...AND A

Friday 31st December 1999/Saturday 1st January 2000

When the Manic Street Preachers first announced their Millennium gig plans, Sharon went through the usual wanting to be there, followed by the logical it's in Cardiff that will be impossible to pull off if you live in Aberdeen argument. So when Morag said she wanted to see the Manics at New Year and 24 hours later they had 2 tickets and nowhere to stay in Cardiff and no way of getting there, this should come as no surprise. Well, thanks to the internet providing a list of all B&Bs and hotels in Cardiff, they finally booked somewhere. Now, the first clue should have been that this place had rooms left for New Year. Hmmm.

So Sharon travels to Cardiff from Middlesbrough, Morag takes an epic journey from Aberdeen. Having agreed to meet at the train station and arranged similar arrival times, Morag found herself on a delayed train and Sharon found herself waiting in Cardiff train station offending drunk people. Let us clarify that...a random drunk Welsh man and Sharon exchanged the following conversation: Man 'Have you been to any deserts?' Sharon 'No'. Man 'What about Canada?' Sharon (bemused) 'No'. Man 'Italy?' Sharon (feeling very un-travelled) 'No'. Man 'Oh' and walked off. Sharon (very apologetic) 'Sorry!'. Morag rescues Sharon and they have their first (and so far last) experience of a taxi in South Wales. That man had absolutely no idea where he was going and stumbled upon the B&B entirely by accident.

Rather foolishly thinking that the worst was over, the girls then enter the B&B to be greeted by the very drunk owner. He shows Sharon to a room and points to a non-existent kettle on the top of the wardrobe, Sharon decides agreeing to the kettle's presence is wise, while Morag locates the kettle on the floor and begins to panic that Sharon has also lost the plot and she is all alone in a very strange place with very strange people.

Onwards and onwards..and onwards...to Morag's room, several miles away...or that's what it seemed. The owner decided he had to rush in before us and draw the blinds. We never did find out why, there was a perfectly normal street outside. Apart from finding a random TV script in her room, and the fact that it was cold enough to store frozen food in, it seemed normal enough to hide in, lock the door and laugh in a hysterical manner until certain the man had gone.

That evening, Sharon, who's room turned out to be the central heating core for the entire of Wales AND next door to the water boiler, was desperately trying not to overheat and actually get to sleep, when she heard a knock on the door. A very sad looking Morag was stood clutching her duvet. The people in the room next to hers were being ridiculously noisy. A toss up between a freezing noisy room and a sauna. What a choice. The next morning, the strange now hungover man was late making breakfast. After getting his poor wee kids to set the table and serve us, we tried to tell him Morag had slept on the floor in Sharon's room all night. His response 'oh, that's a shame'. Thanks. He proceeded to tell the other guests where the best places to go in Cardiff were, then decided we would want to go shopping, being girls and all....not high on the endearment scale this guy...

The girls escaped into Cardiff, which is actually really nice and has a rather lovely castle with a nice gift shop. Anyway, after spending a large amount of time in a Burger King, they finally make their way to the Millennium stadium along with 60,000 of their closest friends. The organisation of this event is particularly impressive and we only queue for about 15 minutes to get in. Of course we entirely failed to find the part of stadium we want but that's pre-determined. We actually ended up in the best seats directly opposite the stage.

The many support bands include: Patrick Jones - beat poet for Wales. Rather splendid really, and very endearing with his ickle Welsh accent; Shack - Liverpool band who would sound really good in somewhere like the Lemon Tree, but were a little lost in such a large arena; Feeder - BLESS!! Wee lads. Little blonde haired lead singer was just SO happy and bouncy and won at least two fans that night; Super Furry Animals - technically very good but by this point we REALLY wanted to see the Manics.

So finally, after the stage has been hoovered (?? the Super Furrys must have been moulting), we are rewarded with the ickle Welsh lads. They play up until 10 to midnight and then leave us with the big screens showing the rather pathetic London fireworks and a dour looking Queen. James returns alone after midnight (guess the world didn't end, ah well)  for an acoustic version of 'Can't take my eyes off you' and Morag declares an intent to marry him. Sharon points out that there IS a waiting list and she is DEFINITELY ahead of her and could she please wait her turn?  The rest of the band come back and blast out some more songs. It's all over far too soon and the girls face the challenge of finding their way back home...

It seemed really simple in principle. There was a perfectly clear map on the back of the ticket. Sadly, half the map was removed when the tickets were checked. The girls were not counting on that. After crossing the bridge, then back, then crossing, then back then crossing again, they admitted defeat and asked a policewoman. Finally on the right road they found themselves talking to a very drunk (lot of that about) very very Welsh lad who was actually quite sweet. He gave them both a hug then decided he had to go and walk up another part of the same road for a while. Eventually finding their way home, they discovered the heating and water had been switched off so at least Sharon's room was no longer a sauna.

If only we were staying on this half of the map...

The next day, hungry, tired and not in the mood for strange B&B owners, they are not overly enarmored that he is late up to make breakfast and seems to have brought his one night stand along to help. At least the poor kids weren't made to work again. Being generally rude and blatantly ignoring him seemed to do the trick, and they attempted to go and get showered and get some serious sleeping in. Eventually, Sharon climbed into the bathroom cupboard to switch the hot water back on for everyone and settled back to view the usual bad New Year's Day TV. At some point the girls decide they cannot face the man againt he next day and hatch a plan to leave so early he doesn't see them. The next morning all is going well until yikes!! They hear him in the kitchen!! Panicking slightly, they write a quick note, leave a cheque for the rooms and leg it down the stairs, out of the door and down the road as fast as they can. Do not look back, do not stop at the first 5 bus stops, DO panic. Finally safely at the train station, they buy souvenir local papers with the gig write up and get on their trains back to their closest approximation of sanity. Bet you all wish your Millennium was that exciting huh?!