Ok, INCREDIBLY story coming up! It's probably just everything i've said on twitter with many boring irrelevant details added in but oh well
I got there about 1 (actually rather late for me!
), and there didn't seem to be any sign of Patrick. There were so many doors all round the building + i had no idea where to queue or where the stage door was! There was a workman standing outside so i was asking him if Patrick was there yet + if he knew which door we'd be let in. So he showed me which door was the entrance + said they'd be using that as the stage door as well (which was perfect, plus it was inside so it meant i didn't have to wait out in the cold
. And I asked him so many times if he was sure there wasn't another stage door round the back that he actually took me inside the theatre to show me!!! It was quite dark so i couldn't see much but at least i knew for certain Patrick wasn't hiding in there
Oh and i didn't have internet so i was sending all my overexcited tweets by text, but of course being the idiot that i am i accidentally sent half of them to Tesco mobile by mistake... so somewhere out there there'll be a very confused operator!!!
Not long after i arrived they started bringing all the equipment in from a car, but there was still no sign of Patrick or his people - i had no idea whether he'd be arriving in a bus/van/taxi/walking so i was watching the cars like "Is that Patrick... no... is that Patrick... no... OH MY GOD IT'S PATRICK... oh wait it's a woman and a little boy..."
I was trying to make a list in my head of all the things i wanted to say but there was far too much and i could never manage to remember it all! Then about quarter to 4 i overheard a couple of phonecalls and conversations between the guys setting up and by the sound of it Patrick was going to be arriving in 15 minutes!
So i took to frantically pacing round the place because i was getting so impatient (they probably all thought i was crazy - i kept subtly wandering over to try and catch their conversations, and i kept getting in people's way by standing right at the gate!
) But then eventually i saw the guy who'd been talking on the phone going over to the other side of the street to meet a van that was pulling up!!! So i was standing across the road waiting while they were all coming out the van and i caught a glimpse of Patrick!
All of a sudden i got kind of nervous - i thought i'd be confident speaking to him now i've met him quite a few times, but i still seem to turn into a blabbering idiot
When he saw me he said "hello Cat" (he seems to have started calling me Cat now so i never got to correct his pronunciation of my name, haha
) and he said he'd be over in a minute cos he was just getting his stuff out the bus. I don't even remember what he said when he came over to me - i think he asked how i was and i said "fine", then thought "wait a minute - understatement of the century"!!!
I remember mentioning how happy i was he was coming to Edinburgh too, and telling him i was going to see him in London... oh yes i told him i had a letter, necklace and Christmas card for him and he said he loved the last necklace i gave him, and he said it was his first Christmas card of the year ;D And i apologised lots for my letter - i told him it would probably make me sound crazy but he said he liked crazy!
He asked me if i'd been to Cottiers before and i told him i'd been to the restaurant with my family but I'd never been to the theatre... he said he was bored of the Oran Mor
And he signed my PW EP for me ;D I asked him if he could play Penzance and he said he'd keep it in mind... i also asked for Divine Intervention or Empress - he said Divine Intervention was a complicated arrangement but he'd probably be doing Empress
And he said he was going to be doing some songs with Abi Wade on the cello. He kept telling me to enjoy the show and i was like i'm sure i will!!!!!!
jessie And i said to him you said hello - he was trying to think who you were for a second and he asked if you were from America, he said he'd met you in Philidelphia he thought and i told him it was New York
Oh i remember showing him the necklace you made me as well
By this point we'd reached the building and i asked if i could get a photo with him so there was some awkwardness while i tried to put down all the stuff i was holding to find my camera in my bag so i was like crouched at his feet - i just remember being sort of face to face with his boots, they were black Doc Martens. And he must have just taken off his jacket because that was when i saw his Christmassy jumper
Sorry too many irrelevant details - Abi Wade was trying to take the photo but she was having issues with my camera so the first photo Patrick had moved and he doesn't look all that happy in the other one. And i remember him introducing me to Abi. And when we were going inside he said he hoped i had somewhere warm to wait and i was like em... in here!
Oh i also asked about archive EPs but i've told you all already what he said.
Sorry this is reeally long (haha now you know how i ended up giving Patrick a 16 page long letter - i do tend to ramble!
) Anyway not long after Patrick went in someone else arrived so i was talking to her. And i think some of you know Thomas on twitter, he arrived like 2 minutes later, and then Niwo came like 2 minutes after that - everyone seemed to be arrive all at once
(But only 3 of us waited obsessively at the door) We could hear Patrick singing in the soundcheck so we were standing with our ears pressed against the door!
The first couple of songs he sang we didn't recognise but he sounded gorgeous <3 Then he started singing songs we knew - the ones i can remember are Theseus, i think he did House and Vulture but i might have made that up, AUGUSTINE, possibly a bit of The Tinderbox on the violin!!!
