The Corrs in Stockholm

Preface: This is an account of the events that happened during the
weekend on the 6th and 7th February 1999.  The Corrs played a concert
at the Globe on Saturday (the 6th), but there's much more than that to
the story.  This is extremely long, "very long" doesn't really even
begin to describe it.  This is the Mother of all Concert Reports.

The text was really written by all three of us (Stefan, Daniel, and me)
so even though a part says "written by" that basically just means the
person whose point of view is used to describe the events.



Part One: Before the Concert
----------------------------
(or, "How to attract strange looks at McDonald's")
Written by Mikko, with help from Daniel and Stefan


For the Stockholm concert we had agreed to meet between 13 and 14 (1pm
and 2pm) at a McDonald's in the center of Stockholm.  The first people
there were Daniel, Stefan and me (Mikko).  I guess me and Daniel were
there so early because we wanted to get out of the hostel where we were
staying, it wasn't exactly an ideal place to stay. :-)  Anyway, to help
the others find us, I wrapped the "Hard Corr Fans" banner I had on my
shoulders like a cape, and sat with my back towards the door.  That
banner got me some strange looks...  We passed the time by folding up
paper airplanes (if you don't already know the reason for these, it will
be explained later).  We were eventually joined by Petri (also from
Finland), Sevan, Mårten, Lena, Yuan (?) and Jessica.  At around 15:30 we
decided to go to the Globen to find out what kind of place it was, and
to see if we might catch a glimpse of some "familiar faces".

When we got to Globen, it was pretty apparent that meeting them before
the concert was quite impossible.  Not only was the place huge, with 9
or so entrances, but there was also a carpark underneath, with guards at
the gate.  We actually saw the tour bus for Babel Fish drive inside. 
Also, with it being something like -10 or -15 degrees Celsius and windy,
waiting around outside would not have been fun.  We did have a little
sightseeing and walked around the venue, and braved some huge icy
steps.

So we proceeded to walk to the shopping mall nearby.  When walking by a
bar of some sort, I wondered why Sevan and Mårten (was it you two?) were
so interested in it... Then we soon discovered the reason, as they had a
speaker outside and they were playing What Can I Do!  So we walked into
the mall and found the entrance to the bar.  When WCID ended and INLYA
started, we realised that they were playing the album, so we took that
as a sign and went inside.  They played the entire album, and when it
was finished, they switched to FnF!  We had asked them to turn the
volume up during ToC, but they didn't -- but then they did when FnF
started.  For some strange reason they switched back to ToC again later,
cutting off Runaway in the middle.  All this Corrs music was certainly
very good though and set the mood for us perfectly.  We were eventually
asked to leave the bar as we weren't really ordering anything, and there
were other people who were there to eat and needed seats.

When we were ready to go in to the Globen arena around 18:30, a friend
of mine called Jukka (from Finland too) arrived.  He actually had a bit
of a trouble getting there early enough because of the air traffic
controllers' strike in Finland!  But fortunately he just made it there
in time.

When going in we discovered that water bottles of any kind weren't
allowed.  The ticket had a "no bottles" sign, but we thought that it
only meant glass bottles.  We were even searched for things, yet it was
fairly easy to get a camera in.  I wasn't even particularly trying to
sneak mine in, but the guard missed it anyway. :-)

At the merchandise section there was a new shirt that I hadn't seen
before, a child-size one that said "So Young" on the front. :-)  There
were no lighters, only one kind of poster, and the blue shirt that I'd
seen before in Ireland was unavailable too.  The most curious thing was
that all the price tags had the name written wrong as "The Coors"!  I
actually broke out laughing when I saw that.  I wonder who was
responsible for THAT bit of oversight, it's the band's own concert after
all so I'd expect people there to have some clue...  The salesperson was
a bit surprised when Daniel asked for "one of everything you have". :-)
Stefan was not far behind in his shopping.

