Joe McElderry – 3 day too-ah

[Joe McElderry Unofficial]

Joe McElderry Unofficial  > Joe McElderry > Joe McElderry  > Joe McElderry – 3 day too-ah

[Hubz]

Down South, Up North & Back Again:

Jesus I think I need to warm up my fingers for this one, have a feeling it will go on forever!

Are you sitting down comfortably with a drink, been to the toilet, nothing on tv. Ok now you can read on, it might take a while.

Saturday 20th November:

Got up at 10am to get ready for Brighton and turned on Joe on Metro as I was fiddling with my case etc. I left home straight after the show finished at 12pm. I got into Central London a bit later then I actually planned and caught the 1.27pm train to Brighton. The train only took 58 minutes or something so I got there at 1.30pm.

I had rather stupidly come to Brighton without any idea of getting to the hotel, I only just the day before wrote down the hotel address and had completely forgot to print out a map, which considering I get lost even with a map directing me round the corner was rather stupid of me. Roec had texted me to say the hotel was literally a couple of minutes away from the station and there would be a sign directing me. I was feeling quite confident that I would find the hotel all by myself like a big girl lol. But I got out of the station and didn’t have a clue whether to go, left, right, or straight ahead, too many options lol.

So after about 5 minutes standing there with a massive suitcase looking like I lost puppy I texted Roec for help, she very kindly said she would come and pick me up. I felt a little better when she said it was difficult(ish) to find too, and she had at first came out the front exit like me.

So Roec arrived a few minutes later and we bumped into Josie, Joanne and the DS ladies; Tascha, Michelle, Haze. We all walked back to the hotel.

I wasn’t sure if I could check in to begin with as it was Jen who had booked the room, but it was fine. I met Bumble-bee lovely to meet you. I also met Emily in the hotel lobby, lovely to meet you too.

We stood around in the lobby way too long, every time a group of people went to their room other people I have met along my Joe journeys arrived.  I had a quick chat with Yorkshirelass and Aquarius from DS and Lesley and Sharon G.
Finally me and Roec went up to our room and Emily came with us. We must have been chatting for ages, all things Joe of course.
Jenni arrived about 4.30pm (ish) she was catching a lift with LiverpoolJoeFan and her mum.  Josie told me the Harvester had been booked for 20 people, (bet they loved us), the table was booked for 6.30pm, so we got ready to go down there. I had the only pair of high heeled shoes I own that I can walk in, although I am sure a drag queen could still walk better in them lol.  LOL

We had a couple of tables up the back and we still needed extra chairs, so there were about 22 McElderry nutters there all waiting to be fed and watered before seeing Joey.  There was nothing on the menu I liked and ended up having the driest piece of salmon I have ever seen, but hey I got a free salad and bread roll with it. We were at the restaurant for until nearly 8pm and a few of us decided to make our way over to Revenge.

Jude rang me to say she was on her way and just as we got outside of the Harvester she was there looking very glam and tall, of course typical me my shoes fell off when I attempted to walk down about 3 steps, just brilliant!
There were some posters around advertising Joe at Revenge, I took a picture of one and was going to send a tweetpic of it, but the internet wouldn’t connect. There were not that many people in the queue when we got there and we got in the queue.

I could hear Until The Stars Run Out as we were walking round so he must have been doing a sound check.
Started chatting to Sharon B (twitter lovejoemc), lovely to see her again.  Not too long afterwards the rest of the group joined the queue a little further back.

After 9pm the doors opened and the queue, well ....... the queue went out the window, everyone was rushing up and down stairs to try and find where the meet and greet would be, no-one seemed to know what was going on and after discovering the toilets and the cloakroom, we were finally told it was the room on the top floor.  I thought I saw Ross, Joe’s guarist, more to be said on that one later.
Met Becca and Mel briefly on the stairs, nice to see you too again, sorry I didn’t get much of a chance to speak to you, but you both looked lovely.  Becca gorgeous shoes, oh talking of shoes, I did notice yours too Jude, they were lush.
We had heard that Joe would be behind the bar, but I couldn’t’ quite believe that, so we should around upstairs thinking he may have come to the area that looked like a dance floor or something.
Saw Annie and Helen who met me and Chloe at the Michael Buble red carpet event, I recognised them outside in the queue, but couldn’t remember where from and didn’t want to turn around to say, “I know you from somewhere, some Joe McElderry event”, to be rejected and expose my McElderry madness. Anyway, lovely to see you too again, did you get to meet Joe btw girls, good view of the performance?  I didn’t see you again in the venue.

