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Future of Earthly Delites Tour - Perth
21st February 1998

by Julie Windred

Me and my friend got to the Perth Entertainment Centre early only to find out Darren and Daniel got there FIVE minutes before us - can you believe it??? Just a lousy FIVE minutes!!! ARGH!!!!!!! So we kinda heard the soundcheck, me & my friend grumbling, mumbling, groaning (you name it, we did it!) about missing them, a lady with a mobile phone wandered around near us (found out later THAT was Leonie!!!!!). We hung around the door in the vain hope of catching them. A white budget van pulled out next to us and drove past with Leonie and another woman in there and I was saying to my friend "Wasn't that Colby? That LOOKED like Colby!!!" My friend didn't know, but when they came back and Leonie honked the horn demanding to be let in, everyone had a sticky beak at who was in the van cause no-one was letting them in! So, when my friend saw the other woman, she agreed with me, it had to be Colby! Then all the other girls were getting jealous cause of how pretty she was, and she was SO funny too, cause Leonie got told to back the van in, so they turned the van around and Colby was looking behind her with this panicked look on her face (smiling at the same time though) and she was shaking the door and it looked like she was saying "Let me outta here!!!" It was funny. Oh, Daz and Dan have said (if you check the album credits) Leonie is the "Stunt driver" of them, so you can tell why Colby would be panicked! It was fairly easy to run into a wall there! Uh.... oh next thing that happened was Savage Garden finished the soundcheck and walked straight past the door, and NO-ONE made a sound! One of the girls went "Darren!" cause that's when I jumped over to the door and saw Darren going into a room, which Daniel went into as well but I didn't see him (I was pretty panicked over it too!). Then the support band arrived and we talked to Cameron - the lead singer/bag pipe player. He was pretty cool, I THINK we were trying to convince him to spy on Savage Garden for us!  Um, then Daz walked past the door 2 more times, the 2nd time he didn't even turn to look at us, just raised his hand over his head in an acknowledging wave. He looked pretty pissed off if you ask me! Then me and my friend waited some more, and Karl (the drummer) came out and an old lady there dragged him out to talk to us, and he was SO nice! We all got pictures of him (not WITH him - there wasn't enough time!) and he told us that Savage Garden were tied up in interview at the moment (which we found out later they'd been talking to the girl Daz pulled up on stage in TSOM for 2.5 hours!!!!!!!). Finally, it was just getting to about 30 mins b4 the concert, and we were still there waiting in the vain hope they'd come out. A lady and her young girls were peeking in a window around the side and we all began to ask "Who's there?" and one of the guys who worked there said "Nobody, just 2 guys in business suits doing some paperwork" and as SOON as he finished saying that, guess who walked out of there??? DANIEL!!!!! ARGH!!!!! So, you can imagine what me and my friend were doing - killing the guy who said it was "no-one"!!! And the ppl who looked in the window were saying to each other "see, told ya it was him!" ARGH!!! Well, I must admit Daniel looked a whole lot more cheerier! As per usual, his quick stride took him across the hallway quite easily and we all screamed his name and I yelled "Come here!" as he disappeared thru the doorway, and then I groaned cause he didn't listen to me! At 7:45pm, they finally closed the doors on us (they'd been playing open shut with them the whole time we were there!) and we wandered around to the front, still groaning about being 5 mins late, me apologising to my friend for not getting Dan to come out, and I'd also began to repeatedly comment on how pissed off Darren looked and that I hoped he'd be okay for the concert.
Me and My friend walked in the concert doors at 8:01pm, the support band had already started playing. My friend and I were walked way down to the front (I was looking back at my friend with an "I can't believe we're so close!" look, and she seemed to be giving the same look back to me! The support band were three guys called "The Kilted Generation". I'd say perhaps you could call it scottish music they were playing. Anyway, I enjoyed it, and I was yelling out to Cameron too, then said to my friend "We should have got him to say our names on stage!" During the last song of theirs, a guy with a guitar in hand hidden under Anna-Maria's blue "All Around Me" cloak ran onto the stage and ran off again. I was saying to My friend "Was that Daniel or was that Ben?" and My friend said it was definitely Ben. I still wasn't sure though!
