This diary is dedicated to a friend of mine who was not able to see the concert. I wrote this diary of course in first for myself to remember my little adventure but I hope she and everyone else who didn't make it to France can experience a little bit of this wonderful trip through my words.

Tuesday, 4th October 2005

11:36 - I have been in email contact with Carol for a little while who definitely wanted to go to France but I was not sure if I could make it. The flights were getting more and more expensive every day and I wrote her I would not be able to afford that. So I thought I was off the road.

I am in the office, chatting to a friend about the news Murph brought back from France about the concert. They have announced a date and a location for the concert: Saturday, 15th October 2005 in Le Thor (France) near to Avignon. Less than two weeks away I thought. Of course I knew that the concert would be either on the 8th or 15th October but to be honest I do not think I will get a cheap flight to Marseilles or Avignon.

13:12 - Gosh, I want to go to Le Thor! After I have had a look where exactly Le Thor is now I was searching through all different airline websites to find a cheap flight and finally I am very happy I found something really cheap from London Luton to Nimes which is about 40 miles away from Le Thor. But there is a problem getting one of these tickets. I tried to reach the theatre but all I got was an answering machine. Ok, what to do? What to do? My heart is beating too fast to make this decision now.

23:48 - Well, I found a flight with Ryanair for 50 Pounds. And I can not sleep. I am running around in my room like a hungry tiger. Thinking forth and back if I should book or not. To book or not to book, that is the question!

Wednesday, 5th October 2005

0:25 - I have done it! I booked a flight to Nimes. And if I don't get a ticket I can spend at least one day in France, lurking around somewhere in the countryside. Good Night.

09:53 - I'm tired. I tried to call the theatre before I left to my office and finally had someone on the line. The lady on the other end took my name and my phone number and I did not understand what else she was saying in French. I have to admit I don't speak any French at all. But wait! Was that all I got? Only 10 days to the concert and I don't even know if I have a ticket. That's all very odd! And how do I get to Le Thor from the airport? And where will I stay? I don't have a lot of information. All I know is that I'm going to this damn little town somewhere in nowhere and hope that all this is not just a dream.

Friday, 7th October 2005

12:40 - I called the theatre again yesterday and they took my name and credit card details this time. And the most suspicious thing was that they wanted to have the security number on the back side of the card. They could take any amount they want from my account if they want. So I wrote them an email again, this time in French (thx to the Google Translator) and I just got some kind of a confirmation. I'm feeling much better now. And another UK fan, Karen already joined my journey plans.

Saturday, 8th October 2005

16:18 - Whew, only 7 days left! I found a lovely accomodation on the lovely looking farm "Le Mas des Vertes Rives" in Chateauneuf-de-Gadagne, only 3 miles away from Le Thor and only 48 Euros per night. But it took me more than 2 hours browsing the net to find it.

Thursday, 13th October 2005

22:13 - It looks more and more like as if it will probably really happen. I'm already getting a little bit excited but it feels still suspicious to me to go to France in less than 48 hours. And a second fan from the UK has joined my travel plans. Now there are three of us, taking a plane from London Luton to Nimes, driving a rented car via Avignon to Chateauneuf de Gadagne to our nice looking farm and heading to Le Thor for the concert in the evening. Of course, I'll have to drive the car. How it will be to drive on the right side of the road again? Haven't done that for half a year now. But apart from driving I'm very keen to do this trip. I'll see a lot of people for the first time. In fact I haven't seen any of them before I guess but it feels like it'll be a fantastic adventure. Something you'll still laugh about after 10 years. That's also the reason why I started this diary. I like memories. And you forget so much of all the small but important details over the years that special events need their special treatment. The icing on the cake would be of course getting the band and Russell signing this diary..... And she lived happily ever after. Well, I don't know if there will be an opportunity to get autographs and I'm not a big autograph hunter. In fact I rather enjoy watching or taking photographs. But this would have some kind of a symbolic character.

To be honest this whole trip is probably among the three most insane things I've ever done so far but it's a big difference between sitting in front of a telly or computer, see movies, pictures or listen to music and having a three dimensional view underlined with some good music and atmosphere. I reckon I won't regret to have done all this. 

Friday, 14th October 2005

18:51 - Thank God it's weekend! Finishing work a bit earlier than usual for a Friday (7 pm or so) I went home with all these thoughts in my mind about tomorrow. How will it be? How will the place look like? How will the area look like? How will the theatre look like? How will the band look like? How will the music sound? Howowow...

