Article by Jennifer Meyer
This event was a great experience for me and one that lead to greater things, such as eventually meeting Mary, the brilliant Aussie looking after this website!
First things first, my review of this night. My beautiful Nightwish friend Lynne got two tickets online to go to the show and rang me straight away. I hadn't heard of it but as soon as she mentioned Nightwish, I was in, any plans I had made for that Monday were obviously immediately cancelled without question or delay, such is the power of Nightwish.
This happened at Valentine this year when my then boyfriend wanted to take me away for a week in Germany to see Starlight Express but when it clashed with Nightwish touring here he knew there was no point, and I had a great Valentine week with my favourite band!
Lynne told me there was a blow up guitar competition on the night and gave me the number to ring, as she knows anything to do with headbanging and rocking and I'm in. I rang and got the last slot in the competition, and I was the only girl at the time.
Lynne and I went for our usual drinks at our favourite venue The Intrepid Fox before the show and I panicked about the competition. Standing up in front of all those people and air guitaring whilst being judged by Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, this band being my ultimate fav and who I grew up with.
Nerves calmed a little after much encouragement by text from friends including my Uncle Alan who brought me up into heavy metal and taught me my first words which were “Sabbath” top bloke!
We go to the show and enjoyed the wild atmosphere. It was like being at a well organised high school prom, with us rebels being let loose downstairs whilst the well behaved adults sat upstairs! The VIPs and the band members were upstairs and us fans downstairs peering up for a spot of stargazing. Spotted Ville Valo, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Lemmi, but no Nightwishers.
I didn't know any of the bands playing that night aside from Nightwish and Anthrax, but I thought Trivium were cool, I didn't rate the others much, sorry! I may have been preoccupied with nerves and excitement by then though!
Nightwish went on to get their award to a huge cheer, they were the band of the night, I'm not just saying that, the audience proved it.
My heart was throbbing as I saw them collect their very well deserved award, and if it were up to me and they would have got them all!
I gleamed proudly as they bowed and for some strange cant quite explain, when I see them in the flesh I feel “charmed” and in another world.
Then As I was waiting by the side door to go to the competition, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler went onstage to get an award, and we brushed shoulders at the backstage door as they came off and I and 4 others went on.
One bloke didn't show for the competion and so the girl who ended up winning got in. One bloke who won second prize was dressed up as Darth Vader, I had good chat with him, he came from quite far and was up for a laugh, offering his can of beer to us all, bless him! This became apparent at his amazing Light-saber headbanging performance, he should have won top prize.
I walked out first on stage but was the last to do the guitaring. As soon as we were on the nerves disappeared and I was loving it. I revelled in the lights and looking out at a full audience knowing some of my idols were up there looking down at me, probably thinking what a load of sad pillocks, but I didn't care, it was a laugh, and that's what parties are all about right?
I decided it didn't matter if I won or not, what mattered is that I had the guts to go up there and give it large, when my 30 seconds came up I did just that.
My nails were up and down bending the blow up guitar top the point I thought it would burst strumming away to Van Halen.
I finished off with a full frontal splits even David Lee Roth would have been proud of - right into the camera man almost! I split my tights but it was worth it, I was then 30 seconds closer to my clichéd “15 minutes of fame!”
The coolest thing about it was that Nightwish had been on about 15 minutes before I was on the same stage, now OK so that may sound sad to most, but I felt like getting down and licking the floor! I didn't though, decided that was just TOO sad and I was happy to simply ROCK on there, knowing that shortly after I left the stage they would be back on their doing their 3 songs and I will be as close to stage as possible head-banging and melting in awe at the same time.
Lynne and I made our way to the front after a quick girlie hug and necessary ego petting as she told me I was the best on there and should have won (bless her, thanks hun) and then settled in a good position in front of Tuomas' keyboards.
Before they came on we heard a comment behind us between a small group debating who was better Nightwish or Anthrax. Lynne and I turned around and put our pennies worth in. We all got chatting and that is when I met a cool Dude young lady called Vicki and her boyfriend James, and of course Neil Hardwick, their mate who happened to live in the same town I grew up in, so we got chatting, as metallers do at gigs, where else can you just chat to strangers like you've known them for ever?
Then Nightwish came on and there was much screaming and jumping and general appreciation. The rest of the awards were OK, but for us it was over once we knew Nightwish had their awards and done their show, so Lynne and I left after the last award but before Anthrax started their set, which clearly demonstrates who we were voting for in the earlier debate!
I was a bit put out as I missed my Peterborough train by 3 minutes and waited over an hour for the next one, which was a blessing in disguise as by then Neil turns up and we sat next to each other, spending the entire journey to St Neots chatting about Nightwish and Glam rock, and past gigs we have been too. This train journey seems to last a few minutes! We swapped numbers and kept in touch…
This is why the whole night for me was amazing because it was Neil who won the tickets from Nightwish UK fanclub to go and see the last ever Nightwish gig (with Tarja) in Helsinki and he picked me to go with him as his guest.
During this trip I met Mary and the other competition winners, Robert, Richard and Lindsey who are all brilliant rockers, and we had a magical time.
For anyone interested please see my (and Neil's) review of that Helsinki trip.
To sum up then , the Golden Gods Awards was a fun night, it felt like a teenage wild party with things being thrown down at us from the “Gods” (upstairs section) such as condoms and sweat bands. We all got a promo bag at the end with a Metal Hammer T shirt and advertising materials and momentos.
For a free event it was well worth the trip, and for me, well, it was priceless.
I got to rock on the same stage as Nightwish, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, I witnessed first hand what being on a stage in front of rockers feels like (awesome!) and I met some great new rock buddies, one of which lead me to Helsinki and meeting Mary and consequently joining in on the fan club meetings such as the get together for “Seasons End” and bowling on 5th November, and who knows what else, watch this space!
PARTY ON DUDES!
Love, Jennifer :o)
