I’m sitting here at home, contemplating all the work I need to get through. I don’t really know where my heads “at” right now. The week started off great with 2 Bryan Adams gigs but then there was a bit of a family emergency.

I’ve made a “to-do” list and that’s a start but I need to actually get on with the work.

Fun.

After the amazing night I’d had at the Caird Hall in Dundee, I accepted that nothing would beat that.

I was really looking forward to the Glasgow gig but was gutted that I had to leave my house when I did.  I’d just found out that my Gran was away to be taken to hospital by ambulance because she’d had a bit of a funny turn.  Thankfully she’s ok at the moment but the doctors haven’t confirmed what’s wrong with her.

Back to the review…

My day really began once I’d arrived back down in Dundee.  I met my friend Kevin down there, wandered to university and did some work in my XML class until 2pm, when we decided to head off.  First stop was Kevin’s house, so I could drop my stuff off (I was staying there after the Glasgow gig).  We left there with plenty time to spare and I’m glad we did.

The road to Glasgow was littered with car accidents/roadworks which made it hellish trying to get to the SECC.  We were driving along the M8 at one point and saw a car which had crashed (no other car involved) and was facing the opposite direction…still trying to work out how the hell that happened.

We managed though and met up with my friend Kat, from High School.  As I was meeting her, I realised that Bryan was doing a soundcheck and I recognised the song- “Way of the World”!  Major “oh my god” moment.  Walked along the corridor to speak to Chels and she was thinking the exact same thing.

Once the doors opened, I met another of my friends from uni, Marc, and we got a spot in front of Keith’s mic, 4-5 rows back.  Turns out this was a good position to be in- really close and we kept getting blasts of cold air from the air conditioning.

The support act came on stage somewhere around 7.30pm (I think….I lost track of time because I was having some random conversations) and they were called Black Daniel.  If I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t enjoy them that much.  Not quite my style of music and of course, I was just counting down ’til Bryan and co arrived on stage.  Loved the lead singer giving it his all with the cowbell during “Say Hello”.  I was a little concerned he might he his thumb though.

Bryan took to the B-stage at the back of the hall at 8.30pm and started with the acoustic version of “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started”.  In recent years, he’s missed out the second verse of this song (correct me if I’m wrong) however, this time, he sang the whole thing.  He then remained on the B-stage by himself and played “Please Forgive Me” (not the country version he played in Dundee).  Following that, it was time for “The Best of Me”.  We were only 5ft away from him when he came near our bit of the barrier- thought Kat was going to have a fit hehe.

Right, onto highlights of the gig…..

- “Somebody” featuring MC K-Man.  Seriously, I love Keith rapping.  I didn’t have a clue what he was going on about but I was lovin’ the hand movements.  Get down with your bad self, man (or whatever rappers say…).

- “Hearts on Fire”- I’ve never had the pleasure of hearing that live before so was quite excited about it.  I don’t know if it’s just my ears but to me, the intro sounds similar to “House Arrest” so for a few seconds, I wasn’t sure what was about to be played.

- “Kids Wanna Rock” was also played.  I remember last year at Murrayfield, the guitar battle didn’t really go on for long.  Not this time.  It was epic!

- One of the songs that I was quite excited about hearing was “The Way Of The World”.  How brilliant was that live?  In fact, it was great to hear songs from 11 performed live- they had so much energy.

-Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond- well I love this song anyway.  A full Runrig type version would have been brill (like on the Once in a Lifetime album )

- “Take Me Back”.  Another one of the songs that I never thought I’d hear live.  Went on for ages and diverged into “Papa Was A Rolling Stone”.  Think there was a moment during the song where Norm started walking forward to sing but wasn’t moving fast enough.  He ended up having to run to the mic to make it in time.  It rocked

“There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’”- yay AC/DC cover.  The whole place was really jumping by this point.