The stage was better than we though it would be.  Our places were in the
front row, left of the center, right in front of Sharon.  That is,
Daniel, Stefan, Jukka and me were there, as well as a friend of Stefan's
called Pelle.  We formed the "crazy bunch", as Stefan put it: "Stefan
(not all crazy though..hehe), Daniel (very crazy!), Mikko (even more
crazy!) and Jukka (a bit crazy I think!? hehehe)".  The other people
from our group from McD had seats in other parts, rows 2-4 I think.  The
stage was set in the middle of the Globen hall, with less than half of
the seats in use (which made about 5000 seats for the concert I heard).
We had decided that when the Corrs came on stage, we'd stand up and not
sit down unless told to.  When we reached our places we found out that
standing up was actually a necessity, as the camera and the cameraman
for the videoscreen obscured our view of where Andrea would be. :-)

When we were sitting before the concert and getting our paper airplanes
ready, a lady sitting beside Stefan was complaining to us about them
"Are you going to throw those?  You might hit and hurt someone with
those" or something like that.  Uhh, yeah, right.  The audience was
actually very mixed, there were a lot of people in their 30's and 40's,
and whole families too.  Kind of same what I saw in Ireland.

When Babel Fish came onstage, all of us in the group at front got up and
started screaming Babel Fish and clapping our hands.  I again had a sign
saying "Babel Fish" and held it up for the band to see, and was rewarded
with smiles when they noticed me.  And the lead singer walked to the
part of stage in front of me and bowed to me!  It was very cool, and I
was very impressed by that.  We clapped along to their songs, and we
actually managed to get the rest of the audience clapping too, they were
very quiet at first...  By the end of their set the reception was pretty
enthusiastic. :)  They had a slightly different setlist from the nights
before, as they played the Beatles song "I Am the Walrus" -- and they
did a great job with it too.  The consensus in our group seemed to be
that Babel Fish rocks!  We clapped along to their songs and Daniel's and
my hands were hurting from it when they finished.

Even though Babel Fish was good, we all were waiting for the BIG TIME.
:-)  The break was fairly short, only maybe about 20 or 25 mins.  There
seemed to be very little of a sound check, the microphones didn't get
checked for instance.  A security man was sitting in front of us and he
looked either angry or annoyed.  Although I (Mikko still) didn't really
notice, I concentrated almost entirely on what was happening on the
stage, and he didn't bug me. :)



Part Two: The Concert
---------------------
Written by Mikko, with loads of corrections and help from Daniel and
Stefan


When the lights went out and the curtain fell down, we stood up and
started shouting like we were crazy. :-)  Then we (Daniel and me at
least) turned around and started yelling and gesturing to the rest of
the audience to get up too.  Daniel was yelling "Get up! Get up! Get up!
Get up! Get up! Get up!"  And it worked!  After about 10 seconds the
people DID get up, so the Corrs got a standing welcome when they walked
on stage!  But most of the audience sat down soon after, except the
people who were behind us (I guess they were forced to stand because we
were standing too).

We think that Lena and Jessica got the people around them up too, but as
they were on the other side of the floor (right side of the stage) I'm
not too sure what happened there.  I guess they will have to tell
separately how they experienced the concert. :-)

I still had the C O R R S paper sheet signs, and we held them up briefly
for the Corrs to see when they were starting WHNA.  After that, I had my
"Hard Corr Fans" banner ready and showed it to Sharon who was right in
front of me, who apparently recognised it from the two nights before,
since she gave me a warm smile. :-)

The sound was great, much better than in Utrecht, and the volume wasn't
too loud.  If the audience had been very noisy, then maybe the music
might have been a bit drowned out, but as it was things were very good.
Jukka thinks the backing vocals were rather loud compared to Andrea's
singing, but maybe that was because of us being in front of Sharon.  And
speaking of our placement, we got lots of eye contact with both Sharon
and Andrea because of where we had our seats. :)

When they finished WHNA, Andrea said "Hej" and "Tack" (Swedish for thank
you).

I don't remember when exactly, but it was during WHNA or (probably) NGFM
when I was able to show my banner to Andrea.  She too smiled and actually
came to sing to us...  Oh, heaven! :-)  In the part where the lyrics go
"And do you love her??" I shouted "Yes!". :)

Then Andrea gave her little speech before they played TRT.  She told
that they'd been here before two years ago, supporting Celine Dion (but
this was actually 4 years ago?!??).  She then said "You can sing, clap
get up and dance, I don't mind..." after which Daniel half-turned to face
the audience and immediately continued "EXACTLY! Don't be boring! Get
up!".  The hall was very quiet at that moment so I'm sure everyone heard
him!  We also did a lot of waving to get the audience to stand up. :)
We then started jumping and waving even wilder when the band started
playing TRT.

