No 1. Royal Festival Hall, 15 January 2003

So this was to be my first Love gig. Lizzy and Chris had a spare ticket, Lizzy's cousin Joan, also an old friend from the 60s/70s was due to come down from Scotland but unfortunately she wasn't well. When I was trying to remember the day, I thought that I had worked a full day and then rushed to London on the train - however looking at my diary I took a half day off work and caught the 3.30 train from Nottingham. Lizzy and her husband Chris had told me that they were booked into the Travel Inn at County Hall, it was full when I tried to book so I booked the Charing Cross Thistle on the other side of the Thames, not far over the footbridge. All sort of thoughts going through my head - would I recognise Lizzy, what would I wear??? etc etc. Booked into the hotel and they had given me a very nice room overlooking the London Eye - I'd stayed there for work previously and the rooms they'd given me were always s**tholes, they must treat you better when you're paying yourself.

Solved the what to wear problem by donning my best aging hippy gear - embroidered jeans, bell sleeved t shirt and a sort of afghan type coat (not an original, Designers at Debenhams!!), patchouli type Samsara perfume (more about that later) which I reckoned would be suitable garb - and headed across the bridge to the RFH feeling extraordinarily nervous. What if I couldn't find Lizzy, or worse still, found her but discovered we had absolutely nothing in common? What if Arthur and the band were crap? It didn't bear thinking about...

I arrived at the RFH feeling extremely apprehensive. Wandered around for a while, couldn't see anyone vaguely familiar, however the vibe was good, lots of folks my sort of age as well as lots of younger people. Then rang Lizzy on her mobile, turns out she and Chris are over the other side of the lobby from me, we advance on each other waving our hands in the air for ease of spotting..
and there she is!! She looks very much the same as I remember her, hair still red but shorter - I'm surprised she still has a Geordie accent but then she tells me she has been back in Newcastle for 15 years!! It has been a long time.

Lizzy and Chris have arranged to meet some other folks in the Hungerford Bar upstairs including the aptly named Scottish Keith - I am that long lost friend from 30 years ago mentioned in the link(more like 20 but who's counting). They're a great bunch, we end up talking to Mark Ellen and his cronies from Mojo magazine and start discussing the first single you ever bought (24 Hours from Tulsa by Gene Pitney in my case). Scottish Keith's pal seems to have taken a shine to me and keeps hitting on me (as they say in Hollywood teen flicks) - I put it down to the Samsara (passim). We spend the whole of the support act discussing old times etc and it was great - then its time to take our seats for the main event.

What can I say - I was just completely choked with emotion from the first chords of Seven and Seven is - and then the orchestra come on - and the mariachi trumpet in Aloneagainor just makes me cry and cry - absolutely wonderful. The whole gig was recorded and is available on DVD and CD. Just brilliant from beginning to end.

We weren't sitting with Scottish Keith so at the end of the gig Lizzy tried to raise him on his mobile, to no avail as it was switched off. We learned later that he had blagged a ticket to the after party, as he knew Mike Randle, the lead guitarist of the new Love. So Lizzy, Chris and I headed back over the bridge in search of something to eat, found a handy curry house and spent some more time catching up with 20 years worth of gossip. I staggered back to my hotel room and then they headed back over the bridge - but I had the feeling that this was only the beginning, this would not be the last time......