So to sum up, it was an awesome gig- when the full band were onstage together, it was apparent that they were in a fantastic mood.  I thought the atmosphere was one of the best I’d been in amongst but then I thought it was maybe just me.  Then I read Bryan’s tour diary and spoke to others about the gig and everybody was agreeing.  Electric atmosphere and easily one of the best BA gigs I’ve been too.

So a big thank you to Bryan, Keith, Norm, Gary and Mickey for another fantastic night. .  Oh, and I should probably take a moment to apologise to the woman who was standing in front of me.  I think I was singing very loudly and I hope I haven’t deafened her/scarred her for life (…tone deaf you see).

After the gig, I headed off to Perth and I don’t think I got to sleep ’til 3am.  Just lay awake thinking about how great the gig was.  I remember seeing 5am as well but I think I might have been drifting in and out of sleep?  I had to get up at 7.15am anyway so I could get ready to head to uni back in Dundee.  I was there for the whole day but didn’t get any work done at all…..my head just wasn’t “with it”.  I wonder why….

For those that are interested, here’s the setlist….

***b-stage***
Can’t Stop This Thing We Started (Solo acoustic)
Please Forgive Me (Solo acoustic)
The Best Of Me (walks to mainstage)
***b-stage***
Somebody (with MC K-Man)
Hearts On Fire
Kids Wanna Rock
18 Til I Die
Let’s Make A Night To Remember
I Ain’t Losin’ The Fight
Back To You
Summer Of ’69
Everything I Do
Cuts Like A Knife
When You’re Gone (with some If Ya Wanna Be Bad, Ya Gotta Be Good)
The Way Of The World
Heaven
It’s Only Love
Take Me Back/Papa Was A Rolling Stone
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?
The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
Run To You
I Thought I’d Seen Everything
Cloud #9
There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’ (AC/DC cover)
Straight From The Heart
All For Love

*Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond was in there somewhere too

Mood : chipper   Music : Hearts Of Olden Glory  by  Runrig

Bloomin’ heck, where the hell do I start?

Right, my mum and I set off from my house at around 5pm.  Before going to the gig, we stopped off at McDonalds (major eww) for a bite to eat.  We then continued on to Dundee city centre, parked the car and walked to the Caird Hall.

On arriving we noticed that the queue was bloody huge!  I’m not sure why, but it was zig-zagging right across Caird Square.  Of course, when the doors opened, everybody piled up at the entrances.  Why the rush, we all had our seats?  Maybe everyone wanted to get out of the cold it was bloody freezing!!

Anyway, my mum and I got in and got our seats-2nd row, seats B1 and B2.  Bloody fantastic seats.  Soon after we sat down, I went and spoke to quite a few of my friends- from high school, university and the weboard.  As we were sitting, I looked on the stage and thought it was odd that there was a piano sitting there.  Could Bryan be playing it?  Someone then told me Gary was going to be playing with Bryan (then the piano made sense).

Right I’ll try and pick out the highlights…..

The show kicked off at around 8pm with “Tonight We Have The Stars” at which point, quite a lot of us ran to the front of the stage.  Sounded fantastic with Gary on the piano.  Bryan kindly asked us to sit down after this hehe.

“Back To You” then started.  During the full band shows, you can almost hear Gary when he’s playing but it’s never quite clear enough.  Totally different with the acoustic shows- just beautiful.

I was really pleased to be hear “Heat Of The Night”- that’s one of the songs I never thought I’d see him play live- again fab with Gary giving it some oomph on the piano.

Keith was then brought on stage for “She’s Got A Way (blues version)”, “I’m Ready”, “This Time” and “Cuts Like A Knife”.

“Please Forgive Me” was bloody hilarious.  Halfway through the song, Bryan suggested that it would have made an awesome country song.  He then proceeded to sing in a country/redneck style, making everyone in the audience crack up.  Really fun stuff!

Keith was brought back out and the guys played “Somebody”, which included the fabulous talents of “MC Keith”.  Loving the hand movements man!

