Review by Rocky 
Please send all comments to her!!  Lucky bastard! *L*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

here's the first half/ first day, feb. 5, 1998:

there are no interruptions, no changes, no bs, and everyone gets the same
story. every detail... if you wanna just hear the band parts, it's not as
cool cos the whole randomness of it all is amazing. i mean, don't get me
wrong i loved meeting the band, but it was the build up of it all, the
craziness of the day. also, this letter is being sent out to both oasis
lovers and haters, so if you're informed, ignore the extra stuff. here we go...

i was supposed to get backstage passes with lauren from a friend of hers
kim, but kim is in the hospital...very ill. so oh well, we (lauren/ xlava
and i/rocky raccoon) were off to west palm beach and orlando to see our
favourite band, oasis. we left for wpb at  around 730, but got stuck in rush
hour traffic (go figure!). got to the venue (wpb auditorium) at around 10
am. lauren and i checked out the place to the best of our abilities, meaning
walking around the building cos some lame-ass security guy was being a dick.
we saw these girls that seemed pretty lame, 14 year-old teenybopper types,
but decided, hey if they're here this early they have to have some sort of
dedication. we talked to them; they were still pretty lame. we decided to
stand over the mezzanine and look over the edge inside this truck. there was
this guitar case with the oasis logo spray-painted on...noel's guitar...too
many details, i know, but that was the first sign of surreality (is that a
word?) so there's this big red bus with this guy cooking in it and it reads
"Schmooze Inc." on the side (schmooze is a relatively florida based catering
company i believe). this tall, thin guy comes out of it carrying a bunch of
plates and shit and he's dropping it everywhere; i felt bad. so lauren and i
proposition to help.
"do you need any help?"
"hold on right there, give me five minutes and we'll talk."
lauren and i are like haha yeah right. but this guy actually comes back,
climbs up the wall and approaches us: lauren, me, and those two other girls.
"so you girls wanna help?"
"yeah," the four of us...
"yeah well, i talked to you guys first," pointing to me and lauren.
blah blah blah, so he explains that we're gonna be serving lunch and dinner
to the crew and band, and washing dishes. we'd be acquiring passes and the
lot...yeah, yeah, yeah...holy fucking shit, we're getting backstage passes
to see our favourite band. (i know a lot of you hate oasis, loathe em, abhor
em...but for the remainder of this story imagine this being your favourite
band.) 
so the guys introduces himself as dave and brings us back to the bus, gives
us "schmooze" t-shirts and the "local crew" passes. he brings us over to the
lounge inside the building, you know to explain everything. he introduces us
to the other dave (very cool guy, from now on refferred to as "little dave"
as opposed to "tall dave" who i met in the beginning and is now the god of
all gods in my life for being such a nice guy). 
"girls, there's only one rule. no autographs or pictures."
it's cool. i mean i totally understand; i wouldn't want to be harrassed
while i'm eating.
and so we wait for the hungry crew to arrive. at first only these local
venue people were showing up, you know the raunchy dirty kind. then the
band's roadies started to show up. (it's kinda weird when you can recognize
not only a band but their crew.) yeah, i recognized noel's guitar tech,
jason, but i didn't want to say anything cos i'd feel really stupid. lauren
kept saying ask him, but i felt it would be a bit odd asking him. so yeah
yeah, everyone's asking our names, and asking us if we work for the company
and we tell everyone the story...everyone's really impressed. one guy even
said, "i can't believe you didn't give any head to get back here." we all
laughed. so lunch is done and little dave tells lauren and i that we can go
and take a 25 min. break, smoke a cigarrette, yadda yadda, before we go wash
dishes. 
by this time it's about 315 pm. lauren and i had noticed this paper posted
in the lounge that had the schedule for the day...soundcheck at 4pm. 45
minutes till soundcheck... so lauren and i walk out to where the stage is
and have a look. venues are so strange when no one's there except the crew;
it's so big and empty. and the putting together of a stage is magic i tell
you...sheer brilliance. so i finally go up to the side of the stage where
jason is fiddling with the guitars setting everything up for noel and ask
him, "is your name jason?" 
"yeah, how'd you know?" 
"well, i'd seen you in this book on the band that i had read and recognized
you."