I read today that Russ already played in Bonnieux a day or two ago but nobody of us knew about that. And then there was a new picture of him I found at the Perch message board where he is posing with tourists somewhere in France. The first picture I've seen since they started filming A Good Year. He looked good and very relaxed with his poppy new british schoolboy haircut and seemed to have fun. I can't believe it I'll see this smiling face in about 24 hours. What a warming thought!

I've already packed a few things into my bag. Some clothes (though I don't know yet what to wear), my digital camera, my mobile phone, a french traveller dictionary, a lot of papers for confirmations and routes and times and so on, A Good Year, some Euros left over from my last trip to Germany and the rest of the usual travel stuff. I hope I won't forget anything. But I need a glass of red wine now to get into the right spirit for tomorrow :-)

Saturday, 15th October 2005

07:26 - YES! It's THE day! Finally! It is much to early to stand up but I'm too excited to stay in bed either.

08:20 - I'm heading for London Bridge to meet Amelie to take a train with her to Luton Airport and there we'll meet up with Karen to get our plane to Nimes.

13:00 - Oh good lord. I'm somewhere over France and we're having quite heavy air turbulences. I need to take deep breathes! This plane looks really dodgy from inside. That's my first flight with Ryanair and I'm feeling very uncomfortable and sick. Probably I should have eaten some breakfast. I usually love flying, especially the start but this is the first time I'm feeling scared of it. So I'll try to distract my brain from thinking about it. I'm sitting next to Karen and we watched the TEXAS DVD for the last hour on her mobile DVD player. I haven't seen it for a while and it really cheered me up though I'm still quite tired and hungry.

16:30 - Welcome to France! Another time, another country, another universe! Coming from a noisy loud but sunny big city the amount of green landscapes and silence is already frightening. Well, it's like a nature-shock. Breathing all the different kind of flavours and listening to the different sounds it felt like an intravenous one-day-holiday. I'm sitting at one of the windows of our room at the farm and it smells like burnt wood wet grass. It was pouring with only 15 degrees when we arrived in Nimes but I got a big fast car to get us via Avignon to Chateauneuf de Gadagne where we got a warm welcome. The rooms are big and pleasant in a traditional but close-to-nature style of a farmhouse. I have a wonderful view from the window. The sun has just shown up again and it makes the whole scenery looking like in a movie about two centuries ago. All you can hear are birds and geese.

We are definitely somewhere in nowhere but it's terrific!!!

17:03 - It's time to go! We're hungry and we want to check out the bakery in Le Thor and of course meeting everyone I've been chatting with for ages and seeing Russell and the guys LIVE on STAGE. My heart is bumping and I'm more than excited!

The following part is just a glimpse of my memory of what happened this evening.

(Therefore the times and the playlist are probably not 100% correct)

18:00 - Karen, Amelie and I are standing in between a bunch of ladies and a few men. After we left the farm we decided to drive to the theatre first. It was easy to find. I stepped out of the car and the first thing I recognized was Russell's voice singing "What you want me to forget". "OMG!" That's what I thought. I'm REALLY here. I'm definitely at the right place. I felt goose bumps all over my skin. We went to the main entrance and got our tickets from Rosy who looked a bit uncomfortable. Well, but we got our tickets!

On my way out I saw Carol standing very close to the entrance. She gave me a big hug and a bag with some goodies she had prepared for the concert and kindly reserved for me. I pinned the name tag onto my little bag and took out the calendar. Stupidly my hand was faster than my mind and I sticked it straight into my eye. Damn! I was just too excited to be a bit more careful. But the adrenalin rushing trough my veins made me feel almost no pain and we headed back to the town centre of Le Thor to get something to eat. We had very delicious quiche and chorizo bread and cold pizza. Yummy! French food has always been very good! And back to the theatre again where the car park was almost full by now and to the entrance. There are so many people around me and I can hear so many languages like English, French and German and I'm sure some more. It's not that far away anymore! Just a bit more patience.

