We had our Popmart concert in Perth on the 17th of February 1998... it was a Tuesday I remember it well :). Me and a friend of mine, Adrian met up with a few Wirelings from the US... Karen, Otto, and Christine... this lot had seen them all before, so here we were listening to all of their U2 stories from all around the globe, and checking out Otto's photos to match......so on the Sunday and Monday we pretty much just hung out bullshittling and siteseeing, just showing them around... on the Monday night we went to a local Irish pub called The Bog, and seeing as the boys were playing the next night it seemed like a pretty good place to go.....they played U2 for most of the night, we got really drunk, sang our hearts out... and went home at about 3 in the morning feeling really seedy... btw... the boys arrived in town today and we found out that they were staying at the Hyatt....
Got up the next morning... hung over as hell and thought well this is the day... years of devotion has come down to this... the elusive first show in over 10 years... needless to say I was too young when they came to Perth for the Lovetown Tour :(
So we all went for some pre-pre show drinks at a mate's house contemplating the night ahead... after that we went to the pre-show drinks at the venue... it came as part of the ticket... we knew that the band was never gonna come though... then the show started...
After the show we all met up and decided to go back to The Bog... seemed like a pretty cool place to go seeing as they always play the tunes, and there was a rumour going around that this is where the boys were going after the show :) Well it got to about three in the morning and we were sitting around reminising... and who should walk in... the B-man... we just sat in awe and went FUCK... who is that little tosser who is out to make a fool of everyone... I got up and went to take a closer look... and sure enough is was the B-man, so I shook his hand, said hi and thanx for coming, and could I have an autograph (I just had to) and he said no, but to come by the hotel in the morning, and the band will do some then, and then a whole rush of people came after him so he was ushered into a corner... one of my mates was coming back from the bar with a few pints wondering what all the noise was about and he passed Bono one of the pints which he graciously accepted... cause he hadn't a chance to get to the bar yet, anyway then he started talking to the people he came in with and a few of the fans that managed to get through the barrier... he had a look at Otto's photos... and he signed one of them... but somebody stole that photo from Otto later that night... assholes... we had a chat to Paul McGuinness for a little while and he signed my tourbook, and we slowly made our way to mcdonalds at about 6 the next morning.
So we walked to the hotel and got there at about seven... we ran out of money :(
So we waited... at about 9 we ran out of cigarettes, and remained there drinking iced water sitting in the lobby... suprised we didn't get kicked out actually... at about 11 one of the hotel managers asked us if we were waiting for the band... duh... t shirts explained that i think... and he asked us to wait outside...
A little while later the bands security came out and asked us to stand in a line and that the band would see to everyone if we behaved... at about 1.30 the band came out and i can say that the B-man is true to his word... we got the lot... and from that day on i can say dreams do come true...