"cool!" ha ha..score, cool.
so lauren goes to find little dave to ask if we can go wash dishes now and
watch soundcheck later. dave says it's cool, so lauren and i run off to the
bus and start washing our pretty little heads off. we're almost done and
this british guy comes up to the side of the bus and starts talking to us.
we make our introductions, this turns out to be steve, some sort of official
security oasis guy. we start telling him what happened and how we're rushing
to finish the dishes so we can make soundcheck.
"no, no one's allowed to watch soundcheck."
"but everyone inside said it was alright."
"nope, i call it and the band doesn't want anyone there."
whatever, we had to go back inside to tell dave we were done, so we finished
our dishes and did just that. it's funny. steve was all cool until we told
him that we wanted to watch soundcheck. oh well. off to tell dave we're
gonna go to the stage. 
lauren and i were just talking and she snags my shoulder. rocky look on the
stage. no way. it's not him and i refuse to believe that...it was him (this
is noel gallagher that i'm talkin about kids. you know the guy that is the
band). so whatever. lauren and i take a seat on the side of the stage watch
just noel play some stuff, just fiddling around. haha, this roadie brought
to test the mic this toy monkey that sings blues songs; it made everyone
laugh, noel looked so cute laughing. gosh i sound lame saying that, but it
was true...it was all like some episode of twin peaks crossed with some bbc
and mtv...fuckin' 'ell. 
in the meantime, noel got on his acoustic and played listen up, help!, fade
in/out, setting sun. it was beautiful cos he played listen up (for the
non-oasis fans or the less enthusiastic ones..."listen up" is an old
b-side). wow.
noel walked across the floor to go tell the guys in the sound booth
something and walked back to the stage. as he did, he walked a little
towards the seats where lauren and i were and i smiled. 
"hello."
"hello."
"how are you?"
"good and you?"
smiles "i'm good!" very strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, still
didn't make any sense. 
then we see steve approaching us.
"i thought i told you girls that you couldn't be here."
"yeah, but we had to go back inside and so we asked everyone and they all
said it was cool."
"you girls stay right here and i'll be right back."
steve comes back and says ok yeah, just don't harrass anyone. fuck him. i
was insulted cos i'm not some fucking groupie. i was there to hear my
favourite band play and fuck, if i got the chance to make the scene a little
bit more intimate than being part of 4400 other people, i took it. so,
guigsy (bass player, real name: paul), bonehead (rhythm guitar, real name:
paul), and alan (drummer) join the stage. no sight of liam. oh well, they
don't need him for soundcheck anyway. later i found out that liam was behind
the stage briefly while we were watching the soundcheck from the front. the
band jam out on stand by me, don't look back in anger. then they play an
extended and amazing version of cigarrettes & alcohol...jammed out some more
with randomness. "tall" dave comes up to us and says that they need us to
help finish setting up for dinner. okie. so we went around the back during
and came out the other side to watch from the floor. after they finished,
bonehead was playfighting with one of the roadies and guigsy. cute shit.
they were all talking shit, whatever, lauren and i had to go and work. she
wanted to stay, but we had to go.
we ran around this building, working. when we went outside to the bus,
lauren's friend lisa was waiting outside and noticed us...jealous as fuck.
haha. we explained the story to her. she's like, "can you get me in?" hey
sorry sweetie, it's out of my hands. my only real explanation for any of
this is GOOD KARMA. 
loaded up the cart and set up dinner in the lounge. finished setting up dinner. 
cornershop (the opening band who i might add were incredibly nice), the
roadies, and crew came into the lounge first. they were all asking us
questions about how excited we were and the lot...for some strange reason
both thrusday and friday i was very laid back. the only time i was giddy was
when dave gave us the passes in the morning and then i got over it. i guess
it all seemed so surreal that it didn't register.
i was serving jason, when i heard noel coming down the hallway. jason
mockingly sighs like a little girls and smiled. i told him to shut up and he
laughed. so noel walks in the room with mike rowe, the keyboardist, and, i
still can't remember for the life of me what the hell his name is, the other
keyboardist guy (i think it's mark, correct me if i'm wrong.) they all come
over to examine the food. noel looks up at lauren and me. 
"oh you girls are with catering, i just thought you were lucky fans."
"we are. we are really lucky. we got here really early and offered to help
with catering."
"hey that's really cool!"
noel laughed. it was so cute.
so talked with mike and the other keyboardist (who i'll call mark for the
rest of this story). and everyone sat down at the tables while lauren and i
stood behind the buffet, waiting for more people to show up. noel screamed
out something about drinking vodka cos it's less fattening, but there was no
alcohol in the room we were in so he ordered mark to go make him tea. it was
really funny. mark comes back to the table where he had made the tea and
little dave had mistakenly had thrown it out...noel jokingly yells out, "hey
where's my tea?" "oh fuck someone's thrown it out." 
