Saturday 7th of February, 1998 - The Future Of Earthly Delites Concert (Sydney)!
It's about 10 min to 9pm when we (Vanessa and I) arrive at the Entertainment Centre. Without tickets, we hang out outside, hoping scalpers will approach us. And they do! We buy row H tickets for $20 each (Bargain, huh?).
The Entertainment Centre hall is pretty big, seating about 10 000 people. Most of the people in the audience are young female teenagers (some with their parents).
The lights turn dim. The crowd starts to scream. Daniel walks on stage, along with the other band members. When Darren appears, the crowd (literally) goes wild!
My memory is pretty poor, but from what I recall Savage Garden performed their entire album, including the B sides, "Promises" and "I'll Bet He Was Cool". Other songs performed, not written by Savage Garden, include a great rendition of "I Can't Make You Love Me" (a lady singer joined Darren for this one), Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "I Can't Help Myself" and "Bring Me A Higher Love".
STORY NOT FINISHED - WILL CONTINUE LATER!
Monday 25th of March, 1997 - Meeting Darren And Daniel at Blockbusters!
I am walking to school with a mate of mine, when the topic of Savage Garden just happens to come up.
The queue to see Darren and Daniel stretches a country mile. Without my glasses, I can barely see the duo. Soon I discover the duo is not Darren and Daniel, but Ugly Phil and some insignifant dude.
"Guess what! I am in love with Darren Hayes from Savage Garden!!!" I squeal.
"Oh they’re going to be at Blockbuster this afternoon, Mel."
"Huh? What did you just say?"
In the afternoon, Taylor is dragged to Blockbuster.
Ugly Phil builds up our teenybooper excitement - giving away signed posters and making us scream for THE duo! Just as he leaves the building, Savage Garden appear!! Screaming reaches a deafening level.
"Shuttup, Mel!" Taylor beckons.
"Ok, but could you take some photos of them, while I save this place in the queue?"
The queue shortens and my time comes. Taylor and I scramble onto the stage.
"I’ll be 5 minutes" Darren suddenly says, disappearing to the loo.
The wait is worth it! When Darren reappears, he looks foxier than any video clip could portray him! His hair is undone, and lies gently upon his shoulders.
Taylor collects her handshake, autograph and smile from Darren and Daniel. Then it is my turn! I can’t stop giggling with excitement! The whole situation is very funny and thrilling!
"Hi, how are you?" smiles Darren, as he signs my album cover.
"Fine, how are you?"
Then PANIC strikes! Where’s the camera? I need the camera! Taylor has the camera!!!!
"Give me the camera, Taylor" I yell. (Note: All due to my annoying stupidity, the photos did not turn out and consequently do not appear on this web page. If only I had bought a flash camera!! I still have the negatives if anyone can come up with a solution to my problem!)
Darren and I lean towards each other, ready for our (useless) photo to be taken. The sexy dude from the To The Moon And Back video touched my blessed shoulder! I guess I also touched him, as he goes "Stop tickling!"
Departing from my dear Darren, I move onto darling Daniel! His smile is so sweet - like a little boy’s cheeky smile! I don’t get to touch Daniel, but the warmth of his smile is enough to keep me satisfied! I turn to gracefully float off the stage, but find myself stumbling, almost falling off the bloody thing. How embarrassment…
The impression I made on Savage Garden was not impressive. So what! They would not remember me - and now I have their autograph and a fantastic story to tell to all my schoolmates! Alright vegemite!
Sunday 23rd of March - I’ve Got Savage Garden on My Mind
The first traces of my obsession with Savage Garden emerge. I wake up early to catch their To the Moon and Back video clip on Rage! Caught it! And what a fine catch it is! Daniel must have the most stunningly styled hair on the planet - blonde and floppy. Then Darren gazes into my eyes and sings "Love fly me to the moon and back, if you’ll be, if you’ll be my baby". In a trance, I manage to utter "ok".
Monday April 21st, 1997 - My Chat with Darren on the Great mIRC
I am not sure whether to disclose Darren’s nick on this web page! I will have to confer with Carrots. I have changed Darren’s nick to "Darren", for the sake of keeping his secret identity secret!
Jenifa, the (way cool!) blonde back up singer, informs us that Darren will enter the Savage Garden channel in the evening. My blood pressure rises! My stress level catapults! I phone some schoolfriends and urge them to join the channel.
Darren enters the channel and I log every word that he types!
These are sacred quotations by THE Darren Hayes! (I would copy the whole conversation, but he didn’t say a lot - most of the time he was "simultaneously having the best conversation on the
phone about our album with a journo...")
Tuesday May 5th, 1997 and the days leading up to this tragic experience - Can’t Go To The Savage Garden Concert
I wake up early in the morning to buy great Savage Garden tickets (ony $22 - bargain, huh!?).
Tuesday May 25th, The Enmore Theatre in Newtown, 8pm - I am not there. My mum prevents me from going - "Mel, you should be studying and you look sick". Thanks.
Anyway, this Savage Garden experience goes as follows:
Darren: EMpire strikes back, then ET...it changes daily
Darren: Ren and stimpy...boxers,, silk...cute...actually a
little smelly now
Darren: most of it will
go to the tax man
but before that possi
bly.. maybe... yes
Darren: i love wonderwall
but nothing else
Darren: one or love is blindness
I am forced to hand over the tickets to Nina and her friend. They buy me a truly beautiful Savage Garden T-shirt. Bless their God-given souls.
They tell me the concert was unreal. I can’t go on…
