So, here is the story of the 8th of June 2012 or also known as one of the best days of my life. I don’t know where to start on this one, so I may just jump from one story to another and then come back to the first one… You know… it was just way too exciting ;)
In the morning, my dear LPU friend Monique picked me and my two Bulgarian friends – Martin and Robert, from Vienna. We went to Lasse’s and Zee’s hostels and told them how to get to Nickelsdorf (Nova Rock) by train. We drove to the festival fields and dropped Martin and Robert there, then me and Monique drove back to Nickelsdorf’s train staton to pick Lasse and Zee up. Since we couldn’t go back the same way we came, we had to drive through some funny fields. Suddenly we both started remembering the whole way from Nova Rock to Nickelsdorf and decided to go back the same way! We picked up the guys and started looking for the new way back to the festival. We drove through fields, screaming “I remember this tree! Turn to the left!” or “The potatoes end here, we have to turn to the right!” It was just so funny, but we made it!
At the entrance, where you get your bracelets we met Gabriel, Silvana and some other people. I went to the festival fields with some guys to find some place to build up our tent and leave our stuff and then went back to the entrance to meet up with Missy from Music For Relief. She picked up the tickets for the rest of the guys and we went in. Since I got Adam a present – a beer glass, she took it and went in through the VIP entrance. Missy was totally nice to us. We went to the MFR and LPU booth and she left us there to build it up, until she goes get Adam for me. We built up the booth and prepared everything. Then Missy came with Adam. It was funny how she started explaining to him that I am Rossi and I am going to be his Roadie for the day and Adam just told her “I know Rossi!” and smiled. Then I went to Adam, gave him the glass and said “I promised to give you your birthday present today”. He looked at it and went so happy. He thanked and said that it is amazing, hugged me and took a photo with me.
It was really sweet. Then we started working. We had to sell 10 LPU memberships. We were walking around, talking, laughing a lot. While looking for fans around, Adam suddenly saw my Power The World/bulb charm, hanging on my necklace. He loved it and asked me if he could take a photo of it and send it to Whitney from Music For Relief. He did and I told him about it. I told him how Delphine French made it and that she needs the money, so Jon Bennington donated and paid over 80$ for the sample. Adam was really impressed and said “You are a really nice person. This is great!” I will never forget his words.
We sold the memberships pretty quick. We had only one left and Adam went backstage to get one more, because it is more likely for the fans to buy two of them and go meet the band with their friend. We sold 10 and had the extra 1 left. We decided to go to the booth and check out what the guys are doing. I was talking to Adam and suddenly realized that I have forgotten my MFR bandana and said it out loud. I asked him if he has found a black and blue one, as he has promised me, but he told me that Whitney had no more left, that they had no more left at the office and that he couldn’t find any at his place in LA. He said he has found out that he doesn’t have one himself. They he said that he will give me one of the bandanas that MFR were selling as a present. He went to the place where they were keeping them, took one and gave it to me. It was really nice of him. Then I told Adam about the Female Merchandize Project and showed him the books. He took a look at one, looked at all designs and liked it. He said it is great and I should show it to the band and that Mike will indeed know what I am talking about. He was happy to see that I wrote his name in the “Thanks to” section :) Suddenly a friend of mine, who is an LP fan, appeared and I asked him if he wants to meet Linkin Park the same day. He quickly pulled out 20 euro out of his wallet and got the membership. Me and Adam called it a day.