I went over to the bar, about 2 row back, chatted a while before the lovely McElderz appeared.
I spoke to Sharon B who had just seen Joe and he had thanked her for a present, aww don’t you just love him.
I could see lots of Joe friends spread out across the bar and were trying to see who got to meet Joe.  I have since been told about a few things that were said, I have to say Jenni’s takes the biscuit.  I can just imagine little Joe standing on the yellow pages to give Jen a hug, shame he still couldnt’ reach without the extra help.  Perhaps one of the bar men/security could have given him a lift up lol.

It was very difficult for all people to get out of the crowd once they had seen Joe and everyone was pushing and shoving.  Somehow a few guys got in front of me and I couldn’t get to the front, I couldn’t even see Joe walk past because I am so small. After a couple of times of Joe going up and down the crowd, disappearing and re-appearing, I got to the front, yay.  I kept saying to Emily, we will deffo see him this time, I had planned to add an extra line onto my usual line of “hi Joe ...................... bye Joe”.  I had decided to tell him I lost my voice and sound like a man, thinking back now, not sure why I was going to tell him this, but it seemed like a good idea at the time, I would have probably have got an arm stroke followed by “awww sorry, are you ok”.  Then the security guy said that was it.   After realising he wasn’t joking we made our way downstairs to the where the floor was, I was going to say stage, but that really wouldn’t be appropriate.

I squeezed my way in, and got behind Josie and Joanne making me in around the 2nd row (again). I was having a little boogie to all the songs being played and then it was time for Joe’s performance.  Phone at the ready, I started recording from the intro which was parts of the X Factor music and voiceover man.  Joe started with “Feel The Fire” I didn’t have a bad view to begin with, until *dadadaaaaaa* a big security woman only went and stood right in front of me, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, I mean come on! Joe was standing not too far in front of me, but I had to look between other people’s heads and things to see, I could see the hair through most of his set though haha.

Joe was so bouncy like one of them dancing tiggers, we have named him Duracell.  I can’t even remember the order, I think next was DSB, SWMU, Until The Stars Run Out, The Climb, Ambitions.

DSB and The Climb always get everyone singing along, especially The Climb.  It was great to hear the crowd sing the lyrics back.
There was a problem with the sound effects, it was echoing and you could hear every line echo after Joe had sang it; it was a real shame as Joe was singing beautifully.  At one point he did some kind of sign, which I think was a signal to sort it out, but it continued.

I always love to see Joe sing songs live, really love SWMU live and he sounded perfect in that song, was quite annoyed that the bouncer women got in my view just as he puts his finger up in the line in my sig, always love his facial expression when he does that line.  More to come about that one though and the excitement spasm is already coming!!!!!  Calm down, calm down.  Right where am I, oh yes SWMU.  A man shouted out, “I love you Joe”, near me, Joe replied “I love you too”, bless the guy was so happy. Joe didn’t mention the Narnia connection at all when introducing the song, perhaps Vib has had a word with him.
There were only two dancers, the two girls, so when it came to UTSRO it was a little different. Joe had no Liam to sit on, (although I am sure many other men would have obliged, heck even one of us girls would happily get down on all fours for Joe to sit his cute little bum on us, even those getting their bus pass lol).  red face  LOL  *ahem* back to the singing! The routine still worked with only the girls, Joe did all the little head turns and moves perfect, they are simple yet effect, don’t affect his singing, but give the song more of performance feels to it. I can’t listen to the song now without imaging the dance. The dance had slightly changed to UTSRO too; he did something with his arms rather than the spin at the end.

Joe was so bouncy like one of them dancing tiggers, we have named him Duracell.  I can’t even remember the order, I think next was DSB, SWMU, Until The Stars Run Out, The Climb, Ambitions.

DSB and The Climb always get everyone singing along, especially The Climb.  It was great to hear the crowd sing the lyrics back.
There was a problem with the sound effects, it was echoing and you could hear every line echo after Joe had sang it; it was a real shame as Joe was singing beautifully.  At one point he did some kind of sign, which I think was a signal to sort it out, but it continued.

