Fantazia - Showtime - 27/01/07 - Review 4

Flipping Percy doctor's late, so got time to type this now. Anyway, Saturday, after typing bits in I got a rather short ration on sleep, woke 7:30, got ready, & whooshed out to the 8am bus forgetting my mp3 player!!! DUH!!! Still, had all my 8 Into the Wonderland CDs & player, plus a couple of extra batteries, so had some tunes to listen to till Aberdeen. Got there & Allan Chef called me saying he was also on his way up. Didn't get a place on any bus before 12:35 to Glasgow though, so bell Ozzy, who comes down to the bus station to blether wi me, he's still very gutted he can't go tonight. After he departs, I wait for the 11:35 to depart, having had a snack & a coffee in the cafe & done a wee sketch based on some Fantazia comments read on Friday night, this can now be found on that forum at the appropriate topic, will add it to Doodlebook pics here soon...

Once the 11:35 has gone, I put myself first in the queue for the 12:35, so I can bag my fave seat!!! The bus arrives & I get on board, bagging the seat. Across fae me sits a bloke called Dennis (the Menace as he referred to himself), who is dead cool, as is proved starting within the next few minutes as we are joined by Chris, Scott, Darcy, Sammy & Gary, who are all heading for the same place I'm going!!! The lads ask me what I'm listening to, & I tell them, feeling rather gutted I don't have speakers for the thing. The headphones take a journey round all of us, especially Darcy, & none of the lads can believe a0 I'm 32, b) I have Twisters wi me, & c) how mad I am. I have Diet Coke to keep me going, they have various booze, which they drink till Dundee, where they all nip out for a smoke & an official indicates that it's actually illegal to drink booze on a bus!!! So all their cracked booze gets poured away & ditched, while their uncracked booze is moved to the luggage compartment, to be given back at Glasgow.

All they have between Dundee & Perth is an Irn Bru bottle, spiked wi a bit of vodka, but it looks innocent enough for that fact to be hidden fae the official. After Dundee two other Showtime goers are dragged down to join us all, & my headphones take more journeys round various lugs, while Dennis offers us all some of his Pringles & joins in some of our banter!!! Every single one of the lads is loving the ITW Mallorca set btw!!! The carryons & banter lasts a wee bit beyond Perth, there are some girls laughing at the back & we wonder if they're going too!!! Beyond Perth some of the lads start kipping & talking nonsense to suggest they're rather intoxicated, I get piccies of the ones I've named on my mobile before they crash out though, while they take pics of each other wi me!!! By the time we pass Stirling, most of the lads are asleep, Scott's eyes do funny things when he's sleeping btw, while Darcy had to be the most drunk out of the lot of them!!! Re my short time sleeping beforehand, I also crash out for a bit, my CD player put away, also, the cushion off the left earbit kept falling off!!!

About the start of Strathclyde we all start wakening up again, Allan has also called me regarding his progress towards Glasgow by this stage. Allan I think the reason the lads weren't so responsive is because they were all about to kip. I give Steven BTTF a bell at this time too, to let him know I'm not far away fae Glasgow. The lads say they would rather I wasn't on the same bus they were getting home, as they get busy calling their Glasgow mates, I tend to agree, I'm rather hard to handle on a hangover!!! At last we all arrive in Glasgow & get ready to get off the bus, which due to the M8 roadworks takes a slightly different route than normal to Buchanan street. We all get off the bus at around the same time, collecting our luggage, & the boys' booze, while I see Steven & introduce him to the lads as they head to see their mates.

After a munch of food & 20 minutes of net-time at the cafe, seeing a chat wi Zippy & Guy! on Fantazia forum, & letting folks know of my progress wi a couple of "typing this in Buchanan Street" posts, also showing Steven my Myspace page, we get a taxi to Steven's friend Elizabeth's place. Elizabeth is one of those lovely ladies who instantly ya come in offers ya a hot drink, she's 62 but looks no older than 52, if she dyed her hair she'd look even younger than that!!! She knows where we're going tonight, & lets me use her shower before we set off. She also lends me a shot of my hairdryer, but I don't get to use it until after Allan's called me, saying at least half the DJs are in the same hotel as he is!!! Get a wee blether wi Keatster too.

