Don't Let It Rain On Me

Don't let it rain….on me

Amanda Marshall- Coca Cola Stage, Calgary Stampede - Calgary, Alberta. Sunday July 7 2002 8:30PM

~Aight, pics have been added. I put them in where they happened..hope it's not too slow to load. If you want a fullsize copy of any of them, just email me and I'll be more than happy to send you one. Please ask permission before using any of these on websites etc. Thanks and enjoy

As I sit here writing this, my shirt from last night still hangs wet over my shower door haha.

So, first of all, I want to get this out of the way. You're probably all wondering if we met Amanda this time. And the answer is no. Sadly, things didn't work out this time, but, in the end, it didn't really matter. The concert was a blast regardless and some other cool things happened. Now when I look at the autographed poster on my wall and the pic I have with her I value it so much more. I'm not trying to brag or rub it in anyone's face haha, believe it or not I do know what it's like to have never met her and have never seen her live etc. I became a huge fan right after she stopped touring and disappeared haha. Hopefully that's 'suffering' enough for ya. So anyway, I've had THREE really amazing experiences with Amanda's shows, and I couldn't really ask for more. Nothing, NOTHING, is better than seeing her bring her songs to life right infront of you. So, with that said, here comes the concert review.

SO, I brought my younger brother Elliot along as he loves Amanda. We met Krissy when she finally got out of downtown traffic at 5:45 or so (that must have sucked). It was really cool where Elliot and I were standing..all of the techies and Amanda's loads of equipment were right there so we could observe what was going on.

That guy has a nice phone. Check out the All Access Pass, Amanda's coolers filled with..hmm. That United Nations sticker was on Stu's guitar case. Rob had like 5 cases, it was pretty funny.

Well, Elliot didn't really care but I thought it was awesome! I took a picture of all of the stuff she hadJ Haha she had sooo many pieces of equipment, and personal things like her band's guitar cases and stuff had cool stickers on them, with their names, all decked out. We watched them assemble mikes and put together confetti things hehe, it was very cool. I talked to her `head' techie (who was very nice) about some stuff, he was awesome. It was really funny though…the coke stage usually has something going on on it, at that time Wayne Lee a hypnotist was up on stage (he's a fake haha) hypnotizing all of these people, and making guys dance together and stuff. The techies, the whole half hour he was on, stopped what they were doing and just smoked cigarettes and laughed at the dude. They thought it was pretty hilarious ..I'm not sure why?? So anyway. We decide to go do some other stuff for an hour and meet back at 7. Elliot and I after walking around to where we thought Amanda's dressing room might be headed back to the stage, and it's a good thing we did go because no one left after the act before Amanda.

Eliot and I- "uh oh"

