Woke up VERY excited that today was the day I would finally get to see Dave Coverdale up close and personal front row at the gig of my lifetime. This is something that has been on my bucket list for decades. This was the whole reason we came to Melbourne in the first place.
But first, there was a shopping adventure to get through :)
Melbourne put on a much nicer day today weather wise, so when i walked out the doors I was instantly in a much better mood than yesterday. It was by all means not perfect, there was still way too much humidity in the air, and the occasional drizzle, but nothing like the day before. I even got to see some sunshine.
Whenever hubby and I have a holiday, we always end up having a solo day where Hobbit does something he wants to do that I'm not interested in and I go off and do something he isn't interested in - which for the most part is SHOPPING! So, off we went on our own adventures today, wallets cashed up and ready to be emptied, walking shoes on, and a kiss goodbye with the reassurance that 'if you want it, GET IT!' because we wont be back here for a long time.
I started my day at 10am in the beautiful sparkly, bedazzling shoe store, Irregular Choice. I had spotted this store a few times walking about and made a note that as soon as I was on my own I was going in for a shoe-fest. This shop is like nothing you would ever see in Perth. Everything about it is spectacular, from ceiling, to walls, to floor. Wherever you look there are sparkles and shimmers, sublime fabrics and shiny metallics, all shades and combinations of every colour in the rainbow, and friendly but down to earth staff who instantly make you feel like you are the most important person in the world but at the same time not pushy or fake and agreeable just to grab a sale. The feeling I get in here is how I always imagined it to feel like as a kid being allowed to walk behind the gates of Willy Wonkas chocolate factory and being told that you can do whatever you want.
Now this shop is definitely the best way I can imagine to start any day. I was there to buy and buy I did. I literally tried on every single shoe in the store that appealed to me that they had in my size. I would hazard a guess at it being around 40 pairs. But oh my, where to start??? I was so overwhelmed with choice (something that is not often the case in normal boring ol shoe stores) that I was literally standing in the middle of the room twirling around quizzically thinking "But I want them ALL"
The staff here are absolutely amazing, so friendly, they didn't break a sweat, and they didn't at any stage appear to lose their cool with me or get fed up of the fact that I literally spent about 3 hours in there. I sat there on the padded seat surrounded by boxes and shoes and those ladies just kept bringing them out. I felt like Julia Roberts. In the end I had three piles: the definite's, the maybe's, and the no's. I set myself a limit of 4 pairs and 4 pairs is what I stuck to. I tried to make sure I had a good variation of colours, styles, shapes, and heights. What I finished with was a pair of flats, boots, high stilettos, and low office heels. Oh, and a handbag. The most beautiful handbag ever - it is shaped and decorated like a picture theatre shop front. There were SO many more I really wanted to get but due to some odd cuts that seemed to dig into my ankles and my feet being big and wide there were a load that I really adored that I just couldn't make fit.
With boxes and bags in tow, I decided to go back home and dump them all before I progressed on my shopping journey. One needs two hands free to enjoy a shopping excursion.
Back out and about I found myself just meandering in and out of a load of arcades and mini-malls, all of them as spectacular as the last and as filled with interesting shops as the next. I stumbled upon a gorgeous little stall in the middle of an arcade selling sweet treats. They had some lovely macrons so I had to buy a nice little box. It was so prettily decorated and this stall was like a little pastel explosion in the middle of the black and white tiled arcade.
I stumbled upon a few little second hand shops which I eagerly shuffled through, no big-win nuggety finds tho. I did buy a lovely starfish sparkly brooch in a jewellery shop which also has a necklace loop, that I definitely will get lots of wear out of. I can pin it to jackets or pop it on a choker. They had a load of stunning designs - fish, seahorses, butterflies etc but the starfish was the one that caught my attention most.
I was starting to fade so decided to stop and get a frappe which was just in a little food hall, don't even remember where, but it was 'da bomb!' They put a bit of milk, loads of ice, some vanilla powder through a blender till it was a mound of gluggy crushed ice, then at the end before handing it to me they poured a big shot of espresso over the top so it all melted through. I loved watching the dark brown coffee make its way down the clear cup through the ice. By gosh this was delicious! The hit of coffee and having something in my belly kept me going.