19:40 - I'm sitting in a theatre in the fifth row just behind some other German fans. Outside I met Carol, IrinaFR, kipkoul, 6point7, Zhora, Babette, her son Lucas and some more. And now I'm already a step further. Though I got in as one of the first I wasn't in a hurry to reserve any seats. The first rows have been reserved (I guess for crew and family), so I sat down with Amelie and Karen in the middle of the theatre closest to the stage. The stage is quite small, just as a normal theatre stage. There are old looking red carpets with ornaments on the ground and a large black partition which probably separates the RC & Friends set from the supporting acts. I can see some instruments behind this wall. Nothing unusual. The theatre is full of people. Someone told me it's a SOLD OUT show. Amazing! About 600 people around me. I reckon about 30% are fans from all over the world and the rest are locals, people from the film set and their friends.

This theatre doesn't seem to have an air condition. It's already very hot and humid in here.

Someone tells me that Danielle is there as well and I can see her. She's sitting in the second row and Babette already sent her son Lucas to her to get an autograph. It was so cute to see Lucas standing in front of Dani. He's looking a bit like Charlie with his hair but some years older.

20:30 - Break! The supporting acts are finished. The first band, the Quartet de Luberon played some french tunes I was absolutely unable to understand. But I've heard one of these songs before and the two French woman next to me told me in their 'little english' that two of the songs are from a popular French singer named Jacques Dutroux (I hope I got his name right here) and the locals seemed to like it a lot. I enjoyed it, especially because they had a saxophone player. Unfortunately I missed the lovely girl who came after this first band who was singing and playing unplugged something in French on her guitar. But I needed some fresh air. The Band after her, a young hip-hop band from Australia, the Blades of Hades were very entertaining though I didn't like this style of hip-hop.

Now they removed the partition wall and it can be only a few second away. They are bringing instruments onto the stage and I notice an acoustic guitar which looks like Russ' one.

They're playing "Weather with you" from Crowded House and a lot of people are joining the chorus "...Every you go, always take the weather with you..."... the lights are going dark. The song is introducing an atmosphere of a wonderful start to an evening not to forget. I can see people coming on stage, picking up their instruments, still singing with Crowded House. And here we go. Russ is on stage. I can hear cheerings.... and the first song is "Weight of a Man". He's there. I'm not dreaming. He's standing not far away in a black suit, a black shirt underneath with this new haircut for A Good Year and the usual look of the not perfectly shaved, bathed in an atmospheric orange light.

The songs after the first one are like a big cloud sitting in my head, not able to move or anything else. He's asking the people "lurking" around in the corridors to take a seat and goes on. The time is passing so fast. I'm feeling lost, touched and breathless at the same time. But he is already waking me up from my delirium with my most favourite song "Swept Away Bayou". I'm trying to rock in my seat. No way. This sitting-dance is definitely nothing for me. I want to stand up! I want to rock! But I haven't had enough beer to turn myself into a muppet surrounded by these 600 people around me.

A bit later I'm hearing "Raewyn" again. I remember I've heard this song now a couple of times on my iPod but was never really into it. Now that I see him singing this song with all his heart and looking at his wife in a way that would melt every woman's heart I like it much more than before. I'm also very surprised by "Miss My Mind the most". It makes me smiling.

A song or two he is coming back with a Football shirt of France and a scarf. I'm cheering and laughing. And then, absolutely without any warning he turns his back to the audience and peels himself out of this Football shirt, turns around and is standing there with the famous black tank top. OMG! Now I am missing my mind!

Drop-Dead Gorgeous! Not that skinny anymore like in Cinderella Man.

They are going on and on... with Mr Harris, What you want me to forget (another one favourite of mine), Memorial Day, Folsom Prison Blues and Testify. And I absolutely love it. I hear Testify for the first time. Russell is telling us that they wanted to record the video for Testify and that this was the whole reason for this concert. It would be much more easier just to give a concert instead of paying 600 people for playing their part in the video for cheering. Alan and him make me laugh a lot. Alan is doing a solo in French and it's hard to hear if he really understands what he is singing there or if he is just reading the lines. I can't tell. But he's singing some very weird things in between. Probably it is even just more a "lalaladeda" or something similar.

The atmosphere has changed from orange to blue light and I feel the end is coming closer with every song. But now everyone is standing and rocking! And so does Russell. He is having fun at stage and is even playing some very new songs. I like the new drinking song, on of the last ones and it ends with a "Chin Chin" and a "Cheers". Well, if I would have just been allowed to take a drink inside. And that after he promised us he wants to dance with us all night long.