"so i want tea." he wasn't being an asshole, he was totally lighthearted
about it. it was really funny.
so mark runs over and brings him tea, but it was "too hot." finally his tea
was set to drink....fuck this is so much detail, but some want it all. this
whole part is very difficult to explain unless you were there. it was all
very cute. everyone in the room was laughing.
they were sitting, eating, talking shit, laughing. lauren and i were on the
other side. i know i felt so strange cos it was almost like watching t.v.
cos we were on the other side of the room at this point. (lauren help here i
can't remember what it was that noel said to us while he was sitting down,
before he came up to us.) so he gets up from the table and comes up to us,
again.
"what are your names?" puts out his hand to shake ours. he has incredibly
soft hands, with callouses on his fingertips.
"i'm lauren."
"and i'm rocky."
"haha, i've seen all your movies." makes a little boxing motion..cute as hell.
"yeah, that's the first time she's heard that all day," lauren.
he laughed.
"so you want anything to eat?"
"naw, you can't really eat at my age, you tend to get fat." patted his
stomach, really cute.
he sat back down and time passed in there while cornerhsop did their
soundcheck. the rest of the band never showed up to eat dinner that night.
they had to go cos the doors were opening at 630. noel said bye, see you
later. i told little dave that we were gonna leave to the stage at about 10
till 630. 
we left and bought our tshirts, stickers, and pins. and took our places
between liam and noel's mics. (for the oasis-info deprived, the stage is set
up l-r guigsy, bonehead, liam, noel, and alan in the back slightly
off-centerd between bonehead and liam.) 630, people start rushing in.
craziness. people noticed our passes and we told em our stories. for the
first time in my life, i was that person that everyone envies, hates, yet
admires at concerts. madness. (god this is fucking long. i think i'll just
send out thursday today and send out friday tomorrow.) 
so yeah cornershop came on at 730. i don't know why everyone's been so
disappointed, i really enjoyed them. i definitely think that they're more of
a sit back and roll a fat one type of sound, but i was really impressed.
very talented and very cool. ben (sitar, bell, tambourine) noticed me and
smiled. the band didn't seem to be too happy; i don't know why. i guess the
crowd was pretty bad. noel came out and played bass on their last song. he
tried to stay out of the limelight for cornershop. but even hiding in the
dark, everyone was going nuts. i felt bad for cornershop. tjinder (lead
sinder) popped a string and his bridge at the end of the last song. he and
ben finished their bit and the song headed towards its end with just the
drummer, other percussionist, anthony (the other sitarist and programmer
guy), and noel hiding out in the back on the stage. it as cute as hell cos
when tjinder left he was smiling cos nobody "got it."
lights came up and the tension actually started to rise...we wait. haha,
while we waited this crew guy come up to the security guard in front of
lauren and i and says, "you take good care of these girls, they've been very
good to us." we laughed.
about 20 minutes later the lights go out and comes on Thin Lizzy's "boys are
back in town." and then the beginning of "be here now" comes on. it was
pretty nuts. (i've decided not to go through all of the songs cos the
setlist was about the same as the rest of the tour and everyone who i'm
sending this to that is simply my friend and not really a fan doesn't really
care, so i'll just remark on the cool bits.) the songs went on. it was
pretty rockin. lauren and i had my british flag in front of us hanging over
the bar/gate. then noel says, "this next one is for the two lovely girls who
were helping cater food backstage," pointing at lauren and me. plays d'you
know what i mean? i could have died right there (even kabir said that
maynard's never done that for him =P ingore that if you don't know what i'm
talking about). when the chorus came "all my people right here right now,"
noel looked at us and smiled. how nuts is this, i thought? so yeah, the set
went on. it was great. then noel's acoustic set came on and he played slide
away, which i had been dying to hear live...it was so beautiful. all of it,
it's all so surreal. i smiled at bonehead and he nodded and smiled back. so,
yeah, whatever. liam winked back when i winked. all of these cute little
tidbits of acknowledgment that went on throughout the show. set ended wih
acquiesce as the encore...very cool. liam and usual stage antics: throwing
his tambourine out to the crowd, throwing the mic, etc.
