Steph/Electric Blue's Radio One Session Journal

It's journal time again!!! So something pretty momentous must have happened! I'm gonna get on with it before I get pelted with rotten fruit!

It all started with something of a panic - I found out about the Radio One ticket give-away on day two of the competition!!! Arrrrrggggghhhhhhh panic!! I lost a day of trying to get tickets then on day two I had to go out filming and I missed being able to ring in again! I began to give up hope as there was no way I'd make it seeing as I missed two days! Mr. Kinder had managed to get through on day one and won the first pair of tickets! Some people have all the luck! ;)

Day Three of the competition.... 12 p.m. and the phone rings.... it's Radio One hoooorayyyy I've won!!!! But no. They were just following up on an email I sent them last month! Damn damn. So at 2 p.m. I rang up anyway and managed to get through and register myself for the competition. I wait with baited breath for the phone to ring as the clock ticks on to 14:15 - the time of the competition - but the phone doesn't ring :(((( I decide to ring SteveK and have a grumble with him as he was in the same boat as me! A very expensive grumble it turned out to be when I got my phone bill today LOLOL. Out of sheer desperation I decided to make a deal with Steve that if I won he could have my second ticket if he would do the same if he won!!

Day Four of the competition.....2 p.m. 'got re-dial sore finger all ready.... damn this isn't going to work'. I got through eventually and leave my details again - the woman at Radio One said - I spoke to you yesterday didn't I! "Yes" I admitted reluctantly. "Hmmm" she says "well you're on the list you may hear from us later". This was said in the least encouraging way possible so I just sat mournfully waiting for the competition and having to sit through another two people winning. At 14:10 the phone rang... I got ready to shout "Go away I'm waiting for an important call" when I realised the voice said - "this is Radio One..." WOOOOOHOOOOOO I start leaping about the room!!!! I had been selected for the competition!!!!!! After gibbering into the phone and answering their questions I grab my second phone and frantically try and ring Steve to tell him the good news but I can't get through :( I just about manage to ring mum and dad - a handy way of forewarning them of an impending visit! lol I then go on air and get asked the silly set of questions! Just my luck! Some rubbish about breeds of dogs and something about ear parts LOLOL But I still get the two tickets!!!!!! I knew it had to work like that - I had to try hard to sound disappointed when I got the answers wrong! Then it was all over - I gave them the address for the tickets and then began more leaping about and shouting very loudly and excitedly until the phone rang again! It was Steve - he was absolutely overjoyed!!! Suddenly we were back in love with Radio One, funnily enough!

Sunday 24th

After yet another sleepless night of last minute packing - well, chucking stuff in bags more like lol - I didn't give my cat a chance to run away this time and stuffed her into her basket before she knew anything was happening and rushed out of the door. After a horrid journey to London - nasty accidents on M4 - I unpacked the cat and dragged my stuff in to a slightly bemused welcome - Hotel syndrome for my parents again, I bet they wish they didn't live so near to London.

Monday 25th

After pestering my Dad to hurry up and getting all impatient we set off to deposit my car at Kew tube station before Dad took me to the Maida Vale studios. I had no expectations for the day, except having a wonderful time and was surprisingly calm - but no matter whether I got to meet him I knew it was going to be an extra special day - little was I to know quite how special!

When I arrived there was no one there which was rather alarming but I went in and checked and all was ok - I was in the right place. I tried to ring the Kinder clan but they weren't answering the mobile :( I was rather worried by this stage. I went in and got a visitors pass and pottered about the building for a bit before resigning myself to waiting outside much to the amusement of the security guards! I managed to get hold of Paul on the mobile an hour later - they were in a Cafe somewhere! Food??? What's that? They would be at the studios in 15 minutes or so Paul said! 20 minutes later some other Bowie fans arrived without tickets and were trying to see if I would sell my spare! lol Some 30 minutes late the Kinder clan finally turned up all looking decidedly peaky after their night on the road from Manchester.

Eventually it all started to happen, suddenly there was a small crowd on the pavement and black windowed vehicles made their way down the road towards us. The first car stopped in front of us and deposited Emm, Holly, Mark and Page outside the main entrance. After some hellos they made their way into the building to be followed by the arrival of Gail and Mike. No rushing in or panic occurred everyone was happy and relaxed - all really polite and friendly. Then finally the moment we had all been waiting for.... The black windowed Merc pulled up in the road outside the main entrance. A buzz of excitement rippled amongst the 20 or so fans who'd been waiting on the pavement. Then there was a thundering of feet along the pavement as Paul and Steve came belting down the road from having moved the car.

