24 January 2003: Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, Birmingham, Al, USA

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It was probably the best night of my life. The night was like a great movie. It had action, suspense, near-death moments, run ins with the law, intrigue, and of course a happy ending.

The day started off with me making the 2 hour drive to Birmingham from Columbus, GA. I was traveling on a 2 lane highway. As I entered the bottom of a valley and approached an intersection on the road, I saw this semi-truck coming from my left at full speed. The guy blows the stop sign and tries making a real hard left onto the highway. I slammed on my breaks and started skidding right towards the thing. It was one of those trucks hauling a bunch of lumber and trees were hanging off the back. I could just picture them busting through my windshield. However I barely missed them and the truck kept on skidding and jack-knifed on the side of the road. I parked, called 911, and checked to make sure the driver was ok. Luckily he was. My heart was pounding a million times a minute though. If I had been going a bit faster or if I had been a little bit further down the road I would of most likely met my maker. Here's a pic I took of the truck on the way home from the show after it had been put back on its wheels.

So, I get to the venue at around 2:00 and it is pretty cold. I hung out by the loading dock where I knew the band would enter from. After waiting for a while I decided to wait in my truck across the street. After a little bit, I see what looked like Guy and Will with a bunch of people walking towards the entrance. I got out and gave chase, but wasn't fast enough. I asked their driver if that was them and he said yes. I was kinda mad. Anyway, so I waited around outside in case they decided to come back out to the busses. They didn't though.

I went into the venue and met up with Anne (annemj) and her husband Dan. Two lovely people. I sat with them for a while and we had some really nice conversation. Good times.

Showtime! Now the part you all have been waiting for. Of course it was a great show. Even though the venue kind of sucked. Didn't matter much to me though or the crowd. There was a lot of energy between the crowd and the guys. I sat like in the 17th row, so my pics aren't that great. But, here's a couple.

Here's another. Chris told us a kind of a funny story that since they had a day off the day prior they went to a fitness center in Birmingham. I guess they played some basketball and there were signs posted that said "no profanity". Apparently Chris wanted to curse or something. Paraphrasing,he said it was fucking great how a small British band can be so well received in Alabama. Something like that.

It was kind of funny during "Shiver" Chris forgot the lyrics near the beginning of the song and turned around to share a laugh with Will.

Of course during "Clocks" where he sings "Home, home, where I wanted to go" he replace "where I wanted to go" with "sweet home Alabama" the last time he sang the line. It sounded a bit weird, but I think they should of gone into some Skynard. The crowd would of exploded.

After the show I ran back to the loading dock where their busses were and waited for them. It was really pretty cold. I was told they would exit this way by the tour manager and the Oxfam girl. Of course they didn't. After sitting there until 1 am I decided just to walk in the building since I could tell security was pretty relaxed. Besides, I had been there so long people thought I worked there. So, I walked in and found their dressing room.

I was kind of disappointed by their dressing room. I thought it would be more fabulous. I didn't find anything really cool in there to take either. All there was was a couple of fruit plates and some coolers with water, pop, and alcohol. I grabbed a bottle of Becks that someone had drank and a bottle of Absolute Vodka. I should of grabbed on of the used towels, but didn't think about it. Besides, I'm not that lame am I?

So, I talked to the security guard (no fear) and she told me they had already gone to the busses. Kind of dejected I decided to leave. I got back up to where the busses were previously and was delighted to see they were still there. About 20 people were waiting outside to meet them. None of us were really sure if they would come out, since it was like 15 degrees, but we weren't going to leave until they did. After about a 1/2 hour the busses pulled up. And to our sheer ecstasy, out walked Jonny and Chris.

Unfortunately the rest is kind of a blur because I was so darn elated! Here's a couple things I remember hearing from listening to them.

Someone asked Chris where he gets his inspiration from to write music. He said a lot of things, but mainly girls.

I congratulated him on the grammy nods and told him I think they got robbed for best album. He said "Me too!" he then went on to explain that he thinks its because they're not big enough in the States yet. I told him I agreed and that its a pity.

He mentioned the Superbowl performance and seemed pretty excited about the opportunity.

I also thanked him for playing in the parking lot after the Atlanta show got cancelled. And he said it was their pleasure.

The whole time him and Jonny were so great. They were signing anything and everything people gave them. They also were happy to shake people's hands and take pics with them. Someone asked Chris if they could get their pic taken with them and Chris says "You can do whatever want".

And of course I got my picture taken with them!

And don't forget Jonny!

What a great night. After they had signed everybody's autographs they politely excused themselves and thanked us for sticking around. Oh and I forgot to mention that I had a picture that I wanted them to sign. When Chris signed it he goes "Will and Guy have left already so I'll sign for them" It was pretty funny. His fake signature actually looked like Will and Guy's too.

So I took off for home, but was floating so high that I kind of got lost. I didn't care. When I finally found the highway I was going rather fast. I got pulled over my the police for doing 80 something in a 55 mph zone. What can I say, it was my night though. Flashed the guy my military ID and the cop took about 30 seconds and said. "Slow it down" and let me go.

I forgot a couple things. I mentioned to Chris that I had asked them two questions during the web chat they had a while back. He was excited and "said really! What were they?!" I told them I had asked about a dozen questions but the only ones that were answered was one for Guy about the DVD and one about them and they're growing fame. He said something like "that's really cool man."

As he was leaving I told him he should stop by the messageboard more often. He got kind of a sour look and shook his head saying he hates the messageboard. He laughed though.

~Adam Bradford

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