A Date or Two With Avril Lavigne: An Irish Review

Lewis and myself, two of your Bandaids staff members, followed Avril Lavigne throughout the island of Ireland since her arrival in Ireland late last week. What an experience it was.

It all began on Friday morning, with a mildly comfortable bus trip up to Dublin. I had my “Bandaids Loves Avril” banner and digital camera, along with my The Best Damn Thing CD booklet as something for Avril to sign if we happened to run into her (hey, nobody can say I’m not optimistic). Lewis brought himself (go Lewis!) along with his Bonez tour baseball cap, also something he hoped would bear Ms. Lavigne’s signature by the end of the weekend.

We spent about an hour looking for our hotel, and found it without too much trouble. After getting something to eat and then heading back to the hotel for my “Bandaids Loves Avril” banner (Yeah, I forgot it), we found a taxi and headed off to the RDS arena. The excitement, while it was already brewing in our stomachs, didn’t really hit home until we saw a large banner advertising the concert nearby the venue itself.

We pulled up to the venue, and joined the queue. The time was about 1.30pm. We had originally planned on getting to the venue no later than 2.00pm, so we were ahead of schedule. There couldn’t have been more than 30 or 40 people ahead of us, so we were relatively happy to sit down and plot how we would get our much coveted place in the front row on the night.

We waited for a couple of hours. I met a guy who I had been chatting to on MSN about the concerts there. Then, out of the blue, Avril was seen sitting down at the entrance to the venue. Or so everyone thought. Most were standing up to get a good look, but this woman was about 100 feet away and it was pretty difficult to tell whether it was infact Avril or not. But imagine our embaressment when “Avril” walked by an hour later; needless to say, we were sorely disappointed. Lewis’ scepticism about it being her on the other hand, was proven right.

We eventually got our pit passes, and somehow squeezed our way to the very front of the queue. There we met a couple of more people from Bandaids (Sinead [Sinead1989]. Jain [Evil J] and kefln), all of which had VIP passes.

After a sudden down pour of thunder and rain (yes, my beloved banner survived!), and a couple of more hours waiting, we were finally allowed through the main doors. Nothing was more satisfying than finally grasping that barrier no longer than a minute or two later. We were right at the front, directly in front of the catwalk, also known as the best place in the house. After a bit more waiting, the Jonas Brothers finally came on stage. They pulled off a really respectable performance; still, they did have four band members behind them helping them out. At one point, Joe (err…I think that’s his name at least) Jonas decided to drench the crowd in water, effectively drowning by banner in the process. Thanks Joe.I wasn’t really into their act, but I had a good time nonetheless.

While waiting for the stage to be dismantled and re-assembled for Avril, one of the cameramen spotted the setlist taped to the catwalk, and told a couple of us what she’d be starting off with. Surprisingly, Lewis and I seemed to be two of the very few people who already knew how everything would go down. Then, it was time for the act everyone was waiting for. I could not have been more excited. Neither could anyone else, or so it seemed. As soon as the spay paint started to map out the word “Avril”, everyone started screaming. As soon as the first strums of “Girlfriend” played, I started singing and jumping. The girls behind me were so annoyed. Half way through the concert, they attempted to step on my feet so I couldn’t jump, but that didn’t stop me. As Adam would say(), me, and most others, jumped like there was no tomorrow. Avril is so talented at working the crowd. It was awesome. She let the crowd sing "Bitch, slut, pyschobabe" in "Everything Back But You", and started laughing because everyone was screaming it.

The concert was absolutely amazing from start to finish. The dancers were so cool. I officially love them now. I held my sign up for about half of “I Can Do Better”, but Avril only glanced at it and didn’t seem interested, so I put it away and took out my camera.

