The day started early in Canterbury  – too early for my hubby David and me, as he is on a late shift at the moment, and we hadn’t got to bed until 2am!   

However, there is one thing guaranteed to drag me out of bed with a smile on my face – and that’s a day with Michael in it!    Have you ever had one of those days when inanimate objects conspire against you, because they know you have places to go?  Yes, of course you have – so did I that day – we missed the train, which meant that, instead of arriving just after 11am when the Event started, we turned up at about 12.30!   Not a good start.   I was meeting Lindsay and Chris (Georgie on the MBFC forum) at the Event – Lindsay had booked the tickets for us all, so we were on the same table.  I sent a text to them, to tell them we were running late, and received one in return: “So are we!” (Train trouble in their case)  - That made me feel better, and I consoled myself with the thought that Michael would not be arriving at the venue before I did. 

A couple of hours later,  David and I had arrived in London,  and were sitting on a  tube train, about 15 minutes from the hotel where the Event was being held, when Lindsay sent me another text:  “We’ve just arrived, and guess what?  We’re on one of the front tables!”   OMG !!!!!!!!!!!!     Control yourself Pam, don’t scream, you’re sitting in the middle of a train.    I sent a quick message back, told David, and behaved myself, mentally screaming and jumping up and down. 

Finally we arrived at the hotel, and for once, David left me at the door – he couldn’t face the prospect of  being a lone male in a sea of swooning women for five hours lol!!   He’d decided on visit to the RAF museum,  and walked off back to the tube station,  with “Send me a text when you get there!” ringing in his ears.  Bless him – he takes it all in his stride, being a Ballette’s husband! 

I made my way into the hotel, said a quick Hello to Gill as I passed her,  and decided to go and find Lindsay and Chris (and the table!) before anything else.  There were tables laid out in the foyer with lots of Michael goodies – I would have to come back to those later. 

I walked into the Ball room (very appropriate name!) – the room was filled with hundreds of happy, excited fans – and made my way down to the front, saying the odd Hello as I went  – sure enough, there were Chris and Lindsay at our table, looking as chuffed as I was.  Keith was up on stage,  just about to start a quiz in which he read out random lines from Michael’s songs, and we had to say which song they were from -   so I sat down and proceeded to find out just how good I was at remembering Michael’s lyrics – not!     You’d think it was easy, wouldn’t you?   Not with the number of songs that Michael has recorded!   There were some real brain teasers – with a team effort around the table, we managed to put some answers together, then passed our form to the next table to be marked – we in turn had to mark another table’s answers.   Some of the tables managed some excellent scores, but we – well, we weren’t disgraced…..   

Gill and Maureen had done us proud that day – there were videos of Michael to watch (they had put together the story of Michael’s career with videos),  another quiz where they played some excerpts of Michael’s songs backwards, and we had to guess the songs (tricky one!), a poster competition – where people had designed posters celebrating Michael’s 20 years in the business – I could go on, but I suspect you want to read about  Michael’s visit – so I’ll cut to the chase. 

As the afternoon wore on, you could sense the anticipation building in the room – had Michael arrived yet?  Our table was to one side of the stage in the front row,  in front a door.  We were happily watching the videos, but at the same time keeping an eye open for Michael – we were convinced he would suddenly appear! 

The door in front of us opened and closed – but in that instant we caught sight of a very familiar figure, in a cream jacket, standing behind it – I turned to say to Chris, “That was Michael!”,  but she beat me to it, saying, “Did you see him?!”  I nodded and grinned happily.   From that point on, we were watching the videos, but also watching that door – Michael was going to walk out in front of us at any moment! 

Eventually Keith came to the end of a very good video session – this included a home video, shot by a member of the fan club – I hope I’m right when I say her name was Barbara!  The footage, which she talked us through personally,  was of Michael’s visit to Australia in the spring, and was very good – made us all envious when someone had filmed her having a kiss from Michael! 

Finally the moment came, Keith made the announcement that Michael was with us, and he came striding out into the room, smiling and waving,  making his way to the stage.  We all stood up and applauded,  cheering.   

Keith and Michael chatted a while on stage, then came the question and answer session.  A man (sorry, don’t know his name) walked around the floor with a microphone,  taking questions from people who had their hands up, and whom Michael had picked out. 