With Joy of Life / Carraroe Jig most of the people did get up again, at
least on the ground floor (I didn't see too well to the sides and back).
Admittedly we encouraged them a bit again here too. :)  And Jim
encouraged people to clap too.

We were clapping our hands along to the songs ALL of the time, for the
entire concert (with the exception of Jim's solo part one, No Frontiers,
and Runaway)...  By WCID, I was wishing the security had not confiscated
my water bottle.  And Daniel was jealous of Sharon who had a nice bottle
of Ballygowan's right beside her. :-)

During WCID, when Andrea sang for the first time "What can I do to make
you love me?", Daniel shouted "We already do!", which Andrea noticed.
She came and sang in front of us again, for a long time.  In fact, she
sang an entire verse of the song just looking directly at me... 
Although there's actually some disagreement between us who she was
looking at. :-)  I guess she was singing to us all.  Anyway, words can't
really describe how I felt!!! :-)

Then FnF (the intro still gets me..) and HA.  Stefan really liked the
drumming by Caroline on the toms in that song. :)

When it was time to Jim's surprise, I showed my banner to him and got a
thumbs up from him again. :-)  He sat down, and took a drink from his
water bottle, and said "This is not water, it's Absolut Vodka...  I
wish!".  (Absolut Vodka is a Swedish brand.)  He then continued with his
usual speech.

When he got into part two of the song, I was the first to start
clapping, followed immediately by Daniel and Stefan.  Seconds later, the
entire crowd was joining in!  And at the end, Jim got a huge applause.

Then it was time for No Frontiers, and Jim introduced that Sharon and
Caroline would sing it.  Then for awhile nothing happened, and Jim said
"Sharon and Caroline, are you coming out???". :-)  Daniel was shouting
"Please!" several times and the rest of us were cheering too.  When
Sharon sat down she said "hi!", and someone from the audience yelled
back "Hey baby!".  (It wasn't anyone from our group, honest!).

Stefan described the song like this: "It was the first time ever I heard
this tune, along with most of the crowd, and I must say it's a brilliant
song!  It's a ballad in which Sharon and Caroline has lead parts and
both join in on the chorus.  'heaven knows... no frontiers... and I've
seen heaven in your eyes...' Cool! I love it! :))"

After No Frontiers, Jim high-five'd both Sharon and Caroline.  That was
quite cool. :)

During Runaway, me and Daniel held up lighters.  Some other people also
held up theirs after we did.  Stefan's didn't work. :-(  Daniel burned
his finger when trying to make the flame bigger, ouch!  Unfortunately
the audience didn't really sing along to this, and so there was no part
with Andrea holding out the microphone out for us. :-(  In general, it
seemed that the crowd was much more familiar with the ToC songs than
those from FnF.

I don't remember exactly when, but it was sometime in the latter half of
the concert, I had a small Irish flag which I was waving about during
one of the songs.  I got a smile from Sharon when she saw that. :-)

When HttW was played, most of the audience got up again...  Mostly
because Jim shouted "everybody on your feet".  But the middle section
was being boring and remained sitting down!  Then it was time for Secret
Life, and we did some serious jumping and waving.  The live version of
this song is just soo good!  Especially Caroline's solo on the drums.
(Have I mentioned this before??)

On to "Only When I Sleep" which sounds a lot different live from the
album version.  Caroline did a new cool bit on the hi-hat (double hits),
which looked/sounded really cool!  Andrea didn't quite reach those high
notes in the "Hawaiian high" section at the end though.  During this
song, we got a big smile from Sharon when she saw that we were doing the
"round and round" gesture with our hands along with her.