We made it to second row though, which was really lucky. So we were there at 6:30, and then we wait. Krissy shows at 7, manages to sneak in where we are, she went to ask a guy with a videocamera if we could have a copy of the show he was going to tape, and he said yes! So, I'm looking forward to that haha. We were kind of standing, me and Elliot to the left, and then there was a huge group of girls next to us (more of them kept coming as the wait got longer haha), and Krissy and her friend Roxanne stood to the right of them, with Krissy's niece and her friend infront of them. So we stood there for hmm lets see…2 and half hours before the show started? That was fun. NOT. It was about 30 degrees out..and TONS of people. Not only that, but people were getting really impatient so people were standing when they could have been sitting, not that there's a problem with that. But there were two chicks behind me who were sprawled out lying down on the ground taking up like 5 spots and we all had to stand. Not cool haha. I was trying so hard not to step on her hair haha but I imagine I probably did like 5 times or something hehe. Oops. Next time make room buddy! So anyway. It was pretty fun looking around checking out her fan base. Of course, this is the stampede, so there's going to be more younger people than normal. But there were also adults, tattooed people (nothing wrong with that, they just, you know looked like bikers so that was interesting:)) and I don't know…just a whole bunch of different people. And it was great to see:) So..around 7:30-8 everyone started getting excited. People stood up and were getting more chatty…we were all watching the tech guys set up what needed to be set up. They already had the back set and the lights at the front up, along with the drums and keyboard and bongos haha..but they were pretty busy hooking up guitar boards and stuff. Actually, they weren't busy, nevermind. I have no idea why the heck the show was ½ hour late. Probably cause the Wayne Lee guy hypnotized them all. Um, as we were watching the stage, we saw some pretty cool things. The guys were climbing the huge speakers and setting up the confetti spurters haha, they were putting up lights, and one of the guys dropped one, oops. Haha, poor guy. Stuart the rhythym guitarist came out and was checking stuff out, me and Krissy recognized him right away but he was just another guy to everyone else haha..we also saw Eric and Al Webster come out..Al tested his drums out, no soundcheck:) They had some oldie-type songs playing over the speakers which was pretty predictable, I think Amanda always chooses that genre to warm up the concert haha. It was cool I recognized one of the songs that they played (they played it like three times too haha, maybe they ran out of music cause they took too long setting up!) anyway it went `I want to thank you..for letting me, be myself'…I don't know what song she throws that into but maybe someone out there knows:) The two girls infront of me were dancing to that music, and I mean really dancing, I was like ohh nooo if this is what they're like with the crappy intermission music..oy. Elliot said to me `they kept hitting me with their butts!' hahaha. And I don't know if I was imagining it or not, but I think they played the drums or something to the beat of Birmingham, but I'm probably wrong. Who cares anyway. They also.. accidentally? ran the loop for Double Agent I was like OHHH!!! And it kept going for atleast a minute, everyone started cheering..and then it was kind of weird, but Amanda's vocals came on, it was pre-recorded I guess and it went `see---see me' strange. So that must be an additional backup vocal neither Amanda nor her backup singers do. Anywho, that got the crowd really pumped up. Okay, so other stuff that happened while we were waiting, you probably really don't care, but it was kind of funny, everyone around us had a cellphone haha, and they were always going off. Hahaha my parents called me like every 5 minutes (cause I made them go to the show, I mean..they wanted to go. Of course.) Hey I found out one of my dad's employees went and had a great time..wohoo!! Anyway Krissy and I brought whoever wanted to come just cause it's a free show and the stampede is so much fun! Anyway haha…so while we were waiting this security guard comes up on stage with a little girl. All of the techies are up there fiddling around with things, and he gets the mike turned on and says `This little girl is lost. Her name is blahblabh..is anyone here her parent?' So, one of the lovely people that was standing a bit further back yells out `She's mine!!' The security guy in disbelief says back `Really?!?!' and the lady started laughing and shouted back `No, I'm just kidding hahaha'. The guard steps back kind of shaking his head and comes back to the mike and tells her to shut up haha. Yeah! Al the drummer was there watching too and made faces and was gesturing and stuff her way..anyway that was just to describe the type of people that were behind us and the group of girls. They were absolute morons and I think they made it really difficult for them to enjoy the show. This guy with the girls who was wearing a big Canada hat haha (he was visiting from the Netherlands), you could tell he wanted to punch them. A half hour even before the show started the group started pushing them and there was nothing they could really do…augh. People like that make me really mad. And this was an Amanda Marshall show haha. Oh dear. So anyway..the girls around us were too funny. One of them, who had been waiting since four, gave up her front row spot for my little brother. Wow. I know one of them is probably reading this haha..the girl behind me with the red and white hat? Haha you were too funny. Anyway. So Krissy and I, we brought SIX poster papers haha so we decided we better make a sign. Unfortunately there was no space, but Krissy used Roxanne's back and wrote `The gypsy in me needs to roam backstage'…we weren't able to get backstage this time so we thought we'd ask Amanda ourselves through the signs hhaha and maybe she could hook us up hahahaha. It was a verrry long shot but it was fun to do the signs. We also had one that said Krissy and Andrea..we hoped maybe she'd remember our names from her letter and all. So then this news camera guy from A-Channel decided for some reason to come over to us, he jumped onto the rail and leaned into the crowd, he practically took the poor girl's head off infront of me haha. Elliot in front row had on this funky Viking hat my dad gave him from Wales and the guy got a shot of that, and we all screamed and stuff and he picked on the dude from Netherlands and got a very close shot of his face hahaha. Elliot later told me they watched the news and there we were haha. So what the heck else happened? By this time it was probably about 8:30..when the show was supposed to start. It's not so bad if they're a few minutes late, but the congestion and the heat made it pretty awful. The girl beside me cracked me up the whole show, she was using Elliot's viking hat tail thing as a fan hahahaha. Anyway, the crowd starts to get a little rowdy. We were all so excited to see Amanda I think (by the way in case you wanted to know I think there were about 4 or 5 thousand people in the audience? Maybe, I don't know for sure) so it was really fun when people started making up cheers, just yelling and stuff, then we did `Aman-da! Aman-da!' and the clapping thing, if you know what I mean. There would also be spontaneous cheers coming from different sections of the crowd, which would get us all thinking they could see Amanda, and then we'd start cheering, and then they'd stop, and we'd all be like `awwww. Crap' haha. So then, the oldies music and the heat gets to be a little much. It's 8:45, my parents call me AGAIN on the cell asking what's going on and how come she isn't starting? Haha…and then, as will happen, the next two minutes, when a new song came on the speakers, we all booed. And then another new song..more booing. Oy. Every once and a while a techie would come out on stage and test out a guitar, but what the heck were they all doing? It took forever it seemed haha:) Aright so have I forgotten to tell you anything before it starts? Um, guess not. It's 9:00….and all of the sudden you can see Rob on the right side (when you're looking at the stage) with a pink bandana on his head, looking around to see what's going on. Stuart comes up, and Al (I never know which one is which ahah sorry guys) and Eric are there too!! Yay! But again no one knows who they are so nothing happens. Then, all of the sudden they come out of the shadows and one of the Webster guys starts playing the drums. The other one haha joins him on the keyboards, then electric guitar dude, and Stuart takes to his slide guitar board and makes these really cool effects. WOHOO!! All of the sudden everything gets a bit more squishy as people move in closer and the audience is going nuts. Okay I suddenly think the keyboard guy is Eric, so I'm calling him Eric haha. Eric begins the `real' Ride and Amanda comes up the stairs from the right and onto the stage. Wohooee!! So much fun. What can I tell you? First of all, you could tell right away that Amanda was in a really good mood. I have honestly never seen her with that much energy. So she starts doing all of these jumping jack things haha, and she has her hair down so she's going nuts with the throwing her head up and down like a mosher infront of the drums. She was also dancing around and playing with the mic stand and everything hehe. Right away the audience was into as well. I was really glad the people around me seemed to be enjoying it as much as I was.

