FAME – PULSE – AVRO – WETTEN DASS – KOKO – CHILDREN IN NEED – G-A-Y
NOVEMBER, 2005
Mannheim – Amsterdam – London
November 2005
I knew that with the release of a new single (Hung Up) and forthcoming album (Confessions On A Dance Floor) Madonna would surely embark on a promo tour. I kind of got ahead of everything and got in touch with various TV shows asking if Madonna was scheduled to appear on their show. Nobody knew anything, and nobody wanted to help.
The promotion of the new single and album in The Netherlands was a big deal to me. Ever since attending a listening party of Mariah Carey’s ‘Emancipation of Mimi’ in megastore FAME in Amsterdam in March, I was determined to organise a similar one for an upcoming Madonna release. It was a dream to realise this, so I didn’t waste any time e-mailing Warner Music and FAME about the idea. FAME loved it and told me to propose the idea to Warner Music again stating that FAME was on board. After a lot of back and forth and a few meetings, the release party was a fact!
We would be hosting the World Premiere Party of Confessions On A Dance Floor!
I was asked to answer a few questions on Madonna on the radio release date of “Hung Up” at BNN Radio. They gave me call late in the afternoon while I was at work and I was live on air within seconds. As I was at work and it was live, I found it challenging to answer their rapid questions as they expected me to. I managed to tell them that I thought that the song (Hung Up) was amazing, that I thought Madonna was sexy no matter what and that she and Guy Ritchie were still very much in love (or so I assumed). I was happy with how it turned out.
In the meantime I was speaking to people from a TV show called “PULSE”, their host Peter van der Vorst had traveled to London to interview Madonna and they would air that live on November 11. We really wanted to be present in the studio for the special and so we inquired about that. It wasn’t until a few days later that the production team of the show rang me back asking if I wanted to be interviewed live on TV by the host of the show, discussing my passion for Madonna. They asked me if I knew of any other fans who might want to be interviewed too. We discussed all the details and I got in touch with other Madonna fans. They told me they would be ringing them all, asking them similar questions and then decide who they wanted to sit at the table with Peter.
WETTEN DASS
Mannheim, Germany
November 5, 2005
Since I still didn’t have any confirmation of any Madonna promotional live show whatsoever (missed out on buying tickets to see her at Parkinson in London), we decided to try and attend Madonna’s appearance at Wetten Dass in Germany. This was only the third confirmed TV show in Europe she would visit to promote “Hung Up” (the first one being the MTV Awards in Lisbon, didn’t even try for tickets). It was a long known fact that Madonna would attend the November 5 recording of Wetten Dass, it was virtually impossible to get tickets as these are being reserved months prior. The tickets that did appear on Ebay went for over 500 EUR.
We decided to just try our luck and booked a train to Mannheim Germany. The trip took over 4 hours and a half and we were completely over it by the time we finally arrived. It still took us another 90 minutes to reach our hotel as for some strange reason we didn’t understand the public transportation. In the end we just tried for a taxi and we got to our hotel safely. We decided to visit the Mai Markt Hallen immediately to check and see if we could find a ticket.
After a long walk in the middle of nowhere we finally arrived at the studio. There were only a handful of people in search of tickets…..you guessed it right, they were all Madonna fans. It was cold and literally nothing was happening aside from seeing our fellow Madonna fans be as desperate as we were. We started to feel hungry and decided to trying to find a place to eat, which was another challenge. It didn’t seem like there was anything nearby here in Mannheim. Finally we spotted a local supermarket and bought ourself some sandwiches. When we returned to the Mai Markt Hallen it was a bit more crowded. More and more Madonna fans turned up and all had the same question on their lips as us. Literally anyone passing us by was severely questioned and yeah let’s be honest here, bothered. We saw our chances of finding a ticket slim by the minute and I could not imagine coming all this way and not getting to see Madonna perform.
When the box office finally opened and people started to pick up their tickets, I decided to try my luck and join the queue. When it was my turn the guy behind the counter asked me for my ID and reservation details. I told him I had none but that I had traveled all the way from Amsterdam to come and see Madonna perform, if there was anything he could do. He just looked at me with a face filled with pity and told me to wait just a minute. He left the desk and went away to talk to someone. When he returned he told us that we were extremely lucky as they had only two restricted view tickets left and we could have them at no charge! I couldn’t believe my luck and thanked the man for helping us. Only a few minutes ago chances of finding a ticket had seemed impossible and now we had two tickets in our hands, for free!