I always love to see Joe sing songs live, really love SWMU live and he sounded perfect in that song, was quite annoyed that the bouncer women got in my view just as he puts his finger up in the line in my sig, always love his facial expression when he does that line.  More to come about that one though and the excitement spasm is already coming!!!!!  Calm down, calm down.  Right where am I, oh yes SWMU.  A man shouted out, “I love you Joe”, near me, Joe replied “I love you too”, bless the guy was so happy. Joe didn’t mention the Narnia connection at all when introducing the song, perhaps Vib has had a word with him.
There were only two dancers, the two girls, so when it came to UTSRO it was a little different. Joe had no Liam to sit on, (although I am sure many other men would have obliged, heck even one of us girls would happily get down on all fours for Joe to sit his cute little bum on us, even those getting their bus pass lol).  red face  LOL  *ahem* back to the singing! The routine still worked with only the girls, Joe did all the little head turns and moves perfect, they are simple yet effect, don’t affect his singing, but give the song more of performance feels to it. I can’t listen to the song now without imaging the dance. The dance had slightly changed to UTSRO too; he did something with his arms rather than the spin at the end.

Joe sang to Joanne at one point and kept looking into her camera, I don’t know what song/s this was in though, a bit of a blur now.
Ambitions was last and got everyone singing along too and he demanded we all march along with him. And that was it, Joe said his goodbye’s and left the stage.
At one point while I was videoing I got a message to say I didn’t have enough memory or something, so I manically started deleting previous Joe videos, that are already on youtube, although I would have loved to keep them on my phone.  Can’t remember when that happened, and I haven’t had a chance to watch all my video’s back, but one of them may have some of the song cut out, sorry about that.
I have to have a little moan about the venue.  I don’t think they were used to having live acts perform, that is probably part of the reason the sound system wasn’t brilliant.  There was no stage, which is rather stupid.  How anyone further back would have seen Joe I don’t know, I am sure it would be difficult to even see a taller artist let alone wee Jojo, he could have down with a box to stand on at least haha. Also a bit stupid that there were a dozen security standing at every angle actually blocking the view.  Fair enough Joe’s set needs to be guarded and I want him to be safe and all, but I paid to see Joe McElderry sing live, not to see some birds pierced lip and bleach blonde hair in my face the whole time. Also the fact that Joe was doing a meet and greet in the bar I found a bit odd, I expected him to be serving drinks.  They also didn’t turn the music down, so it would have been difficult for people to speak to Joe anyway.

Video’s from Revenge:  

Feel The Fire -

Joe McElderry Revenge Feel The Fire

Someone Wake Me Up

Joe McElderry Revenge Someone Wake Me Up

The Climb -

Joe McElderry Revenge The Climb

UTSRO -

Joe McElderry Revenge Until The Stars Run Out

DSB -

Joe McElderry Revenge DSB

[Hubz]

So after Joe’s set, we all started wondering out and met up near the exit.  We saw the Ross guy again and was convinced it was him until someone asked him; I looked closer and noticed it wasn’t, a bit embarrassing. But it did mean we could cancel plans to nick some gaffer tape and tie him up for Aquarius (DS), leave that for next time.
We got out of the venue and met up with everyone outside, I saw a women who was saying she had just met Joe getting into the van and gave her some flowers, yes flowers, very nice ones at that, lucky lady b*tch lol.

Sunday 21st November:
Then back to the hotel!  Me and Jen had planned to travel through the night to Sheffield with LiverpoolJoeFan, probably not the best idea we came to realise, getting no sleep does nothing for my skin amongst other things. It was quite an experience, travelling in the dark down deserted roads, stopping off at a ghost town service station at 4.30am for a sandwich, could write a horror story with that as the start.  The guy at WHS was far too happy for that time in the morning and he kept trying to joke with me.

After getting to Sheffield alive and unharmed at stupid o clock for a show not starting until 1pm, A.K.A 7.20am, we pretty much hung around in the freezing cold until John Lewis opened and me and Jen went in for a hot drink and cake, which was the only thing we ate until late that evening.

They kept playing DSB and everyone was getting excited, until it stopped and another woman came on stage to soundcheck. We were getting worried Joe would be doing a soundcheck when it got to 12pm, Joe tweeted that he was there.

About 12.30pm I could see Joe at the side of the stage. So after countless, 1,2, 1,2 being said, it looked like Joe was about to do the sound check, as promised, I texted Josie to tell her he was doing a sound check and missed Joe waving at us, I caught the end little bit and the smile, but missed the whole wave in all its glory, damn it!
Joe did the sound check for DSB, SWMU and Ambitions, I love the fact he still gets into it and does his little moves, the crowd got busier as he was doing this.

I remember saying hello to everyone at joe-music in one of my vids, can‘t remember why, sorry about that.  I would also like to add I don’t normally sound that manly or crocky, I had a really bad cold, of which has decided to go when I am home and back to work, (I wanted today off sick, but wouldn’t have got away with it haha).  I could barely talk all weekend actually and sounded dreadful, really shouldn’t have been stalking McElderry and out in freezing temperatures all day feeling that rough, but heyho.

