At first I want to apologize for being this late... due to some personal circumstances, my mum was diagnosed with breastcancer earlier this year so I'm often sleeping over at my parents house to help out and I'm not able to access the internet as often as I like... She's undergoing Chemotherapy as of now and it's a difficult time for our family. So you can imagine that this London trip was worth a million to us... and a very welcoming "distraction"(UNDERSTATEMENT). I like to THANK again SHINEDOWN and everybody involved for giving this awesome experience to us! You are so appreciated!!! Beyond understanding...

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!

We (my son Vincent and me) arrived in London on Monday. We'd arranged the next day to meet up around 13.30 - 14.00 pm with Greg at the venue, blurry 316 from the boards, he arranged our precious tix. Yeah he's SUPER AWESOME like that! Vince and I thought we could take a short sightseeing tour through London until that time but it turned out to be the blue one(long tour) so we had to get off the bus to get us a metro somewhere to take us back to the venue LOL. Clumsiness already started early that day.



Greg already called me to ask where we were. So we finally went there and met up with Greg and his friends and all of a sudden one of his friends shouted something and pointed to the back of the line and I thought well let's go there too because we had to line up too. Vince and me walked up and I looked right and I was looking straight in Mark Tremonti's face!!!!!!!!! So I yelled Vince, viiiiince... and I was looking for my camera... and immediately greeted Mark and asked for a photo together with my son and then all of a sudden I saw Myles too so Mark pulled Myles in for the photo too LOL. It started out way beyond nicely this way. Then Greg & friends had to get into the venue to hang up Shinedownposters throughout the building for promotion. He promised me to bring us some posters too, which he did!!!



In the meanwhile we were gettin' acquainted with some cool guys who were behind us in the line and didn't knew who Shinedown is so I gladly explained and told them what "our" guys looked like. One of those guys always pointed to me when he saw some dude with long hair or with tattood arms and I was like: "No way.. that's not them.. he don't even look like one of them Shinedowners!" hahaha. Until all of a sudden he pointed again: "Look Look!" And I looked and said: "Well.. that's more like it.. " but then I looked again and all of a sudden I screamed: "That... That's THEM!! Jaaaasiiiiiiiin!!!!" LOL... but I couldn't move! Vince went up front to see if he could take a pic of them but they were already inside the venue. The one guy said that Jasin looked around when I screamed Jaaaasiiiiin... I didn't saw it though. I was soooo hyped up... couldn't believe it that they just passed us by and I didn't even had the slightest dare to even MOVE. After that we were chattin' a bit with Greg, his friends, we met THE Jordan and I recognized some other people from the Alter Bridge-boards too. Suddenly Vince pulled my arm: "Mum, mum... look Brent!" so I said: "Yeah right!" Vince: "Muhumm... the redhead right?" (lol, like we both didn't knew) and all of a sudden I saw Brent together with Jasin on the street next to the venue. Some other fans already spotted them too and were takin' pics with them. I also walked up to them and said something to the extend of : "Finally I'm going to experience you guys live... I'm Bitchrockson from the boards and this is my son I so want to take a pic with you guys.. you guys rock... you sooo rock" More I couldn't speak... it even felt like I was talking to myself lol I was overwhelmed I really was! Needed someone to SLAP me there (you know who you are!). Didn't even took some pics of Brent & Jase with myself... how stupid is that? I was just enjoying every minute of it just standing there ... guess that's all I needed!



Then they had to get back in and we were gettin' back in line until the meet & greet happened!!! So there we were : Tuesday 6 juni 2006... me and my oldest son were about to meet SHINEDOWN!!! I was sooooooooooo acting like a statue that day LOL... I wanted to ask and say so many things to the guys but I only could stumble "This is so awesome, this is a dream come true.." etc. etc. I really felt like a moron. We stood in the middle of the venue... and I saw Greg with his friends there too, we were still trying to get used to the darkness when I heard a familiar voice to the right of me *SHOCK no. 1* Jasin sat down there with Zach!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!