Once inside the studio there was food everywhere, so much for those supermarket sandwiches! It wasn’t long before we were allowed to enter the studio and find out where are ‘restricted view’ seats were located. A little before we were let inside, we had heard Madonna rehearsing. The studio was huge and our seats were on the right side right in front of the space where the bets would be taking place. We were seated on the fifth row and they were honestly not that bad. A man that was sitting right next to us was carrying a press kit and run-through of tonight’s show he promised we could have it after the show finished.
It felt surreal to be here after seeing this for years and years on TV and I enjoyed every minute of it (even though I didn’t understand it all). Green Day finished their performance and within seconds the entire stage was transformed into a disco scene, disco balls everywhere….that could only mean one thing! When I spotted Chris Lamb (Madonna’s tour manager) I knew for sure that M was the next performer on stage. Chris was walking around the stage, checking to see if everything was in order. It was unbelievable how within minutes the entire stage had transformed and we were looking at a “Dance Floor”. Thomas Gottschalk got ready to announce the next performer when I saw Madonna’s dancers walk on stage, followed by a very tiny woman. There she was! The audience had spotted her and all started to shout out her name, Thomas was rushed into announcing her.
We got up from our seats and then heard the alarm ticking and Hung Up started. We didn’t sing along, but we certainly screamed along to every single word Madonna sang. She was wearing a silver jacket with matching silver boots and the choreo was similar to the performance at the MTV Awards. Hung Up sounded even better blasting from the speakers and we jumped up and down so high I was afraid the tribune was going to collapse. Once the performance was over, Thomas Gottschalk walked up to Madonna with some flowers and told her how amazing she looked. And she really really did, she looked stunning, she was glowing! Thomas asked her to do some of the choreo with him and she put up her leg on his shoulder. After the chat she waved to the audience and made her exit carrying the flowers.
I was so happy to have seen her in person again, worth every hour in that damn train. The rest of the show wasn’t as interesting to me (obviously) but I did love seeing Cameron Diaz up close. Shakira was there to promote her new single “Don’t Bother”, and oh boy she shouldn’t have ‘bothered’. When we left after the show ended we were given a free ZDF goodie bag, which is always nice. We chose to go back to the hotel by taxi. We watched a re-run of Wetten Dass on TV the next day and hopped back on that train to Amsterdam.
CONFESSIONS ON A DANCE FLOOR
FAME World Premiere Party
Amsterdam, November 10
The day had arrived that I had anticipated and had worked on for so long! I was going to be at FAME early to set up the store in typical Madonna mode. Right before we started to decorate the store, my phone rang and it was the guy from “PUSLE”, he shared the news that three people would be interviewed on live TV tomorrow. Me and Hans were among the three fans that were selected. We had to be present at the studio at 8pm to get our touch-ups. FAME had a stack of Confessions on a Dance Floor posters for us to decorate the store with. There were many disco balls throughout the store and a mini stage was set up in the center. When decorating was done we were allowed to be the first ones in the world to purchase Madonna’s new album!
Many fans were queuing outside waiting to get in to buy their copy too. Everyone was so happy to be there and many fans dressed up for the event. They knew that the best dressed fan would win a special item tonight. It was time to listen to Madonna’s new record! FAME pushed PLAY and Hung Up blasted from the speakers. We all went crazy dancing and singing along. When the song ended most of us had no clue what was coming next. But there was “Get Together” and no one stopped dancing throughout the entire runtime of the record. It was a fantastic way to hear a Madonna record for the very first time.
Meanwhile we were on a hunt for the ‘best dressed fan’ who was awarded with the mega rare official promotional Confessions on a Dance Floor disco ball. The song that truly stood out for me that night was “Push”. We all got a free poster, free window sticker and souvenir pass. FAME gave me a mini disco ball as a thank you.
