Interesting stories about getting to Macca gigs
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I'm not sure if there has been a thread made about this already (apologies if one does exist), but, I wanted to create a thread where folks can post interesting stories about getting to a Macca show, or an interesting story once they got to a particular show. I have a couple of stories: 1) In Vancouver in 2012, I took some time before the gig to walk around and explore the city. I was wearing a pea coat that day (this detail will become important later), which had my iPod in one pocket, and my ticket to the show in the other. At one point while I was walking, I put my hands in my pockets, and to my horror, my ticket had fallen out! The ticket wasn't one you could just print out, so I couldn't just go back to the hotel and print it out again. I panicked, but I retraced my steps, and to my surprise, I found it lying on the ground not far from where I realized it was missing. I enjoyed the show extra more that night. 2) Last year, I went to four Macca shows (a record for me!). Because of the way the shows were scheduled in August, I got to go to Dodger Stadium, U.S. Airways Center (in Phoenix), and Candlestick Park. And since I live within driving distance, I drove from L.A. to Phoenix, Phoenix to San Francisco, and San Francisco back down to L.A. The interesting (and slightly terrifying) part of the story is when I was driving from L.A. to Phoenix. For the first hour or so, the drive was fine. Pretty uneventful. But, when I was about 45 minutes away from Phoenix, I noticed off in the distance a bunch of storm clouds. I could see that it was raining (I also saw some lightning, too). Literally, I could see the dividing line between where it was dry, and where it was raining. Moreover, my phone kept on alerting me (several times) that there were flash flood warnings for the Phoenix area. As I crossed that dividing line into the rain, I immediately noticed *how* hard it was raining. The visibility was terrible, and I gripped onto the steering wheel of my car as tightly as I could. I felt like a captain piloting a ship in rough seas. I was driving very cautiously, but despite my efforts, my car hydroplaned a couple of times. And one point, water had splashed from the other side of the freeway, temporarily obscuring my vision. Thankfully, I didn't spin out or crash, and I exited the freeway (mind you, my car was on empty at this point) to the nearest gas station. I got gas, and made it to the arena, literally getting to my seat as the show was to begin. Again, I enjoyed that show a whole lot more that night!
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Those are great stories! I don't have anything comparable about getting there, but I do remember getting into the stadium in 1990 and somehow missing the people handing out the free tour programs. So afterwards I scrounged under the seats and found one, but it was soaked from someone's drink. It wasn't discolored, and it was otherwise intact. So I took it home, and then I stayed up for hours in front of a fan, drying each page of the program individually. It came out pretty nice!
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In 1976, leaving Paul's concert, the traffic was terrible getting out of the parking garage. Some impatient idiot behind me ran into the back of me!
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I think about Hammersmith Apollo, 2010, 18 Dec. The UK had a major covering snow that morning, rendering most public transport in-operative. This on the day of the very special, rather small by Maccas usual standerds, only announced 2 weeks prior, xmas gig. Thank God I live within walking distance of Gatwick Airport, because if it wasn't for that i don't think I could have gone. They have to operate some trains from this airport of course, unlike at normal train stations where it's ok to cancel them (in their eyes). it was a little nerve wracking, and all services were very much touch and go. However, after only 20 mins of waiting I managed to get a train that went straight to Victoria. It was crammed inside, but that didn't matter: I was on board and on track (literally!) to getting where I needed tobe - to see my idol in concert. I knew the transport around London would be fine with the underground, and so with this in mind it made que-ing up for 8 hours outside the Apollo very much bearable. I was able to get a great standing (it was floor standing, hence my willingness to que up for silly hours) position surrounded by very cool fans. The gig itself was very Xmassy, Wonderful XmasTime was played, and absolutely everything about the gig was brilliant!
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My trip to DC to see Paul in 2013 had an interesting start. First there was a train strike the week before I was due to leave that shut down the whole train system for 4 days that was making it almost impossible to get to the airport due to that and the horrible traffic that had cars on the road at a near stand still. Thankfully that ended a few days before my flight. Then about 4 days before my flight, there was a terrible plane crash at the airport here. This left one operating runway and cancelled hundreds of flights for days and I wasn't even sure until the morning I left that my plane would be taking off since they were still canceling flights at the last minute. Our flight was delayed about an hour and a half due to storms on the East Coast, then once we were on the runway about to take off, we turned back because the air conditioning in the cabin broke, so that was another hour delay. Because there was only one working runway at the time, planes could only take off and land at certain times/windows, and thankfully they gave us another window to leave. Finally made it to DC almost 4 hours late and happy I had made the decision to fly in two days before the concert after all that!
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I went on the bus to make it a long-drawn out "Journey to Macca" instead of to Mecca), was a spiritually transporting experience, but would have been more fun by car.
