University - Backstage Access
's Point Of View
P.E.
The worst lesson of the whole week. Especially running, I absolutely hated it. But and me would get through it together. We changed in the showers, our usual corner to escape the others just for a couple of minutes. As we headed out, the icy wind pierced our skin through the thin polo shirts and shorts. The field was mushy under our trainers from the heavy rain the night before, so when we ran all the mud splashed up the back of our legs. They screamed with laughter at us as we jogged behind them even though we should be the ones who should be laughing. They had their orange make-up streaked down their necks and their perfectly straight hair was starting to go frizzy. Yeah, I’m talking about the idiots. The ones that think they’re the best-looking girls in the whole world. Maybe they’d look a bit better without the fake-tan lines around their faces. They looked like they'd been hit with a boiling hot iron.
As usual, I had my attention on something else. I couldn’t care a less whether they came and punched me in the face. It was the day I’d been looking forward to all year. But, I was used to it by now. Tonight I would be going to my 11th, yes 11th, McFly concert. You could say I was a big fan. You couldn’t even see the colour of my bedroom walls, from all the posters. was my favourite member though. I don’t know whether it was the gleaming eyes, or his hair, there was just something amazing about him. I always rolled about laughing every time he said something funny. The whole school knew me for liking McFly. I was even known as the “McFly Girl” by some people. In a couple of hours , and me would be out of here. We’d begged our mums to let us out of school early so we could wait around next to those massive steel gates where they got off the tour buses. Eventually they agreed, but to all the teachers, I’m going to the dentist and and need to leave early to see their ill “Auntie Maureen” who lives all the way down in . It’s ok for them, because they’re cousins, so they can get away with both of them going at the same time. So I get to leave 15 minutes earlier, just so the teachers don’t get suspicious.
I glanced at and could tell she was daydreaming too. She was staring into a tree, probably thinking about how she was going to kidnap , marry him, and live happily ever after. As I could see Mrs. Champs jogging up to, I quickly clicked my fingers in front of her face, waking her up from her trance.
“Right, that’s enough running for this week. Everyone head back to the changing rooms,” She finally let us head back up the field and into the English entrance where we saw waving at us with a grin so big, you could probably fit a whole sandwich in it. currently liked . I remember when she hated McFly. We all first met when she moved from another school. Our teacher told me and to show her around but we ended up sitting on a bench going through all my McFly songs on my iPod, trying to get her into them. Finally she gave up and joined us. Now we were all as bad as each other, except I’m probably the biggest fan. I’ve loved them ever since I first heard 5 Colours In Her Hair when I danced around my room, playing the air guitar. My locker was covered with magazine cuttings and printouts and my collection is still growing.
The day seemed to pass by like minutes were seconds and soon it was 11:00. I gave each of my friends a hug and told them to come round to my house as soon as they’d collected their clothes from their own houses.
“Oh My God, I’m so excited.” screamed, nearly falling through the floorboards as she was jumping around so much.
“I can’t believe it’s your first ever concert. It’s insane! I’m on my 11th. That’s 10 more than you. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to the front though. Can you believe it? Row 5. That’s 4 rows between us, and McFly. And we’re on ’s side I think. I really think he’ll like our banner… You think he’ll get it though?” I gabbled on, like I was about to explode with McFlyness.
“He likes Blink about as much as you, of course he’ll understand it! better come over to our side for a bit. I don’t fancy spending the time watching you gawp like a fish at all the way through it.” was perfecting the banner adding glitter and random hearts. It said “I fell in love with at the rock show.” The main line in the song The Rock Show by Blink-182. I persuaded them to let me put because for the last concert I had to hold a banner.
After realising that the bus was coming in a few minutes, we grabbed our collection of concert gear including glow sticks, flashing lights, and the money we’d been saving up for merchandise and ran down the street to the bus stop. The bus driver gave us funny looks, along with some old women heading for their weekly shopping trip, but they let us on and we all headed onto the top deck of the bus. We had it all to ourselves and as the mirror where the driver looked to see what everyone was doing upstairs was smashed, we decided to have a party with my mobile, playing McFly music quietly.
Before we knew it, there was the Arena. All year we’d nudged each other with beaming faces whenever we went past it, thinking of this day, and now it was here, it was unreal. We thanked the driver, and danced around the car park until we’d reached those gates we’d been dreaming about all day. We were all ready for the cold and got out our blankets and sat on the bench next to the entrance. Suddenly all the happiness was drained from us, as we remembered the hours we had to wait in this freezing cold wind.
’s Point Of View
“! That’s cheating.” had won against me for the 4th time in a row, as we were playing a game on the Xbox. I handed the control and went to the toilet. On my way back I passed the window and saw 3 girls sat on a bench huddled under blankets and umbrellas.
“Hey, guys, look. Some fans have arrived.” I called them over and they jumped up to inspect the first people to arrive.
“They must be mad. Why are they out there in the rain just to see idiots like ?” smirked as punched him on the arm.
“Why don’t we go and see them? They’ve come out in this weather, we can’t just leave them. I’m bored of cheating anyway.” They all nodded and agreed with me, turned off the Xbox, and put on their hoodies.