Get my hair sorted while starting to worry a bit about my trousers, which look like they're gonna fall down a lot, sod using the pockets of them!!! Steven has a taxi booked for 18:15, so we go out to meet it, destination: sno-bar. We get dropped of at Xscape then ask about 5 workers where the sno-bar is. We get there about the same time as four folks OBVIOUSLY going to Showtime, as they're dressed wackily, one's in a furry costume, calling themself Thing 2. All six of us are rather gutted at the fact that nobody else in that bar looks like they're going to Showtime either, growls!!! In fact Steven & I don't even get a drink, we just head ALLLLLL the way back out, then ALLLLLLLLLLL the way round to the OTHER END of the Braehead Complex, till we find the arena.

We join the queue at about 18:50, not far behind a girl wi a sheep rucksack & her mates, obviously, I get chatting wi this girl re the fact my rucksack is also a creature, it's a Starcatcher rucksack off of eBay, yep, that winged G3 MLP!!! We laugh as we compare rucksacks. There's already some chanting going on further forward, sometimes it gets back to here, especially when the floodgates are opened & we start to move!!!!! Also some photographers, probably both Nocturnal & Club Photographs, come up the queue to take pics, the load of folks round me & Steven all pile in to a few of them!!! Us included of course!!! Several busses are dropping folks off nearby, including a normal bus service to Braehead, off of which four white boilersuited lads get off, all raring to go, they whistle at us, I, already having my whistle at the ready, whistle back!!! Further back along the queue, some bloke starts doing dances & backflips & stuff, all the folk nearby getting into the spirit of it!!! I don't see this but Steven does, perhaps his mobile does too. Also the police are walking up & down to confiscate booze off of those who are drinking in the queue. I buy a set times cardbatch too, as we're passed by seller after seller. Anyway, at last we're permitted into line one of the proceedings, where we're asked to get our tickets out.

Only the stub is taken from mine this time 8-D, I leave Starcatcher open to get searched, but she barely gets looked at!!! There's a query regarding my doodle book, but that's it, they let me in wi the thing. Question: where are the metal detectors??? I stand waiting for Steven, as girls & blokes get searched separately, surprised my pockets never got searched!!! But there's no sign, & no reception on his phone, so I join what looks like another queue, this turns out to be the sniffer dogs queue. Two lines worth, the dogs are taken up & down us, on girl not far behind me has been given a ball, to train the dog on our side. The dog finds it straightaway of course, the girl gets taken to one side, otherwise nothing else seems to be happening. After being sniffed & moved I go to give the wee fella a fuss, but am only permitted to do it for a few seconds to keep things moving, btw this queue had a great vibe in it, HWFG all over the place!!!

Come out the other end of this & after about a minute finally locate Steven, then we hit the next queue: for the cloakroom. Steven puts my jacket, his jacket & my fleece inside, while I get us four litestix, as they are being sold there wahey!!!!! Not cheap though, £5 each, only purple & green ones. After this we pass the snack van heading for the last queue: drinx tokens. we get six each to keep us going, I still have 3 left rats!!! Now it's time to hit the main arena.

Go on, guess!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHO do Steven & I bump into first!!!!! Yep, that's right, some of the DSC!!! Flav, Beats & 3 others wearing their very smart looking DSC Fantazia tshirts all greet us & get on Steven's mobile, canna wait for pics fae one of them like!!! Next through the doors to the main arena, time, 19:45, & X-Control is on!!! Rush straight to near the front as Steven starts recording the whole thing on his mobile, Jonesy XXX is singing wonderfully btw, & the tunes are quality stuff, wanna hear more of this lot!!! I wonder if anyone otherr than Jonesy XXX is responsible for writing the music??? Reasonable show put on by the PA, decent dancers etc, & obviously I can't fault the MC!!!!!! XXX yer still my fave, get on Myspace Jonesy beg beg grovel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After X-Control come off I take Steven to the upstairs bar, as I hear Stu Allen's first trax, not happy tunes, but bouncy ones 8-D. Through the doors to Arena 3, which we're hardly in, so dinna ask me who was on, but Keatster had just come off a few minutes beforehand, & we bump into him, complete wi his record bag, as we head for the bar, is it me or was the VIP bitty even smaller this time round??? It certainly looked it this time... Anyway, Steven's having a few beers while I'm on the diet colas. We then head for the seats by the top of the stairs near the landing to have our drinx, let Steven get some great arena-sized shots on his mobile, & surpirsingly bouncing to Stu Allen's set. As the set plays, more folks come in, we can see that as the arena fills up. I also have a proper chance to look at the set time cards & am gutted: where the HELL is Tommyknocker!!!!!!! What I don't realise yet is that I won't have the time to miss him.