After Joe had finished the check he said bye and that he would see us all later. Me and Jen got out of the expanding queue to go to the toilet and grab a hot drink.  I literally couldn’t feel my legs anymore, my feet I am sure had fallen off due to the lack of blood circulating. I found a Cadburys stall and got too hot chocolates from there with a free flake, wahey happy days.  I dropped my phone, well it fell out of my pocket and a guy had to help me with my cups to pass my phone back. Can’t even get a drink without dropping something.

When we got back to the queue about 10 minutes after getting out, it was alot bigger and we had to squeeze back to the front. The music started followed by countless acts, some ok, some terrible.  Bits of chat from a few different Real Radio presenters.  At one point they showed the buckaroo video with Joe, which made me laugh.

The rest of the group arrived not long after 1pm and Yorkshirelass came and stood by me with Tascha’s camera, she is another shorty and needed to get in there for a good view.
There were a bit too many guests on tbh, by the time Joe was coming on my whole body was going into shock and I don’t think I could move even if I wanted too, I was numb. The radio dj’s kept mentioning that Joe would be performing and at one point one presenter made the whole audience be silent before saying Joe’s name to listen to all the screams and cheering.  I could see the audience was MASSIVE, I didn’t know quite how big it was as I couldn’t see the end, 35,000 wow!

The crowd kept appearing on the big screen and I did see myself quite a few times, apparently I was shown alot, cringe.  The first time I screamed, the other times I ducked down, while YL “searched for something in my hood”, the first time she said it I wondered what the hell was in my hood before realising why she was hiding haha.
One group, Inju5tice, a boyband who I thought were quite good, one of the members said, “Oww that lady is asleep over there”, I wondered if they were talking about me, then we figured it was Jenni.  These guys ran around the stage at the end of their set and patted Jen on the head as he went by, made me laugh.
A girl behind us was there to see Ringo from Neighbours, real name Sam Clarke, (I think). He was quite good I thought. Anyway when he came on she screamed so much I think I went deaf.
Finally, it was time for Joe! There was a little introduction from some blonde woman off The Calendar show or something,..... don’t ask me who she was, who said Joe had released two albums, erm yep sure last year’s X Factor winner normally releases two albums in 10 months don’t they, duh, then Joe appeared.

[Hubz]

The crowd seemed to be loving him, at least the ones around me were.  After his performance he went off and came back on a few minutes later to switch on the Xmas lights with Scouting for Girls.  After everyone sang a Christmas song, (no fake smelly snow this time, yay).

Joe said his final goodbye and left the stage, boooo.

Sound check videos from Sheffield Xmas lights:

DSB. -

Joe McElderry Sheffield Xmas lights Soundcheck DSB

SWMU -

Joe McElderry Sheffield Xmas lights Soundcheck SWMU

Ambitions - http://www.youtube.com/user/Hubz1988?feature=mhum#p/u/3/skaYafETcTc

Videos of Joe’s performance at Sheffield Xmas lights:

SWMU & UTSRO -

Joe McElderry Xmas Sheffield Lights SWMU & UTSRO

DSB -

Joe McElderry Xmas Lights Sheffield DSB

Feel The Fire -

Joe McElderry Xmas lights Sheffield Feel The Fire

Ambitions - http://www.youtube.com/user/Hubz1988?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/diMtLYrmJ0I

SFG were then brought to the stage, their performance was quite good, but I couldn’t wait for it to be over as I couldn’t feel my legs and wanted to get out of the crowd. Interestingly Josie said many people left right after Joe’s performance.  When me and Jen did get out of the crowds after the first block of the crowd you could pretty much walk freely around which proves that allot of the 35,000 people must have moved on pretty quickly.  I do think Joe got a better reaction then Scouting for Girls too.
Me & Jenni had to go and collect our suitcases from LiverpoolJoeFan’s car, she and her mum were going to walk to were the car had been left and me and Jenni got a taxi. It didn’t go quite as smoothly as hoped.  The car was parked nearby to the houseboat we where we were staying for the night, the cab driver didn’t know how to get to the boats and dropped us off at the Hilton Hotel, it was quite awkward and we couldn’t quite figure out how you got round to the boats, we twaddled along for about 30 minutes before finding where we had to be, then realised if we cut through the middle it would have taken all of 5 minutes. We waited for LiverpoolJoeFan to arrive and went to collect our cases, and spoke for a little while there.  We were meant to be meeting everyone in Pizza Hut in town, but we took so long faffing about everyone was eating by this point. Me and Jen walked over the brigde by the boats and found ourselves at the Park Inn, once we had decided to definitely go into town to find something to eat, I went in and asked for a cab as my friend was about to collapse lol, Jenni’s lying has rubbed off on me.  Although to be fair, we were both so frozen we could have died of hyperthermia on the spot. On the way to Pizza Hut Joe sent that tweet to that women, you know the CHANGE one.  That was the subject of conversation when we got to Pizza Hut, so happy he stuck up for himself there. Everyone had finished their food just as we got in.

