The Hollies - Concert Review

Sunderland Empire, 8^th November 2003 - by Heather Wainwright

At nine o’clock in the morning, our day officially began. Sleepy mumbles of “We’re going to meet Tony tonight!” and “Argh, I’m so excited I can’t wait!” were exchanged before a medicinal cup of coffee and a couple of pain au chocolats were consumed.

Some last minute shopping in order to find the perfect outfit for the gig was the order of the day before meeting up with our good friend and Carl’s PA, Helen. We picked her up from Newcastle Airport and went back to Peej’s house. We hurriedly got ourselves beautified for our musicians - my eyeliner went completely wrong and had to be redone at a pub in Sunderland – and off we went.

We met Carl outside the Empire and chatted to him for a minute or two before he had to go and get his outfits sorted for the evening. Helen mentioned to him that Peej and I were slightly eager to meet up with Mr Hicks, and he said that we had more chance of meeting him if we stayed there all evening! We were a teeny bit disappointed, but we had a concert to enjoy first of all...

We met Ray in the foyer before the gig and said hello to him – little did either of us know that by the end of the evening I would be declaring undying love to him in public, much to Tony’s amusement. But more on that later, first of all the gig.

As soon as the lights went down, my stomach did about eighty nine somersaults – and that was even before the music started! I calmed down a little bit when they arrived on stage and launched into Long Cool Woman. Bobby was wearing the world’s loudest shirt, Carl wore a very nice suit, and Tony wore a burgundy coloured shirt with a white top underneath it. He looked damn gorgeous, as always.

The couple I sat next to were not the ‘having fun at concerts’ type. In fact, they were more the sort of ‘sit, listen and NEVER MOVE. And whatever you do – DON’T sing along!’ type. Which, obviously, I’m not. So they didn’t like me at all. In fact I got more filthy looks than I knew what to do with. I didn’t really care, and spent all my time air drumming and eyeing up the lead guitarist – who didn’t visibly complain at this, and I’ve a sneaky feeling he kept looking back at me too.

After the first few songs, Tony uttered the immortal words “We’re going to strip it down now, if that’s okay with you. In fact, we’re going to strip it down to the bare bones.” This, of course, did nothing to help my blood pressure, and I just got slightly perverted thoughts about guitarists stripping down to their bare bones. They then treated us to a lovely rendition of Listen to Me. Tony promised further stripping later on in the gig – admittedly he didn’t say that but that’s what he led me to believe...

He then rambled for about nine years about The Move. He mentioned some of the Move songs that they play at the gigs and asked if it was okay if they played them later. Everyone clapped their agreement, and then he replied “Well we’re going to do them anyway,” to which I burst out laughing very loudly, and he looked at me and said “What?” I nearly died of embarrassment, but somehow managed to not say anything more incriminating.

After they played Fire Brigade, Tony’s bones were once again stripped as Alan and Ray joined him at the front of the stage. Ray hesitated and Tony started teasing him and cajoling him to come onstage next to him, and then I burst into singing “We love you Ra-a-aaay, oh yes we do-oooo!”, and that was it. Tony looked at me and said “What did you say?” to which I replied, “Erm, nothing!” and then he said, “Come on, what did you say?” so I answered, “I’ll tell you later!” – which received a ripple of laughter from various corners of the theatre – and then Tony looked at Ray and said, “She just went, ‘We love you Ra-a-aaay, oh yes we do-oooo!” I went bright red and couldn’t stop laughing. I had just had the piss taken out of me good and proper by one of the most beautiful men on earth!

Immediately after they’d gone offstage, I legged it around to the stage door in the hope of catching Tony before he left. I needn’t have bothered, we were waiting for over an hour, freezing our bottoms off. I kept pointing at Peej’s hand, hoping it would bring us Meeting Tony Luck – which it did!

Firstly I met Ian, who was letting about nine hundred of his ‘cousins’ in. Peej asked if she could be an honorary cousin, and I asked if I could be an honorary neice, and then called him ‘Uncle Ian’. He laughed and went back inside after signing Peej’s autograph book – as ‘Ian Park’. He must have lost his ‘er’ in the hysteria of the gig. Shortly afterwards, my other favourite shortarse, Ray, came along. He thanked me for singing to him at the gig (oh the shame!) and then said that he saw me singing along and was impressed that I knew every word to every song. I wasn’t too sure what to say, but as he went I called “See you tomorrow, then!” and he was quite pleased that we were going to Southport as well!