I started to say Hi! lol... I don't even know exactly what I said then. When I heard/saw Jasin beside me I just freezed lol. Vince immediately gave the Shinedown-posters (Greg gave us) to Jase and asked him to sign it... Zach left... I talked to Jasin about Lorraine (Ravenblack) and how I promised her to call her when I met the guys so I called and got her VOICEMAIL!!!!! Major bummer! But I gave the phone to Jase and let him speak onto her voicemail and when I turned to the left Barry was walking up to us *SHOCK no.2* and we greeted him and stood there with him and talked for a while and I let him talk to Lorraine's voicemail too. Vince gave his posters to Barry to let him sign too. When I turned around to look for the stage all of a sudden I was staring at Brad's face right behind me *SHOCK no. 3 LOL* .. hugged him and yes Vince gave his posters... then Brad said: "Brent is in the dressingroom .. let me find him and let him sign this too" so Brad went and we talked with Barry some more. Brad came back and said: "Unfortunately I couldn't find him, don't know where he is..." and suddenly their tourmanager came out and said with a loud voice: "Look who I found!!!" and Brent came out!!! *SHOCK no. 4*(you get the point) Huggggg time again

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!

Really this was soooo beyond dreaming for us... simply out of this world! And then we stood there with Brent and talked to him for a while. Hope it's true what he said about a European Tour!!! NOT as an openingact... they definately didn't deserve this spot in my holy opinion!! Jasin had left for the stage for some soundcheckstuff... Barry had to do some soundcheck stuff too... When I thanked Brad for finally comin' to Europe Brad told us: "NO thank YOU for coming to see us here in London... that you're coming over just to see us... just crazy!" Then it was almost time for the doors to open... so we took our place at the rail. In the end we had met all the Shinedowners but Vince still hasn't got Brent signed the posters lol... so they're incomplete. We'll have to take them to Shinedowns next European gig to get it signed by him too LOL! Vince complained the whole night about his posters that weren't completely signed: "Mum we seriously need to find Brent..."



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I've hugged and talked to Barry, Brad, Brent.. missed out on Zach... wish I could've talked with Jase some more. Forgot really everything that I wanted to do, say etc. Oh man I really really needed someone to slap me! So guys if there's gonna be a next time... SLAP ME!!!! I was sooo looking forward to this... meeting Shinedown but I have a huge weakness for Jase and stupid me just didn't dare to talk more to him... it must have looked like I was avoiding him (like he even cares, right?!). Can you imagine stupid Stef? Also forget to take pics at the meet & greet... SLAP ME! The guys are sooooooo awesomely sweet & nice. I have to say that especially Barry impressed me MAJOR with his presence!


~~~~ THE king of DRUMZ ~~~

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I have to be honest the stage wasn't good for Shinedown. They deserved MORE stage-space, MORE Stage-time, MORE of everything. Just MORE SHINEDOWN!!! Just like Jasin said : like they had to start over again... And YES... 6 songs were way too LESS!! But wooooh boy did I get goosebumps all over me when they started out with Fly From The Inside... WOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!! Then they played Trade Yourself In... I Dare You... 45... Heroes... Save Me... and then they had to get off stage It felt like amputated We definately needed MORE! I read that they were actually wanted to play "Begin Again"(my fav from Us & Them!) but it was replaced by Fly... ok I can live with that! Fly rocks that hard too!! It soooo rocked... it was soooooo too short! Man I missed out on some awesome pics... due to my clumsiness that day and my cam which refused every now and then, like one time that Brent stared at my cam from the stage I tried to take the pic when he was staring at the lens (yeah THAT lens) but my cam refused. Man can you say clumsey???? But hey.. I've taken pictures with my mind. MILLIONS OF 'M!!!! Still gotta buy a new camera before the next Shinedownshows


~~~~ Nggggggggggg... ~~~

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After the SD-show I caught a Jase-pic and tried to catch a Brad-pic too for Vince ... hmm... the first hand of guitarpics he threw I missed! The second hand... I missed!!! So Brad looked at me, stood about a meter away from me with one last pic... he bended his knees a little and he threw it directly to ME... I HAD to catch that one for 100% ...but I missed AGAIN! How blonde can one be????? No REALLY, I was Ms. Clumsiness that day... and when I got home I found an e-mail by my precious American friend... with some tips like - Don't act STARSTRUCK *cough* well I guess I was STARSTRUCK I forgot all kinds of stuff I'm sure... feeling like a teen again.



