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27/06/04 - BRITANNIA STADIUM,
STOKE-ON-TRENT Review
by Steven Stanley:
We let everybody go in anyway and walked around the venue waiting for the band to arrive. We thought we saw Gary but weren't sure. Then we heard a programme seller ask him if he wanted a programme... the reply was "no I'm in the band". So off we rushed and got some pictures with Gary and said hi etc. Lovely bloke too. We were sat minding our own business again later as well and he came up to us and we were talking for half an hour or so... he told us loads of interesting stuff and was quite happy to answer loads of questions myself and Adrian were firing at him for info ;) Really nice bloke though... off he went to eat some chocolate cake, he said the rest of the band wouldn't be long in coming and they weren't. Along next came Keith and Norm... we all spent a while talking to them and getting pictures before they went in (see below of of the many pictures we took!). Bryan and his Mum soon followed but walked straight in because a crowd of people had just walked around the corner. We thought Mickey may already be inside so we decided to go into the stadium (the support bands 'Sketcher' and 'Proud Mary' had already been on!).
Inside the stage was more or less on the halfway line lengthways along the pitch and wasn't 'end stage' like Hull. Clearly Bryan had sold more tickets in Hull than here. Still a fair amount of people inside though... 12,000 people at a guess maybe (see picture below an hour before BA came onstage)
The unofficial programme the stewards were selling inside the stadium (and probably in Hull as well) used artwork and pictures stolen from this website! How cheeky... I paid £3 for something I bloody did in the first place! Andrea took the pictures and I did the artwork... some people eh! Bryan came on and sang the same setlist as in Hull but without 'C'mon Everybody'. Keith was back to his old self again after the fall in Hull and Bryan and Keith were doing battle of the guitar solos during 'House Arrest'... it was really good!
Adrian and Steph left during 'Straight From The Heart' to meet the band but I stopped at the door while 'Depend On Me' ended. As a result I missed seeing Keith in his underpants and Bryan and the band leaving but I didn't care... I had already met most of them earlier in the day and this time we didn't even queue and probably enjoyed ourselves more than we did in Hull as a result. The fun didn't end there though, off we trotted along with Mandy, Nicki and Karl to the hotel bar. Karl got out his guitar and started playing BA songs etc. The lad is an awesome guitar player, he has been played for 12 years and he is just outstanding. After we had been in an hour the support band 'Proud Mary' came and sat with us until 4/5am just drinking, talking, playing music and having a laugh. The lead singer said after BA came off stage at Stoke he went to get an autograph for his Mum and caught Bryan sat on the couch in just his 'olive green' pants lmao... we laughed at him so much when he specified the colour as if he was taking notice lol. We got the camcorder on the whole night it was cool! Perfect way to end a great day... ROLL ON PITTSBURGH! Setlist: | |||
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© 2004 18 Til I Die.co.uk.
All rights reserved.
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Bryan on the big screen
Norm now comes forward to join Bryan and Keith!
Me and Gary
After the success of getting the BA banner in Hull, Adrian and myself ponder over other banners we came across!
Karl entertaining us in the bar afterwards
Val and Greg (lead singer of Proud Mary) |