Rocking out to 'Ride'. haha Rob 'I'm..losing..control..of the bass'

After Ride was finished Amanda shouts Thank You! Into the mic and begins the intro for Dizzy.

It's always funny to hear how people react to the first two lines of that song:) So, if you saw her on the Voice Inside Tour, the performance of that song was identical.

During the bridge of 'Dizzy'. You can kind of see a green 'Amanda Marshall' on the bottom of her mic.

Someone then tapped me on the shoulder and Krissy and Roxanne were like `let's do the signs now!' hahaha and then everyone around me was like `Awww!! You have a sign!!! What does it say?!?!' So I held it up in front of me and they all read it and started laughing, I had to show them 3 times cause they couldn't all see it haha anyway everyone's like, hold it up now!! So up it goes hahah, and we had to hold them high because we were in second row:) So my sign with the gypsy stuff went up and Krissy with our names on it went up, and then Elliot threw his beanie baby. Hahah. Yeah, you could say we bombarded her. So we held up the signs up for a short amount of time..I can't wait to see the videotape of this cause I don't really remember what happened:) Anyway Amanda was on the far right so she walked by Krissy's first, she saw it and let out a HUGE grin. Woah! Then she read the Gypsy one, laughed, pointed and mouthed to us `I Know Baby' hahahaha. That was really funny! Stu,as we were right in front of him (again) let out a "HA!!' and Rob gave us a big smile. We actually made them laugh, unlike before. And I guess I better explain the Beanie Baby thing..back in March I meant to give this to her but forgot, Elliot my younger brother was born in August, so he had an August Beanie Baby, that was all green with the birthstone around its neck and says August on its foot. I thought it would be cool to give it to Amanda, and he and I put a little tag around its neck that says `I was an August Beanie'..as in, Shades of Grey haha. So yeah. Elliot was so excited to throw this to Amanda, and eagerly awaited a response, but Amanda didn't see it get thrown, ie. Bombardment by the crazy fans in row 2 haha.

Intro for 'Fall From Grace'..