Avril came onto the catwalk numerous times throughout, and those of us at the front were lucky enough to get touched by Avril! Lewis touched hands with her once, but I’m 6’4, and naturally pretty lanky. I could stretch my hands out much farther than anyone else, meaning I got to high five Avril three times. It was amazing. We got on the big screen a couple of times too. We were like little girls, screaming whenever she came close. But it’s funny, nobody even cared. The night ended oh a high with “Sk8er Boi”, and we headed out of the hall. Lewis and I waited around for a while, but the whole tour bus area was sectioned off. Soon, we were forced to leave. When I asked a security guard where Avril was on our way out, I was told “She drove off right at the end of the concert with Larry Mullen from U2”. Yeah, because everyone knows Avril and him are best buds.

We headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow was another day, along with another Avril concert. Little did we expect just how eventful it would be.

The day didn’t begin too well. We arrived at our hostel in Belfast only to discover that our booking hadn’t gone through. Instead, we were sent to what they called “another of their hostels” about a 10 minute walk away. What a hostel. It was no more a hostel than a big, empty, damp house. We dumped our bags there, got something to eat, and headed to the Odyssey arena at about 1.00pm. I left my banner behind this time.

There was barely anyone there this time, about 15 at the most. There was no “queue” when we arrived; people were just sitting around the entrance. I took advantage of this, and decided to have a snoop around. I found the VIP entrance about 70 feet above the public entrance, deserted. I ran in and saw signs with arrows saying “backstage” and “main arena”. I didn’t know whether I should risk running in, but nonetheless, I was instantly told to leave by a security guard.

I headed round to the other side of the grounds, and walked all the way around to the back entrance. Again, deserted. Relatively disappointed, I headed back to the line. After the barriers were assembled, we were told to queue. Again, both Lewis and I managed to make it to the very front. We were excited, but we weren’t sure if we’d be as lucky this time round.

After about 4 hours of getting scorched, I decided to go and wait by the VIP entrance. Lewis saved my space. Somehow, I believed that Avril might just turn up there at one point or another. To my disappointment, she never did. But about 45 minutes before the main doors were to be opened, who did I spot walking right past us? Jim, along with who I would later know to be Steve, Avril’s two guitarists. I wanted to make sure before I done anything if it was really them. I asked Lewis, but he didn’t seem to know. They were about to turn the corner and disappear. I knew I’d regret not doing anything, so I hopped the bar and chased after them. I managed to catch up to them, and said “Jim, Jim! Can I have a photo?”. He was like “Uhhh…sure!”. While he was with Steve, only after this meeting did I recognise Steve or remember his name. Steve took the camera, and was about to take the picture, when Jim said “Wait, don’t you want him in the photo too? (pointing at Steve)”. I started to stutter, saying “Uhhh…..uhhh….oh yeah, you’re the other guy...uhh" (I directed this to Steve). Steve probably knew I didn’t have a clue who he was, because he just broke the awkwardness, telling us to turn around, because the sun was behind us and would ruin the picture. So we did, and I got my picture. After thanking Steve, I put my hand out for a shake from Jim while saying thanks to him, but he just slapped it instead, saying “No problem”. It was so cool.

A bit later, just before they were letting us in, Al and Rodney walked past. I was about to run over to them, but they walked right in a side door before I even had a chance to hop the bar.
Anyway, before much longer, they let everyone in, the guys through one set of doors, the girls through another. I walked as fast as I could without running, and managed to get front row centre again with Lewis! I couldn’t believe it. We were so lucky. Two other guys who had gotten front row beside us the previous night also got the same spaces, something both the youngest Jonas brother and Avril would notice later on. Avril said, before “I’m With You”, that she wanted to dedicate the song to all her fans who travel around to her concerts after her. As she did this, she glanced at us in the front. I’d like to believe she recognised us from the previous night, and if she did, it’s pretty cool. We also got to touch her hand again.

Just as Avril, Jim and Steve sat down to the acoustic set with her, I waved at Jim and Steve, and they both nodded and smiled. It was cool that they remembered me. Just before “Don’t Tell Me” was about to start, a guy standing directly beside Lewis shouted “I LOVE YOU AVRIL!”. Avril shouted back “I love you too” through the microphone. It was awesome!