PULSE
Hilversum, November 11
Exactly one year to the day after meeting Madonna at Selfridges in London, I was on my way to the studio’s to attend the taping of ‘PULSE’. When we got there we were taken to our dressing room which was filled with sweets and a whole buffet was right next door. We were told we could have anything we wanted. Dutch celebrity Gerard Joling was already eating dinner when we joined the table. After this we received our TV make over with a load of foundation. The host Peter van der Vorst came to introduce himself. We had a lot of fun with Gerard Joling as he was goofing around a lot.
We were instructed to record the introduction to ‘PULSE’, we had to stand next to the host while dancing to Madonna’s new music. It was live TV so it was all a bit awkward and my smile was so fake that it looked like I was promoting new toothpaste. A while into the show during a commercial break we were told to sit down at the table where Peter sat at. Then it was time for LIVE TV!
I wasn’t impressed with the questions that he asked Madonna. I mean after asking three times if she really didn’t have any regrets, and getting the same answer over and over, pffffff. I thought Madonna was being very kind. What it felt like to be a middle-aged woman and if Lola had seen her SEX book…..COME ON!! After the interview he said that he thought there was tension during the interview. I simply responded by saying that I had met Madonna myself, and that to fans she acts differently. That she was just very down to earth and very sweet but that she was being “typically Madonna” in this interview.
Apparently Peter wasn’t happy with my answer as he chose not to shake my hand after the recording…….we got some more candy though!
KOKO
London, UK
November 15
I entered every competition out there to win tickets for the official album launch at KOKO in London, but as always with contests I didn’t win. It was also known that Madonna would perform at G-A-Y on November 19, but for this you needed to queue in order to get wristbands. Madonna was also scheduled to perform at BBC’s Children In Need on November 18, but I was told that you couldn’t get tickets for this. So again, without any real confirmation of any ticket for any show, we went to London with the Eurostar.
We arrived on Monday November 14, our hotelroom was the smallest ever but of course that couldn’t spoil the fun. We went shopping that same day in Oxford Street and Soho. We stopped by the kaballah Centre where we spoke to a Dutch teacher. That evening I decided to visit an internetcafe just to check if there was any news about Madonna’s performance at KOKO. To my surprise I read that 200 tickets would be handed out to the first 200 fans waiting in the queue at KOKO. I also read that fans were already queuing now, but it was the night before! We were extremely tired and just couldn’t do that, we hadn’t had a good night’s sleep for three weeks. Instead we planned to go to bed early, set our alarm and head over to Camden by taking the very first train.
So that’s what we did, in the morning we took the train at 5:30am and arrived in Camden a little later. We got off at the wrong stop so had to walk the full length of Camden High Street until we finally reached KOKO. We saw the queuing fans who had been there since yesterday, but when we turned the corner there was already a queue. We quickly joined the queue, we were number 72 and 73. Two guys standing in front of us, named Chris and Gabriel started to talk to us. Together we survived the couple of hours standing in the rain and in the cold. Suddenly we heard that we could go and pick up our ticket already, it was only 11 in the morning! Once given the wristband and ticket you had the choice to leave and come back later or rejoin the queue to wait for tonight’s show.
Before I went in to get my ticket I was interviewed by a man from the UK media. Once we got in we had to fill out a form with our name and phone number. We then got our ticket and gorgeous pink wristband. Back outside the same interviewer continued his interview with me and a photographer took some shots of me and my everlasting fake toothpaste smile. Then I spoke to some friends and we decided to leave to catch some hours of sleep. Chris invited us over to come watch the Parkinson interview and performance at his house.
We agreed to meet at 3:30 in the afternoon at KOKO with Chris and Gabriel. We saw some more friends and time passed by very quickly. More journalists arrived and interviewed me and other fans in the queue, even filming me and for what show I had no clue.
When the doors opened we found that KOKO was a very intimate venue! The floor was quickly filling up and I managed third row on the right side of the catwalk. While waiting there was the usual pushing and shoving. Outside we had seen various vans coming up with all sorts of technical equipment. Needed for tonight’s live broadcast. Someone had already spilled the setlist, she would be performing five songs including “Let It Will Be” so I was really looking forward to that.