amazing show. i was very impressed. i thought i would cry during noel's
acoustic set, but i didn't. the only time i got a little emotional was when,
three songs into their show, they played supersonic (their first single,
april 94), and my eyes watered. pretty spiritual i guess you could say. 
after the show, the crowd was still going nuts, so i asked the security
guard to pull me out. he pulled lauren out and we got our stuff that was set
on the floor by the security guy. we walked to the back of the stage and in
less than 5 minutes everyone was running back there. terri, liam's
bodyguard, saw us walking towards the lounge and said that we couldn't be
back here. we showed him our passes and he's like how do i know you didn't
take that off someone during the show. whatever. so everyone who wasn't a
roadie or a band member was  sent behind this gate. the band never came out,
but tjinder and ben from cornershop did, they were really cool. before the
rush came, lauren and i were talking and told em how amazing they were and
they smiled. ben is so adorable. 
we met this guy zack who was a fan. and went to the parking lot. i went to
the schmooze bus and told em how i was going to the orlando show and if i
could help tomorrow. they all said it was totally cool. (cool!) security was
being lame, so zack, lauren, and i went to my car and busted out with the
guitars. got kicked out by the security...whatever. this is all basically
the end of thursday night. drove back to miami and dropped off lauren at her
house. slept at my friend kabir's and woke up at 330 am to drive up to
orlando. sorry to be so long, but it really does need every detail. stay
tuned for friday's adventure....so much cooler: drugs, alcohol, rock n roll,
sorry, no sex, but it was still great. get ready kids.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the rest. feb. 6, 1998:

so where'd i leave off. drove lauren back to miami. got to kabir's (a friend
of mine) apt. and told him the thursday account until i went to sleep at 130
am. woke up at 330am to drive up to orlando. got coffee and dunks (dunkin
donuts, kids) and off...into the literal mist of the night/morning. arrived
at the UCF arena at around 830 am. just walked in and everyone
(crew/roadies) recognized me and said their hellos. i asked where the
catering people were and they directed me to the side of the building. met
up with tall dave (who will now just be dave cos little dave had to work
some leann rimes concert). he introduced me to his girlfriend, michelle
(shellie), who was there to help. she and i went upstairs to go and snag
some breakfast before the rush came. [before i go on i'll go over which
roadie is which: jason (noel's guitar tech, reddish hair), mikey (older
grungy looking long hair sound/lighting guy), dave (younger, cute, short
hair sound/lighting guy), dan (really cute toby aimes lookalike roadie),
steve (another really fun roadie, short dark-haired not the blonde tour
manager guy, max (funny thin, older red head guy...funny as hell)]
 so anyway, shellie and i are in the lounge drinking tea. dan comes up
looking for oj and i told him that there wasn't any but if he'd like, he
could come with me downstairs to find some in the truck (UCF is a three
story building with the slowest fuckin lift in the world). got oj and
brought it back up. like magic, crew was everywhere and they're all
"chatting me up." real cute. helped out with breakfast and went to go wash
dishes on the other side of the floor. came back and talked shit with
shellie while we watched the action downstairs through the glass: the magic
of putting up the stage. went back downstaris with her and she asks, "can
you roll a joint?" yeah sure...so they (her, fidel (a cook), and eric
(another cook)...dave was nowhere to be found) smoke me out. so i'm walking
back down the hall that takes me to the lift and see this tall, slim, blonde
girl that i had noticed yesterday.
"hey i know you...you were at the show yesterday."
"yeah, i'm here on business from wisconsin. i'm zoya."
"i'm rocky."
so i tell her the whol story about yesterday. and she comes back with me to
the catering area and she explains that she's formed her own production
company where he wants to have a festival for oasis in 99, and how she's in
florida to propose the idea to the band and their manager. she hands shellie
and me the pamphlet. we look through it. it was very cool. then she had to
go somewhere and we said we'd meet up again later. went back upstairs to see
if everything was cool. cool. came back downstairs into the arena to have a
look and sat down, had a cigarrette. relaxed... mikey and i were talking
when max comes over and asks if mikey's chatting me up (that's british slang
flirting/picking up). i laughed and they're all like you're such a lovely
girl, you rock, and all of that. i was so flattered. yeah, those of you who
know me very well KNOW i was loving it =D dan came over and we talked for a
while about lots of different things such as the differences between america
and the rest of the world and how i wanted to go abroad this summer  (very
cool conversation but it's not very important to the story). so yadda yadda.
everything was pretty slow during the day. so let's jump over a couple hours
to about 3pm.
while i was in the arena, i asked cute dave, the lighting guy, if i could
watch soundcheck from the seats behind the sound booth.