It's so hot in there now that Russell is not the only one sweating (though he's probably the best looking one ;-). But who cares? I guess almost nobody did. It was not allowed to take cameras inside either but I took my mobile phone with me and they didn't check this one. Well I've seen at the beginning of the show that they have confiscated cameras from people who tried to make pictures. But I'm indeed very grateful that we're at least allowed to breathe as far as possible. The French woman next to me has the same phone like me but she is absolutely scared of taking pictures. I'm not sure if she has taken some yet but I just got some very nice shots. Though they are quite small it's enough to use them as my mobile phone wallpaper. And this is the one I like the most!

End of the concert (I can't remember what time it was anymore) - Not only the almost non-existent oxygen but also these very well performing guys on stage make me breathless. Testify is on! A second time! Everyone is standing and rocking. The Lightshow is amazing for such a small theatre. And everyone was clicking with their fingers and cheering at the chorus line. A huge applause and the lights are off.

It was a fantastic show! Terrific! Absolutely marvelous!

I got Dean signing this diary! I don't want to go yet but I have the feeling the others want to leave already.

Sunday, 16th October 2005

02:30 - Back at the farm. We were standing near the back entrance until 2 am in the morning with some of the German fans, Zhora, Babette and Petra and a bunch of French fans like IrineFR until we got really really tired and we decided that there's a point where we had to go. I still can't sleep. I'm still amazed and on cloud number 12438.

09:00 - Time to get up. It's early in the morning but it's breakfast time. Outside the sun is already shining and the animals are making their usual noises. That's all quite unusual for a city girl like me. But I'm enjoying it a lot. The farm is dipped into a foggy warm autumn morning light and after our breakfast we'll visit a local winery for a quick wine tasting and buying thingy and head back to the airport to take us out of this beautiful landscape and back into the real world.

11:31 - Back at the airport I'm listening to TOFOG and Russell again and all these little details of the last evening are coming to my mind again. I have to smile. I can remember now he was drinking beer and having a couple of cigarettes which made me feel that I'd also like one now but it was not allowed for us anyway. And Ridley Scott came in after a couple of songs. It seems my mind has recorded a lot but wasn't able to reveal everything yet. I still feel as if I'm on another planet. He did some very sexy swinging dancing waving moves! As if it wasn't hot enough in there yet!

20:58 - I can't believe it's already 24 hours ago. It feels more like only some hours ago that I have seen him standing there singing and giving us all a fantastic evening. I really wanted to jump out of my seat at "Swept Away Bayou" and it was a shame that nobody was standing up for the first version of Testify. I still can't believe we were sitting and dancing in our seats for almost the half of the concert. And "Testify" definitely ROCKZ! I've never heard it before but it was fantastic! But to threaten us with saying they would play Testify as often as it needs to get everyone of us cheering in the chorus line for a perfect video just didn't really work! Russ, you can play Testify a couple of times in a row! It would never scare me :-)

Monday, 17th October 2005

10:27 - I'm back at work, but not yet back to my life. I just found out this morning that Russell indeed turned up around 3 am. That was only an hour after we left. I can't tell you how sad I feel. I just can't believe I missed him only about one hour. Funny enough I wasn't even able to sleep. I just need to take deep and slow breathes. I saw a wonderful concert and it was definitely an unforgettable evening but to know that I have missed something I was longing for two years now makes my heart sighing. But life goes on and on and who knows, maybe next year there'll be the next chance! And probably next time the other Dave will be there as well? I miss this funny guy. I wonder what happened to him.

23:43 - This Day is over and so is this Diary. I want to say thank you to everyone who tried to make me calming down before and after the concert and helped me keeping up my spirit which finally brought me to Le Thor and fulfilled at least a part of my wish to see Russell and the other guys live and on stage. My special thanks to Ivani! And of course to Carol, who kindly gave me these lovely concert goodies!

I'll never forget this very special evening and I hope to see all of you and more next time...

again somewhere in nowhere ;-)

And my last words and xtra-special thanks to Russell:

Thank you and your guys very kindly for this fantastic show! Thanks for making me go to this part of France I've never been before. How about Spain next? Autumn/Spring is a great time. Not too many tourists, not too hot. Well, I would be very happy (and I guess I'm not alone with this feeling) if you would come to Europe more often with your band. Probably you could also manage it to announce the gigs a little bit earlier? And please don't let us wait too long for Testify! So far my wishes for christmas ;-)

Cheers, Lizzy