About 20:30 my name is called fae behind me, where Hashmonster & Hardcore Kyle are drifting about the place. Really great to see Hashyboy there, as he'd been begging to get to this party, good to see Kyle & his mass of tattoos take Hashy under his wing for the night. More of Stu Allen, then I'm thinking we should head back up to the windows, where within seconds the other early bird of the forum meetup also shows wi her mate Angela, aye folks Zipster is in the area!!! She & I are hoping for a surprise to show up at the meet, but it doesn't, KJ if you were an adult I'd have words wi ya, but yer still unborn, so I suppose it's nae really yer fault yer mum was too weak to last long, so yer dad! has to put her first... Boonster on the other hand has another surprise for us, as I greet him, he's brought XXX Jonesy to the meetup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8-DDDDDDDDD I get to meet him properly & show him that doodle he did back in 1996, I also get my pic taken wi him several times. Also at the meetup, between 21:00 & 21:20: Keatster, Hashy, Kyle, Jamster, Katey, Kev Errol, Bex, Charley (who I leap on), Hangercrew, Jonny, Honest John, Jasoon, PH, Rightside, Robbie D, TLR, Vertical Drop (nice one, glad he turned up to it & met the forum lot!!!), Miss Old Skool & a mate, Let's Ave It & his bro (Let's Ave It you could show me up mate!!! NUTTER!!!), Kilwinkie, & more than I can list!!! Allan has been calling fae outside where he's queueing to get in, I tell him to shift his bum & get Jonesy XXX to speak to him, inbetween his bletherings wi other forum crew. Big Paul shows up for two seconds & is practically the ONLY forum member who doesn't get to meet Steven, as he's at the bar. By the time Allan & some others get to the forum meet it's moved to the landing to the sound of... ALTERN-8!!!

They've already been on a while by the time I get out there, but what I'm hearing takes me back to 1993 if not earlier!!! It's played very well too. Frase shows up for a few seconds too, in fact there were loadsa folk at the meet, it was well rammed!!! Allan has brought someone with him, but it's not his fiancee, it seems to be someone else's, I want to be 100% sure on this, KYLA WAS IT YOU????? I get to speak to her a bit anyway, then Allan's gone to catch up wi Vibes & Livelee, then later, after having it confirmed how mad Let's Ave It is, I get a call fae him to come outside, so I go down the stairs & out the door, when I'm standing near Vert I blast my whistle hoping he can hear it, but nothing, so I go back in & up to catch the rest of Altern-8's oldskool.

I miss another chunk of it as I go to the Ladies & find a big queue for all of 2 toilets or something!!! Anyway, back out & catch the last of Altern-8 before N-Joi come on (I've missed Bizarre Inc btw). We're still on the landing for a lot of their set, they play both versions of Anthem, one at each end, methinx they must have been peeking at me & dawson's wee "which Anthem is better" dispute & gone sod it, they can have both!!! I can't really see the stage fae there, plus also it's time for me to move down forward, after getting another drink. I find a spot near the far left, right at the front, by the time the guest is on. I was personally hoping it would be Technotrance on, as he wasn't at ITW, or the Hogmanay BTTF, but it wasn't. Who it was was no disappointment though, as at ITW AND BTTF Hogmanay he tore the place to bits, & did the same now, yep, it's MALLORCA LEE!!!!! Bet the bus lads were DEAD chuffed at that!!! They heard a bit of him on the bus, now they get to hear the man live!!! Not a soul left, except to grab their mates with enthusiastic "MALLORCA LEE ARENA 1!!!" yells.