Then the concert began! Me and my friend ran straight for the catwalk and got like THE best place cause we were right next to where Dan and Daz would sit for "Promises" etc. Now, I must say this was THE BEST NIGHT OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!! WAY better than Sydney, okay, now I can tell you how extremely good it was. For one thing, my heart was racing so fast that I was experiencing how Darren felt at his Michael Jackson concert and repeatedly saying to my friend "Okay, I'm gonna die!" It was just THAT exciting! I mean, I think I did end up looking for paramedics or something just in case I fainted! And, put it this way, I've NEVER felt like that! And I also began crying during "Break Me Shake Me" which was WEIRD! I've NEVER cried at concerts, but all of a sudden I was and I didn't know why! Okay, and of course the highlight of the whole night was that once Daniel spotted me and my friend by the catwalk, he was looking at us and grinning the whole night!!!!! And, not to mention, he came up the catwalk a lot more than he'd done in Sydney! I still can't believe it though, he was sitting right in front of us and grinning at us, and Darren was so nice cause he stepped out of the way so me and my friend could grab a couple of 100 photos of Dan! Basically, Darren was in a better mood on stage, he was quite content with roaring at the crowd instead of flaunting himself as he'd done in Sydney. He especially liked coming up to me and my friend and stopping just there were all the cameras were, then pose for us for like 20 seconds b4 moving again! So, anyway, better get you into this concert! I was juggling my handbag, a camera, a pen and a notepad all in one here, so um you'll probably get more details about the end of the concert since my film ran out! The Security Guards were letting us get snap happy, even moving out of the way for us!
Okay, try again. First song, "Tears Of Pearls" was usual Darren tactics, you know spinning around in his "cyber vampire" costume to let the tails fly out, coming up the catwalk to us excited snap happy little ppl (I took WAY to many photos of him cause he did that!). He climbed up the stairs as he finished singing this song which immediately rolled into "Love Can Move You" (see, I was LISTENING for the change this time!). Once again, Daniel was not in a very happy mood, he had a solemn look on his face and he hardly moved at all! I was WILLING him to move, to do something, and then he'd step forward to press the pedal thing for his guitar, but he was just not in the mood for the concert and I just switched my attention to Darren. I'm starting to think now that this might have been a ploy to get Daniel moving in the concert. During "Violet" and I think maybe "Moon", Darren went up to Daniel and they had this really weird staring thing going on - like they were sending telepathic messages or something. I was looking at my friend and going "Okay.... what the hell are they doing?!?!?!?" and she shrugged and I'm looking back and they're STILL doing it! Then finally Darren breaks off and goes somewhere else and I'm just left there saying "Okay, what was THAT all about?!?!?!?" I think once again it took "moon" to get Daniel into the spirit of things. With a much better sound system, they played this electronica sounding version to begin the song with (if ya dunno what I'm talking about, check out the RuPaul show version which you can get on Riley's website). I quite like that, so I was going "Yippee!" the whole time! Um, I think this is when Daniel looked over and saw the girl next to me, he was smiling then. The next thing was the duet "I Can't Make You Love Me". It took me and my friend a while to remember the songs title, but we got it by, oh, 3rd line I think! Um, the duet wasn't as good as in Sydney, they didn't quite express the same "touchy feely" emotions, so not many ppl were really jealous, although they did do the "I want you but I have to sheild myslef from you" thing pretty well!
Oh! *grin* Guess what? This is when Daniel spied me and my friend! This began his little "I'm gonna look and smile at you two all night" thing! I was SO happy about it! Um, well okay I was quite surprised by this bit now! Daniel had taken the lead, he'd beaten Darren down the catwalk and took a seat on his stool next to us (and I was like "Oh my god! If my arm were  twice as long I could touch him!" I have NEVER been so excited about being so close to him!). You could see he's got little buttons on his acoustic guitar, I guess to warp the sound a little, but he sat there and positioned the microphone and said (roughly, I'm not sure on his speeches cause this being his first time up the catwalk I had gone camera crazy!) "I know I've said this before but I'll say it again... the past 2 years have been a real roller coaster ride for us. We really wanna thank you guys for all of this." By this time, Darren had come up the catwalk and shouted "Thanks for your support!" Also during the show, when Darren was coming up the catwalk, he kept looping his thumbs in his pants, grabbing hold of the belt as if he was gonna rip his pants off any second! I can tell ya, I was just WAITING for him to do that!
