Day 07: Manchester - Josh Groban in Concert

There was a real buzz in the house this morning as the day had arrived - tonight we were going to be meeting Josh before the show in Manchester.  K still had no idea that she'd be coming as my guest; so J, MB & I were all psyched about revealing our 'evil' plan.  

Before we headed up to Manchester, we stopped at the Samuel Adams brewery in Boston to do the brewery tour.  Before we started the tour, I casually mentioned to K that she'd be coming as my guest to the M&G (even if I was a little slow on the uptake that I was breaking the news to her earlier than we had originally planned). It took her a little bit of time to believe that I wasn't joking, but she finally realised that it wasn't a joke and that all four of us would be meeting Josh before the show.

Once K calmed down, we did the brewery tour that ended in the tasting room - MB & I had to carry the torch in the tasting department as K doesn't drink beer and J was being the responsible driver.  At one point the guide asked what I though of the beer, and I said something like "it's ok, I'd have it again"... Probably not the glowing recommendation she was looking for, but it made us laugh.

Hmmm.. Beer!!!

Then we hit the road on the way to Manchester.  Before the show we had a quick bite to eat at the informal fan gathering at Murphy's Taproom which was just across the road from the arena.  Once again I got the opportunity to meet some more of my 'virtual friends' including MargaretRose who had flown in from Scotland. Soon enough it was time to wander over to collect our M&G passes from the box office.

Before we knew it, the time had come to gather at the appointed spot for our M&G.  Darren (Josh's head of security) took us into a hallway within the arena and laid down the law about the rules of the M&G.  We were towards the back, and even though we were told Josh would only do group photos, we all managed to get an individual picture.  When I had my few moments with Josh, I actually managed to string a sentence together and said hello, told him I was from Australia and that I'd survived the Qantas grounding to get there (as he'd been tweeting about being on a plane with pilots that had been forced back to work).  He was just lovely and said "I'm so glad you arrived here safely!.  He signed my poster and then we had our picture taken, and thankfully I loved it.  Sadly it was all over in the blink of an eye.

We then made out way to the arena to find our seats.  Our silver package seats were great - on the aisle, 6 rows from the stage.  I didn't stick around for all of ELEW and when Josh started, we actually stood up near the B stage, so we got to see him up close and personal during the first three songs.  During the Q&A, MB's question got asked which was just the icing on the cake for what had been such a great day. Check it out below:

This is Josh singing "Play Me" during the show.

Josh didn't sign after the show, not that we could complain after the day we had.  It was then time for the long drive home. I was so lucky that I got to have this experience with such wonderful friends.  Thanks J, K & MB - love you guys.