I was so glad to sit down, be in the warm and eat, god I had forgotten what all 3 felt like, don’t think I had eaten a proper meal since Friday night. The pizza and salad was lovely and we sat there chatting for what must have been about 2 hours, alot of that time we were waiting for someone to come and take my card to pay the bill, of course I would have happily not paid it, if they had proffered.  After the meal we managed to flag down a taxi, at this point I had actually lost my voice and was whispering in the car.
We got to the houseboats and waddled around until some people appeared from our boat and called us over.  Now for the funny bit, Jen suddenly thought, how the hell am I going to get in this boat? It was certainly a challenge.  I was as useful as a clumsy burglar and may as well have not been there at all, but in the end we got Jenni aboard, I think it was Haze that picked her up while other people carried over her legs, I think we will be laughing about that one for a while. Once we were all on ship, Josie gave us a quick look around the boat, didn’t take long it was tiny.  I was gobsmacked by the toilet, it was a tiny little chemical looking thing and the doors reminded me off them ones you see in cowboy films.  At least the main toilet was better than the one in mine and Jenni’s “room” which looked like a cupboard and you needed to leave the door up to use it, needless to say I never used that toilet. After chatting for a bit and me moaning about the toilet we all went to bed, where I had a dream about someone opening the door and seeing me on the toilet, scarred for life now.

Monday 22nd November:
Another day, another city, another performance to be seen by Joseph. We got up and decided to just make our way to Middlesbrough, the shower left something to be desired in the boat so we thought we would get showered and changed in the apartment.
We had to then get Jenni off the boat, it seemed easier getting her off, but it was still a caffle and I was still useless.
We all boarded the Joe too-ah bus with Haze as the designated driver, thanks very much Haze for driving us around.
We stopped at services for breakfast and I needed to get money out for my Middlesbrough ticket and the money for accommodation.  You need to imagine the state of shock I was in when the card machine told me I was in my overdraft, and then DECLINED my request.  I mean whaaat, seriously Joe can’t be that much of an expensive habit can he??? Ummm.  I walked back to the cafe with my tail between my legs and head down before Jenni took pity on me and brought me some tea and toast, I haven’t felt so embarrassed in a long time, although being questioned about my HMV purchases by my bank manager the other week was up there.

After breakfast we jumped back aboad the mini bus. It didn’t take us too long to find Middlesbrough and the apartment, although the apartment wasn’t ready when we got there, so we went to find where the Empire was.  When we found the venue we were shocked to see McElderry had been spelt with a K on the official poster, yep that’s right a K, the cheek of it.
After a bit of a detour back to the apartment we could now go into the apartment.  It was a nice apartment and most importantly had a flushable toilet with actual working doors, yipeee!

After chatting for a while everyone stayed to get ready, was amazing to have a shower again.  Me and Joanne decided to go down about 4pm to get in the queue as we were the only ones on the floor, everyone else in our McElderry crew were in the VIP boxes.

I spotted a HSBC and went to withdraw money as I had got my mum to transfer some from another account of mine, was so relieved to see that my card didn’t get sucked in and I was allowed money.  In the queue we met Maggs, who recognised us, nice to meet you.  It’s so strange when someone comes up knowing your name and you have never met them before haha.
Me and Joanne were just chatting in the queue for a while before Joanne number two got dropped off, (currentmrs), lovely to see you again.
We must have been chatting for ages before the doors opened.  Once again I was freezing blooming cold, although not as bad as Sheffield. The doors opened and we rushed in to get our wristband and scramble to the front.  I ran behind the two Joanne’s and was on the second row although I squeezed to the front by the time Joe came on.
We saw Eileen in one of the private boxes along with Joe’s aunt, Ash and a few more people.
There were 4 support acts, the first guy was a rapper, I think a Joe McElderry gig is the last place I would book a rapper but yano, he was really nervous and forgot his words at one point, I felt a bit sorry for him. Next up Jamilah, I thought she was a very good singer, I liked her.  The dance act that was on next were a bit rubbish, they had 3 days to rehearse and I think I could have done that in 1 hour, they only had one choreographed routine although there wasn’t much of a routine, the rest was on the spot, I shake my botty while you spin on the floor, Diversity they were not!  Last up for the support was Sarah Proctor (I think that was her surname), she sang just with a guitar and was also very good I thought, I liked her version of Use Somebody and Just The Way You Are, although by the time she came on everyone was just itching for Joe.  People started to chant “We want Joe” before he came on.