Next Page>>>


	Don't let it rain….on me Amanda Marshall- Coca Cola Stage, Calgary Stampede - Calgary, Alberta. Sunday July 7 2002 8:30PM ~Aight, pics have been added. I put them in where they happened..hope it's not too slow to load. If you want a fullsize copy of any of them, just email me and I'll be more than happy to send you one. Please ask permission before using any of these on websites etc. Thanks and enjoy As I sit here writing this, my shirt from last night still hangs wet over my shower door haha. So, first of all, I want to get this out of the way. You're probably all wondering if we met Amanda this time. And the answer is no. Sadly, things didn't work out this time, but, in the end, it didn't really matter. The concert was a blast regardless and some other cool things happened. Now when I look at the autographed poster on my wall and the pic I have with her I value it so much more. I'm not trying to brag or rub it in anyone's face haha, believe it or not I do know what it's like to have never met her and have never seen her live etc. I became a huge fan right after she stopped touring and disappeared haha. Hopefully that's 'suffering' enough for ya. So anyway, I've had THREE really amazing experiences with Amanda's shows, and I couldn't really ask for more. Nothing, NOTHING, is better than seeing her bring her songs to life right infront of you. So, with that said, here comes the concert review. SO, I brought my younger brother Elliot along as he loves Amanda. We met Krissy when she finally got out of downtown traffic at 5:45 or so (that must have sucked). It was really cool where Elliot and I were standing..all of the techies and Amanda's loads of equipment were right there so we could observe what was going on. That guy has a nice phone. Check out the All Access Pass, Amanda's coolers filled with..hmm. That United Nations sticker was on Stu's guitar case. Rob had like 5 cases, it was pretty funny. Well, Elliot didn't really care but I thought it was awesome! I took a picture of all of the stuff she hadJ Haha she had sooo many pieces of equipment, and personal things like her band's guitar cases and stuff had cool stickers on them, with their names, all decked out. We watched them assemble mikes and put together confetti things hehe, it was very cool. I talked to her `head' techie (who was very nice) about some stuff, he was awesome. It was really funny though…the coke stage usually has something going on on it, at that time Wayne Lee a hypnotist was up on stage (he's a fake haha) hypnotizing all of these people, and making guys dance together and stuff. The techies, the whole half hour he was on, stopped what they were doing and just smoked cigarettes and laughed at the dude. They thought it was pretty hilarious ..I'm not sure why?? So anyway. We decide to go do some other stuff for an hour and meet back at 7. Elliot and I after walking around to where we thought Amanda's dressing room might be headed back to the stage, and it's a good thing we did go because no one left after the act before Amanda. Eliot and I- "uh oh" We made it to second row though, which was really lucky. So we were there at 6:30, and then we wait. Krissy shows at 7, manages to sneak in where we are, she went to ask a guy with a videocamera if we could have a copy of the show he was going to tape, and he said yes! So, I'm looking forward to that haha. We were kind of standing, me and Elliot to the left, and then there was a huge group of girls next to us (more of them kept coming as the wait got longer haha), and Krissy and her friend Roxanne stood to the right of them, with Krissy's niece and her friend infront of them. So we stood there for hmm lets see…2 and half hours before the show started? That was fun. NOT. It was about 30 degrees out..and TONS of people. Not only that, but people were getting really impatient so people were standing when they could have been sitting, not that there's a problem with that. But there were two chicks behind me who were sprawled out lying down on the ground taking up like 5 spots and we all had to stand. Not cool haha. I was trying so hard not to step on her hair haha but I imagine I probably did like 5 times or something hehe. Oops. Next time make room buddy! So anyway. It was pretty fun looking around checking out her fan base. Of course, this is the stampede, so there's going to be more younger people than normal. But there were also adults, tattooed people (nothing wrong with that, they just, you know looked like bikers so that was interesting:)) and I don't know…just a whole bunch of different people. And it was great to see:) So..around 7:30-8 everyone started getting excited. People stood up and were getting more chatty…we were all watching the tech guys set up what needed to be set up. They already had the back set and the lights at the front up, along with the drums and keyboard and bongos haha..but they were pretty busy hooking up guitar boards and stuff. Actually, they weren't busy, nevermind. I