Okay, back to the catwalk thing. They began singing "Fire Inside The Man" then broke into a rendition of "sugar pie honeybunch" and then sung "Promises" and then FINISHED "Fire Inside The Man". This was beginning to freak me out cause I was like "Didn't they sing FITM before?" but, now I kinda get what they were doing! *grin* Um, oh yes and to complete this little trilogy (or whatever you wish to call it!) they sung "Bring Me A Higher Love". Then they went back to the stage, Daniel went over to his keyboard and *shock* he spoke again! I was starting to get a strong sense that Darren had yelled at him backstage for not talking enough and told him that he wasn't going to say anything on stage until Daniel at least introduced some songs! It was strange indeed! This little speech is the one I am VERY vague on cause, I dunno, my friend was screaming "Santa Monica" in my ear! That may have been one reason, but I think I was just so shocked that Daniel was speaking so much!!! He said "This song was written while we were in America dealing with ourselves and the insecurities of the whole industry." Oh my god! You know what? That makes sense to me now! WEIRD! I forgot a bit, okay rewind the tape. Before he made that little "Santa Monica" speech, he said this "Hey guys, you know the last song the support band did? (Yeah from us) The guy in the blue cloak who ran on - that was Ben." Okay, you know in the 2nd verse? Darren's singing about rollerbladers/skaters? YEah, well this time he sung "You'll have to dodge those in-line skaters, or they'll knock your bad ass down" Me and my friend just looked at each other like Darren had said the most filthiest swear word on this earth or something! I mean, they were talking about it outside how in the soundcheck (cause one of them got to go to the meet & greet! Damn her!) Darren was singing and he just swore in the middle of it, and she was really shocked cause she didn't expect Darren to be able to swear! That's exactly how me and my friend were, just as if we'd relived that moment (even though we weren't there!). Well, let's see, after that we had "Carry On Dancing" which just sounded so weird and strange to me as if I didn't know the song, but my friend knew it straight off!
Okay, "Mine" was next. Daniel ALMOST started moshing again cause, trust him to do this, I saw him start doing it, and I nudged my friend and told her, but he stopped!! So I guess you can't say he was doing that! Um, Darren looked totally brilliant in what I've named the "ET coat" It's kinda like a clear metallic colour. Darren stands on this wind gust thing (think Marilyn Monroe) and he has this red light shining on him for effect, so everything is red including the smoke that rises up from this wind gust machine! It's all an effect. So, as Darren tries to get the wind to lift up his coat, he turns around, oh and this is gonna be a classic shot if it turns out! What happened was that I pulled my camera out to grab a photo of it, and I pressed down the button to take a pic, but he turned around so all you could see was the back of him and I started freaking out cause it wasn't gonna be a good picture BUT MIRACULOUSLY, Darren turned around to face me and the flash went off then! So it is going to be SUCH a good pic if it turns out!!!! I am SO proud of myself! Oh yeah, also Darren had grabbed all the flowers from the audience during "Fire Inside The Man" and had placed them on the floor behind Daniel's stool, and they were still there! I was waiting for him to step on them, but he just casually walked around them! I wonder where those flowers did go cause I didn't see anyone pick them up!
A Thousand Words was next (yippee!) and that big, ah, is it octagonal??? That big thing that comes up behind the bridge.... I dunno, it has pretty much NO purpose whatsoever, but it just comes up when they begin this song. Then, okay, I'm gonna correct myself on my last concert thingie cause I thought it was "Carry On Dancing" but it was actually this where Darren holds his hand out and says "Stop" and the lights go into pitch blackness and the music stops, and then everything starts again when the lights go back on. This time, it was actually quite funny, cause what happened was that, um, you know that little box thing singers have on the back of their clothes??? Well, Darren's one APPARENTLY was falling off and this crew guy came running out behind Darren as he said stop, then the lights came back on and Darren's moving about everywhere, and this poor guy is trying to keep up with him and trying to get this little box back into place, and Darren wouldn't stop for him! Eventually Darren stopped, and then he gave this look to Daniel which would say "C'mon, do something! I can't exactly move here!" and, I think Daniel kinda moved around a bit, but it wasn't too long cause the guy quickly got the box into place on Darren, and you know what happened next? The crew guy turned around to leave, and Darren chased him across the stage then booted him up the butt (even though he was like one metre or more away!)!!!!! It was SO funny, we were all cacking ourselves laughing. Then Darren all of a sudden had his little "bullet-proof" jacket for the next song.
"Break Me Shake Me" was the next one. Of course, I was all ready with my camera waiting for the little rendezvous up and down the catwalk like in Sydney, but I didn't get that! I got something else! Um, well firstly after about a verse or so, Darren broke into some Nirvana! I think it was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" then started singing BMSM again, and he looked at Daniel as kinda like he was yelling at him cause he wasn't on the catwalk yet! So, oh man this was SO cute, Darren was standing there on the catwalk, and Daniel slowly walked on standing towards the stage end of it, and Darren's holding out his hand as if he's telling Daniel to go no further, and Daniel's standing there looking all guilty, not moving a muscle because he might get in trouble! Awwww, it was SO cute! Me and my friend took plenty of photos of that, I couldn't get Daz in though cause he was like almost in front of me and Dan was right down near the stage, so I thought "Stuff Darren, I'm getting some of Daniel!" He looked SO cute!!! Then they both went up to the stairs, Daz to the left and Dan to the right, climbed up them, then they walked towards each other and met on the bridge and they were moving their bodies back and forth like the stage was tilting one way then the other, and it looked kinda like a battle for power, and then I think it was Darren who left and left poor Daniel up there on his lonesome. At the end of the song there was kinda like a guitar solo thing, everyone had evacuated the stage except for Ben and Daniel who stood at the edge of the stage/catwalk and played together, and then took a big bow. Twas so cute! This led to the break because, of course, the big one was coming up next.