It was raining so hard, the droplets were bouncing off their umbrellas and my hood was already soaked.
’s Point Of View
As we were planning our revenge against The Idiots, I spotted some figures in front of us from under our shelter of umbrellas. I instantly grabbed ’s arm and gave her an “Oh My God This Cannot Be Happening” look. I recognised that hoodie from one of my posters… it was just like ’s. But it wasn’t just like ’s. It WAS ’s! I jumped up and dragged along the other two. The penny finally dropped as I saw their faces.
“Err… Hey. We saw you from our dressing room window and thought we’d say hello.” spoke up. It was so unreal. I never thought I’d hear that voice properly, without it coming from the speakers of my stereo. There were a security guard following them, who opened the gates with a rusty key and they walked around to us. “We were wondering if you want to come inside for a bit? You look freezing.” I could see smiling sweetly at as he said this and he gave her a grin back. I could see her going into one of her trances so I tapped her on the back.
“Oh My God. Do you really mean that? Like really really? I’ve never ever been backstage before.” was starting to babble on and I felt my cheeks starting to burn a warm shade of red. I didn’t need to tap her on the back this time. got to her first, treading on her foot.
“Yeah that would be, erm, really great.” I answered his question before any of the other two could jump in. I saw that smile. ’s trademark smile. The one he does in every photo. I looked away quickly, snapping myself out of it. Hopefully he didn’t think I was a freaky fan that was going to go and hug him going “ILoveYou ILoveYou ILoveYou ILoveYou!” Even though had probably already gave them that impression.
We followed them into the building. Even though we’d been to the Arena many times before, we’d never seen this part to it. It was pretty impressive. There were dark red carpets with swirly patterns and neatly painted walls. A piece of paper was glued on the door we walked through saying, “McFly’s Dressing Room”. There were a buffet, which had been half eaten, a TV, it’s own personal toilet, 2 large sofas and an Xbox, which looked like the boys had brought in with them.
We sat on the sofa and a McFly boy sat in-between each of us. We were soon talking away. It was really weird, cause it felt like we’d known them for years. The star-struck feeling wore off and we were back to our normal self’s again. I was chatting to about playing the. It was weird because I forgot all about him being who he was. He just felt like a person that I’d never actually spoken to, but got on really well with.
We got into teams and played against each other on the Xbox. , and won. After that we had a food fight.
’s Point Of View
We invited the girls into our dressing room. One of them was really nice, and for once, I don’t just mean the looks wise, although she was really hot. Her name was . She was into the same sort of bands I was and we found each other talking for about 15 minutes. For a change, it wasn’t all about her either. She listened to me too. Usually when I meet a girl, she’s got a bad point to her, and they only want to talk about themselves. She’s got a cute smile, amazing eyes and a really nice personality too. I just couldn’t find any faults with her so far.
cheated against us on the Xbox again, and we found ourselves getting into a food fight with the leftovers from the buffet. She looked really sweet when she was covered in bits of breadcrumbs and chips. I went with her into the bathroom to help her clean the stuff out of her hair.
’s Point Of View
This was the weirdest thing in the world. First, I got into a food fight with McFly and now is helping me clean the bits of food out of my hair, in the toilets. I must say he looks really amazing in real life. I didn’t think he could get any better… But anyway, like he’s going to like me. He’s probably got a glamorous girlfriend at home, waiting for him. Some actress or something like that.
He was helping me get the stuff out of my hair and I saw his beautiful face in the mirror. I started thinking then. This was probably going to be the only chance in my whole life I was going to get the chance to do this. So I turned around. And I did it. I kissed him. Just like in all my dreams. The only difference was that the place wasn’t perfect. I mean come on… I can’t really brag about kissing in a toilet can I?
I realised what an idiot I was and what I’d just done. Why the hell did I do that? What was I going to do now? Just run out of the room? He’d probably call security and get me kicked out and my tickets took off me.
’s Point Of View
So there I was, getting the disgusting bits out of her hair, and she suddenly turned around. Then she just kissed me. Out of the blue. But then she stopped.
“Oh crap. What the hell have I done? I’m so sorry. Please don’t call security… I’ll show myself out…” I stopped her, mid-sentence and kissed her back. She was so surprised that I thought her jaw was going to drop to the floor. So there we were: in a toilet, with bits of rotting food on us. It was so weird, yet perfect. Until when walked in…
“Oi! I need the toilet will you guys… Hey hey, what do we have here then?”
“Well yeah, erm… you guys better be getting off then. The rest of the fans are starting to arrive and we have to go on stage and get ready.” I rushed them out and quickly got a business card from the buffet table, wrote my number on the back and shoved in into ’s hand. I winked at her as she walked down the corridor where the security man was showing them the way and handing them the backstage passes I’d asked for.
“Dude, you just met her like 20 minutes ago, and I find you hiding away, sucking each other’s faces off in the toilet?!” laughing along with the other guys as they made kissing noises.
“I don’t know… it was weird… she was just really cute I suppose…” I mumbled, staring at my feet.
