave the screaming for another time.
by the time we get back to my hotel at Wembley it's almost 4. we go to sleep for 2 hours, then join the queue, no. 130 and 131..not bad. I feel unbelievably tired all day, but I'm still on a high from meeting them, so it doesn't even bother me much. queuing is nice and not very stressful, the FOS walk is alright as well, we end up at the front barrier between edge and bono. once the support bands are done, martin helps me put up my sign. "Bono, Edge need a big kiss!" it says. I ask Phil if he can read it when he shows up on stage. he gives me the thumbs up. Show starts, during Breathe I see Bono reading my sign and he grins madly
Can't tell if Edge saw it, but he's right in front of me so I figure he has. right after No Line, Bono points at the two of us, smiles and says something..yeah something, because he didn't say it in his mike and we couldn't hear a thing. I still haven't learned how to lipread so we have no idea what he said, he seemed happy to see us though. concert is brilliant although we actually see Edge play air-guitar during With or without you. he looked at his guitar for a long while, then looked at us like "oh well, what are you gonna do?" and kept playing air guitar, not sure what the hell happened there. also, at one point edge handed dallas one of the guitars and he got an electrical shock, looked like it hurt too. definitely a lot of stuff going wrong this night. I ask the head of U2 security for a setlist, he hands me one right away, yay!saturday:
we sleep in, couldn't have functioned anymore without some much needed sleep. we're gonna watch this one from the back, I've been to quite a few shows now and have never seen the screen. think about going to the hotel again for a while, but decide not to, because it will be probably be pure mayhem there. (turns out we were right, 200+ people screaming, pushing, bono signed maybe 20 things, Edge went out the sideway) walk around london for a while, then get to the stadium at around 7, start to feel a little guilty because we didn't queue up..I feel like we weren't dedicated enough fans that day, but that changed pretty quickly when I saw the amazing visuals. The mood was much better than the night before, even at the back. Setlist change, Stay..yeah for Berlin! bono sings "3 o'clock in the morning, it's quiet, just some people around" oh my god!!!!!
we freak out at this point! a few more new songs, my hope for Bad is pretty much gone by now..then I hear the first few notes and just start crying like a baby. fortunately martin is right next to me so I hold onto him while I'm having my breakdown. these are happy tears though..well sad tears as well because this is my last concert this year. Sunday:
arrive at the hotel at around 2, 3 of the girls we were queueing with friday are there, nobody else around though. we see the silver van ready to leave though. I walk over, say hello to brian, he says good to see you and tells us they're leaving soon but his kids are with him so no photos and signatures. figure we'll just say hi then. 30 minutes later, Ali phones up the driver, they'll be leaving through the side entrance instead..we're thinking, stupid wankers on saturday scared them off of ever using the normal entrance again
anyway, we leave a little after they have left, and come back at around 8. brian walks up again and says sorry guys, but they'll probably be in for the night. is it allright if we still wait for a while? sure no problem. so we hang out on the other side of the street, nobody else but us around. at some point, ali and the boys walk up, no clue where they have come from, but Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol is with them, holding onto Eli's shoulder as they walk through the doors. Ali looks over to us and I smile at her. Now we're thinking about putting the rumour out there that Ali is having a hot affair with Gary but figure he's probably just the new nanny on tour they were in for that night, so we leave not much later.monday:
we get there at around 10, nobody there again. around 11 Brian comes over again and says he's with the kids so you know the deal. I just hope he won't take the side entrance again. but he didn't this time. Eli and John jump into the car with Edge's youngest daughter, very cute playing with a stuffed animal and just having fun. 10 minutes later (yeah he even lets his kids wait lol) Ali comes out, gets into the car and right behind her is Bono. he comes right up to us, not even looking at the car and says "lovely to see you again" shakes our hands and signs our tickets. then asks "so did you go to both shows then?" we say yes. "which one was the better one?" "well the 2nd has to be the better one" "yeah, that was something wasn't it?" "had some technical problems there the first one huh?" "yeah" "was dallas in the naughty corner that night?" *laughs* "ohh yeah" I say: "you guys should play Bad more often" martin mentions me crying during the whole song, bono just looks at me and hugs me
I'm in heaven again, but still ask "do you think we could have a photo?" "Sure" We move a bit to make sure the kids aren't on the photos. He looks up towards the sky as if to check what the weather is like, smiles because the sun is shining bright and then says goodbye and jumps in the car. Edge comes out a few hours after that, but just signed a few things because his older daughters were with him and they were in a bit of a hurry.
Bono's car with Brian in it came back at around 4, but I had to leave at that point to get my flight back home.
here's the photo of Bono, Martin and Me yesterday morning
he looks a little tired, it was 11.30 am, but he looked like he'd just fallen out of bed 30 minutes before.
i'm still waiting to get the other photos from thursday night from the swiss girls and the americans, i'll post them as soon as I get them.
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