Now for the main event .......................JOE MCKELDERRY!!!!!!!!!!  Or is that JOE MCELDERRY?

[Hubz]

The crowd went mad for him, I was surrounded by young girls who were screaming their heads off and kept shouting, we love you Joe and things and got very excited when he waved to them.
Same set as before you know.  As I was in the front row it was a really good view.  Eileen was recording Feel The Fire and the guys in the box said she recorded the crowd too.
When Joe sang “Someone Wake Me Up”, well if you didn’t know already, which is quite likely as I haven’t mentioned it at all, (says in sarcastic voice), Joe sang to me, well he definitely looked at me while singing anyway and pointed at me with his mic. As he was singing the “Now you are my habit, giving me a natural high” line he pointed at me and pointed his mic stand.  I was thinking, no he isn’t looking at me is he, I wanted to follow his eyes and look around me to check if it was me he was looking at but I would have had to miss the look, so I just stared at him, then he smiled or was that smiling with his eyes? Then he did a normal cute smile and walked to the side of the stage. .  I dropped my phone a bit when he came over, I think it was the shock, so you don’t catch the whole moment on my video, you can’t see the look properly either.
I turned to Joanne and said, OMG did he just look at me and Joanne was like yeah.  That put a big smile on my face, it’s my fave line in the song too, http://www.excitementspasm.com!

I didn’t record The Climb and DSB at this gig as I had recorded them from the others and we have seen them both a million times, plus I was worried my memory may get full again and I would be manically trying to delete videos.  But The Climb and DSB as always had everyone singing along.  Joe told us to sing a part of DSB and we did.

The Climb had everyone waving their arms.  I decided to sing a little bit in these two songs as i wasn’t recording and I honestly didn’t want to ruin the other video’s I had done by singing, I sound bad normally, but bunged up with a cold, nooo it does not sound pretty.

I think Joe sang to Joanne aswell in this one and he gave some waves, winks and thumbs up to the ladies in the box.
Joe looked gorgeous and I looked good in his military jacket.  He took his jacket off though just before doing UTSRO as he was too hot and he was wearing a rather nice t-shirt underneath.
There was a different guy dancer instead of Liam, so Joe sat on this dude instead.  It was good to see the full routine for UTSRO with all the dancers there.
It got to Ambitions and I knew this would be the last song, although I had hoped for a few more as it was his own gig.  Joe noticed Dan holding up the painting of him and said, oow is that for me, thats brilliant or pass it over and he did.  We heard afterwards Dan got to see Joe and Joe said thank you in person which was lovely and he was sooo happy.
After Joe left the stage everyone started shouting JOE, JOE, JOE.  Then the turned the lights on.  So we all left the venue and was waiting around and trying to gather up all the sheep so to speak.

Some people saw Joe get into the car after a while, he had a meet and greet in the bar after the gig.

Video’s from The Empire:

Feel The Fire -

Joe McElderry Empire Feel The Fire

UTSRO -

Joe McElderry Empire Until The Stars Run Out

SWMU

Joe McElderry Empire Someone Wake Me Up

Ambitions -

Joe McElderry Empire Ambitions

After hanging about for ages we decided to head off to McDonalds which I was happy about as I had only had toast in the morning.  Olly’s song was on in McDonalds and we had a bit of a moan, the woman behind the counter said, ooh have you just come from the Joe McElderry’s show at the Empire, yep we declared.  She said her mum is a fan and she plays his album all the time, but she said she didn’t even realise he was playing there, bad PR again.
While we ate the cheeky McDonalds we chatted about .......politics, erm not!  We talked about Joe and the gig, etc etc.
We were practically getting kicked out of the place when we left, back to the mini bus and back to the apartment.
As usual after a Joe gig and with the normal crowd, we watched some video’s back, SGG’s from DS, chatted, discussed, owwwed and awwwed along with going on about how hot the SWMU screenshots were and that model shoot with the black coat = HOT!
I think it was around 4am that we decided to hit the sack and get some sleep, we had to vacate the apartment by 11am and wanted to be on the road by 10am, so had to get a few hours kip.  Also like usual me and Jen started talking once in bed, until Haze knocked on the door and asked us to talk quieter, woops.  Then we got some shut eye.