A short speech by Andrea followed, the normal one about the next song
being where the title of the album came from: Queen of Hollywood.  A
breathtaking performance (isn't it always?) and Andrea came to sing to
us again...  We focused more on waving than clapping for this song,
partly because our hands were so tired by now.  Stefan clapped along
even here, at "half speed", along to the snare drum. :)

There was a big cheer when Dreams was announced.  The crowd seemed to
like it a lot.  We started clapping along at the exact moment of the
lyrics "like a heart beat", where the drums come on in the album
version.  And most of the audience joined us. :)

Then it was time for INLYA.  We were jumping and waving and clapping
madly during this song!  When the "Valentino? I don't think so!" part of
the lyrics came, we shouted that out as loud as we could, and I bet even
Caroline heard it. :-)

Then it was time for the break, which lasted maybe about two mins.  We
got some rest and longinly stared at the water bottles on the stage...
When they returned on stage and Andrea announced SY, we threw our paper
airplanes (about 15 total we think!).  Sharon and Andrea both smiled to
us, and Andrea curtsied to us!

Then it was time for Toss the Feathers.  We tossed lots of feathers up
on this one, since I had still one and half bags left and we could use
them all up!  Most of the audience were standing during this song, but
not everyone though...  The irritating part was there were some people
right in the center of the front row that sat throughout the entire
concert, even the encores!


And then it was all over.

Hands sore, voices gone, very thirsty, tired from all the jumping, and
all worth it!



Part Three: After the Concert
-----------------------------
Written by Mikko, with input from Stefan and Daniel


Ok, so this story isn't QUITE over yet...  Only the concert was over. :)

We think that we definitely improved the atmosphere at the concert!  If
we hadn't started clapping and cheering, probably nobody would've done
that...

The loudest cheering came actually for WCID.  Not in the beginning,
because the audience was unfamialiar with the remix, but when Andrea
starting singing there was loud noise...  The original WCID was a big
hit in Sweden.

I don't remember after which song it was, but I heard Andrea say
"Kiitos" which is Finnish for thank you.  I thought I had misheard,
because we were in Sweden, not Finland, but Jukka confirmed that he had
heard it too... Whoa!  They actually thought of Finland even though they
didn't play there. :)

After the concert, Petri got a drumstick, Stefan a tin whistle, Daniel
got Sharon's water bottle (water! finally!) and I got Sharon's setlist.
Nicke, a friend of Stefan's, got Andrea's water bottle.

Some people came up to Daniel, and asked if he was Daniel, and told that
they had had a great time being in our section where things happened.
:-)

Then we went out and waited at the Globen Gate (the one going to the
underground parking lot) to see if the Corrs were coming out, but the
only exciting this happening was the Babel Fish tourbus coming out, but
with dark windows... So we couldn't figure out if anyone was in there.
Lena and her two friends from Umeå and Sevan headed home by tube/bus,
while Stefan, Daniel, Petri, Jukka and me took two taxis to Café Opera,
where the "special concert" featuring Babel Fish would be at 23.00.  We
got there at about 22.50 or so, and thanks to our Warner Music special
invitation Stefan and Daniel got in for free.  No luck though for us
Finns...  Even though we tried to get in (we had to try!), we were told
that it was impossible without an invitation.  Maybe it was because of
the clothes we were wearing (jeans, ordinary jackets, etc.) instead of
suits and other "fine clothes" that the people who were going in there
had.  Too bad though! :-(((



Part Four: The Ultimate Experience
----------------------------------
(or, "How to irritate Andrea at the Café Opera!")
Written by Stefan, with loads of help and input from Daniel, and some
minor editing by Mikko


We got in at 23.00 as mentioned above, but there was no activity on the
small stage at all to begin with ("we" means me (Stefan) and Daniel from
here on).

We walked around the place and bought two Coca-Colas that were really
expensive! (And I mean EXPENSIVE!). The place was crowded, really
crowded. We waited for about 40 minutes or so. No Corrs and no Babel
Fish :(  At this time we were beginning to lose hope of seeing The
Corrs, as it was getting pretty late.

We stood quite close to the stage to see if something was happening
there plus to have a good overview if the Corrs should arrive.