I can’t remember all of them – it was quite a long session – but, in no particular order,  here are some of my memories – he was on great form, and in a very mischievous mood: 

A lady asked Michael if it was possible to have afternoon concerts.  She explained in some detail about her son who was a fan, but had never seen him in concert, until Michael interrupted in a northern accent, “I’m filling up!”, pretending to cry.  Keith handed him a handkerchief, and he pretended to dab his eyes.

He went on to ask how old the boy was, to which the lady said, “Four”.

Michael looked a bit surprised, and said words to the effect that his concerts are maybe not really for four year olds,  but couldn’t she let him have a late night, and bring him to an evening show?   

He explained about the impracticalities of having an afternoon concert, that there just wouldn’t be time to set it all up, rehearse, etc,  and said, “I know what you mean, with Connor, Grace and James, I say ‘Bring ‘em’, and they say, ‘You don’t have to deal with them after, when they are climbing the walls.’  But bring him.”

 Michael picked another lady out, exclaiming “She’s got pink hair!    Is it real?”

The lady said in reply, “Shall I stand up?”, to which Michael replied cheekily, “You don’t need to love!”

 The subject of Michael in Australia came up, to which Michael couldn’t resist the opportunity to tell us that he’s big down under! 

Someone asked Michael (in a suggestive way!) if Salt Lake City had been as good for him as it had been for them, to which Michael doubled up with laughter, and  replied in a US accent, “Oooh, yeah!”   He talked about Salt Lake City a bit, saying how much he had enjoyed himself.  He said that he had loved singing with “This wall of sound” (the Tabernacle Choir), and what a shame it had been when he had lost his voice,  and hadn’t been able to sing with them on the Sunday.  At this point someone in the audience seemed to giggle, to which Michael said, “Don’t laugh about me losing my voice love!”  

Another lady mentioned that she’d heard Michael say that a concert is like a love affair.  Michael said, looking a bit puzzled,  “No, I didn’t say that.”   The lady replied with “Like good sex then.”  Michael blushed, and said “Yeah.  There’s a sort of rhythm.”  (Giggles from us).  “It goes loud and quiet, loud and quiet – then there’s a funny bit, then a serious bit.  Then it gets bigger”  (Louder giggles).  “Then it builds right up until you hit the big B flat and it’s over” (Raucous laughter from us).  “And if you’re lucky that night, you get three encores!”  (By this stage we were falling about laughing!). 

Another question had Michael recalling a time when, on tour,  he checked into a hotel room:   ”It had a bright pink bedspread, white shag pile carpet, and mirrors on the ceiling, above the bed.  I doubt it had ever been used for more than 20 minutes at a time!”  (Laughter from us) “I had this flu  (you know the way I always get colds and flu on tour)  - and I had to lie there looking at myself looking ill!” 

A lady asked Michael if he would sing a particular song (sorry, can’t remember which one!) – to which he answered, “That’s a good song, isn’t it?  I’ll look into that”  - at the same time as saying this, he looked at the rest of us, and mimed the word “No”, shaking his head - laughter all round! 

Another lady said to Michael that she had just had a milestone birthday, to which Michael said, “Say no more – come here!”  To cheers and applause, she walked up to the stage, and Michael met her and gave her a hug and kiss. 

Someone asked Michael if there was any news on the new album,  and he replied “Yeah!  It’s going to be a double album, called ‘This is the Moment’, to be released after October” (Sounds of anticipation and delight from us).  “Why’s it called ‘This is the Moment?’   Because I’ve given in!”  (Cheers and applause – at last we’re going to have this wonderful song on cd!).  “There’s also going to be another track that I’ve done in concert but never recorded, and a new love song.” 

Michael was asked about Sunset Boulevard, to which he replied that they are working on it coming to London,  and are looking at November.   

Someone else asked Michael about the possibility of Chitty going to Broadway, and the likelihood of Michael appearing in it.   Michael said that he would love to do it, that they were still talking,  but that the commitment to it is too long –“It’s a year and four months with the rehearsals, but we’re still talking about it.” 

Michael gave us some memories of things that went wrong in Chitty – he reminded us of the night that the boat and Chitty collided during the ship chase scene.  He said that everyone had thought that the boat had hit Chitty, but that it had been the other way around – Chitty had hit the boat.  He said Emma and the kids had been terrified,  but he had kept on singing.  He added that he had had a drink with Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles afterwards! 