The whole floor waas packed, & it stayed like that for ages!!! Mallorca drew everyone in, while Steven replenished our drink supply, then Q-Tex kept us there, not that I was shifting at all now, not fae my spot anyway, nor was I letting Stevie shift. At this spot I've intro'd Steven to Julie Partypants, BOTH Emmas, Mossie, Stereo Mike, & Al & Sarah Twisted. We have also spotted Bob The Builder, some 58-year old bloke, & a girl in red & white stuff which has to be seen to be believed!!! While Steven was getting our drinx & that, also getting some of the first shots of the LAZERS!!!

I see Glen Smurf & Leyna, who both instantly note my rucksack, as do most people!!! Unfortunately the straps have come off again, so I have a thumb shoved through the bit where the wing is stitched on, so she's bouncing on one side, while Twisters is on the other. About halfway through Q-Tex I'm getting a bit worried, due to who I haven't seen, but now I think of it that must have been interview time, Interview folks, I hope you asked the dekname question, it's been bugging me for ages!!!!! I mean, what EXACTLY (other than having a real name like that) makes a DJ call himself BASS GENERATOR anyway????

But no worries, the big fat scrubbing-brush himself is there behind the dex on time for his set, after Q-Tex have kept the pace hard with the likes of Get On The Floor 8-D, E-Creation 1994 8-D, & some newer ones wi a good singer, I know it's not Gillian, but the voice is cracking!!! Having been set up nicely by Q-Tex's pace, Guy! lets rip straight off!!! My whistle again goes nuts, blasting away the whole time except while grabbing cups of water to chuck down the hatch as NO WAY AM I LEAVING THAT FLOOR!!! Katey at first seemed a wee bit disappointed, but I'm sure that went later. Can't fault ya! at all, ya mental ba###rd!!! 8-DDD Glen Smurf & Leyna are standing by Abi, & of course Starcatcher IS rucksack-sized, therefore easy to spot, so I notice the former two point me out to the latter, who then gives me a cheery wave!!!

Dinna worry Abster, I'm NOT going to attempt to carry ya while yer still carrying KJ... Get to meet Wee Maggie at this point too, then Nocturnal Media starts interviewing the crowd, including me. I get videoed wi Julie, Wee Emma & Maggie, as well as Steven I think. Soon after this Steven tells me he's begging for the Gents, to the point of having to go, Steven, ya picked EXACTLY the wrong time!!! As while Steven was away I hear that unmistakeable radio-interference sound thing, followed rapidly by the words "keeping on...", yep, yous ALL know the tune!!!!! And the WHOLE THING GETS PLAYED!!!!! Yas all should have seen me to the power riffs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8-DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD After 2-3 attempts of my arms to jerk, I gave up, grabbed the barrier & went MAD wi my hair, good thing I had the room to do it!!!!! I was like "back back back" to abody near me so I could!!!! (hmmmm, I wonder how my hair ended up so knotted afterwards I had to cut a bit off to remove the hairtie...).

Twisted is next, then not long after that it's a euphoric "CHECK ONE TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!! PARTY CREW IN THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!1 NEUROTEK LIVE WITH THE HARDCORE!!!!!!!!!!" Let Me See Ya Dance, cheers Guy! cheers Guy! cheers Guy! cheers Guy! cheers Guy! cheers Guy!!!!!! Have I said that enough??? Nope, but I dinna have the time to type it ad-infinitum!!! 8-DDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!! Only problem was of course the fact that Abster is still early stages (the bit where ya throw up & feel ill & weak a lot), which means Guy! had to take her back to the hotel almost straight after his! set finished, so neither Wee Maggie or Boonster can birng them over to speak to me, let alone get a piccie wi me 8-(.

During this time I think it was some bloke off his nut asks if I know how to open the barriers, err, they're not supposed to be opened!!! He's leaning across me to try & do it himself, I keep trying to stop him, then I point it out that he's drunk & should go elsewhere... About the back-end of U-S I had to go & chill, I mean I'd been dancing practically solidly since 22:15, flipping 2 hours 40 minutes!!! So out Steven & I went, where we bump into cute wee Stiv Watt, complete wi cute wee Stiv Watt hat!!!