Tuesday 23rd November – Back To Reality:

And the end is nigh.   We got up, got ready, had some breakfast and left.  Our resident driver Haze drove me, Jen and Josie to Birmingham International station, where I will be in 2 days time for BRMB.
We said our goodbyes and went to fetch our trains, me and Josie were on the same one and grabbed a subway before getting on the train and trying to find two available seats.  We chatted some more about Joe on the train before Josie got off.

At London Euston the escalators weren’t working and I had to walk down them with my big case, the old man in front of me was very slow and seemed unsteady, then all of a sudden fell down, span around and smashed his head on the step before turning back around, all I could think to do was shout “OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD” a few guys went to help him, picked up his bag, glasses then ..... gave them back to him, yep thats it, don’t even help him with his bag just give it back to him, then a women walking past helped him with his bag, some people though.
Got on the train and then bus, then I was home around 5pm.
It was a very eventful and fun 3 days. Always love seeing Joe live and have heard move live performances then recorded over the past few days.  Brilliant company as always, had lots of laughs and people laughing at my voice, thanks guys, good to know you are all there for me when I am ill *cough cough*.  Some very fun and happy memories that money can’t buy! Although money helps.
Lovely to meet everyone I hadn’t seen before; hope to see you again in the future at some Joe event or another.
Thanks once again for Haze for driving the troupe.   
I will stop blabbing now as it’s time to go home and watch Joe’s video for SWMU and I have typed this up at work spreading over 11 pages and 6,239 words, now that is what I call an essay.!
 
The End!

[susiej]

Good grief Hayley I think you should become an Author or Reporter or something similar - you write such excellent reviews and so full of content.  Thanks again for another good one   

[Hubz]

The crowd seemed to be loving him, at least the ones around me were.  After his performance he went off and came back on a few minutes later to switch on the Xmas lights with Scouting for Girls.  After everyone sang a Christmas song, (no fake smelly snow this time, yay).

Joe said his final goodbye and left the stage, boooo.

Sound check videos from Sheffield Xmas lights:

DSB. - Joe McElderry Sheffield Xmas lights Soundcheck DSB

SWMU - Joe McElderry Sheffield Xmas lights Soundcheck SWMU

Ambitions - http://www.youtube.com/user/Hubz1988?feature=mhum#p/u/3/skaYafETcTc

Videos of Joe’s performance at Sheffield Xmas lights:

SWMU & UTSRO - Joe McElderry Xmas Sheffield Lights SWMU & UTSRO

DSB - Joe McElderry Xmas Lights Sheffield DSB

Feel The Fire - Joe McElderry Xmas lights Sheffield Feel The Fire

Ambitions - http://www.youtube.com/user/Hubz1988?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/diMtLYrmJ0I

SFG were then brought to the stage, their performance was quite good, but I couldn’t wait for it to be over as I couldn’t feel my legs and wanted to get out of the crowd. Interestingly Josie said many people left right after Joe’s performance.  When me and Jen did get out of the crowds after the first block of the crowd you could pretty much walk freely around which proves that allot of the 35,000 people must have moved on pretty quickly.  I do think Joe got a better reaction then Scouting for Girls too.
Me & Jenni had to go and collect our suitcases from LiverpoolJoeFan’s car, she and her mum were going to walk to were the car had been left and me and Jenni got a taxi. It didn’t go quite as smoothly as hoped.  The car was parked nearby to the houseboat we where we were staying for the night, the cab driver didn’t know how to get to the boats and dropped us off at the Hilton Hotel, it was quite awkward and we couldn’t quite figure out how you got round to the boats, we twaddled along for about 30 minutes before finding where we had to be, then realised if we cut through the middle it would have taken all of 5 minutes. We waited for LiverpoolJoeFan to arrive and went to collect our cases, and spoke for a little while there.  We were meant to be meeting everyone in Pizza Hut in town, but we took so long faffing about everyone was eating by this point. Me and Jen walked over the brigde by the boats and found ourselves at the Park Inn, once we had decided to definitely go into town to find something to eat, I went in and asked for a cab as my friend was about to collapse lol, Jenni’s lying has rubbed off on me.  Although to be fair, we were both so frozen we could have died of hyperthermia on the spot. On the way to Pizza Hut Joe sent that tweet to that women, you know the CHANGE one.  That was the subject of conversation when we got to Pizza Hut, so happy he stuck up for himself there. Everyone had finished their food just as we got in.