I knew I had to make my way back to our place for 3pm to start getting ready for the Whitesnake concert but along the way I happened to find a place called Retro Star Vintage Clothing. It was in a pokey little upstairs area that I would definitely not have found easily, and as it was my google maps had be walking around in circles missing it until I stopped and asked a passer by to point me in the right direction, but it was well worth the search! This was the best stop of the whole holiday for retro vintage clothing. At first when you walk in it just looks like a small room with the feel of a hippy market stall, and i was unimpressed, but if you keep walking through there are more rooms and it opens up into a massive shop area with rows and rows of delightful racks all standing there asking to be shuffled through. I made my way towards the back of the shop and saw a little doorway off to the left. When I walked through there was a little room which was exactly the kind of 2nd hand shopping I was hoping for. It is this amazing area just for retro 50's 60's 70's vintage designs. By gosh, I could have bought a million pieces in here but alas, the usual issue of most of them not fitting me. I think the people in that era were all very thin as the average waist size I always see is 26", I'm more 28 to 30. The dresses in this room were of the 'Carol Brady' style that I so love. Lots of loud colours, patterns, bold colours mixed together like lime green with orange and bright pink with purple and yellow. I was in heaven. I shuffled through every single item of clothing in this room, twice actually (at superman power speed!), just to make sure I hadn't overlooked anything.
I grabbed an armful of hopefuls that despite the smaller or larger looking size I thought I would give a try. I spent quite some time in the change room and as you can only take in 4 items there was a lovely guy in there helping me by passing things in and out. Towards the end I was telling him how I am from WA and was here for the Whitesnake concert when he said "NO WAY!, Whitesnake were just in here! Like 5 seconds ago they went up to the counter to buy stuff and told us who they were because they were here for a concert. None of us knew them but they had long hair" My adrenaline shot through the roof, I was like NO SHIT! HOLD MY STUFF! I threw on my own clothes, raced out the change room and bolted to the street to see which way they went. The guy had told me all he saw was them leave but not which direction they went. I did a quick lap in both directions but couldn't see them. I seriously got so upset i was on the verge of tears, so close yet so far :( I was *this* close to meeting my bucket list band, the band I had flown 6 hours across Australia to see, the band that I had originally paid $480 a ticket to see, the band I had idolised and dreamed about for most my life, and I missed it because I was trying on a heap of stuff that didn't fit me in a change room. SO DEVASTATED!
I moped back to the counter, paid for the one dress I wanted and that fit me, then went back to the villa to relay my near encounter with Hobbit. I still wanted to burst out crying.
Now, before I go into the actual concert itself, bit of background drama about these 'VIP' tickets we had bought. When we decided to go to this concert, we decided that if we were going to fly across Australia to see a band, we didn't want to be up in the nosebleed section looking down at a bunch of ants. So we bit the bullet and paid top dollar ($480 each) for the best tickets available. A few weeks before we left, we were contacted via email from the organisers who told us they were cancelling the VIP offer as there was not enough response to it. VIP included pre-gig canapes, drinks, a merch pack, and front row guarantee. We replied to their email explaining that we were not interested in the drinks and canapes etc, but we were flying across from Perth so the front row was very important to us. With much deliberation they offered us the continued guarantee of front row, with no other part of the package, at the same price as general admission tickets ($180). SOLD! So they then sent us a refund and a step by step list of instructions about meeting the VIP organiser downstairs before the gig and she would show us in before the doors opened. Gotta be happy with that!
We got both hurriedly got ready for the concert and threw back some alcohol, the buzz was buzzing and our excitement escalating, tonight was the BIG night. My disappointment from the earlier near-miss faded away as the concert drew closer and I knew I had that front row experience to look forward to anyways. We walked down the road in our heavy metal finery, looking like a rock prince and princess, and caught a cab to the Rod Laver oval. The drive felt like to took forever as Hobbit went into his usual panic mode and counted every second we sat in the cab, not because of the cost, but because we had to meet the VIP package organisers at a particular time and he was panicking we would miss it. We had loads of time, I was not the least bit worried, but when he is stressed he can kill my buzz because it generally brings down the mood a few notches. Of course, we made it with loads of time to spare, leaving behind a slightly frazzled but amused taxi driver.
Arriving at the oval it was a long walk from the cab rank to the venue so I whined the whole way because it was drizzling constantly and my beautifully groomed hair (groomed just for Dave Coverdale) was going to go frizzy. Through the sprinkling rain we made contact with our VIP guide and she met us out the front. She got us into the venue straight away which was so cool because all the general ticket holders were still standing out in the cold and rain waiting. We were shown up to the VIP lounge area for pre-drinks and then we had access to merch without waiting in queue. Hobbit got three t-shirts and I got one, plus we got a personally signed program. The merch was a tough choice, all t-shirts were so cool. But we made our careful but hurried choices and wandered around looking for our special entrance door. We anxiously waited outside door 3 where they were letting us in first so we could secure our spot for the gig. We met the one other couple who also had the same package as us, and lo and behold we were not the only ones flying the miles to see this gig as they were from America! Hows that for dedicated. They flew all this way to see a band that was based in their homeland. We chatted excitedly and also bumped into some other people who were here from Perth. It was all so cool, the atmosphere was electric and we were all on a big high. As she let us through the doors it was amazing to see an empty stadium and we went straight down all those stairs down to the bottom of the ground floor and picked a spot against the railing to the left of the catwalk so that Hobbit could see the band area better (you couldn't see it from facing the front). Turned out to be a bloody brilliant spot!