Then we have a seat for a while, where I find that the whole time Steven was going to & form the Gents he was still recording vids on his mobile, including the very impressive lazers. AND I MEAN IMPRESSIVE!!! Ok, they were both green, but they did loads of stuff wi them, there was the Fantazia logo lazered up, for example. Quite a show. While sitting down I start feeling tired & I'm like NO NOT NOW!!! So I drag Steven over to the Twister ride, & we get on board. I'm not the only one treating the ride like a rave, there's a few others on who are chanting & whistling, btw the music played is oldskool 1992ish, respect!!! Off we come & go to the snacky, I dinna want food right now, but Steven wants a burger, we also both get Diet Cokes & slowly make our way back in, bumping into more folks. We get in & I'm like, why is the music this slow??? then we get in proper & discover it's not soft by any stretch of the imagination.

Imagine George W Bush let loos in the control centre of a nuclear weapons place, then place yourself at the target of every single bomb. Assuming (wrongly, that ya survive the first blast, imagine what it would feel like if 155 nuclear bombs hit the place every minute, the vibrations of the ground & the noise that goes right through ya, now yer gatting a fair idea of what Lenny Dee & Frankie bones were sounding like!!! We go up the stairs & find a point near the back to the left on the top row of seats up there, then find a place to sit. We sit there & Steven's recording the nuclear bomb sesh, while we're having our drinx, then after I've finished mine, my hands are going, the rest of me is joining in rather rapidly. Because of the relatively slow pace, it's easy to get going again, because of the sheer hardness of the set, it's got the same pull as bouncy 180bpm techno, namely grab shoulders, yank out of seat & jerk to the rhythm. It was having the same effect on Shona, Brenda & Nikki, 3 girls near us, then I heard Portable Trash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8-DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD AND WENT MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was no getting me sat back down after that, though I did at one point have to pop to the Ladies, & found one at the side, which I went in, along wi 3 blokes!!!!! Most of the girls in there are like what ate THEY doing in here!!! Back out & back bouncing, right till the end of Lenny & Frankie, the last tune being Lenny versus DJ Paul, where Lenny goes "DJ Paul, make it f###ing louderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...", speeding things up nicely!!! Especially as one of the PAs I've most bewen looking forward to are on next: the Chills. Good points:-still the same MC, still the same drummer, still the same stuntman, & still the same electric chair!!!

Don't think the chair worked though, or maybe I wasn't close enough to see it working. Heard most of their tunes before going into a panic & thinking no way can I catch the last tune & still catch Glen Smurf, so Steven & I are bouncing (sort of) down the stairs & bouncing out of the main arena wi the Chill's quality set still (btw they have a great singer too) trying to dissuade us from departing, sorry Sean, but I can't let Glen Smurf down!!! Nor by the looks of it, after a queue that took a few minutes, can the rest of the Fantazia GGM possee. And we get in just on time to catch Gammer's last trak, hard as nails!!!!! Is Gammer a hard DJ then??? I get to the front on the left again, bounce to that, then whistle for & at Glen Smurf. Ophidian Butterfly, Braincracking, I Won't Do What Ya Tell Me, & other belters like that are played admirably by the cheeky sod in blue, who spots me & my ponies rapidly. For some weird reason some folks ask if I've got any intoxicants, nearest I had was 3 drinx tokens. I meet some blokes there going nuts & we bounce together & get pics taken of us too. Also a girl finds a busted blue litestik while going for it right till the end. I felt like I could have gone on for ages!!! Btw what was it wi abody leaving as soon as the last trak was over??? Pay yer respects first please!!!

Anyway, the lack of folks means Glen & I are yelling at each other, including the cheeky fella asking if Steven was shagging me!!!! EARLY DAYS GLEN!!! We finally go outside & Steven gets to meet Glen & Leyna properly, while the last pic of the night is taken, before we hit the cloakroom queue to get our things & wrap up to head out, while Steven says something about not being able to get a taxi. Everyone's gathering round busses & coaches, & whenever a taxi shows everyone rushes to grab it, so I think we should go to the shops bittie, to see if Sainsbury's is 24hour. It's not to the disgust of several folks, including Steff Korrupt & Wee Emma & their mates, Steven gets to meet Steff now. As the shop is shut, I try to figure out where the taxi rank is, then as St4even's not having any luck, I bell a taxi, & get one!!! I just ask for the very next one available, plus let the folks know that actually several are needed, as there are several lots of folks standing about waiting. Anyway, I have to end here, so Blog yas all wi more later byeeee!!!

Mad Elaine