have no idea why the heck the show was ½ hour late. Probably cause the Wayne Lee guy hypnotized them all. Um, as we were watching the stage, we saw some pretty cool things. The guys were climbing the huge speakers and setting up the confetti spurters haha, they were putting up lights, and one of the guys dropped one, oops. Haha, poor guy. Stuart the rhythym guitarist came out and was checking stuff out, me and Krissy recognized him right away but he was just another guy to everyone else haha..we also saw Eric and Al Webster come out..Al tested his drums out, no soundcheck:) They had some oldie-type songs playing over the speakers which was pretty predictable, I think Amanda always chooses that genre to warm up the concert haha. It was cool I recognized one of the songs that they played (they played it like three times too haha, maybe they ran out of music cause they took too long setting up!) anyway it went `I want to thank you..for letting me, be myself'…I don't know what song she throws that into but maybe someone out there knows:) The two girls infront of me were dancing to that music, and I mean really dancing, I was like ohh nooo if this is what they're like with the crappy intermission music..oy. Elliot said to me `they kept hitting me with their butts!' hahaha. And I don't know if I was imagining it or not, but I think they played the drums or something to the beat of Birmingham, but I'm probably wrong. Who cares anyway. They also.. accidentally? ran the loop for Double Agent I was like OHHH!!! And it kept going for atleast a minute, everyone started cheering..and then it was kind of weird, but Amanda's vocals came on, it was pre-recorded I guess and it went `see---see me' strange. So that must be an additional backup vocal neither Amanda nor her backup singers do. Anywho, that got the crowd really pumped up. Okay, so other stuff that happened while we were waiting, you probably really don't care, but it was kind of funny, everyone around us had a cellphone haha, and they were always going off. Hahaha my parents called me like every 5 minutes (cause I made them go to the show, I mean..they wanted to go. Of course.) Hey I found out one of my dad's employees went and had a great time..wohoo!! Anyway Krissy and I brought whoever wanted to come just cause it's a free show and the stampede is so much fun! Anyway haha…so while we were waiting this security guard comes up on stage with a little girl. All of the techies are up there fiddling around with things, and he gets the mike turned on and says `This little girl is lost. Her name is blahblabh..is anyone here her parent?' So, one of the lovely people that was standing a bit further back yells out `She's mine!!' The security guy in disbelief says back `Really?!?!' and the lady started laughing and shouted back `No, I'm just kidding hahaha'. The guard steps back kind of shaking his head and comes back to the mike and tells her to shut up haha. Yeah! Al the drummer was there watching too and made faces and was gesturing and stuff her way..anyway that was just to describe the type of people that were behind us and the group of girls. They were absolute morons and I think they made it really difficult for them to enjoy the show. This guy with the girls who was wearing a big Canada hat haha (he was visiting from the Netherlands), you could tell he wanted to punch them. A half hour even before the show started the group started pushing them and there was nothing they could really do…augh. People like that make me really mad. And this was an Amanda Marshall show haha. Oh dear. So anyway..the girls around us were too funny. One of them, who had been waiting since four, gave up her front row spot for my little brother. Wow. I know one of them is probably reading this haha..the girl behind me with the red and white hat? Haha you were too funny. Anyway. So Krissy and I, we brought SIX poster papers haha so we decided we better make a sign. Unfortunately there was no space, but Krissy used Roxanne's back and wrote `The gypsy in me needs to roam backstage'…we weren't able to get backstage this time so we thought we'd ask Amanda ourselves through the signs hhaha and maybe she could hook us up hahahaha. It was a verrry long shot but it was fun to do the signs. We also had one that said Krissy and Andrea..we hoped maybe she'd remember our names from her letter and all. So then this news camera guy from A-Channel decided for some reason to come over to us, he jumped onto the rail and leaned into the crowd, he practically took the poor girl's head off infront of me haha. Elliot in front row had on this funky Viking hat my dad gave him from Wales and the guy got a shot of that, and we all screamed and stuff and he picked on the dude from Netherlands and got a very close shot of his face hahaha. Elliot later told me they watched the news and there we were haha. So what the heck else happened? By this time it was probably about 8:30..when the show was supposed to start. It's not so