"yeah i mind."
"why?"
"cos  you should watch it from up here [inside the booth]." cool as hell,
there's nothing better than watching a show and/or soundcheck from the sound
booth. 
so he went somewhere and mikey asked me for a light but my lighter was
missing. i went to go find shellie cos i wanted a cigarrette. came back to
the arena and met up with mikey again. lit his cigarrette with mine, but
realize that it's not a cigarrette but a spliff. 
"d'you smoke grass?"
"yeah."
so dan, max, dave, mikey and i all smoke in the sound booth.
met up with zoya and we were talking about how we needed a drink. i told her
that i had a bottle of vodka in my car ("let's drink vodka cos it's less
fattening" haha). it was raining outside so we ran to my car. had a sip but
it was too early in the day for alcohol. told her i had some "kind bud" on
me, so we smoked a bowl in my car. came back just in time for soundcheck. 
at first it was just like the roadies (steve, jason, and a couple others)
jamming out. really funny cos someone (i think it was this guy andy or jeff)
yells out "don't quit yer day job guys." everyone laughed. so then after
about 30 minutes, the band shows up (minus liam). lemme tell you this jam
was so much better than the day before's. they just got up on stage picked
up their instruments and totally improv'd for about 30 minutes. so fuckin
cool. then they played cigs & alcohol and some other stuff with noel singing
but i didn't recognize it  (and i know em all kiddies) so i figured it was
either a new song, or he was just improvising lyrics. then noel got on
acoustic and played fade in/out with alan on bongos. noel says, "hey laddie,
what's your name?" to alan (his own drummer)..."oh me, i'm alan..." "hey
everyone, this is alan." it was funny =) so that was pretty cool. and then
he played some song that no one knew. afterwards he said into the mic, "hey
everyone, i wrote that one yesterday." everyone (roadies, crew, etc.) was
cheering. it was unreal. a really beautiful song. soundcheck was over so
zoya and i walked towards the doorway to head up for dinner, but noel and
bonehead and some other people were approaching us.
to me "hey you were in west palm yesterday." smiles
"yeah, i drove up to orlando and decided that i'd work again"
he smiled then gave me a hug.
then i said, "well, i'm heading upstairs for dinner."
"ok, see you there, rocky" (score, he remembered my name...fuck yeah. hahah)
zoya went off i think to find jason somewhere. so i walked over to the
elevator with mark, the other keyboardist and i was telling him about how
oasis is one of my favourite bands and the whole story about how i got back
there, etc. he said "that's pretty fuckin cool." so we're in this lift and
the door's about to close, we hear someone yell "wait!" we press the door
open button and like magic, there's noel. he gets in (i'm thinking, fuck me,
how and why the hell is this happening? i'm in a lift with noel fuckin
gallagher...but I was cool, it was like we already knew each other).
"so what's up?"
"not much, just heading up to eat something"
"so where's yer friend?"
"well, she had to go home..you know, she's younger than me and..."
"yeah, she has school."
"right."
"and you're takin the day off." smiles really big.
"yeah."
"hey i'd do it too." we both laugh.
elevator opens, we're at the third floor. everyone's in the dining room
(minus liam =P). it was strange cos the day before it had just been lauren,
me, the crew, and noel, but this time alan, bonehead and guigsy, etc.
everyone was there. so i walk over to the cooler with the drinks and i get
meself a cup of coffee. and sit down next to the boys (too weird). got up to
see what desserts they had and alan followed me. he asked me if i knew what
kind of cakes they were. i told him that i thought one of em was carrot
cake. he cut himself a slice and smiled, "this is great, and moist." so when
alan went to sit back down, he and guigsy were trying to squeeze between two
chairs and alan says, "move you fat bastard." guigsy hit him with his
stomach. really cute. so we all sit down. i say we ate dinner together but
not really cos no one was really eating except alan. the rest of us were
either having a beverage of some sort or just chilling out. steve (security
steve) sets down his walkie talkie and alan picks it up. this part is so
hilarious. alan and bonehead both pick up different walkie talkies and start
prank calling the security downstairs. we were all laughing hysterically. 