We were joined by some lovely fellow Perth-ians who made the trek over as well: Miss Gina of Dakyra Black with her ethereal yet oh-so-powerful vocal chords, Ginas lovely rokkin Mum, sexy Simon & beautiful Ama (another talented Perth duo who can belt out bloody amazing sounds), and our favourite charismatic frontman and talented vocalist - Mr Michael 'Robert Plant' of Eruption (soon to be playing at our next Rock n Metal revival gig).
The cheap ticket 'plebs' were allowed in a few minutes later and it was funny to watch the place fill out, the atmosphere was filled with anticipation and excitement, the volume of noise in the arena escalated with all the excited chatter and stomping of feet up and down stairs as they found their spot, and a short while later when the venue was packed to the rafters the lights dimmed and the roaring cheering began - so loud my heart raced!
The spotlights started to move across the crowds and everyone was losing their minds - applauding, screaming, and me crying hahaha. As Dave made his way onto the stage and walked up the catwalk right up to where we stood I seriously lost my shit and the tears gushed, luckily I had on waterproof make up and didn't end up looking like Alice Cooper.
I cant tell you the order of the songs, nor how long they played for, or any fine details, but I can tell you Dave in his ripe age has not lost a bit of his talent and his voice was a well oiled machine. I got loads of photos and some videos, and I danced and sang, I smiled like a Cheshire cat the whole time, and I absorbed the feeling of being there while I could so I could lock it into my memory bank for all time. This was definitely worth the trip over and it was definitely something I am glad I had as a bucket lister. Song after song I was mesmerised, singing along and soaking up the handsomeness of each band member as they did their thing and showed us that the years certainly don't take away from anything but instead add to them being masters of their art. They played all the songs I was hoping to hear, apart from one - my favourite Whitesnake song of all time - Judgement Day. But I was given prior notice that it was a song they rarely did live so I was disappointed but not surprised. In my heart I actually thought Dave knew I wanted that song and would do it just for me, because afterall, he was there just for me ;) Nothing could make that a bad night, nothing at all. Money well spent! (and not even the amount of money we were going to spend).
Whitesnake absolutely rocked the shit out of us.
Then came Scorpions.
Now, we all know that bands throw props out to the crowd, Whitesnake didn't but during the intermission I made sure I chatted happily with the security staff. A lot of the time they catch the merch and dish it out, and besides, they are nice guys anyways. Doing a great job to keep us safe and keep the gig going smoothly.
I was really excited about Scorpions as we saw them as support to Def Leppard just the year before in Perth Arena and were so impressed with their performance as they actually blew Def Leppard off the stage, something I didn't expect! I came out of that particular gig with a heightened admiration for their showmanship and talent. Somehow this gig was lacking in energy. Where in Perth the totally covered the whole stage area and moved around with energy and vigour, tonight they seemed to stand still and just go through the motions. I felt a bit silly because I had been telling our friends around us how much they are going to LOVE the scorpions and how they will steal the show, yet this was definitely not the display I expected and they must have thought me quite the disillusioned fan.
Still overall, the Scorpions certainly did not do a bad show, they were definitely great and worth the money we paid, they sounded amazing and all the songs they put into the set-list were fabulous, it was just that extra 'oomph' missing. And you will never guess, they threw out to the crowd lots of drumsticks and picks. I tried and tried to catch some, and then finally a drumstick made it our way and I jumped across a load of people and caught one YAY! Later on some picks made their way out and one fell on the floor in front of us so the security guard picked it up and gave it to me. All my jabbering in intermission telling him that we flew over from Perth for this must have made an impact. I was so glad to have these super special momentoes of the night. It would have been even more awesome to get a Whitesnake one, but this was cool too.
When the last song and encore ended, and we realised as the lights came on that the show was definitely over, we re-grouped with the friends to find out who was doing what and who was going where. As always, The Underhills (Hobbit and my united nickname) were never ready to call it quits at such an early hour. We were AMPED up, on an adrenaline high (mixed with the buzz of alcohol) and we wanted to hit the town. So out of the group it was Michael who was ready to also hit the town, so hit the town we did! We caught the tram back into town, back to our apartment for a few drinks and a change into some warmer clothes, and then walked back to Cherry Bar.
