No 17: Alban Arena, St Albans, 4th July 2004

Despite having told Arthur that we'd see him next in Liverpool, we decided we couldn't wait that long...

There was to be a gig on Sunday evening in St Albans, and a quick look at the road atlas revealed that it wasn't a bad trip from Nottingham, straight down the M1 and turn right at Luton - a lot more of a trip from Newcastle however, but Lizzy was up for it. I emailed Glenn and said we'd like to be there, could he arrange for our names to be on the door. No problem - I couldn't even have imagined asking for this sort of favour when we first started out on this venture.

Sunday dawned and Lizzy made her way down to Nottingham mid-afternoon. Back in the motor and we did the surprisingly easy run down to St Albans - finding the venue was a bit more difficult but we found our way round the maze of car parks eventually. There was the tour bus parked next to the stage door, so we knew we were in the right place.

We parked up and were figuring out what to do next when a familiar figure got off the bus - it was Arthur, plugged into his Walkman. He sees us, and its " Hey I didn't think you were coming tonight - the camera's not here" - oh well never mind, Lizzy can still film with hers and I can just watch and listen - no big deal.

We head off to the box office and run into Glenn and his girlfriend Jane on the way - our tickets and passes are there, what a nice man! A quick pizza in downtown St Albans and then back to the venue - we see Gill and her husband Colin, as well as John E and Hannah and Miranda - the London crew are out in force as its only down the road.

The venue itself is rather like a well appointed school hall - seating, which we're not so keen on, and a balcony. We go upstairs and park ourselves at the back, the venue isn't full by any means. Lizzy sets up her camera and I just settle down to watch. Its not a bad show, but my opinion is that it a very sterile venue, not a lot of atmosphere.

At the end we hang around by the stage (definitely not stalking) and chat with Mike and the rest of our pals. The car is parked not far from the tour bus which is not far from the stage door - we head towards it, talking to Gill and Colin and some other fans who've travelled quite a distance - and there is Arthur again, coming out of the stage door with his young lady friend from SBE and Troels, and carrying a box. He comes over and talks to us, Gill asks if she can have a photo and he obliges - he hands me the box to hold, its full of wine and sandwiches but unfortunately the bottom starts to fall out of it. Troels rushes up to save the contents, then Arthur takes it back and he's away. We really will see him in Liverpool next time.