it was getting time for me to get down to the floor (about 645 pm), so i got
up and told everyone i had to go. i said bye and noel said, "see you at the
show." when i was heading towards the elevator, i was with steve (roadie
steve), and i said, "they're so bad." he's like excuse me. "no, i mean,
they're so bad like funny, that they were teasing the security." we both
laughed. and when we got in the elevator we started pushing to bell. *ring*
*ring* so fun. now i do that everytime i get in an elevator.
get down to the floor and meet up with zoya again. we get up to the bar/gate
in front of the stage with our bags, but decide against leaving em there, so
we go to the production office, where marcus (their manager was). get there
and ask if we can leave our stuff in there. yeah sure, it's cool. we head
back out to the floor. yadda yadda, same stuff as last night, people asking
me about my pass, etc. cornershop came on, but this time tjinder saw me and
smiled. ben smiled as well. during one of the songs and we were bobbing our
heads at the same time laughing during the song. cute as hell. noel came out
to play with em again, but this time he noticed me and gave a nod/salute and
smiled. cornershop finish with that really long song of theirs. and we wait
once again.
the speakers play the verve's bittersweet symphony...everyone started
singing. pretty neat.... zoya had moved over to the left about 4 people away
from me and told me that jason, steve, and everyone wanted us to come up to
atlanta with them. i said cool, but i need to figure out how to get there
cos i can't drive all the way up there. she said that we'd sleep on the bus.
ok cool  but how do i get back to my car in orlando...ok, yeah, we'll talk
after the show.
so oasis come out after "boys are back in town." liam, didn't acknowledge me
that much the night before, but this night, when they came out, he looked
down at the audience, saw me and winked...i smiled and he laughed...it was
cute...so basically the same stuff, a little bit more smiling from
noel...but it was more of that laughing/ big smile sort of this is nuts sort
of deal; it was surreal. noel knew who i was and he thought it was so cool
how i got there (he told me so =)). everytime i looked at mike and mark
(keyboardists) they'd smile and we'd start bobbing our heads to the songs,
laughing.
 so then noel's acoustic set came and right before he played "help!"
(beatles), he looked at me and mouthed "this is for you." and smiled. in the
mic he said, "this was written by someone when they were really pissed"
[pissed as in drunk/high, kids, cos that's what the song is about] and he
smiled again. the way that noel sings help, he slows it down and kinda
changes the rhythm; it's really beautiful. and as the night before, people
had a little bit of difficulty catching on. i had already heard it the night
before and he noticed that i was singing on par with him. he winked and
smiled as if thinking, 'hey cool, she knows how i'm singing it.'  i swear to
you all, he did not take his eyes off of me during this song except for
brief moments. we were smiling at each other throughout the song. and i
wasn't smiling like all stupid, i was smiling like i would with a friend
when we're having a good time. 
yeah how i just told that last bit seems a little bit out there in that
juvenile sort of way, but i don't know, i felt something very special when
he sang that song. i connected with him...not him directly, but through the
song, the way that people always connect through music. it was totally about
the music at that point. wow. it was unreal. and i almost cried, but i was
too happy to. 
his acoustic set ended and they did don't look back in anger before liam
came back out for wonderwall. during wonderwall, liam saluted me and smiled.
it was cute. then it was live forever. during the solo, i saluted noel and
he winked at me. i love that solo =) at the end of champagne supernova (last
song of the set) liam threw his tambourine out to the floor but it didn't
make it, so steve (security steve) picked it up and placed it on the stage.
when they came back onstage liam notices his tambourine back on stage and
says, "fuck then, i'll keep it for meself." and he laughs. they play their
encore...and the show ends. 
so the show ends. and everyone screams for more (even after the encore).
zoya and i are trying to get out to go back to the production office to get
our bags. we make it through the crowd and we get through the first door to
the hallway. this security woman (who i'd been talking with all during the
day, bringing her coffee, being all polite) starts yelling at us, you can't
be back here. yeah, but we have passes and our stuff is in the back room.
she asks us what our bags look like. she goes in and comes back, "i can't
find em." we're telling her that they have to be there, it's very important,
our keys, wallets, etc. everythings in there. she's about to go back in when
i see noel with terri (one of their bodyguards) peer out of the corner. i
scream across the hall, "can i come back there?" and that fat ass woman
screams...no, you can't be back here. (that was the part i still kick myself
in the head for, cos i should've just run up the hall and asked noel, cos i
know he wouldn't have minded). i turn around and steve (security steve) is
there telling us that we can't be back here. i turn back around and noel and
terri are gone =(. so that dumb bitch finally finds our bags and we head
back out to find jason. 
