So, as some astute observers noticed, Rich's in-ear monitors were not working at the beginning of the show last night. No one knows why, but I suspect sabotage. Because he was wearing specially made ones that were molded to the contours of his ears, the lack of any signal meant he actually couldn't hear a single thing. Once he popped them out, he could hear the sound coming through the speakers, but that was significantly delayed -- hence his behind-the-beat delivery. I also noticed on carefully analysing the videotape of the show that I got fairly gypped in the mix. Kind of a bummer to offer such a mediocre performance after so much preparation, but at least he got all the words in and didn't end up doing a little elf dance à la Ashley Simpson.
After that little ordeal was over, Rich's equipment was working fine again, and we had a great time watching a lot of the show from the floor. Coldplay were really great, and it was very surreal to be in the same room with Chris Martin, Pamela Anderson, and Bryan Adams all at the same time. Broken Social Scene came off a lot better live than they sounded on TV.
Our friend Krista was with us checking out the special appearances and hanging out backstage. Coldplay took off as soon as they were done, so we took over their dressing room, which had a television for watching the show. There had been some beers in our dressing room at one point, which had later gone missing, and we discovered them there, though I'm not pointing any fingers. There was also some delicious food which the sensitively anthemic Brits had very kindly neglected to eat.
Besides the performance going slightly awry, the other bummers of the evening were that I couldn't find the media centre until the ET people were gone and so didn't get to meet Cheryl Hickey; that I wasn't given one of the prestigious swag bags worth $5,000 that most of the nominees and performers got; and that Alison didn't think to bring her camera out onto the floor — she's pulling the last two hairs out of her scalp as I write this. Highlights were the Coldplay/Kraftwerk song; finally meeting Rich's fiancée, Claire, and his family; hearing Pamela Anderson get booed; hearing Jann Arden's retort get cheered; peeing in Coldplay's toilet; and getting to hang out with an awesome bunch of friends. Here are some backstage photos:
Don't ask me what the heck was going on here. That's Claire in the background.
Here's me; Rich's manager, Piers; Rich; Rich's other manager, Nick; and Charles in the dressing room.
Ali and Krista freaking out in front of "Dplay's" dressing room.
No beer tastes better than the beer that Coldplay steals from you and then you steal back once they're safely out of the building.- Andrew
4 comments:
Andrew,
I have really seen the value of the blog today. I am sitting in a hotel in Atlanta for work reading about your fun at the Juno's. We were all very proud to see you last night. We never noticed that Rich's ear "thing" was not working. You guys like true professionals pulled it off with out a hick-up. I was glad to see the beer worked out just fine. Congratulations. I hope Allison got a good wig.
Mike
WOW! Thanks for all the behind-the-scenes stories! Why did Chris Martin ask for someone's cell phone? Hannah was watching with me at that point & she was very bothered by this..."shouldn't he be concentrating on his song?" I love the photo of the 3 of you having beers. You all look so happy! Sorry you missed out on the bag o' goodies...why didn't they give you one? Glad you got to steal back your beer though. Congratulations again...you were great to watch and I taped it for Mom & Papa (Mom's in Fredericton & would have missed it and Papa probably saw it but wouldn't know how to tape it. - Dana
Wow, you guys are fast! I just got that up there. Thanks for the encouragement. In response to your previous comments, I was weirdly not really nervous, even though pretty much everyone involved with the evening was on maximum stressout. I don't know what was up with that cellphone stunt. I thought maybe he was planning on giving one of the girl's friends on speed-dial a thrill, but then didn't have time and had to run back to the main stage. The run back ended up looking pretty cool, though, you have to admit.
- Andrew
Looks like you had a great time. I'm so glad. Nice too that Mike has finally let go of his grudge of the blog.
Eri.
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