Diary days...

Since I posted about my early days as a U2 fan last week I've been thinking about those years quite a bit. So I ventured to my bookcase this afternoon. This bookcase has one entire shelf dedicated to my diaries, which go back to 1982. (In fact, one of the things that annoys me about blogging is that I don't keep a diary for myself any more ... anyway.)

I pulled out the diaries from 1988 and 1989 and once I'd finishing cringing (BIG cringe factor involved for me in any glance back THAT far!) I decided to share a little from them.

Last post I mentioned that I sent Bono and the boys birthday cards - yeah, well I also cut out the paper bag from Coonabarabran Newsagency, the bag in which the card was carried and stuck that into my diary. Okaaaaaay.



I also had a bet some years ago (in fact, I have been meaning to go back to this one because it gets mentioned at family get togethers). My sister bet me I wouldn't like U2 in a year. Ha, no worries there. And my brother bet me $50 (a handsome sum indeed - he wouldn't have even owned such an amount back then) that I wouldn't like U2 in 1995 ... read it and weep, bro!! Oh, and you owe me 50 smackers.



I also found this:



It's the nearest I got to seeing U2 on their Lovetown tour in 1989.

All these years later it still kills me to think of how close I got. As you'd expect, I had a countdown in my diary for MONTHS prior (the excitement builds on every page). My parents made the 900km round trip to Sydney in our old Econovan to take me and my sister to this concert.
We were across from the Entertainment Centre at Darling Harbour just a couple of hours before the show when we heard on the radio that Bono had lost his voice.

Oh, the horror.

Talk about upset! Months and months of anticipation had brought me to this point and out of the 10 or however many shows they had I had to have a ticket to the one that cancelled.

Naturally I cried. So much that a kindly security guard at the Entertainment Centre gave me a piece of paper and to write my name and address on it and he would try to pass it to the band for me. So for months I clung the vague hope of an autograph or something materialising in our mailbox. Of course it never did; he was just being nice.

The band did reschedule that concert, after they'd been to Japan they came back and played for the ticketholders who missed out.

Sadly - oh, SO sadly - I couldn't get to the rescheduled concert ... it fell right in the middle of my exams.
Sob.

Anyhow, it still pains me to think of that missed concert. I have, however, made up for things somewhat. The next time U2 came out to Australia I was finished uni and working.

I bought tickets to every night they played.