Alison Lowther

My trip to Germany started very early on the morning of 17th December with an early start at 4.30am as a taxi picked me up from home and took me to Manchester Airport where I boarded my first of two flights that day. A short time later I landed at Heathrow Airport where I went on to board my Lufthansa flight to Köln after of course raiding Duty Free for Christmas bargains!

I arrived in Köln and headed into the city and checked into my gorgeous hotel the Radisson Blu for three nights, although I was not staying there for three nights now since my plans had changed somewhat as I’d planned now to take a train to Hanover for an extra show. So it was a quick case of changing and packing an overnight bag and heading to the train station for a three hour journey to Hanover. If you have ever had the pleasure of travelling on trains in Europe they are pure heaven compare to UK trains, spacious comfy and usually they arrive on time unless certain problems arise! Sadly this train journey did run late, instead of taking three hours it took over four and arrived 90 minutes late in Hanover which I have to admit left me somewhat frustrated because the train pulled into Hanover at just gone two minutes to 8pm and the show for Night of the Proms was starting at 8pm. I was panicking thinking I’ve not checked into my hotel for the night. I did call the hotel and tell them I would now check in after the show but the main panic was I wouldn’t be allowed in late to the arena to take my seat!

I jumped off the train and practically ran through the station knowing I had around 45 minutes to make it to the arena before Roxette made their first appearance on the stage, I jumped in a taxi and eventually we arrived around 8.25pm. Security wondered what was in the bag I was carrying and I explained it was my overnight bag and that I’d just come in on the train from Köln and it had just arrived late and I’d had no chance to check into my hotel before coming to the arena, after checking its contents they let me through and I was led into a dark arena to find my seat, thankfully having a front row seat it was not going to be difficult to find! I didn’t bank however on having to dodge German couples waltzing to Tchaikovsky up and down the aisles! I walked to the front row but all the seats were taken eventually some security man noticed I was holding a ticket and approached me and after helping move some German girl wearing a ‘Halmstad’ t-shirt out of my seat, I took my seat and took out my banner and flag!

I had of course the most magnificent view being on the front row and as soon as you heard the intro from the orchestra to Roxette’s ‘Wish I Could Fly’ every Roxette fan in the crowd stood up and screamed as Marie appeared out of the stage floor on a seat and Per walked onto the stage. There performance was so perfect words can’t describe how wonderful it felt to see them both on stage in such a big arena playing to such a crowd like that again! I couldn’t fault this performance in anyway, it was everything I dreamed of!

Several more artists followed and during a short break I managed to catch up with friends during the interval and passed out the balloons I brought over from the UK which was just as well as it seems I was the only one to bring the balloons to Hanover!

The second performance consists of ‘The Look’, ‘It Must Have Been Love’, ‘Joyride’ and ‘Listen To Your Heart’ and it was such a perfect polished performance from everyone. For me it couldn’t have been any more perfect I was in heaven being able to see both Per and Marie back on stage singing together like this in a massive arena to all these people and receiving a standing ovation at the end. I was floating on cloud nine. I feel like a teenager again! Watching Marie was amazing, she has come so far and it seeing her strut her stuff on the stage especially in Joyride was just amazing, if it wasn’t for the fact I felt 32 I could have swore I was back at Sheffield Arena in 1992 on the Joyride Tour again!

After their performance, the final end of the show sees the artists come back onto the stage and receive a bouquet of flowers, this happens every night and I was already aware how Per and Marie tend to throw them to the crowd, this particular night though I wasn’t venturing to catch them after all I was still lugging my overnight bag with me. It was however nice to see how it worked and I was determined I would be the lucky one at one of the next concerts, The British Flag was going to bring me some luck!

My Russian friend Evgeny then took me over to the hotel were Per, Marie and the band plus most of the Night of the Proms acts and crew were staying whilst they were in Hanover for the two shows in the hope like the previous nights Marie and Per might spent some night with the fans before they went to bed! The hotel was just a short walk from the venue, as we headed outside it had snowed and the snow was still falling it felt so Christmassy!

