One year ago and a day...

[Dragonlady <dr4gonlady@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I only have ten minutes before I go to work, so I'll sum things up.... 
kind of ;)

Sometimes I think I am way too lucky. After Jimmy had his accident and 
some poor folks had to give up their tickets, I got that email in my 
box... with a code.
I was so sure it would never work I didn't even try at first but it 
nagged at me. Bah, I never win anything why should i.... Oh ok I'll try.
In the end I tried at work, and by whatever miracle I had my credit card 
with me that day. I never take it with me, I think the Dragons were 
looking after me.

I tried to keep it down so not to alert my colleagues that I wasn't 
working. But when I saw the phrase "your tickets will be held at the 
desk" I just sat there looking at my screen and swearing at it. Thank 
goodness my new boss is a big Zepp fan also and understood why I needed 
a day off after only one week of taking that job again (I had taken a 
sabbatical during most of 2007)

I tried not to panic, I hate traveling and the hassle, and I tried to 
ignore the money problem (after year without income that was a bit dire) 
booking a plane ticket for the next week etc...
I remember being very calm in the ned. Until I got out of the plane in 
London. Then I felt so emotional. We went to queue for our tickets and 
met Linwood there. Oh cool, we're going to see lots of old friends there!

At the hotel we're in the elevator and there's a lady with a sheet with 
"Foreigner room plan" printed on it... oh ok I think we're in the right 
place. I appologise to all Foreigner fans here but I have no idea what 
the guys look like, and so wehn I actually ended up taking the same 
elevator as them when we were getting ready to go to the O2, all I could 
think was "ah these guys look like rock stars must be them" and then 
forget about it LOL

Well I won't go into too many details. But what I most remember now is 
the look on everone's faces. Once you got through ticket control you 
looked around you and every single person had the same look of utter 
disbelief and wonder on their faces. You could feel this was not an 
ordinary concert.
I really enjoyed the first part, but it felt strange to be there and 
think about what was coming up. Then the screen started playing a 
tribute to Ahmet Ertegun. We almost saw ourselves on that screen as they 
showed parts of the Montreux Gala of the previous year. Very odd feeling :)

Then it all started. Unlike others I simply couldn't feel a thing at 
first and was berating myself, hey what are you waiting for, it's 
happening! We were so high up that it was like hovering above the stage. 
Far away, but close enough to recognise the guys. I kept looking at 
Jimmy and thinking "wow there's Jimmy it's real" but I still didn't feel 
anything. It took me 3 songs before my mind started to believe this. And 
then I was very glad we had seats. At first I touhgt it was my 
bloodpressure as usual but it was sheer emotion. I was shaking so badly 
that I couldn't stand and had to sit back down. Not to mention it was so 
steep up there that you were in danger of tumbling down if you moved too 
much. Not so long ago I watched the dvd and it was there again, I was 
sitting on the floor of my living room and shaking with the same emotion!

Well, you can read the rest on The "Lemon's" website. And so I'll just 
sum up a few last impressions
Like the moment when the giant letters appear on the screen and I look 
at them all the while when we walk out. Yes it really happened! We kind 
of staggered about for a while hoping ot meet some friends to share this 
with. But no such luck. So we headed back to the hotel. And we bumped 
into Laura and Wyatt, that was really nice, it's hard to come down after 
any concert but that one was worse :)

Next morning we were in the lobby, I had to wait until noon for my 
flight home. We were browsing YouTube and chatted with one of the 
organisers (sorry I forgot his name) he introduced us to Terry Taylor 
from the Rhythm Kings who also had spent the night there (minus Bill 
Wymann I bet). One last peek into this dream was when Albert Lee 
suddenly strolled in and went to chat with his buddies. Gack, act 
natural it's Albert Lee! Oh well I do such things every day... not!

And before taking my plane I grabbed a newspaper, with a double page in 
the center with a photo of the screen and the letters "Led Zeppelin" all 
over. Sigh...