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Then Biff Naked got on. The crowd wasn't really gettin' into them. I gave up my frontrow spot and left Vince there with the others and went back to get some drinks and I enjoyed the rest of the concert switching between the balcony and from more backwards in the crowd. Some guy near me to the left shouted after every song Biff Naked completed : "BRING BACK SHINEDOOOOWN!!!!" with a growling voice LOL! Gotta ADORE that guy hahaha. Some other guys I met at the bar "secretly" pulled some Shinedown posters off the wall that Greg had put up to take them home with them... Yeah... Shinedown surely found some new fans there!!


~~~~ Yeah it was 06-06-'06... you can tell by Brent's eyez ~~~~

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Bummer was that after the show Shinedown "disappeared". Me and my son got handed over some backstagepasses just after the show and we had to follow Jordan... into the dressingroom of ALTER BRIDGE!!!!! That was kind of weird LOL! WOOHOOOOOOOOO.... After that we got to a secured part of the venue and waited for the AB guys to come back after they'd showered. And we hung out until 01.00 am until the AB guys had to leave. Afterwards (few days ago) I've heard that the Shinedownguys were probably back at the venue by the time we all had left the venue... great timing After that Vince and me went to our hotelroom, the next day we had our train to Holland to catch (7 hours to home). The weird thing was that immediately after the show the bars in the venue were closed so we weren't able too drink something Jordan was trying to find the Shinedown guys because she saw their tourmanager around... so she was almost sure that they had to be in the building still. But alas... I was actually thinking to myself that they had to be exhausted... after Germany and all the travelling stuff and Barry already admitted that they had a weeeee bit too much alcohol in Germany LOL. So I thought that they had enough of it and wanted to relax...



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Oh man.. I don't know if I left anything out... must be... Vince, if I have left anything out can you fill me in please? LOVE YOU... I'm so glad that we were able to experience this together!

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So that was my lil' London review!

Bitch - I'm so glad you got to see the guys live. Such an awesome experience! Sorry to hear about your mother and I wish her a speedy recovery

By the way, that was a great review. Very detailed and I love the pictures!!!

Thnx so much for the comforting words and the compliments Jen!!! This sure was an experience I won't forget that easily

What an amazing review, well worth the wait for us, I bet your whole experience was worth the wait, too! So glad ya'll had an awesome time, the guys really are super, you saw that firsthand.

Awesome review!! I still hit myself sometimes in the face for leaving my phone in my bedroom, I'm a dumbass, lol!!! Thank you Jasin & Barry for the message and Stephh you fuckin' ROCK!! \m/, Knufff!!!

Wow! That was sweet, girl! Your emotion and excitement got me all choked up, stop that. I hope the boys get a chance to read it.
)O(-D.

DAMN that was good! thanks for sharing and for sucha complete and thorough review! glad you got to meet everyone and it seems like your son had a blast too! Best of luck with your mum....

Thnx so much for all the sahweet words!!! We sure had a blast... way beyond that even!

Woah man! We're even in bad, baaaad need of another SHINEDOWN-fix... what? ADDICT? Me? Nah!

they are addictive, aren't they!

Steph, you made me laugh, such an awesome review! Next time I wanna be there to look at you, you little schoolgirl
Hope you and you´re mum are doin´fine

Hug Bud

What an awesome review!! Thanks for taking the time to write it up and share your pictures. Shinedown and Alter Bridge are my two very most favorite bands!!

I'm glad you and your son had such a special night and my thoughts and prayers are with you, your family and especially your mom as she undergoes treatment.

Music_Junkie it sure was a gig made in heaven for me and my son! Thnx so much for the comforting words!!! It's so appreciated! Actually the pics of the show didn't turn out the way I wanted them to be They were all moved or way too dark... but hey you can't get all the luck right?

And Hans... YOU BETTER BE THERE NEXT TIME!!!!! Talking 'bout schoolgirls: I became a step-granny 10 days ago... of a precious little baby boy... ain't that sweet? How's that: Granny acting like a schoolgirl... OUCH!

That was the best review I've read Steph. I was actually caught up in your excitement and could feel it. I'm going to my first Shinedown concert Sept 21st and it made me feel even more amped. Honestly, the pictures are great! Very clear and close up. You're lucky. Plus you got to share it with your son. I have two and they love rock n roll too. That would be the best..

I hope I get a quarter of the experience you did meeting and being that close to them while they're performing.

I laughed outright when you said it was 666 with Brent's eyes. That was eerie! LOL

Just an all around great review.

I hope your mother is doing better. Thinking of you both.
Kelly