When we thought all hope was lost THEY ARRIVED!!!  Daniel noticed and
started pointed at them like crazy! hehe  Both of us nearly lost control
completely as we saw all four of them plus Anto, Keith, John, Jim's
presumed girlfriend or date at least (now we´re sure that it was Emma
though! We thought it was Jim's girl at first 'cause they were so
close), Caro's and Sharon's boyfriends take their places at a table just
5 metres away from where we were standing.  Then we saw that the table
just beside theirs was free, so we got there and sat down.... Our hearts
were beating FAST now, and we were more or less in the Seventh Heaven.

Babel Fish finally came on stage closer to midnight than 11pm, when they
were supposed to start playing. They might have delayed the show on
purpose, as they probably wanted The Corrs to be there when they
played!  Andrea looked very surprised by the announcement that they were
playing there, but she must've known they were playing this night...
I guess?! :)

Most of the table groups are arranged like plus signs....which means
that there are four tables in each of the "empty corners" of the plus
sign, and along the lines of the plus sign there are seats. Around the
two remaining ends of the table, which aren't "benched" there were
several chairs.  (Try drawing a plus sign on a paper and draw a square
in the empty corners... I think you'll understand by now! :) The squares
are the four tables and the lines that make up the plus sign is the
benches. Then of course the chairs were "outside" the table (square). 
Geddit? :))
At the Corrs' table, Sharon sat furthest away from us, then Jim (he
later left the table and Sharon took his place) and Andrea sat right in
the inner corner, which made her the closest to us! On the loose chairs
Caroline sat furthest away. Anto sat in the middle, then John and Keith
sat closest to us (or me, as Andrea was closer to Daniel).
Daniel sat down at "our" table, so he could pratically just lean
backwards and touch Andrea's head! I sat on a loose chair at our table,
and touched Keith Duffy's chair and his jacket! Caroline and John were
sitting on chairs opposite Sharon and Jim.
Caroline, Sharon, Andrea and Keith pretty much stayed in their positions
the whole evening. Confusing bit about where all of them were sitting? I
guess so... at least I tried my best to explain! :)

When Babel Fish had played for a while someone came up to us and said
that the table was reserved. There weren't any reserved-signs at all on
the table though, so it must surely have been a lie...  Anyway, we got
up and stood just a few metres away from their table.

So, we left our places (just for the time being though!) and watched
Babel Fish play, and of course we stared at The Corrs from time to
time...

Sharon and her boyfriend were the only ones smoking by the way.

As lots of people got up and headed towards the stage, we sneaked back
again to "our" table. Daniel sat down, while I was still standing for a
little while more.

Daniel desperately tried to find some piece of paper to write on, as the
music was very loud, and he didn't want to scream right into Andrea's
face! :))

Then Daniel came up with the excellent idea to type messages on his
cell-phone and then showing that to Andrea.

His first message was "Great gig" and Andrea smiled back! Then Daniel
typed "Do you have a date...? Just kidding" and showed Andrea! I thought
all hell would break loose, but Andrea started laughing like mad! hehe

Then Daniel typed: "We have gifts for you, we want your autographs".
Andrea smiled and made it obvious to us that it was okay. I tapped on
the bag I was carrying, in which the gifts were in, and she noticed
that!

Babel Fish played for about 35-40 mins. John and Andrea in particular
seemed to enjoy the show very much. Andrea even stood up after some of
their songs to applaud them. After "I Am the Walrus" there was a loud
cheer from the Corrs' table! After the concert the lead singer thanked
the audience for being great, and I can remember him staring at Andrea
for a long time right after he said that! :)
Andrea was still standing and clapping her hands while this happened.

About Babel Fish: They were just marvellous!!! They played most of the
songs they had already played at the Globe, including songs like:
"Mania", "Holy One", "Light Of Day", "The Speechwriter", "Turning The
Blind Eye", and the just fantastic ballad named "Two Feet Tall".  Thanks
Babel Fish, you made this perfect evening even better!!!

When Babel Fish had finished Andrea tapped on Daniel's shoulder and
showed that she wanted us to hand over the CD-covers we had brought, so
I took them out of the bag along with the silver marker pen I had
brought plus the gifts (t-shirts).

The CDs were: WCID Card Sleeve (Stefan's), ToC (Japanese re-release),
Toc Special Edition and Leave Me Alone Promo single cover (Daniel's).