bad if they're a few minutes late, but the congestion and the heat made it pretty awful. The girl beside me cracked me up the whole show, she was using Elliot's viking hat tail thing as a fan hahahaha. Anyway, the crowd starts to get a little rowdy. We were all so excited to see Amanda I think (by the way in case you wanted to know I think there were about 4 or 5 thousand people in the audience? Maybe, I don't know for sure) so it was really fun when people started making up cheers, just yelling and stuff, then we did `Aman-da! Aman-da!' and the clapping thing, if you know what I mean. There would also be spontaneous cheers coming from different sections of the crowd, which would get us all thinking they could see Amanda, and then we'd start cheering, and then they'd stop, and we'd all be like `awwww. Crap' haha. So then, the oldies music and the heat gets to be a little much. It's 8:45, my parents call me AGAIN on the cell asking what's going on and how come she isn't starting? Haha…and then, as will happen, the next two minutes, when a new song came on the speakers, we all booed. And then another new song..more booing. Oy. Every once and a while a techie would come out on stage and test out a guitar, but what the heck were they all doing? It took forever it seemed haha:) Aright so have I forgotten to tell you anything before it starts? Um, guess not. It's 9:00….and all of the sudden you can see Rob on the right side (when you're looking at the stage) with a pink bandana on his head, looking around to see what's going on. Stuart comes up, and Al (I never know which one is which ahah sorry guys) and Eric are there too!! Yay! But again no one knows who they are so nothing happens. Then, all of the sudden they come out of the shadows and one of the Webster guys starts playing the drums. The other one haha joins him on the keyboards, then electric guitar dude, and Stuart takes to his slide guitar board and makes these really cool effects. WOHOO!! All of the sudden everything gets a bit more squishy as people move in closer and the audience is going nuts. Okay I suddenly think the keyboard guy is Eric, so I'm calling him Eric haha. Eric begins the `real' Ride and Amanda comes up the stairs from the right and onto the stage. Wohooee!! So much fun. What can I tell you? First of all, you could tell right away that Amanda was in a really good mood. I have honestly never seen her with that much energy. So she starts doing all of these jumping jack things haha, and she has her hair down so she's going nuts with the throwing her head up and down like a mosher infront of the drums. She was also dancing around and playing with the mic stand and everything hehe. Right away the audience was into as well. I was really glad the people around me seemed to be enjoying it as much as I was. Rocking out to 'Ride'. haha Rob 'I'm..losing..control..of the bass' After Ride was finished Amanda shouts Thank You! Into the mic and begins the intro for Dizzy. It's always funny to hear how people react to the first two lines of that song:) So, if you saw her on the Voice Inside Tour, the performance of that song was identical. During the bridge of 'Dizzy'. You can kind of see a green 'Amanda Marshall' on the bottom of her mic. Someone then tapped me on the shoulder and Krissy and Roxanne were like `let's do the signs now!' hahaha and then everyone around me was like `Awww!! You have a sign!!! What does it say?!?!' So I held it up in front of me and they all read it and started laughing, I had to show them 3 times cause they couldn't all see it haha anyway everyone's like, hold it up now!! So up it goes hahah, and we had to hold them high because we were in second row:) So my sign with the gypsy stuff went up and Krissy with our names on it went up, and then Elliot threw his beanie baby. Hahah. Yeah, you could say we bombarded her. So we held up the signs up for a short amount of time..I can't wait to see the videotape of this cause I don't really remember what happened:) Anyway Amanda was on the far right so she walked by Krissy's first, she saw it and let out a HUGE grin. Woah! Then she read the Gypsy one, laughed, pointed and mouthed to us `I Know Baby' hahahaha. That was really funny! Stu,as we were right in front of him (again) let out a "HA!!' and Rob gave us a big smile. We actually made them laugh, unlike before. And I guess I better explain the Beanie Baby thing..back in March I meant to give this to her but forgot, Elliot my younger brother was born in August, so he had an August Beanie Baby, that was all green with the birthstone around its neck and says August on its foot. I thought it would be cool to give it to Amanda, and he and I put a little tag around its neck that says `I was an August Beanie'..as in, Shades of Grey haha. So yeah. Elliot was so excited to throw this to Amanda, and eagerly awaited a response, but Amanda didn't see it get thrown, ie. Bombardment by the crazy fans in row 2 haha. Intro for 'Fall From Grace'.. Next Page>>>