You know, nights like this where the vibe is positive and you are all excitable, it is always the walking around laughing, joking, talking, and singing that is all the fun, and this night was no different. Mix that with being in a strange place with lots of exciting night life and other people wandering around pretty much in the same state as you and things just keep getting better. Never-mind that we dodged our way around the sleeping street people who by this hour had made their bed on all the shop fronts, dirty blankets over them sheltering them from the cold and drizzle, food and drink wrappers and cigarette butts strewn all around them, and trolleys of stuff nearby. As sad a spectacle as this was, it still didn't kill my buzz.
The Cherry Bar was a bit of a different vibe to the last time we were there, the upstairs was not open so downstairs it was. The music was still amazing and we got our drinks and leaned against the wooden balustrade that lines the walkway behind the main bar and chatted on and picked up a singalong here and there when a great song would belt out. We caught wind that there were some members of The Scorpions in the VIP room, so I made it my mission to get us in there. Well shit, you don't come all the way from Perth to see these guys and not give it a try! Plus, my near miss with Whitesnake earlier in the day was fresh in my mind and my little broken heart so this was game on. We were there for some time when I decided I would pop out for a ciggy. I have full knowledge that most of these band guys and their entourage would be smokers so I was thinking this would be a great tactic to get acquainted. I made my way out the back and lit up. There were two people out there chatting, a guy and a very drunk and struggling to stand girl. I got talking to him and whaddya know, he was from the VIP room. My little spark of excitement grew! As we chatted and finished our smoke, he told me he would get me into the VIP room no problem at all. WOOO HOOOOO! I asked if 'my two friends' could also be let in and he said yeah that was fine. Problem was, as we tried the door, it was locked! Locked out of the Cherry Bar! hahahaha
I phoned Hobbit (a few times) and finally he picked up. I asked him to open the door for us. He opened it and I told him and Michael that I FINALLY got us into the VIP room, bursting with pride and accomplishment, only to be told by them that The Scorpions crew had like 3 seconds ago left the building.
DOH! Today was a day of too MANY split second timing groupie encounter fails.
But that definitely was no dampener on what an overall fabulous day it was.
We finally called it shots as the bar started to empty out and the music tempo slowed (a common tactic for clubs to clear a room). We said our farewells to Michael who had a place other end of town. We chatted happily and recollected our whole days experience as we left the Cherry Bar behind us and meandered through the dark drizzly streets of Melbourne, dodging sleeping homeless people and chattering with passing party-goers, making our way back to the Degraves Street, our beautiful Melbourne BNB Apartment. Once there, we pulled down those heavy blackout blinds and again slept like babies in that great big comfy bed.
*Afternote: I would like to add a note as I am editing this blog down the track for release and there is some additional information that explains some things.
When we booked this concert, there was a 2nd show 3 days later in Sydney. One of our dear friends, Steve, was booked for this one as he wanted to just fly in for it and fly out over a weekend so no time out of work was required. On the Saturday of that concert there was a press release that the Sydney gig was cancelled. We later found out that it was due to Scorpions front-man, Klaus Meine, coming down with kidney stones, an affliction I myself have suffered and know firsthand how sick it makes you feel and how terribly painful it is (a workmate who had a few kids and had experienced kidney stones said that giving birth was less painful than passing a stone! So keep drinking lots of water!). NOT good news for our friend who was already sitting in his Sydney hotel room waiting eagerly for a gig that was now not going to happen. But this did explain to me why the Scorpions lacked that little something at the performance we saw.
later on, Whitesnake were also to send out a press release that they were to cancel upcoming gigs due to their front-man, Dave Coverdale, needing surgery for a bilateral inguinal hernia. This occurred in March, straight after we had seen them.
Mix these two occurrences with the fact that literally one week after we returned to Perth Covid19 lock-down began, we to this day feel like the luckiest people alive to have had our holiday with such intricate timing not only to get to Melbourne and back without evacuations (friends that were there during the Covid19 boarder lock-down had to cut holidays short and race home, fearful of germs on planes and all sorts of panic) but also to see TWO amazing bands who so shortly after had to cancel gigs due to health issues. We were so blessed to have this all run so smoothly for us and thank our lucky stars every time we think about it that our bucket list was crossed without a hitch and our one week in Melbourne (something that took a lot of saving up for) went so well.
Here are a few photos of our night...
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