Daniel handed over the CDs and the silver pen.  "Is that all (of
them)?" Andrea asked us, and Daniel said "Yes"... (not true though....
read on!)  She passed on the stuff, but Jim's signature wasn't on our
stuff when we got them back so Daniel asked: "What about Jim?"  She
looked at the covers and noticed that Jim's signature wasn't on them,
so she said "Oh yeah, I'll get him for you!"

She sent the stuff to Jim, who signed, and when we got them back Daniel
said "Thank you" at the same time as Andrea! :))

Then loud crappy dance music blasted out of the speakers, and by now it
was not hard, but almost impossible to actually speak.

Then I handed over the four t-shirts for the siblings, but there was
some confusion as she didn't know if the t-shirts were actually the
gifts, or if they should sign the t-shirts for us and send them back to
us. I managed to explain to Andrea that the t-shirts were actually the
gifts for them! :)  Believe me, when Andrea yells "Thanks!" with a wide
smile and you have pure eye contact with her, your on the brink of going
insane!!!! hehehehe

The t-shirts were white (3 medium and 1 large) with a www.corrsweden.org
logo on them in blue and yellow, that I had made.

About the t-shirts: Andrea didn't really notice the logo on the shirts,
but Sharon picked one of them up and studied it and looked shocked!!!! I
dunno why really... She didn't seem very happy about it though, but I
hope I'm all wrong about that one. But I'll never forget that expression
on her face when she looked at the t-shirt logo! It was quite hilarious!

Then we thought it would be cool to have autographs on the tickets as
well, so Daniel gave her our two tickets and typed "Please :-)" on his
cell phone. She signed and sent them around the table, but by now Jim
wasn't in his place.

Daniel typed "Thanks :-)" on his cell phone as he got the tickets and
the pen back, but now you could see that Andrea was a little irritated.
Anto came and sat right next to Andrea, so she had to move a little
further into the corner.

Daniel sent an empty CD-cover to Anto, and all of them signed except
for Jim. Some other people came and borrowed my pen, as they too wanted
some autographs.

Jim was now standing really close to us, but the problem was that
another guy was in the way, that Jim was talking to...

Daniel tried to get Jim to come closer to us, but he showed us that he 
could hardly move. Daniel held up the tickets, the CD-cover and the pen,
and Jim reached out and took them. He signed and then gave them back.
Daniel showed him a: "Thanks, we love you :-)" message on his cell
phone.  He smiled and gave Daniel a "thumbs up"!

We should have passed over all of the stuff at one time, instead of
disturbing Andrea all the time... :) As Andrea stayed in the same place
the whole time, it was of course most annoying for her. I don't think
Sharon nor Caroline really noticed the two of us that much.

The empty CD-cover was even signed by Keith, and Anto too.  The fact is
that when Keith got the pen and CD-cover he was about to pass it on to
Jim or Caroline, but when Daniel made it obvious that he wanted HIS
autograph he looked really surprised. :))
We almost blew it big time, as some of the CD-covers slipped down on the
floor! I saw that there were not as many CD-covers as before on our
table, and we panicked! But the other CD-covers were just by our feet,
so we felt relieved... :) John had somewhat disappeared, and so we got
up and started looking around for him and Babel Fish, as Daniel had
their CD-cover along too, and wanted that signed too.

We didn't want to disturb the Corrs anymore as they were there to enjoy
themselves and as we stood up Sharon and Caroline were "all over" their
boyfriends. Jesus we were jealous. ;)

We looked for John and Babel Fish for ages but there were nowhere to be
found and it was getting very late.  By now we had more or less given
up the thought of seeing John or Babel Fish, so we decided to just take
it easy and see what happened. We went to the wardrobe and got our
jackets and bags as we felt it shouldn't be long before everyone should
go, and of course the Corrs would go too... hehe
So it turned into a plan really: get our things and be ready to go
outside before the Corrs came out, so we could "catch" them and take
pics of them.