The disco balls dropped and out they came for "All Around Me". Now, it was basically the same as I told you last time, only this time we were snapping pictures! Um, yeah I kinda ran out of film around here! I looked at my camera and I had 2 pics left for the Sydney concert!!! So I didn't take any more. Um, the only thing that was different was that somehow Anna-Maria's blue cloak ended up on the stage in front of Daniel, and while he was playing, he picked up the cloak, threw it over his shoulder and walked off the stage with it (okay, not really OFF the stage, to the side though so he could give it to someone!), and he had a big grin on his face as he looked out to the audience and trounced off! Next was "I'll Bet He Was Cool", Darren playing with that little chair prop of his and I was looking to get just the RIGHT photo. You know what happened? Darren sat on that chair and he stared directly at me and my friend and I freaked out in a big way cause he has SUCH an intimidating stare! Even my friend said so! We were starting to think he was gonna pick one of us to do "This Side Of Me" with him! I just turned around to my friend and said "Okay, if he's looking at me I'm gonna get YOU to go up and I'll just sit back and take pics!"
"Universe" was next. This was funny, I was actually writing notes or something and I missed everything! Um, no really what happened, according to my friend, was that Darren was on the catwalk in front of us and he had his little blue diagonal stripped costume on and he undone this little zipper that's like right at his chest! And I missed it! Everyone was laughing and I was just like "What happened? I missed it!" At the end of the song Darren climbed the stairs to be above Karl and he yelled at Karl again for doing the little drum solo. Then, once again, they were introducing the guys and, oh my god, I started freaking out! Darren just flew down the stairs and went *WHACK!* on Daniel's back and went past him! Daniel just moved forward slightly but he looked at Darren with an, um, evil look on his face I guess! But he was grinning at the same time, so it was only meant to be a joke. But I mean I was full on freaking out cause of what I’d written for the FanFic "A Thousand Words"! Um, after the intros the girls sung "Free your mind". Darren said "We're going after one more song. We won't be seeing you guys for a very long time." and that made me SO sad, even though I KNEW I was gonna see them in 8 days again!!!! So, they did "I Want You" and, the thing I forgot last time, Darren was vogueing during the song. Daniel was like definitely full on into the show cause he was bouncing like a bunny, I mean he was full on hopping across the stage with his guitar like he was a kangaroo!!!!!! That was so funny, I didn't have any pics on my camera left though to take a pic! But it was cute.
Then they left, but as always came back for an encore. Darren came out, browsed the catwalk in darkness then the lights came on and he was singing "This Side Of Me" with like this 14 year old girl (or younger!) on stage with him and I can tell you I was relieved that I wasn't up there, but I became very pissed off when I learned she was the one who had kept Daz and Dan away from us for 2.5 hours!!!!!! Well, he waved goodbye to her, and she climbed off the stage, then Daz wandered back down the catwalk onto the stage where Ben was doing some kind of guitar solo thing and Darren began to air guitar along with him (how cute!). Okay now Daz I think said something, but to me he full on sounded like he'd just taken in some helium! He sung "Truly Madly Deeply" in that weird little voice he'd suddenly obtained, but I think it returned normal. All I can remember was Darren walking down the catwalk and having this t-shirt thrown up there, it sailed right on by him and landed on our side of the stage, and Daz just looked at it (it was so funny his expression!) and then kinda shrugged and went on singing! Then he went back down to the stage and went over to Daniel then, grabbing hold of Dan's shoulder, he pulled him right back while Dan was trying to play the guitar! So like, Dan was balancing on one foot bent right back before Darren let him go! That was so mean! Well, that ended the concert, we waited around outside for them again but you know we only had maybe 6 ppl at the most that arvo and now there was like 3 times as much, so we weren't expecting them to come out! We just looked and drooled as they walked by the stage (which we could see thru the back doors) and I was telling my friend that we should go get ready in the car to chase them, but she wouldn't do it so we just stayed and watched and then eventually they all jumped in the vans and sped off so fast that it was literally a blur of what you could see of them! Then me and my friend decided we'd go for a walk, and we came back like, um, 20 mins later I think and the vans drove back around the back and I was saying "Ooh ooh, are they still in there?" But they weren't! BUMMER! So we got in the car, went home and got to bed at about 1am, then had to get up at 6am to go to PMFM studios to pick up our copies of "All Around Me" singles.  

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©1998 Julie Windred