“Really cute? So you’re trying to make out that you’ve just invited some random fans in from the rain, into our dressing room and started making out with her?” was joining in now too.
“I didn’t do it. She just started on me and I sort of joined in.” I tried to explain. But then I got a thought. Why was I trying to hide it? They’d all collapsed on the sofa laughing. So I just admitted it and left them to it, going to the stage entrance to practise. I took my phone too, just in case it started ringing and one of the guys answered it.
’s Point Of View
He handed me a piece of card with his number on the back, showed me out, and the security man outside gave all three of us backstage passes. I was lost for words when I got outside into the queue. There was a crowd starting to form now, and there were a few of them waiting next to the metal gates. and were bombarding me with questions. I didn’t answer though. I just stared at the floor trying to think about what had just happened. Did I just make it all up? Have we just been standing here all the time? I clutched at the card in my pocket, trying to prove to myself, that it did happen. I opened my bag, and got out the backstage pass. A girl in front saw it and whispered something to her friend, and they both turned around, glaring at me like I was an intruder and I’d just stolen their boyfriend.
“Look, , I want to know… what was on about when you were in the toilet? Oh My God. Just answer me!” and were shaking at my shoulders.
“I’m not… sure… I think I just got ’s number…” I was interrupted by grabbing my hand to see what I had.
“Ring it! Go on… and let me listen too.” had her hands in my bag, feeling around for my phone.
We dialled his number and he picked up nearly straight away.
“Hello?” I heard that soothing voice again.
“Hey, it’s me, . I was just saying to look out for our banner. We’re on Row 5 at your side.” “Haha! Yeah okay then. I’m going to have to go, before steals my phone off me. We really need to rehearse.” We said bye to each other and then carried on the long wait in the queue. It wasn't so bad now it had stopped raining and the sun was coming out. We found our seats and admired the view of the stage. There were some girls next to us, just like those ones from school, all three of them with matching short skirts and furry boots. They were admiring themselves in their mirrors and flicking their hair about but stopped and looked us up and down and then smirked as we walked next to them. The brunette opened her mouth to comment on us but stopped as she saw a face appear near the side of the curtain.
"!! HEYY!" and she waved frantically but he stared right past her and at me and he smiled and waved as I waved back and lifted up my banner.
"Did you see that? He just smiled at me! He's probably checking with the security guys to see if he can get me backstage." the brunette chatted on with her friends as they smiled and nodded in agreement.
After waiting for about 10 minutes a big guy with a bald head and a bright yellow jacket on waddled up to me, "Excuse me, but are you ?"
"Erm... yeah, that's me." I replied, I could see where this was going so I moved to the side and talked loudly so the three girls overheard every word.
" has asked me to ask you to come backstage. Can I see your passes?" I showed him the passes and followed him to the side door. I turned to see the three girls, hands on hips glaring as I walked away. I gave them a smile and waved as me, and walked down the same corridor as we had done just an hour ago.
and met me at the doors, giving us hugs as we each made our way backstage.
"I've got a surprise for you all! We're going to give you a pre-concert concert cause we all need to warm up before we go on stage!" said getting a few looks of confusion as he said "pre-concert concert". We all sat on the dressing room sofa as they got their instruments ready and counted the beats into their first song, Please Please, winking at me. When they'd finished we all clapped. The same man who led us backstage walked through the door and told them that they needed to get ready with their instruments at the back of the stage. grabbed my hand (which raised a few eyebrows) and we went to the side of the stage where we watched the support group play. The crowd looked so big from on the stage and they were all jumping to the rhythm of the song. put his arm around my waist and put his chin on my shoulder.
"I can't believe I've met you ... I feel like I've known you forever," whispered into my ear, his breath tickling my neck.
"Mmh Hmm," I replied, my spine tingling.
There were some wolf whistles from and the band cheered as kissed me and shouted, "Come on boy, we need to get all our earpieces on yet, you can call her after the show."
We said our goodbyes and we made our way back to our seats, next to the gobby girls. The interval was drawing to an end and people were coming back to their seats, arms full of merchandise.
"Do you know McFly or something?" The blonde one asked , her eyes lighting up at the thought of trying to talk some backstage passes of us.
"Oh no, not me, it's who knows . They're good friends," grinned at me as the lights dimmed and the three girls did high pitched screams and did a last check in the mirror.
ran on stage infront of me and gave me a quick smile before nodding to and and started playing the intro to Friday Night.
"Right everyone, let's read some of these lovely banners then! Get them up into the air so we can see your works of art!" peered into the crowd and started reading some banners. There were some interesting ones, but pointed over at the three of us as we struggled with the big banner. The spotlight turned to us, and he read ""I Fell In Love With At The Rock Show" hey, that's a Blink-182 song! Well, strange as it seems, we were just practising a few Blink-182 songs the other night, back at home and we all learnt this one. What about we play it? What do you say guys?" All three of them nodded. "This song's dedicated to my good friend , who's here tonight."
I watched him as he counted in the beats of the song and headbanged to the beat. I couldn't believe it. My dreams were finally going to come true.