We spent some more time walking around, I tried convincing him to get on the Jack Daniels stage and pretend as if we were singing/playing LP, but he was “afraid”. At around 7pm, he had to go backstage to talk to LA, because of work, so we said we’ll meet again later. I have to say that talking with Adam was funny to listen, because both of us are swearing a lot when talking and still our conversations were totally normal :D
After Adam left, Monique and me went to drink some water and on the way met a friend of mine from school called Alex. We thought of things to do together and decided to get on the Jack Daniels stage and “sing” a Linkin Park song. We end up rocking the stage with “In The End”. Gabriel took a video of us which was totally funny and you could see the people in front of the stage dancing and singing to our performance. Shortly after we received our t-shirts. Since Adam was too afraid to get on stage with me, I wrote him a message on mine, I later gave him the t-shirt as a present. It made him totally happy again :)
After finishing our work for MFR, we built down the tent and helped Missy bring all the stuff backstage. There I met Travor. He was nice. I didn’t talk to him much though. He just asked us if we were helping out Missy, we had a little chat and then he went backstage again. Then we decided to stay where we were are wait for the M&G. We met many other LPUers there and talked. Shortly before the announced time for the M&G, a storm suddenly came and we got “evacuated”. We had to go almost to the end of the Blue Stage fields and wait there until almost 10pm (our M&G meeting with Adam was at 9:30 pm). We were all freaking out scared about not having a M&G and not being able to see Linkin Park at all. To be honest, I kinda went sad for a while, thinking that there is a possibility for me not to show them my Female Merchandize Project.
At around 10 pm we were allowed to go to the front again, we all ran to the meeting point. A couple of minutes later Adam appeared! He once again asked me to help him by carrying the laminates for the M&G and giving them to everyone while he was checking his list. Everything was great again! It was funny how people would whisper or shout out “Roadieee” or “Adam’s Roadie” to me. Made me laugh a lot!
After everyone got their passes, we went backstage. I tried to make everyone’s night special by asking them more about their love for LP. I would talk to some people and they got even more excited. I could really see in them how I looked like during my first M&G with Lenka. It is way more exciting than you can imagine it… We slowly went in. I saw Maurice passing, but it was too late to scream his name. As we got into the “building” I saw Megumi working in one of the rooms, but she didn’t come out and someone closed the door…
As we entered the M&G room, I saw Pooch chilling on a couch. I whispered his name 3 times and then he looked at me. We smiled and said “Hey! What’s up?” We talked a bit, I told him I’m sorry that I missed half of his chat and that it was amazing, so he said he’ll try to do another one soon and this time in the evening, so we (people from Europe) won’t have to stay up until 2am for the chat. Then I thought that it’s time to look at the band. I died O.O seeing them again, felt unreal! I was the last one in the line on purpose. I was hoping that the crew members won’t push me away. I talked to Adam during the Roadie job and explained to him about the whole thing and that I am going to share my designs with them, so he explained to me that I won’t be able to take much time, since the staff people have to push me away and if they don’t, they’ll get in trouble later. So I went to the tables where the band members were sitting, looked at Adam, who was standing on the left, gave him his t-shirt and told him not to throw it away. He look at me and asked me almost begging “Please, do not take too long. I will have to push you away, it’s my job!” I understood him. It was nice of him to remind me of it once again. I went to Phoenix, said hi and gave him the book and the CD. He asked “What should I sign?” Then I realized that I have forgotten about the tape. I pulled it out of my pocked and gave it to him. In the mean time I gave Brad his copy of the book and the CD. He looked at them, recognized the book (it has the same cover as the flyers people have been giving away at the shows prior mine) and said “Oh, here it is!”. I smiled and gave Chester his copies. At the same moment, he received the tape from Brad, looked at it and said “Wow! This is old!” Then I added to the copies I gave him “Please, take a look at it. I spent 10 months working on those designs!”. He looked at the book, looked at me and said “10 months?!” I only said “Yes!”, smiled and went to Mike. I gave him the copies and said “I talked to you about it on the phone. Do you remember?” He looked confused, so I added “You have been recording for LP Radio. This is the Female Merchandise Project. I told you that it needs improvement.” Then he said “Oh! I remember!” He took the book, ignored anything else happening around and started looking at it. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He even made a joke saying “Oh, good looking women in bikini!” I smiled and had to go on, since Missy pushed me. I gave Joe his copy, said thanks, went to Rob, smiled at him and his gorgeousness, gave him the copies, got the tape and said thanks as well.