All in all a great night, even if there were some technical difficulties (major bangs came from the speakers….I think Bryan spilt his water or something).

There was a lot of banter/funny moments throughout the show e.g. “marmalade in Dundee”, “hey, I’m ginger”, “why do girls go to the bathroom together” and “hey, why don’t we take a piss break?”.  Seriously, you could have heard a pin drop in there- brilliant atmosphere (I thought that because it was an acoustic gig, it might lack energy but that definitely wasn’t the case!).

After the show was over, I popped to the back of the Caird Hall to see if I could meet the guys.  Turns out I was in luck!

There weren’t really that many people standing there because it was so cold.  We waited for about an hour then said we’d leave in 5 more mins.  Just after that, I saw a guy in a hoodie- Bryan!  I was the first one to ask him to sign my “11″ cd and he did.  He asked “what’s your name darlin’?” and had great difficultly getting the cd inlay out to write on hehe.  Then, he came back up to me, and asked to borrow my pen (calling me “darlin’” again *swoon*).  He never brought it back though!  Bryan Adams swiped my sharpie marker !

Just after that, I caught a glimpse of Gary, so I went running over to him and got him to sign my “11″ cd as well.  Nice man

Finally, I saw Keith.  Got my picture taken with him (Chels took the pic- no steetlights hehe!) and got him to sign the cd as well.  Was clinging onto him as tightly as I could because I was frozen and he was nice and warm.  Brilliant night

Meeting those guys made my day, my year and quite possibly my life (does that sound sad?).  These guys are my heroes and I’m so excited to have finally met them.

Hope all my friends that were there had as good a time as I did.  Apologies for the incoherent review- I’m hyper but knackered at the same time.

Setlist (from 18tilidie.co.uk)

Tonight We Have The Stars
Back To You
Here I Am
Let’s Make A Night To Remember
Can’t Stop This Thing We Started
I Thought I’d Seen Everything
When You Love Someone
Heat Of The Night (with broken string at the end!)
She’s Got A Way
I’m Ready
This Time
Cuts Like A Knife
Please Forgive Me (country version)
Summer Of ’69
Walk On By
It’s Only Love
Heaven
The Bonny Banks Of Loch Lomond
Run To You
Somebody (MC Keith rapping)
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?
Straight From The Heart
All For Love

This is just a quick update.

Yeah, you all know I was at the Bryan Adams gig in Dundee. Well, I met 3 of my heroes there tonight: Bryan Adams (who called me “darlin’”) Keith Scott and Gary Breit.  They signed my copy of the “11″ cd.

Totally stunned at the moment.  Working on a full review but my head is mince.

Before I start on the main part of the review, I should mention that I actually wrote the majority of this aboard one of the last trains departing Aberdeen station.

So yes,I went to His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen to see High School Musical being performed on stage.  Yes I, Lynsay Shepherd, who constantly made fun of the whole “brand” went to see it.  Stop laughing.  Stop laughing right now.  In order to regain some of my “street cred”, I actually planned on purchasing 2 tickets- one for my mum and one for my sister, as Christmas presents.  However, they didn’t want the tickets as presents: they just wanted to go anyway.  I felt a little left out so I bought a ticket for myself too.  No, really!

We arrived in Aberdeen a little early and decided to head straight to the theatre, getting there with more than enough time to spare.

The doors opened at 7.30pm so we thought it would be best just to queue, rather than wandering off in search of food.  Besides, we weren’t that hungry.  Have to say that I’m glad that we just stayed put because before long, the foyer at the front of the theatre was absolutely packed.  There were a lot of kids there and I was beginning to think we were the oldest people there (thankfully, we weren’t).

Oh, one random thing happened when we were queuing- one of the cast members was snaking her way through the crowd- no idea who she was!

After queuing for about 30 mins, we got into the main area of the theatre and took our seats in row I, 9 rows from the stage (I was in seat I18, not that anybody really needed to know that…).