We got to the hotel and it became apparent that they might not get back from the venue till late and we could be waiting there till anything up to 2am. I was tired and weary I’d been travelling since 4am and I still had not checked into my hotel. I had an idea, why not for the sake of one night book a room in this hotel, money didn’t matter I was always frivolous with money and tonight was no exception so I headed into the reception and booked myself into a room for one night. This new room at the Best Western Premier Parkhotel, Hanover set me back €106 plus a €50 deposit for the mini bar! Trust me drinking the contents of the mini bar was the last thing I wanted to do I was far too knackered to consider getting drunk! I went to my room dumped my bags and returned to my friends outside the hotel and continued the wait for Per and Marie where my Russian friend Evgeny asked did my room have windows, I replied I had no idea I never even noticed! I later discovered it did when I went to bed!

Whilst waiting we met some of the other artists from Night of the Proms including Alan Parsons and John Miles who all picked up on the fact I was from England! Pelle Alsing arrived on his own at the hotel and posed for pictures, little did we realise the poor guy was sick… until the YouTube videos that were posted later – if only he’d said something we’d left him alone! From a distance we spotted some figures walking towards the hotel and we spotted that it was Christopher Lundquist, Clarence Öfwerman and Jonas Isacsson such sweet guys as always who posed for photos with everyone who wanted them! It was the first time I’ve ever met Jonas and he was also part of the electric band of Night of the Proms which meant not only was he playing with Roxette but he was playing with every other artist for Night of the Proms – he’s an amazing guitarist! I’d mentioned on Facebook to him to look out for the British flag on the front row and how I hoped to finally meet him. He spotted the flag and acknowledged me from the stage! It was great to have a proper chat to him, I’d waited 18 years to actually meet him and say hello, I’d always had a thing for Jonas every since I’d been a Roxette fan, there was something special about him and he was always a favourite of mine in the original Roxette line up!

Finally the wait was over and the people carrier with Per and Marie in pulled up outside, a dozen or so fans crowded around Per and Marie as they got out. Per quickly said that tonight they were going straight to bed, he was tired and they had a very early start in the morning to get to Köln. I respect Per and Marie’s wishes, after all NOTP is a massive thing for the guys and it was obvious tomorrow they had an early start to get to Köln, you can’t possibly expect them to do meet and greets every night, they need there rest. I personally headed into the hotel with Evgeny and for a short while we chatted to Christopher and I gave him some Cadbury’s British Chocolate which he seemed extremely happy with, remarking it was better than Swedish chocolate! One thing’s for sure it had been a long day but I slept so well that night and by the time the morning came I was ready for the journey back to Köln and part two of Night of the Proms.

I arrived back in Köln around Friday lunch time and I took a taxi back to my hotel where I decided to spend some time relaxing and catching up on some much needed sleep in preparation for the second show later that evening!

I arrived at the venue for the second show in plenty of time. This show went without a hitch. I had a perfect seat, eight rows back in the centre block right in front of Per, what more could a girl ask for! To see the entire show from start to finish was amazing and I can’t fault any artists and I loved Heaven 17! I even enjoyed Christina Stürmer, actually I thought she was fantastic. So language was a slight problem but often it’s pretty easy to translate some words from German to English as I can remember sometimes back to German language lessons at school! Again both of Roxette’s performances went perfectly, I decided I wanted to be at the front for their second performance so when the time was right I got up from my seat excused myself from the five people sat next to me and moved to the left side aisle where I joined my Russian and German friend and we started the process of Balloon blowing much to the amusement of the rest of the front row and the somewhat bemused security guard! There were only about seven of us in the aisle to show our strong support for Per and Marie, obviously I am sure other fans were scattered in the arena but for us seven we made enough noise to make it a fab show to remember! They performed perfectly and it was a performance that was perfect again. Per commented on twitter ‘Fab show tonite in Cologne. Marie in super shape. I slipped twice on the slippery stage floor. Don’t know why. Must’ve been something I ate’.

Straight after their performance I shot over to the right hand side of the stage to wait for their re-appearance and the flower ceremony with my Russian friend, I was feeling lucky, would the British flag send me some luck to get some flowers! After John Miles’s final song and about 10 minutes later I was clutching a bouquet of flowers which Per had thrown to me with a thumbs up! I knew today was going to my lucky day! Evgeny was lucky enough for the second time to get Marie’s flowers we were both ecstatic! I had Per’s flowers, Yipppeeeee! Again I was floating on cloud 9!