Suddenly Caroline and her boyfriend (Frank!?) got ready to go, as they
were queuing at the wardrobe. I took out my camera from my bag and we
went outside (as it's forbidden to take pictures inside) and waited for
them to come out. And they did a few minutes later...
We stopped them and asked if we could take a picture with Caroline and
she said "Sure!" :)) I handed over the camera to her boyfriend and we
took our positions on each side of Caroline. Her boyfriend then said
"You have to say Cheezie-Weezie!" or something like that. We did, but
apparantly not good enough, as he said "If you don't say Cheezie-Weezie
I won't take any picture!" :)) So we did (several times) and he took a
picture of the three of us. We were about to say Thanks and get my
camera when he said "No, another one. Now say Breezle-Heddle (or
something completely different... I can't remember that, sorry. I do
remember though that the two words didn't sound the same as in
Cheezie-Weezie! hehehe) So, he took another pic! Caroline was laughing
and telling him to stop it and try to behave!
After pic no. 2 he even got ready to take another picture, along with
another silly phrase of course! But by now we were more than happy, and
Caroline had enough of his silly behaviour!
We said Thanks a lot, and Caroline and her boyfriend walked away.
Caroline shouted "Bye!" to us, and we replied! They stood and ate some
hot dogs (one each I guess) at the mobile hot dog stand just outside the
Café Opera, before they disappeared.

Then we WAITED... for a long time...

We discovered that we could see the Corrs in there (still at their
table) through the windows, so we stood there and stared. I discovered
after a while that Sharon was gone! Where did she go? No idea... 
Well well, both Andrea and Jim were still in there, plus Anto, Keith and
Babel Fish!  Their lead singer bowed to Andrea and shook her hand.

Where had Babel Fish been?? Well, they were there now anyway, at the
Corrs' table, talking to them.  And we waited... outside... it was very
cold!

Most people were going. The Corrs (not Sharon or Caroline though) were
still inside with the others and Babel Fish. Café Opera is supposed to
close at 3am, but even when the lights got on and nearly everyone had
left, the Corrs bunch were still there!
There was an (ugly) Babel Fish promo poster on the entrance door, and we
asked a Café Opera guard if it was okay to take it, and so we took it
down and Daniel put it in his poster tube.
Then, very late (at 3.25 or so) they started to get ready for leaving.
Keith picked up the t-shirts I had given them! :)) But, then we saw that
a few of them were going in the wrong direction, to a door that looked
like a back door...
We didn't know if we should walk to the other end or not to try to find
that door from the outside, or if we should stay where we were (right at
the main entrance/exit). It became clear that that door was just an
extra wardrobe, in which some of them had their clothes.
So, they were at last heading for the door, at which we were standing.
Andrea and Keith came out first, and she couldn't believe her eyes...
The "Tormentors" were there! hehehe
We said: "Could we please have a picture with you?" and she looked
really exhausted and said: "You can't be serious!", but still with a
smile on her face. And so I handed the camera to Keith while Andrea was
mumbling something like; "This is cruel... cruelty... cruelty to
animals..." (Yes, she DID say animals, I can swear!)
Keith had some major problems with my camera though. There are two
buttons on it, but he managed to mess them up! hehe  I managed to
decribe which one to press and he took a picture. Jim came out at this
point and Daniel begged him to join the three of us in this
photo-session, but he didn't... he walked away and stood behind Keith
instead!
Jim gave us a kind of "evil" smile, shook his head, and almost pressed
himself against the wall (that Keith was standing close to when he was
taking the picture), to avoid being photographed, still with this smile
on his face... It looked kind of funny!

I got my camera, and we said "Thanks very much" to Andrea, who left, I
guess feeling relieved that we weren't hunting her down any more...
(Hmm... there is still one more chapter to read about this further down!)
She did in fact say: "Thank you" though!! :)) 

Jim walked back to the entrance to check something (I guess he thought
someone was still inside, but no-one was), but he turned and walked away
with Andrea and the others.

Now all of the Corrs and their gang was gone, but Babel Fish were still
there! They had gone out while we were taking the photo with Andrea.
They were eating hot dogs when we approached them. As they're Norwegian
we could speak Swedish to them, as those two languages are very closely
related.