this business looking woman was piling everyone who had a vip sticker of
some sort into this group of seats in arena. there were about 20 people.
zoya and i wait there for about 20 minutes while we talk about how we know
that they're gonna tell us that we can't go back to the lounge. and surprise
surprise..."we're sorry everyone, but the band isn't seeing anyone, if
you'll please exit this way..." we get to the bottom of the steps and tell
this woman that jason and the rest of the crew have invited us to go to
atlanta. she tells us that she'll have to find out about that and tells us
to sit back down. so we just talk shit while waiting for the crew to finish
unloading the stage. jason comes over to these other people (who looked
pretty "important") sitting near us and starts talking to them. so we wait
and finally he comes over and we tell him what happened. he tells us that we
can just come and hang out on the bus with the crew and all. 
so, zoya, those three other people (who i later find out work for paul
weller, allegedly he was there that night, but i didn't see him), jason,
steve (roadie steve), and i all head toward the tourbus. get on and just
hang out. everyone gets a beer (yum, red stripe!) and then one of the guys
asks if anyone has a pipe of some sort. thanks to my lovely alibean (my best
friend) i offered up mine. offered my herb, but they said no, no, it's cool,
we have our own. so about 8 of us smoke and then i find out that it was
guigsy's "english hash"...hahaha, how funny is that? we're all drinking and
smokin and "married with children" comes on the t.v. it was hilarious, not
necessarily the show, but the fact that it didn't make any sense cos by this
point, most of us were pretty good to go. then we all start talking about
how fattening the beer is and steve busts out, "let's drink vodka cos it's
less fattening." it was funny. turns out that the story goes, someone was
telling noel about beer being really fattening (or something along those
lines), so noel jokingly said the whole vodka bit. at the next show
(probably dallas or houston), someone shows up with three huge bottles of
vodka! hehe, smartasses.
anyway, by this time it's about 1am and there's a whole mess of people on
this bus. i asked jason what time they were leaving and he said 2am. then,
he takes on the paternal role and tells me to call home cos "i bet they're
very worried. find out if you can go to atlanta cos i don't want your dad
worried about you if you do go." ok, so i go to get my cell phone, but it's
not in my bag. everyone's searching this bus for my phone. steve asks me
where i had my bag before the show and told him that it was in production.
we go back into the building and it's not in the office. so now all of the
crew are searching this arena for MY cell phone (how mad is that?). steve
tells me to go look in my car. we both go and it's not there, but my care is
this huge mess...cds, clothes, road maps, anything and everything. "this is
the most smashing mess i've ever seen!" we laugh. no sign of my phone. we go
back to the bus and finally find my phone under one of the beds in the
back...it must've fallen out. d'oh-homer. steve starts telling everyone,
"this girl's got the most beautiful mess in her car: cds, knickers,
everything everywhere." we all laugh. it was too loud in the bus to call
home so i went oustide, got in an argument with my dad...he thought i was
crazy for even suggesting it...hung up on my dad [if i was 18 (damn those
2.5 months) i would've gone]. came back on the bus and told everyone that i
couldn't go. zoya (btw, she's 21) said that she wasn't gonna go either cos
she had to get back home to wisconsin. =( said our goodbyes. now here's the
reason why i've kept up with the story.
i'm getting off the bus, beer in hand, and i peer around the corner...it's
noel and terri about 40 ft. from me. he sees me and yells "hey!" (he was
pissed/drunk =)) i yell, "i have to go back home." he makes a sad face, but
i smile and wave good bye. he then puckers up his lips and raises his beer
and salutes me as terri drags him off. and that was the last of the oasis
experience. ran back on the bus and said goodbye and hugs to everyone. got a
hotel with zoya and drove back to miami. 
fuckin hell. too unreal, but well deserved. i've waited 4 years. lordie
lordie, i think back to when i first heard about em. a nobody band. before
definitely maybe. before any of it. i think back to when my friend's dad
told us about this new band in england that everyone's comparing to the
beatles. and here they are...my first two oasis shows (i'm lacking in live
oasis cos i live in this place called hell, you might know of it...miami).
and i met them and hung out with them and i'm down with their crew. i'm set
for the next time they come around =) 

    Source: geocities.com/sunsetstrip/stage/8516

               ( geocities.com/sunsetstrip/stage)                   ( geocities.com/sunsetstrip)