I walked back to the hotel with people eyeing up the bouquet and you could see in their eyes them wondering which artist I’d got the flowers off! The walk back was through thick snow which had come down heavy during the concert, it was also very cold! I went to bed happy but sad knowing that tomorrow was going to be the final show! There was no opportunity of meeting Per or Marie after the Köln shows since rumour had it they were staying in Düsseldorf for the airport.

The next morning I decided despite the heavy snow I wanted to visit the cathedral, it was absolutely on my list of things to see whilst I was in Köln. I had message off my German friend Claudia who I finally caught up at the arena with the previous night and who provided the balloons for Joyride (nice one C!) and she said she would be in a shopping centre having breakfast. Being my first time in Germany I had no idea where this was or how the underground transport system worked. I did however have a rough idea how to find the cathedral you couldn’t really miss it with it massive two spiral towers. I sent her a message back saying I was heading to the Cathedral. I ideally wanted to avoid buying travel cards for the sake of just another full day in the city and because I’d blown my cash budget on the new hotel in Hanover. I’d deliberately left my credit card at home because I knew that even after three shows having my credit card meant I’d been far to tempted to have joined friends for the final show in Dortmund on Sunday. It would have been all too easy to have booked a train, an extra night in a hotel and sod the cost a new flight home on Monday! I know only too well how my mind works, look how easily I slipped Amsterdam into The Party Crasher Tour in May and Warsaw in April!

I left the hotel to make my way over to the cathedral and as soon as I did the cold hit me, even in Sweden I’d never experienced temperatures like this. I later discovered it reached -12, no wonder I was so cold! I managed to walk from the hotel to the cathedral across the bridge that the Rhine runs under and later worked out it was just less than two miles. The views from the Rhine where breathtaking, the cold was pretty much the same! I was pleased however to make it to the cathedral, there is to me something special about visiting a place like this even more so in another country. I always use to visit cathedrals with my parents on UK holidays as a child and I made a promise to myself I would visit this one and light a candle for my mum and I kept that promise.

There was a German market just next to the Cathedral, I had a tiny mooch around and tried a Currywurst which my dad went on about as being fabulous from his times in the army in the 70’s he wasn’t wrong! However it was so cold my legs I couldn’t feel my legs so I called it a day and come 1pm I jumped into a taxi and went back to the hotel, a -12 temperature is even too cold for me to be out. I achieved my visit to Köln cathedral and that to me was what mattered. I headed back to the hotel to spend a relaxing afternoon watching the snow from the warmth of my hotel bedroom!

Later than evening I got a SMS off my friend Neil another UK fan who’d arrived and was at the venue already, I texted back and said I’d be there in around 40 minutes. I quickly got dressed to head on over for my final Night of the Proms show. Most of the afternoon I’d been trying to concoct a story to get past security for Roxette’s second performance during the show! Sounds bizarre read on… My seat for the final show was not on the floor of the venue, I was up in the lower tier in the first block next to the stage and whilst it was a good seat, I wanted to be on the floor as close as possible to the band for their performance, it was better it felt more fan like and concert like. I’d come up with all kinds of ideas in my head about what I could say to the guy at the top of the stairs when the time came for trying to get past him! As I was getting dressed I found the previous nights ticket in my jeans and just stuffed it back into my pocket when suddenly I had a brainwave, use last night’s ticket and fool him! Could it work? It had to work!

It was just before Roxette’s first performance that I spotted Evgeny my Russian friend on the floor of the aisle and I thought where did he appear from, I realised he too had come from somewhere near me so I got up and decided I too was going to go down for this first song as well! I got past the six people next to me out of the block and causally walked up to the entrance for the arena’s main floor was and there was a young guy on the door. He asked me for my ticket and I just pulled it from my jeans pocked holding it in my hand accidently covering the date and all he saw was the block 101 and he said ‘okay’ … I just smiled! I ran down the aisle and joined my friends just as the intro to ‘Wish I Could Fly’ started! At the end the words Roxette, Roxette were chanted over and over, after all this was the second to last show for the guys, it was coming to the end of something big! After the performance I headed back up to my original seat till the break!