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the show as I hadn’t watched the film before hand (although I was well aware of the hype surrounding it).  I knew that it was a Disney production, therefore it was probably going to be cheesy and squeaky clean.

The lights dimmed at 8pm and there was an offstage announcement, referring to the audience members as “Wildcats”.  The fun and games were about to begin…..

I don’t have a clue what the name of all the musical numbers were (a number of the tunes are still stuck in my head though) but the singers were fantastic.  The choreography was excellent as well, particularly during a scene when all the guys were playing basketball- really well done.  Think the song was called “Get’Cha Head in the Game”.  If someone had dropped a ball, that song could have gone awry!  Should also mention that the guy who played Troy was gorgeous- reminded me of a young Paul Gross (at a glance).

Another great song was “Stick To The Status Quo”-dancing on the tables and air cello- great stuff

There was a really funny bit that totally cracked me up during the “Drama detention scene”. Basically, the class teacher was making the students pretend to be animals.  At the front of the stage, one of the pupils was pretending to be an earthworm.  I can’t really describe the way he moved but it was genius (note: I believe the move is called an “Inch Worm”- google it.  I really wanna try and do what that guy did!

The finale was fantastic- a ton of foil streamers were shot from the roof.  Remember I said there were a lot of kids in the audience?  Well all these kids ran into the centre aisle of the theatre and started fighting over the masses of foil which covered the floor.  Really funny.  I loved the foil as well- shiney!

I tried to phone my friend at the end, to let him hear the finale but a steward came in my direction and said no mobile phones.  I thought he ws talking to me but I realised it was directed at the woman sitting 2 seats down from me who was taking pictures.  Fool.

After that, we had a freezing walk through Aberdeen, back to the train station.  The driver of the train was really nice though- he started the train up especially for us and let us on because it was so bloody cold.  We sat on the train for about 45 minutes before we departed.

So yes, after all that, I’m ashamed to admit that I’m now a High School Musical fan- a lot of fun .

…wait, did I just confirm that in writing?

“Wild cats everywhere , wave your hands up in the air”

Mood : bouncy   Music : Breaking Free  by  High School Musical Cast

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but I’m off to see Bryan Adams tomorrow night at the Caird Hall in Dundee.

This evening I finally got around to listening to parts of the Toronto acoustic show bootleg and it’s made me more excited than ever.  If I had the energy, I’d be jumping around like an idiot right now.  The acoustic shows seem to have a different vibe (well, from what I’ve heard from the bootlegs). Even though the music is stripped down to it’s bare bones, the performances still retain a lot of energy.

Think it’s going to be quite nice seeing Bryan in a more intimate setting for once.  So far I’ve seen him at the AECC (7500 people), the SECC (15,000 people) and Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh (27,000 people attended that gig and I got to the 3rd row!).  The Caird Hall in Dundee seats around 2000 people and I’ll be in the 2nd row.

Also wondering what the setlist for tomorrow night will be.  I’m hoping that since the Dundee gig is the only acoustic performance taking place in Scotland, it will be extra special i.e. have some rare songs thrown in.  What songs am I hoping for?  Ummmm…..”When The Night Comes”, “Here I Am”, “Hey Elvis” and “Never Let Go”.  Highly unlikely but you never know.

Only one more sleep to go….

Mood : bouncy   Music : It's Ain't A Party...If You Can't Come Round  by  Bryan Adams

Lots going on

Remember how I did a wee “Scottish tour” back in August?  Well I’m about to visit a few cities in the upcoming days.

Starting off with Aberdeen.  I’m actually going there later this evening because I’m seeing High School Musical at His Majesty’s Theatre.  Stop laughing.  Stop laughing right now.  I haven’t even seen the film so I have no idea what the hell I’m letting myself in for.

Next up, Dundee on Sunday.  Bryan Adams in playing an acoustic gig at the Caird Hall and I have seats in the 2nd row.  Really looking forward to this one- it’s the only acoustic gig in Scotland.