The stage was very tiny, it was going to be a very very intimate performance. Finally Madonna’s band entered the stage dressed all in white. We started to scream for Madonna and then I heard the familiar intro to Hung Up. The audience jumped and screamed and were all hyped up for Madonna’s big entrance. There she was!! Wearing a purple jacket, shades, boots, pants and looking all glammed up! It never gets old seeing her in person, she’s so stunningly gorgeous. She was incredibly close and no matter where you were, everyone had a great view of the stage and Madonna. Get Together was performed next and it sounded amazing live. She came close a few times but didn’t touch any of the fans reaching out for her, she was teasing.
When I Love New York kicked in, she went full on rock chick, it was amazing! She just went crazy and so did the crowd. But the real surprise was the new remix to Let It Will Be. This rocked and brought the house down! I was so surprised as it sounded so different from the album version, but I much more prefered this version. Madonna’s moves to the beat and the new way she used her vocals on this song, was just out of this world! The crowd went nuts when she brought the song to a climax by putting her hand down her pants. Madonna was back! This truly was one of her all time best performances, and to actually be there and feel her energy was spectacular. After this breathtaking performance she told the crowd she was going to perform an oldie. I already knew it was going to be ‘Everybody’ but it was so good to hear her very first single live again. She performed it like she had released the song only yesterday. This was the final song of the night and when she left, she left behind a crowd that was soaking wet with sweat.
We were beat after the show but felt so privileged that we were part of the official album launch. Some official merch was offered at KOKO and I bought a promo shirt and poster. There was also a photo booth set up and suddenly we starting running into celebrities. We saw Stella McCartney and when we asked Bob Geldof if we could take a photo of him, he agreed (but didn’t look so happy about it).
The next day I was mentioned in The Daily Record newspaper together with a supposed quote of mine, that I hadn’t actually said. I bought a ton of newspapers with reviews on the show. Later on I heard that my videotaped interview at KOKO had been shown on TV in Holland! A segment was included on SBS6 Shownieuws and it showed me stating that Madonna was “very very good”. Genius interview.
CHILDREN IN NEED
BBC London
November, 18
Today marked the day Madonna’s would perform at BBC’s charity show Children In Need. We didn’t have tickets and didn’t knew anyone who had. We once again decided to make our way to the BBC Studio’s and try our luck. When we got there and found the correct entrance we saw a lot of children (duh) with their parents waiting around in the lobby. We walked over to a reception desk and in our most honest and pleading tone asked her if there were any tickets left for the recording. The woman behind the desk didn’t ask us a single question but stuck her head under her desk. When she came back up she told us “you’re lucky, I have two left!”. Wetten Dass deja-vu!
I could not believe how incredibly lucky we had been on Madonna’s promo tour so far. From not having tickets to anything, to getting free tickets on the spot (for everything). We thanked the lady and she told us to wait in the lobby and instructions would soon follow. A short while later we were told by someone from the production that we had to follow and walk to a different site where the studio was. While we were walking we ran into Chris Lamb again (the tour manager) and greeted him. Once at the studio we had the chance to stuff our belongings in a locker backstage and then walked inside the studio. The studio was quite tiny and only a few rows of seats were available. We quickly made our way to the front and found two fantastic seats on the fourth row right in the center.
Since the fourth row was the very last one of its section we had camera’s and crew behind us. While waiting we spoke to some of the crew members and they told us that Madonna was scheduled to be the very first performer as she didn’t want to wait (it was a live TV broadcast), they would later edit her performance into the broadcast. They were given strict rules and were told that Madonna had set an attendance time limit of 25 minutes. We looked around the audience and noticed we were the only Madonna fans there. Most of the audience were children with their parents and fundraisers. We were sitting really close to the stage and were still wondering what she would look like, when suddenly Madonna’s band walked onto the stage. Out of nowhere Madonna followed suit while looking at the floor and being completely quiet. So was the audience, I don’t think anyone recognized her. She was sooooooooooo tiny. She was wearing a silver glittery 70s style dress with matching boots, quite a different look from her performance at KOKO.
The audience seemed to recognize her and started to cheer, that only increased when Madonna smiled at them. When we heard the first seconds of “Get Together” we immediately stood up and started to clap and sing along. We were so close to her, it was incredible and she looked stunning. The audience didn’t really know the song but clapped along anyways. Since we were enthusiastically singing along to every single word, she noticed us and pointed at us when she sang the lyric “come on over here”. She was all smiles but she was so different from performing at KOKO. Everything about this performance was very modest, but also a lot of fun!