At the end of the show, after the band and Avril had left and the lights came back on, a guy standing near me and Lewis noticed one of Avril’s guitar pics on the catwalk, and asked a cameraman to get it for him, which he did. I was so jealous. But then I noticed another pic on the step down onto the catwalk. I begged (with hands aligned in a praying position!) three different guys working there to get it for me, but not one of them would. I was so angry. It was right there, and they didn’t even care how much I wanted it. Everyone was then forced to leave.

So we ran around the back on the arena to the back entrance, accompanied by about 300 others. I was disappointed, thinking she’d never come out to that many people. But after 3 hours waiting, just 27 people were left. Then, the weirdest thing happened. I was looking into the back yard of the arena (from outside the entrance), and I noticed someone with a purple hoodie with shiny lettering vertically down by the zip (similar to Avril’s “Boys Like Girls” hoodie), along with dark converse standing over by one of the tour buses. I was 100% sure it was Avril. I couldn’t have been surer. This girl fitted Avril’s dimensions perfectly. She had her hood up, and from our distance of about 40 feet away, I genuinely believed it to be Avril. I whispered it to Lewis, and we both agreed it was her. Then we saw this guy standing next to her with blonde hair and a baseball cap on. We were so sure it was Deryck. And we had heard Deryck was in the country, so this made the whole thing even more believable. The people beside us eventually noticed her to, as did some people waiting in cars across the road.

After a while, the girl started to walk over. I freaked, and pulled out my camera. She walked right by the entrance, saying “I’m going back to the bar”. Lewis thought it sounded like Avril, but we could see her really clearly (she was about 10 feet away), and honestly, she didn’t really look too much like Avril. She even walked right by us later, into her tour bus and back out again. We realised that the girl was nothing like her. It wasn’t Avril. We felt stupid but disappointed at the same time.

After a while, some of her band and dancers started walking out. We met Venom, one of Avril’s break dancers, and we also said “hey” to Steve and Casper, another of the break dancers. We saw Linsey, and Lewis said he saw Sofi too, but I didn’t.

We started to doubt if Avril would ever appear at this point. There was less than 15 people left, and we had been standing there for nearly 3 ½ hours. The last tour bus left, they closed the gates, and we gave up. We didn’t really mind; at least we tried. And we still love Avril as much as ever.


Overall, the two concerts were the best I've ever been tour. This truly is "The Best Damn Tour". Lewis can fill you in on anything I've missed. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!

I'll post my full set of pics for both shows soon.

[sinead1989]

yeahh that was so shit that she didnt come out afterwards... i was well pissed off.. there was only like 15 or so of us =[[

[rockpit]

WOW

You were oh so close to Av! I would KILL to just see her!

Is that Lewis in the first pic?

Happy you had fun!

Nah that isnt Lewis haha. Yeah we got scorched but it was oh so worth it.

[Havril!]

cooooool! Lol !
great review

[kefln]

Hey again, nice to put a face to the names.

I felt kinda bad skipping past everyone that had been queuing for so long, but then the rain came and I just started feeling wet

Great review, I have to admit that I was more than a little jealous on Saturday, knowing that ye were up in Belfast.

When we were waiting outside after the show did you see John (?) the bodyguard walking back and forward along the barrier? Then the squad car drove past with a little blonde sitting in the back? She waved out. The car then drove up to one of the tour buses, which took off about two minutes later. I'm not 100% sure if it was her, or if she was the tour bus that left, but if the security guard said she left soon after...

[Lewymocha Original]

You forgot to mention Avril ponted at us when she dedicated the song

[TR252]

Fantastic review. Looks like you had a great time.

Thats it for her UK part of the tour now isn't it?

Hey kefln, nah we didn't see John or Avril, we took a little time coming out haha.

[Just A Fan]

What a review! Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences with us.