During the break I went back into the floor area again using last night’s ticket to fool security into letting me through and caught up with Neil and I never returned back to my original seat, I stayed downstairs with Neil talking over a few beers in the bar area waiting eagerly for Roxette’s performance. The idea was we were going to be the first to the front of the aisle as Neil had waited so long to see Marie back on the stage. Somehow I lost all sense of time and the next thing I knew we heard the intro to ‘The Look’ but my slowness and loss of time didn’t spoil the show we still had an excellent view from where we stood and the final show for me and the first show for Neil was just superb. Each show just got better, Marie got more powerful, the audience just got louder, (I apologise to the two German’s in front of me if I made you deaf with my shouting the look on their faces indicated I did, take ear plugs next time you go to a Roxette concert!) Per said on Twitter ‘XLNT 2nd gig in Cologne. Thanx!!! Great crowd, the band is pretty tight by now and I finally start to learn the lyrix to The Look’.

I didn’t attempt to catch any flowers, one bouquet was enough! Evgeny caught Marie’s flowers for a third time and kindly gave me one from the bouquet! It was a fantastic final show and seeing it again from the floor was just marvellous. In fact I am still on cloud 9 that three shows in three days happened like they did. I wish I’d booked more shows and I realise leaving the credit card at home was the right thing to do as just like after the Gyllene Tider show in Stockholm 2004 I’d been making plans to be in Dortmund the next day without a doubt – for those that don’t know me, after the final GT show in Stockholm in 2004, me and a friend had not even left the venue in Stockholm when we decided we were heading to Falun the next day!

For me supposedly touring with Roxette and Gessle is coming to a end, if there is a summer tour next year for Per or Gyllene Tider and there have been hints I should make it, but after that I can’t commit to anything and for me touring must come to an end just as Roxette have made this comeback… which is why Night of the Proms was extra special for me. I am an addict when it comes to Roxette and anything related, it’s like blood running through my veins… but from September 2010 I’ll be committed to university and the good old NHS for the next three years when I start my training ]as a Student Nurse! My holidays will be fixed by the university so there shall be no more gallivanting off on tours which even thinking about it brings a tear to my eyes, how will I survive knowing I can’t be part of future tours, you are even warned to not plan weddings or to even expect time off to go to family weddings abroad it’s that strict for three years! Boo Hoo! This Crazy Brit thinks her touring days are coming to an end… so Mr G please do a summer tour next year just so I can squeeze in a final bit of fun before I start university!

Finally it took me just over 24 hours to get home, with three failed attempts at taking off from Köln airport because as the Pilot said Köln airport didn’t have the right kind of de-icer for the aircraft in this weather, by the time the plane had been de-iced and had gone from the gate to the runway it had iced up again the temperatures were so cold! – Warning to Köln airport, please invest in the right de-icer for the future! By the time we did eventually take off and I arrived at Heathrow I’d missed my connection to Manchester by 35 minutes so I spent the night on the floor at Heathrow airport, Lufthansa offered me a hotel for the night but since I was now booked on the first flight out to Manchester in the morning and it had taken me almost three hours to queue up to talk to someone at their customer services desk and it was almost 1am I declined there offer and opted to stay in the airport. What I didn’t expect was that my local airport in Manchester to be closed the next morning because of the amount of snow we had had, Manchester never get’s snow, not so much snow it causes chaos and closes airports! We boarded our flight on time at Heathrow at 6.50am but were told that we would not be departing till 9.30am at the latest, yes folks we would be sat on the ground on a plane for 2.5 hours until they re-opened Manchester Airport once they had cleared away the snow! I couldn’t believe my part of the UK had seen so much snow it was impossible!

I eventually arrived home in Manchester at 10.30am and yes we had snow! Almost a week later we still have snow it’s slowly melting now, it had caused chaos but it’s been beautiful to look at!

Night of the Proms was fabulous, I only wish I’d done more than three shows! :p