When she finished performing “Get Together” she left the stage (for a touch up probably) and they filmed something else on stage. Madonna then returned to perform “Hung Up”. The audience knew this song very well and they sang and jumped along. We tried to take a picture but since we were sneakily doing this without a flash, they turned out very dark (the good old days when we had disposable cameras). Madonna gave it her all and she sang to a lot of children in the front row, which we loved. When “Hung Up” finished the host of the show came out to greet her and asked her to read a phone number from the screen to the people watching at home. That screen was right behind our backs and Simon had to duck as his head was blocking it a bit. Madonna squinted and tried to read the number but she got it wrong anyway. She left the stage quietly after waving to the audience.
G-A-Y
London, November 19
We took the first train to Tottenham Court Road where the queue was at the G-A-Y bar. We arrived around 6am and quite a big queue had formed already. Gladly not long after we were there, Chris, Gabriel, Hans and Peter joined us. It was pretty cold, but we brought a blanket from the hotel so it was ok. We were allowed to leave the queue to use the toilet, grab something to eat or drink or whatever else we needed. The queue for the people with a voucher seemed to be much longer at first until suddenly our queue went all the way up to the park.
At noon it was time for us to pick up our wristbands, once inside the G-A-Y bar we paid an entrance fee of 20GBP. Someone then handed us the purple wristband and a fact sheet of the rules of tonight’s event. Hans was extremely happy to get his wristband as this would be the very first time for him to see Madonna again since the Re-Invention Tour. We now went back to the hotel to catch some sleep. In the evening we had dinner with our friends and together we went to the G-A-Y club.
We entered the club around 10pm, I had never been here before so it was all new to me. The club was really crowded and much bigger than expected. They had a cloakroom so we put away our coats and then went inside to try and find a good spot near the stage. The stage was quite high and much bigger than it had been at KOKO, and did I mention that it was VERY crowded? We found an amazing spot at the very front on the right side of the stage. We had been told that pictures were allowed for once!
Finally after waiting hours, the show seemed to start at 1:30am as Madonna’s band entered and smiled at all the people cheering for Madonna. Then “Hung Up” started and Madonna made her grand entrance all dressed up in hot pink! She looked fabulous, like a copy from the album cover artwork! The crowd just lost it, they were so loud that it was hard at times to hear Madonna. I was so close and could see everything perfectly. Madonna was very funny and joked around a lot. She took off her shirt and told the front row to do the same. I objected, but Hans obeyed. When people threw their shirts to Madonna she kindly asked to stop as they were a bit stinky.
She was having so much fun on stage and was going crazy. Telling us that KOKO was just a warm up and that this gig was kicking that gig’s ass. And that she made her album for us fuckers, well thank you Madonna. But she was so amazing, she looked amazing, hotter than ever! It was the most playful I had ever seen her, she was obviously having a great time. The setlist was similar to KOKO but she gave it all a little more extra, she just added to it. She came over to our side a lot and drank her water bottle right in front of us. I have never felt so much energy in one room as I did that night, she’s such an amazing performer, there is truly no other like her! “Let It Will Be” was again the highlight of the set and Madonna took it even further this time. She surprised us all by performing a bit of “Jump” after “Everybody” which was welcomed by everyone attending! As a response we all jumped to ‘Jump’. She was such a tease, coming close to you, so close that you could almost touch her and then when you were about to touch her, she turned her back on you.
I truly have never experienced anything like this, it was one of her best performances ever (if not the best!) it was certainly the most fun ever. When Madonna made her grand exit after “Jump”, we went to get our coats and suddenly lost each other in the crowd. It upset me a bit as I was also dying to eat something quickly. Getting back to our hotel wasn’t easy at this hour, but managed to find a bus after searching for half an hour.
What an AMAZING month we were having! From having no tickets to any of Madonna’s promo shows, to getting tickets for free to everything.
We went with nothing but left with everything.
Thank you once again Madonna!
Kimberly van Pinxteren