AND THEN HE STARTED SINGING A BOY LIKE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!
;D ;D ;D He never did that at the show though
But technically i've heard it live now!
We kept getting carried away trying to identify songs though - at one point we were trying to figure out what song we could hear and we thought it might actually be Queen Isabella, but then Abi Wade started singing and we realised it wasn't Patrick at all - we'd forgotten all about her!!!!
And people kept coming in and out so every time the door opened i had a peek at the merch table
And one time Patrick was actually standing there so i waved to him but he wasnt looking
I bet he could hear everything we were saying, haha! Oh and about 4 different people came out and tried to offload posters on us - i kept telling them them i had one at home (and if i didn't have have taken the one off the wall) but twice they forced them upon me
Haha normally you have to spend like £6 on ebay to get one!
Anyway, the show... it was amazing because there was no stage - everything was just set up on the floor right in front of us
And the venue was quite pretty inside - it was stone walls and stained glass windows. But oh my god it was SO cold!!! It actually felt like it was open air, so i was glad of my ridiculous number of layers
Patrick said it felt like busking because he had such cold hands and there was a constant stream of people walking right in front of the "stage" to get to the toilet in between every song!
Here's my setlist (it was the only handwritten one - written on the back of a google maps printout of Paris!!!
):
I think he played a little bit of something I hadn't heard before as an intro to London (possibly one of the songs from the soundcheck) - it was so amazing hearing London live because it's the first time i've ever heard it and i've fallen so in love with the new version
And Overture - last time i heard that live was the Palladium and i was nearly crying, and finally i got to hear Teignmouth in full!
And Ghost Song - he played that at the Oran Mor so i'd heard it once before but i was so happy to hear it again. No Penzance though
(I'll BEG him in Edinburgh
) The best moment though was when he started playing Empress!!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D Still can't believe i've heard it live and the acoustic version was just incredible. He didn't play the whole song - it was just the first half or 2 thirds as an intro to Vulture. Then after Theseus it must have been, he said he didn't like the setlist and asked if anyone had any requests!!!
So i didn't start randomly blurting out "Penzance! Pumpkin Soup! Trust! Midnight!" as if i had Tourettes... of course not!
He completely ignored me though and played Wolf Song for someone, which i didn't really appreciate as much as i should have because i was slightly irritated/having a major adrenaline rush trying to think of the songs i was most desperate to hear. Then afterwards he was asking for more requests but still he didn't listen to me (i wonder why...
) and he said he was going to play The Hazelwood which someone asked for but then said he didn't want to be on his own on stage so decided to play Land's End instead so Victoria could stay!
So that was rather wonderful ;D And then he was given a time warning so he did a "medley" of Bermondsey Street and i can't remember what else - that must have been when he did The Magic Position. And for the encore he did Pigeon Song and The City (i think that was all unless i've forgotten something - i'm too lazy to check my recording
) I think the only song from the setlist he didn't do was Damaris. Oh and before The City he said he'd been asking in every city he's played in where you'd take someone to propose - so of course someone shouted out McDonalds, so he had to sing "won't let McDonald's destroy our love"!!!
Afterwards i decided i was going to meet him again - i didn't care about being greedy!
But i didn't want him to think i was crazy waiting all on my own before and after so i talked the people i met into staying
When he came out he said to me he hadn't read my letter yet (as if he'd have had time!) but he'd opened my Christmas card and it was his first Christmas card of the year
The necklace was inside the letter so i don't think he'll get it til he opens it (i wonder if he's read it yet... eek!
) He stayed and talked to us all for quite a while - i'm trying to think what he said... i was actually going to ask him about the socks so i started asking about calendars to bring up merch but then decided to just leave it at that!!!
He said he didn't think he'd make another calendar til the next proper album (i think so the pictures can kind of tie in with the artwork) and i told him i'd be sad having an empty space on my wall next year! And he asked if i lived in Glasgow (i thought he knew but anyway) so then i told him about my placement in Sandwich next year (i was like "it's so so far south!") and he was telling me i should visit Dungeness because it was quite nearby but i honestly can't remember what he actually said about it, haha
And then he wrote me the loveliest message on my setlist, which i have a picture of up there.
I can't think what else he said - i'll probably remember more tomorrow (right now i'm half asleep and my eyes have gone kind of strange from looking at my computer screen for too long... i should really go to bed!
) And i got a hug bye from him ;D
Oh and i seem to have a talent for taking the worst gig photos - i only took 2 because my camera was being so unresponsive due to lack of light and i don't think i could have got worse angles of Patrick!!!
I'll upload them tomorrow along with my recording of the show (it's rather terrible - it's really crackly half the time because i had it in my pocket and i kept moving but i'll upload it anyway - Empress turned out alright actually and i don't think there's any live recordings of it on the internet).
I'll just put up my photo with Patrick and his lovely jumper for now