Michael recalled the time that Chitty went out over the audience, and got stuck:  “She was stuck out there for 9 minutes, and they were the longest 9 minutes of my life.  We finished singing ‘Bang, bang, Chitty Chitty  Bang Bang’ , and we were still sitting there.  We waved to the audience, and they waved back.  They didn’t know anything was wrong at this point.    We carried on waving” (Michael mimed giving the thumbs up to the audience) “and they were waving back, and we were thinking ‘Get this thing off!!!’   Eventually they had to wind us back in” (Michael mimed being wound back in bumpily).  “Afterwards, we thought, ‘What do we do now?’  We weren’t sure whether to do the curtain call - we decided to do it anyway, and the audience loved it!” 

The next question was from a lady with an Irish accent, saying that she needed a favour from Michael – she and her friend had come over from Northern Ireland, and her friend had never met Michael.  Michael didn’t need to be asked – he summoned the lady’s friend, who was Laura Craig  (Bookworm from the fan club forum) to the stage, stepped down onto the floor to meet her, and gave her a big hug and a kiss!    

The subject of Les Miserables’ twentieth anniversary came up.  Michael hinted that there might be plans afoot (along the lines of the tenth anniversary show),  but that he is now too old to play Marius (he didn’t actually say that, though!) – he stopped speaking, and his silence led to us drawing the  (unspoken) conclusion that he might be playing Jean Valjean, and we started cheering….Michael objected good naturedly “But I haven’t said anything!”  - To which we all laughed and cheered! 

We came to the last question.  Michael said that he would ask one more question before drawing the raffle, and he wanted it to be a really good one.  Someone, (who we now know to be Emily – Truly 84 from the forum – put her hand up, and Michael said, “Is this going to be a really good question?”   Em said that is was, and started to speak.  She greeted him in a way which made us all laugh, and seemed to surprise him – something like, “Alright love?”  (Sorry Em – can’t remember exactly what you said!), then said that Michael had been in the business 20 years, and she was soon going to be 20 years old – did that make Michael feel old?!”   We all burst out laughing,  Michael put down the microphone and walked away – then came back,  looking disgruntled, picked up the microphone again and said  “I feel old now, yeah!  Thanks!” 

Once the laughter had died down, it was time to draw the raffle.  Michael drew the tickets for the prizes that he had donated - one of these was a signed gold disc,  another was the shirt that he had worn in the ‘Me and my shadow’ video with Antonio Banderas – Michael said that it had been washed!  When this prize was won, Michael pulled the shirt out of the wrapper and showed it to the lady who had won it – he had written something on the back and signed it.  There was also some signed sheet music, and many other lovely prizes.

 Sadly the time came for Michael to leave.  Someone called out, “Can we have a song?”  Michael replied that he didn’t have any music, then said, “I know what I can do”, then launched into a beautiful,  a cappella rendition of “After the ball is over” – the sound of his lovely voice resonating around the hushed room.  When he had finished,  we all burst into enthusiastic applause,  Michael said Goodbye, and waving to us all, he left the room.

 After he had gone, we consoled ourselves with finishing the raffle.  Then it was time to present the prizes to the winners of the quizzes and poster competition.  Some thank you gifts were presented to Maureen and Gill, to loud applause.   

Finally, we finished the afternoon by watching some more video clips (including a clip from the new Hammersmith video!).  While these were running,  I saw that a call was coming in on my mobile (I had had it switched to silent all afternoon – didn’t want it disturbing anyone, or worse still, ringing while Michael was there, but with elderly parents, I have to remain in touch) – it was David, to say that he was back, and in the hotel foyer, waiting for me.

I saw Gill approaching and asked her if it was ok to bring him in for the last few minutes (rather than leave him standing out there), to which she said that I could (thanks Gill!).  I went out and fetched him in, took him to our table, and to his delight, the video on screen suddenly switched to show Annie on stage with Michael – one happy hubby! 

The Event had come to an end, and we all said our Goodbyes to new friends and old.  I went out into the foyer (treated myself to some Michael goodies while I was there), and we made our way home – some of us, including David and I,  with the concert at Penshurst to look forward to the next day. 

Lovely memories!!  Thanks to Maureen, Gill, Keith and everyone else for organising it – and thanks to Michael for coming along , full of fun, and making our day!