Finally, Glasgow on Monday.  Why you ask?  To see Bryan Adams again.  This time, he’s playing at the SECC and it’s a full rock show.

Bring on the music- reviews to follow.

Mood : uncomfortable   Music : All The Way To Reno  by  R.E.M.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog saying that I had been off to the doctors to get some blood tests because I’d been feeling knackered all the time.  At the end of the post, I mentioned that I’d received my results and everything was fine.  Of course, that didn’t help me any- I’m still very tired.

I’ve been feeling really fustrated about the tiredness/fatigue/whatever you want to call it and on several occassions, I have seriously considered popping down to Boots to get myself a packet of ProPlus (caffiene tablets).  Last weekend I was really fed-up because I spent most of it in bed.

I didn’t have class ’til 3pm on Monday so I went along to the doctors at lunchtime.  He went through my test results and noticed something a bit odd.  Previously, I’d seen another doctor and she’d ordered a thyroid test.  The nurse who gave me the blood test had sent it away clearly labeled.  The lab on the otherhand made an error and didn’t bother to do a thyroid check.  So, I got sent for another blood test on Wednesday.

I’ve already blogged about how anxious I become when faced with a dreaded needle….

I did really well on Wednesday although when the needle was removed it nipped like more.  It’s not the pain that gets me- lets face it, it doesn’t really hurt that much but instead, it’s the sensation I cannot stand.  Anyway, I thought that was it.  Wrong.  It turns out they needed two vials of blood from me and they’d only taken one.  Great.  In the needle went again.

So now, I’m left with 2 needle marks directly opposite each other on my arm.  It looks as though I’ve been attacked my a rabid stapler.  Nice.

Mood : annoyed   Music : Leaving New York  by  R.E.M.

How many of you use Firefox? Come on, raise your hands.

A few days ago I was looking though the add-on area of the mozilla site and came across a few neat tools so, I thought I’d share some of the Firefox add-ons I use.

Adblock Plus, used in conjunction with Filterset.G.Updater
What can I say? I completely adore this add-on. It gets rid of 99.9% of ads and banners. For that, I love it.

Colourful tabs
Ok, it’s not the most useful Firefox add-on in existance but it makes each tab you open a different colour, resulting in a very pretty interface.

Ctrl-Tab
This small add-on makes it even easier to navigate between the various tabs you may have open at a given time. It provides a similar feature to the Alt+Tab shortcut in Windows.

Down Them All!!
Allows you to download multiple items from a page at the same time. Tired of right-clicking and “saving as”? Well, down them all is for you!

Firebug
Extremely useful for when one is web designing. It allows you to inspect, edit and monitor CSS, HTML and JavaScript.

Foxy Tunes
This neat little add-on allows you to control media players without leaving your browser. Handy if you’re like me and always have music on!

IE Tab
This allows you to view a page in Firefox, using IE rendering. Pretty cool!

Splash
Again, this isn’t really all that useful but it does provide you with a splash screen while Firefox is loading. It’s something to look at I guess.

Web Developer
One of my favourite add-ons. What does it do? It adds a menu and a toolbar containing a plethora of web developer tools. Get it. Get it now!

Mood : blah   Music : Stand By Me  by  Oasis

I awoke this morning to find Bob floating upside down in the aquarium. At first, I thought he was just feeling really ill again- 4 weeks ago, I found him doing exactly the same thing in the tank. At that time, when I attempted to remove him from the water with the net, he showed signs of life (swimming, albeit upside down). I took him out of the tank anyway and treated him with some medicine in a small quarantine container. He was as right as rain after that.

Well, that was up until a few days ago when I noticed he started to look rather pale (extremely noticeable on a jet black fish). The fish medicine couldn’t save him this time- he’s dead .

I know I’ve been running the aquarium for about 8 months now but I’m still wondering if there’s something I’m doing wrong.

Mood : blank   Music : Nobody's Fool  by  Avril Lavigne