I had already scrabbled in my bag for my CDs, Buddha of Suburbia and 'hours...' which I had lugged to TFI Friday and NetAid in the vain hope of getting them signed. I brought Buddha with me as I adore the album and had spoken to David on Talk Radio last year about it so it had an extra special significance.

With CDs in hand and my camera round my neck, looking embarrassingly like a rabid tourist/fan, I kept my eyes glued on the car door. In a very fleeting moment I nearly came to my senses thinking - what am I doing I'm not a teenager, I'm not meant to be behaving like this!...... But this is David Bowie so I don't give a damn!

The rear door was opened just a metre or so away and out stepped a radiant and grinning David! The crowd seemed almost stunned as there was a large pause before anyone moved or spoke - I for one was just standing and watching trying to make the most of the first moments. We formed a rather bizarre 'V' shape on the pavement to allow Bowie through so we could all see! Pavement formation Olympic team! lol I have to admit to getting rather snap happy when David got out of the car - as you can tell by my photos! Well can you blame me!? I then proffered my 'hours...' CD to David as he came over to us, everyone was very calm - at least outwardly - no pushing or shoving and gave David space and everyone had a turn.

He came over to me and as I handed him the CD case I told him I was 'Electric Blue' and then cringed like fury. He then beamed at me and said "Really? Oh wow!" I nearly died! We had a brief chat while he signed my CD to Electric Blue! I was over the moon - and frantically trying not to grin like a demented loony. I then moved away to let others have a turn and David asked the next signee if he knew her by another name and when she bluntly replied "No" he seemed rather disappointed! It was wonderful to be made to feel special with my status, or lack of... as a chatter! Oh blimey that sounds really cringey doesn't it? But what the heck it was a damn proud moment!

I then had a hankering for a piccie of myself with David - well a girl has to keep up with the Kinder's lol I thrust my crappy old camera at Dawn and she managed to get a couple of photos of me lurking by David. Then I came back out of the crowd again. I was rather cheeky and went back over with my Buddha CD which David kindly signed for me. I noticed a little later that David was posing for some photos with fans and I was seized by a wish to have a photo like that but I wasn't going to push for it. I waited and when the others cleared a little I asked David if he would pose for a photo for me. He smiled and said of course. I flung my camera frantically at Steve and took my place next to David!! He put his arm around me so I gingerly did the same to him - hoping I wasn't being presumptuous and then he leaned his head against mine and we waited for Steve to take the picture. Please don't ask what I was thinking at this moment because to be honest I have no idea - all I knew was that I had to treasure every single second of this moment. I was also flapping because Steve was confronted with a camera from before the days of auto wind-on and couldn't cope. I was frantically telling him to wind it on, terrified that I wouldn't get my photo but then again I got to stand there with David for longer so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing ;) "C'mon Steve, wind it on" David said dryly, he eventually figured out how to do it and he took the snap. What a moment and a long one too J!! I thanked David and then he made his way to the entrance. One of the non ticket winners then asked David in desperation if there was anyway they could get in to the recording. He grinned and we were all lined up on the pavement in front of him, he asked us to raise our hands if we had tickets. He then laughed and asked those who didn't have tickets to put their hands up instead. He did a hand count, like a primary school teacher checking his charges, and said that he would sort them out. What a guy!!!!

Everyone was rewarded for their courtesy and politeness no one grabbed at him or made too much fuss. He was genuinely pleased to see us and to be able to help. What a wonderfully thoughtful and warm guy. We all loved him even more - something we didn't think possible! True to his word David personally arranged for the eight fans to come into the studio for the recording - they were all ecstatic.

I finally succumbed to my sheer delight and was dancing about on the pavement with Dawn when he'd gone in!!! In a mixture of stunned delight we lurked about outside waiting for our time to be let in.

Eventually the ticket winners and guests were let in one by one and handed our VIP passes and we went to the canteen for the obligatory 'briefing'. I felt a little bit of a fraud having worked at the BBC before in my freelancing career and watching others being really excited at being in the building! I was excited just because of the opportunity but then I seemed to get asked all the questions about how it worked as well as getting furiously quizzed about how I got my visitor's badge when I first arrived! Mark and Lard came in to meet us all and sort out the quiz and the raffle. After our complimentary coffee and biscuits - woohoo free BBC coffee! I used to have to buy my own! But then again that was BBC Wales lol ;) we were whisked down labyrinthine corridors to studio MV4 - not that we needed any urging on.