I was so glad to sit down, be in the warm and eat, god I had forgotten what all 3 felt like, don’t think I had eaten a proper meal since Friday night. The pizza and salad was lovely and we sat there chatting for what must have been about 2 hours, alot of that time we were waiting for someone to come and take my card to pay the bill, of course I would have happily not paid it, if they had proffered.  After the meal we managed to flag down a taxi, at this point I had actually lost my voice and was whispering in the car.
We got to the houseboats and waddled around until some people appeared from our boat and called us over.  Now for the funny bit, Jen suddenly thought, how the hell am I going to get in this boat? It was certainly a challenge.  I was as useful as a clumsy burglar and may as well have not been there at all, but in the end we got Jenni aboard, I think it was Haze that picked her up while other people carried over her legs, I think we will be laughing about that one for a while. Once we were all on ship, Josie gave us a quick look around the boat, didn’t take long it was tiny.  I was gobsmacked by the toilet, it was a tiny little chemical looking thing and the doors reminded me off them ones you see in cowboy films.  At least the main toilet was better than the one in mine and Jenni’s “room” which looked like a cupboard and you needed to leave the door up to use it, needless to say I never used that toilet. After chatting for a bit and me moaning about the toilet we all went to bed, where I had a dream about someone opening the door and seeing me on the toilet, scarred for life now.

Monday 22nd November:
Another day, another city, another performance to be seen by Joseph. We got up and decided to just make our way to Middlesbrough, the shower left something to be desired in the boat so we thought we would get showered and changed in the apartment.
We had to then get Jenni off the boat, it seemed easier getting her off, but it was still a caffle and I was still useless.
We all boarded the Joe too-ah bus with Haze as the designated driver, thanks very much Haze for driving us around.
We stopped at services for breakfast and I needed to get money out for my Middlesbrough ticket and the money for accommodation.  You need to imagine the state of shock I was in when the card machine told me I was in my overdraft, and then DECLINED my request.  I mean whaaat, seriously Joe can’t be that much of an expensive habit can he??? Ummm.  I walked back to the cafe with my tail between my legs and head down before Jenni took pity on me and brought me some tea and toast, I haven’t felt so embarrassed in a long time, although being questioned about my HMV purchases by my bank manager the other week was up there.

After breakfast we jumped back aboad the mini bus. It didn’t take us too long to find Middlesbrough and the apartment, although the apartment wasn’t ready when we got there, so we went to find where the Empire was.  When we found the venue we were shocked to see McElderry had been spelt with a K on the official poster, yep that’s right a K, the cheek of it.
After a bit of a detour back to the apartment we could now go into the apartment.  It was a nice apartment and most importantly had a flushable toilet with actual working doors, yipeee!

After chatting for a while everyone stayed to get ready, was amazing to have a shower again.  Me and Joanne decided to go down about 4pm to get in the queue as we were the only ones on the floor, everyone else in our McElderry crew were in the VIP boxes.

I spotted a HSBC and went to withdraw money as I had got my mum to transfer some from another account of mine, was so relieved to see that my card didn’t get sucked in and I was allowed money.  In the queue we met Maggs, who recognised us, nice to meet you.  It’s so strange when someone comes up knowing your name and you have never met them before haha.
Me and Joanne were just chatting in the queue for a while before Joanne number two got dropped off, (currentmrs), lovely to see you again.
We must have been chatting for ages before the doors opened.  Once again I was freezing blooming cold, although not as bad as Sheffield. The doors opened and we rushed in to get our wristband and scramble to the front.  I ran behind the two Joanne’s and was on the second row although I squeezed to the front by the time Joe came on.
We saw Eileen in one of the private boxes along with Joe’s aunt, Ash and a few more people.
There were 4 support acts, the first guy was a rapper, I think a Joe McElderry gig is the last place I would book a rapper but yano, he was really nervous and forgot his words at one point, I felt a bit sorry for him. Next up Jamilah, I thought she was a very good singer, I liked her.  The dance act that was on next were a bit rubbish, they had 3 days to rehearse and I think I could have done that in 1 hour, they only had one choreographed routine although there wasn’t much of a routine, the rest was on the spot, I shake my botty while you spin on the floor, Diversity they were not!  Last up for the support was Sarah Proctor (I think that was her surname), she sang just with a guitar and was also very good I thought, I liked her version of Use Somebody and Just The Way You Are, although by the time she came on everyone was just itching for Joe.  People started to chant “We want Joe” before he came on.

Now for the main event .......................JOE MCKELDERRY!!!!!!!!!!  Or is that JOE MCELDERRY?