After waiting for ages and being told by a reliable source that Tony wouldn’t be going through that stage door, I legged it round the corner and saw Peej and Ruud chatting to Alan. I ran over and thanked him for the gig, and he said “We saw you!” I nearly died again. Apparently they appreciated us cheering them on and being so enthusiastic. I immediately promised myself to keep up the enthusiasm levels at each concert, just for their benefit, of course!

After a chat and a hug off Carl, and telling him how fab the gig was, he went to talk to Helen. It seemed like forever until anyone else came out, and it was. Apparently Tony and Bobby were in a meeting. A proper meeting. A real life proper meeting, just minutes after a gig! How odd!

Anyway, after ages and ages and us nearly giving up and going home, the door opened, and I saw Tony’s hair. I suppressed a scream, but then heard Peej yell ‘There he is!’ and realised I didn’t need to scream as I had Peej to do it for me! He looked at me and I said “hello!” and he said “Aren’t you tired? You worked harder than we did out there!”, and I blushed and said “Well you know! I just wanted to say thank you, it was a great gig,” and then I ... I, Miss Heather Louise Wainwright, hugged Anthony Christopher Hicks.

If I was writing a novel about this, then the ‘hug’ passage would read like this: "Aren’t you tired? You worked harder than we did out there!” Tony told her with a cheeky grin. Spev smiled back shyly.

“Well, you know! I just wanted to say thank you, it was a great gig,” she replied, looking up at him through her fringe. He smiled slowly and almost without thinking, she found herself wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. Tony squeezed her around her waist and she pulled away before she did something she’d embarrass herself over.

What an incredible moment! It’s one I certainly won’t forget. Then I spotted Bobby and realised I had to tell him how beautiful his drumming was. He didn’t quite know what I was rambling about but then I started getting all technical about his drumming and he was quite visibly impressed, and gave me a whopping great kiss – on the lips no less! Then he uttered the immortal line, “I’m eating my supper. It’s raw broccoli!” The only thing I could think of saying in reply was “Incredible, these rock’n’roll lifestyles...” He signed Peej’s autograph book, and obviously remembered her from Preston, because he asked her her name and she replied, “It’s Peej, but you like to call me Peach. We met you in Preston,” and he said “Ah yes, I knew I recognised you from somewhere!” Sure enough, Peej’s autograph book now reads, “To Peach, love Bobby”!

Someone asked Tony if he had a cup of tea during the meeting. He said “No, I didn’t actually, not tea, anyway,” and I let out a shocked gasp. Then he added, “I had my first alcoholic drink in quite a while, actually!” and again completely without thinking I said, really sarcastically shocked, “Anthony Christopher Hicks!” Then, Peej, the wonderful woman, asked Tony if we could have our photo taken with him. He agreed quite happily, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into him. She nearly died, but automatically put her arm around his waist and rested it on his bottom. Good girl, I was very proud of her. He then asked, “Who else have I got?” and I said, “Erm, it’s me, actually!” and he wrapped his arm around my waist, so I snuggled into him tightly and rested my head on his shoulder while Helen took our photo. I swear to god, the man who NEVER smiles on fan photos was quite blatantly smirking, a really dirty smirk at that!

After a while, and quite a lot of chatting to Bobby, who ended up having a staring competition with us for a while, we decided to go, because I for one had lost feeling in my legs because I was so cold. He blew me a kiss goodbye, and I blew one back at him. So, after an entirely successful opening night of our tour, we rode back in almost complete silence, except for the occasional hysterical giggle and demented mumble of “Tony Hicks actually hugged me... Me... He hugged me...” After we got back into Peej’s room I made quite a few unrepeatable comments about him having his body tightly pressed against mine, but we won’t go into that.

After such a wonderful night, all we can think is ‘Will Southport live up to our expectations?’ Well, in another twenty four hours, I’ll be able to tell you!

Setlist

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