We were then shown up to the little gallery - well more of a platform really - in the studio just above the studio floor where David and the Dave Bowie band were to perform. David made his re-appearance to a rousing welcome from us. The whole thing was very informal - it was almost as if they were performing in your sitting room. We all felt very wanted and part of the session - not just some mad fans who were let in to provide atmosphere. After some fun and banter from David, Lard was busy setting up some audience activities for the show, the quiz and some comments from audience members. SteveK managed to get in on both of those - typical lol

The show got underway at 2 p.m. and were in for a magical two hours - it was great to be able to see David in such a relaxed environment because he wasn't performing as such for the whole time we got a lovely glimpse of the off-stage Bowie which was wonderful. The studio session was brilliant - even though we had to lean back to hear the feed of the show as there was no studio floor playback, but it was still fantastic J In between the songs Bowie was chatting to friends and playing up to us in the gallery dancing about with Gail and bopping to the tunes spun my Mark and Lard. Duncan came in during a break and David also introduced us to Warren Peace.

During the second half it came to raffle time and I clutched excitedly at my ticket resplendent in its number 5 - hmm 5 Years, When I'm 5 - this has to be a lucky Bowie ticket. Sporting the very fetching 'Deer Stalker' replete with flaps hanging down David drew the winning ticket and a silence of furious hoping issued from the gallery. The number was 8 - damn! But then it was silent I hoped that no one was going to claim it and we would get another chance, but the silent winner emerged and went down to collect her prize rather sheepishly from Bowie - I think she must have been a bit overwhelmed to be that quiet! SteveK was very chuffed with his win in the Bowie music contest which was open to the ticket winner guests only!

All too quickly the session was over and the two hours had flown by, but we were allowed to mill a little with the band on the studio floor on our way out. I got my winners letter signed by all the band and very extremely cheeky asking David to sign another autograph for me but he was very gracious about it. I thanked him sincerely for the day on my way out. He smiled and was pleased we enjoyed the day so much. We then reluctantly made our way back out into the daylight buzzing like mad about the session. I for one was rather dazed by it all - it didn't seem to want to sink in. We all congregated outside - I was just trying to process everything that had happened - we stood there grinning at each other trying to put into words how we felt and didn't succeed too well lol But we knew exactly how each other were feeling. For David to make us feel so special was very magical, few people would do that for their fans and I'm glad that everyone respected his space and person which generated such a warm feeling between us all.

David was doing some further interviews inside and we all waited for him to come out again. The band were the first to emerge and we strolled down to them and chatted about the session and some more autographs were given, I collected Holly, Emm and Page's autographs to complete my collection from the studio. We then went back to wait for David. He came out smiling and signed a few more autographs but understandably needed to get on with his day, said goodbye to us and got in his car and we waved him off.

That was it - it was over! But I wasn't sad I was overjoyed! Everything has to come to an end and it was one day that I will never ever forget. Me, Paul, Dawn and SteveK then trooped off to the pub to meet up with Total Blam Blam for a swift beer or two and to revel in the experiences of the day. I was still in a real daze about the whole thing. Then it was time for the Kinder clan to head back to Manchester which was a real shame - so more rounds of goodbyes and they departed. I stayed in the pub for another pint with Blam and had to wrench myself away to go and get my tube home. It was a reluctant goodbye as I headed into the faceless world of the commuter. I wanted to talk and talk and talk and sing and dance about! But then again after the security footage of me on the platform after NetAid I didn't want to get thrown out! lol

The whole journey home my mind was buzzing trying to absorb the events of the day - I had to keep checking that I wasn't singing out loud! I was getting strange enough looks as I sat absorbed in memories grinning on the tube amongst the grim faced suits on autopilot. Eventually I got back to my car, leapt in and turned the stereo up nice and loud and sang my little head off the whole way home to Hours! Thank goodness it was dark and no one could see me! I'd have caused some major pile ups! I got home and just wanted to talk and talk about it but although Dad keeps all the Bowie cuttings he finds for me I don't think he really understood what I was rambling on about! But he had taped the show for me and left me some dinner in the oven - how lovely to come home to a meal for once!

I then put the tape on in the lounge and was dancing about with dinner plate in one hand and fork in the other! Thank goodness my mum wasn't in, she'd have had a fit worrying about me spilling it on the carpet! I was desperate to talk about it and then suddenly the mobile phone I had borrowed started to ring - I had visions of it being the Kinder clan stuck on their way home and needing beds for the night but it was Spaceface!!! She was ringing me from her holiday to find out how it went!!!! It was wonderful to be be able to rant on and on about the day! I was so touched that she rang J.

It was a truly wonderful day and I want to thank David and the Band, Mark and Lard and the guys at Radio One for making it possible.

By Steph - (Electric Blue)
25th October 1999 - (written 5/11/99).