Wednesday 19th March, Birmingham NEC
After a brief stop at home (and to put in a guest appearance at work), it was off to the next concert in Birmingham. I had arranged to meet up with Gary, his wife Jan and Simon on the outskirts of Birmingham and from there we travelled in convoy to a city centre hotel where we picked up Sarah and her friend Laurie (in my car) and Sean (in Gary’s car). I had hoped there might be an opportunity to kidnap one or two of the other acts but as we only saw members of Futureproof and Hope milling about I decided against it. We drove to a pub on the outskirts of the city for lunch (Gary said he chose it because it looked quiet but I think the prominently advertised Play Area may have had a bearing on his decision). Lunch was preceded by Sean and Sarah avidly reading through some fan reviews of their performances on the X Factor Tour which had been printed off the internet. They were delighted to see so many positive comments, especially from people who
hadn’t been particular fans of Same Difference before the tour. Some of the comments made them giggle and throughout Sean kept breaking into the ‘Hula Song’ from Dirty Dancing, making us all giggle (except for Gary who, in his own words, “politely asked him to stop” a couple of times. On the third time, a more Direct approach was needed i.e. “I told him if he didn't stop singing it I was going to take him outside and fill him in. Seemed to work. No more annoying song.” ) Thereafter Sean and Sarah switched to humming / singing snatches of ‘The Miracle’, the song they’ve chosen for their first B-side. I would attempt to reproduce it myself, except: (a) I can’t sing (b) I can’t remember any of the words other than ‘The’ and ‘Miracle’ and (c) if anyone heard it I’d have to kill them (and/or myself possibly). I do know I really enjoyed listening to it accapella though – it was a lovely song. After the main course Sarah, Sean, Laurie and Simon adjourned to the Play Area (well actually they went to get a round of drinks in and got distracted by a Grab-A-Prize machine). They came back for dessert laden down with a high quality selection of goods including 4 Spongebob Squarepants rubber bouncy balls and a Mini jigsaw puzzle, all of which had only cost them £10 each to win. Bargain!
We delivered the dynamic duo back to the hotel in time for them to get to the sound check, then made our way to the NEC for that evening’s concert. We spent a bit of time in the Meet & Greet area (conducted in what appeared to be a backstage loading bay devoid of carpet or chairs – niiiice!), and spoke briefly to some of the acts. A few said they were feeling sad about the tour coming to an end – I know I was starting to feel that way, so goodness knows how emotional they must have been in the last week. Unfortunately the concert itself turned out to be the least memorable of all the ones I went to, mainly because of a lacklustre atmosphere. With the exception of local favourite Niki, most of the first half acts seemed to struggle to get much of a response out of the audience. However, Same Difference started the second half with a bang, did their customary top-notch job of getting the crowd on its feet and went down a storm with many, so all was not lost. Hurrah!
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