Daniel got his Babel Fish CD signed and I took a picture of the four of
them plus Daniel. We spoke a little to them. Daniel said that they were
absolutely brilliant, and I agreed. They seemed very happy! The bass 
player (Simon Malm) had severe problems signing his autograph, because
he had his mouth and hands full of hot-dog at the same time! :))

The lead singer, Jan Van Ravens, even bowed when Daniel said that they
were brilliant! Daniel said hi from Tom Cosgrave and a "mystery" person
at Atlantic Records whose name is secret (they knew the name right away
and were happy to hear from him/her).  They sent their regards to Tom.

After they left I even got to shake the bass-players hand! So, it was
almost a 10 out of 10 evening, or more like a 100 out of 100.  We walked
homewards with very very very big smiles and we couldn't actually
believe what had happened that night!  Even though we couldn't really
talk to them it was just incredible to sit there. The feeling can't be
described. :)

Oh... we couldn't believe the Corrs were so small and tiny!!! Of course
we knew how short they were (we got the figures) but still. They look
tall on pictures, short on stage and really tiny when you meet them.
Even Jim was very small! They looked very "fragile" if you know what I
mean.



Part Five: The Arlanda Experience
---------------------------------
(or "How to kill 6 hours or more at an airport")
Written by Stefan, and partly by Mikko, with Daniel supplying the
dialogue


Stefan met up with Daniel and Mikko at the dump, sorry... hostel! He
brought the four major newspapers (Aftonbladet, Expressen, Svenska
Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter). They Corrs got lousy marks in three of
those papers.  Only the Svenska Dagbladet gave them a high mark, the
reviewer was Dan Backman and he's always very positive about the Corrs.
He made the other bad reviews all worthwhile, as he wrote something like
"you definitely have to enjoy a Corrs concert, unless you're a poprock
critic with an attitude problem..." :-)

We then got on the bus up to the Arlanda Airport, where we checked
flights, sat and read, ate, talked, wrote a list of things to include in
a report (such as this), and walked back and forth many, many times...
We must have walked 5 kilometres at least there.  There was a slim
chance of meeting the Corrs for the last time, as there was a flight to
Hamburg leaving at 17.55.  Mikko's plane was leaving around 19:45, and
none of us had anything particular to do, so waiting at the airport
seemed like a good idea.

As this was probably the luckiest weekend of Stefan's life (and maybe
Daniel's too!?) -- we did get to meet them!!!  We sat on a bench and
just waited, and suddenly Anto walked past us, and he recognised us!
Then came Keith, John, Jim and Andrea. Then Sharon and Caroline a few
metres behind.

Stefan stayed on our bench to keep an eye on Mikko's and Daniel's
luggage, while the two walked towards the gate where the Corrs had
stopped.

This is pretty much how the talk went
(D = Daniel, A = Andrea, J = John, M = Mikko):

D: Hi, Sorry to bother you
A: Oh, it's you again (smiling a little)
D: I know you're really sick of me and my cell-phone
A: No, it's ok (smiling)
D: (turning to John) I want your autograph
J: Oh, do you know my name?
D: Of course I do

And then Daniel got his autograph. :)
When Daniel turned to John, Andrea turned to Mikko...

A: (smiling) Hi, how are you?     (The same words she used in Utrecht!)
M: Fine, thanks
A: (smiling more) I liked your feathers very much.
M: I'm glad you liked them...  (Can you tell I was close to speechless?!!)

At this point Sharon, Caroline and Jim were rushing away, because they
were in a hurry for their plane...  Still, Mikko managed to exchange a
few more sentences with Andrea and John.  He explained that he was the
maintainer of the fan mailing list, with about 600 people on.  Andrea
said "Oh, we've gotten _so_ much stuff sent to us..."  Then, for lack of
anything else, I gave Andrea my business card! :-)  Then Andrea and John
left too, saying "Bye!" to us.

Mikko definitely felt the urge to "accidentally" end up in the wrong
plane, instead of the one that was heading back to Finland a couple of
hours later...


Well, a perfect end to a perfect weekend!

Thanks to the people who were there: Lena, Jessica, Sevan, Mårten, Yuan,
Petri, Jukka... It was great meeting you all!

Mikko, Stefan and Daniel