As I turned to the back, I saw that the first 3 guys are already standing in the front. All fans had to stay half meter back from them, so I went to Chester, said his name 3-4 times until he turned to me, then asked him “May I sit next to you?” and he replied “Sure! Come here!” I was so happy about it! I tried not to smile too much, because I knew I would look like an idiot, like on the last group photo we got 1 year ago and I guess I managed to do it. Then Joe came to the front and turned out I got another family-photo with some of the band members :D
After that we had to go out. I said bye to the guys and Adam came out with us. The moment we left the room, I realized that I have forgotten to give the guys the samples. I went to Adam and started begging him to give the samples to the band and he took them. Sadly Adam forgot to take a marker to sign my MFR bandana, but I still asked him to sign it with a black marker just for the sake of it. He did at it was a nice memory. I guess I will never wear the bandana though, just to make sure it won’t wash off, but I will always keep it here as a memory. I told Adam that I want to annoy him with another photo with him and he said “Of course I will take a photo with you!”
Then we said bye and I told Adam that if he ever need help or a roadie, he should let me know, I would love to help. He said he’ll do and said bye to all of us. I was sad to say bye to him. I really enjoyed the day and looking at him leaving made me realize that the day is almost over. I kept looking back at him going backstage and kinda went sad. I am hoping that I will get the chance to spend some time with the guys again soon. I miss them already.
After that we went to the first wave breakers. There were so many people there, pushing, hitting each other, trying to get to the front. I lost all LPUer except for Zee and Gabriel. We managed to get to the front and there were about 7-8 people in front of us. It was a nice spot. Sadly, because of the storm, the concert was shorter (16 songs, instead of 22), but I still loved it. I sang along to all songs, danced, screamed like crazy and really enjoyed every moment. The best part of the whole show was the moment Linkin Park said they have an upcoming album called Living Things. Everybody was silent but me. I screamed as loud as I could. Same happened as they said they are going to play a new song, both times for BID and LGM. During LGM everybody around me had to turn to me and they all stared at me, because I was going crazy, singing every single word of the lyrics. I could see people’s expressions saying “Why the hell do you know the lyrics to this song? It’s new!” But I didn’t care. It was amazing! I was proud to be an LPU member!
After the show I didn’t manage to catch anything from the stage… I never do… but shortly before going away, I saw Maurice with the crew collecting stuff. I shouted out loud “Mauriiiice!” He turned around, looked at me and posed showing “metal hands”. I laughed and screamed again “Throw something!” He started looking around. At the same moment the security people started pushing us slowly away. I tried walking as slow as possible. Suddenly Maurice found something and started walking on the edge of the stage coming to me. He threw a water bottle to me and smiled. I said “Thanks!” and had to leave. It was very nice of him to look for something and then give it to me. Too bad there were no other items left on stage hehe
So I guess that’s the whole story… I tried writing as much as I can remember. It was indeed one of the best days ever! I will never forget them and hope to have similar ones again! Thanks to everyone who was part of this day. I was happy to meet all of you and hope to see you soon!
-Rossi = )
happy for u Rawsee :))
awesome day indeed!!!
linkin park sucked that night!
Not what I accepted, 2 years before they did a really good show…!!!
and playing boring songs is something stupid, the people were like wtf, we don’t know the lyrics!
papercut/ numb/ in the end/ a place for my head >> these songs are what we came to hear!!
in general : who plays on the blue stage are just stupid bands, and i got disappointed from their show!
on my scale : 4/10 (N)
it’s interesting to hear what other people/ not lpu think. i am kinda selfish when it comes to this. i loved the show. i knew the songs and didn’t care if all those other guys did. the band had the same set list during other festivals, too and everybody enjoyed the shows, so like i said… i don’t care.
oh and btw there were so many awesome shows at the blue stage O.O rise against, puddle of mudd, gojira, metalica, etc…
..it was great to be the part of one of your best days!! :))
“All fans had to stay half meter back from them” <– laaame
But u had the guts to get next to Chester :D
And YAY For u singing LGM when no one else knew. REPRESENT LPU fo shizzle!
Awessome day :) Thank you for the marker, so I could write on photos :))) Thank you very much ! :)
Aww you are welcome :)