For the rest of the afternoon, Tay, Ike, Zac, Andy and myself just hung around, not doing a whole lot. We hit upon the idea of teaching Andy to rollerblade, so we strapped a pair on his feet and a crash helmet to his head and guided him out to the car park. Considering that this was his first attempt, he did surprisingly well, managing to skate practically un-aided after the first five minutes or so.

All too soon, the stage manager came out and gave us a bollocking, saying we should be getting ready for the performance. Looking at my watch, I saw it was five minutes to six - only about an hour to go!

We all headed off towards the dressing rooms (another trailer) and watched as Ike, Tay and Zac got ready. I wish I had the resources to get a wardrobe like they had together - Zac ended up in a pair of tight white jeans and a near-fluroescent yellow tank top. Tay wore a white Adidas T-shirt with twin black stripes down the arms alog with a pair of very baggy maroon trousers and his favourite CATs. Ike wentt for the biker look: Black jeans, plain white T-shirt and a black leather jacket.

By this time it was T minus thirty minutes and counting, and everyone was nervous - even Andy who wasn't actually doing anything! (Infact this probably compounded the problem - If you don't have anything to do, then you have more time to worry...)

I decided I'd better go and get my camera ready. I too'd changed my clothes but into something a little less conspicuous: Black jeans and a long sleeved black shirt. For the first time since I'd been with Tay, I actually tied my hair back, revealing the undercut I'd got. I'd done this as it allowed me to be casual when I wanted, and relatively smart looking when required. Although not required to look smart this evening, it kept my hair out of the viewfinder!

I told everyone to "Break a leg" and kissed Tay good luck. I headed to the vision mixing room and picked up my camera and a couple of spare batteries, the director giving me a few extra ideas about the sorts of shots he wanted. To my horror, the first thing he wanted me to do was walk into the middle of the stage and wave at the crowd. With any lick, they'd see themslves on the huge screens either side of the stage and wave back. I took a deep breath and headed towards the stage door.

Before I even got close, the thing that impressed me was the sheer volume of the crowd - and Hanson wasn't even on stage yet! When I opened the stage door, the sound waves hit me like I'd run into a brick wall. You didn't just hear the sound, you experienced it with every sense your body posessed, and then some! Words simply fail to express the shere enormity of the situation. To give you some idea, my camera's VU meters had already dropped off the far end of the scale and, if they'd had their way, would've punched a hole in the side of the viewfinder!

I braced myself and walked up the short flight of steps to the stage. Peering round the wings, I could see nothing but an ungulating, swirling, flowing mass of people, all of them without exception here for one purpose and one purpose only: to experience the child prodigies known as Hanson...

Pulling myself together, I decided to "jump" and stepped out onto the stage. As soon as I became visible, the volume level doubled, that in itself was something to be experienced. Here was I, an unknown, standing on stage with a Sony DV camcorder pointed right at a few thousand people. I took a few steps foreward and raised my left hand to wave with. Immediately, everyone in the audience who was directly infront of the stage started waving back and leaping around, desperate to make it into my field of vision.

Deciding this wasn't too bad, I headed for the steps thet led from the front of stage to the camera run, between the stage and the audience. Trying to keep the camera as stedy as possible, I did a tracking shot, walking backwards aling the entire front of the crowd - arms being waved and banners displayed, everyone pronouncing their passion for their favourite group.

When I was about half way along the line, I fealt sure I recognised one of the faces that was waving wildly, however I could not stop until the shot was complete. Once I'd reached the end of the line, my "on-line" light went out, signalling I was no longer being "used" by the director. His rasping voice in my headset told me that was a great shot and to stand by.

I took the opportunity to walk back to the centre of the line to investigate who it was I thought my mind had recognised. It must've been the hair that caught my attention as that was all I could really see as I approached, but within moments, I recognised the hair's owner to be none other than Gareth from school!

"Gareth!" He just kept waving with the crowd...

"GARETH!!" A puzzled look appeared on his face as he wondered how the hell one of the Hanson stage crew knew his name. He decided which one of us was yelling and suddenly recognised who I was.

"HEY! DEAN! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

"IT'S A LONG STORY! I MET TAYLOR HA... JUST COME HERE..." I yelled, pulling him over the barrier. The other fans around him decided this was a good idea too, and tried to leap over after him, but were soon put back in their place by Kevin and his colleagues.

Gareth was physically shaking with excitement. First it was pure luck he'd been able to attend. Second, somehow he managed to get himself to the very front as the huge wave of people washed into the arena, and now a friend from school, inexplicably managing to be one of the crew, had pulled him over the crowd barriers so he got a better-than-front row seat! You could easily see he was overwhealmed...

Just then I got a message through my headset saying they were about to come on stage. "Dean, cover the crowd as they walk on. I want some of those over-reactions from the girls..."

"GET READY!" I yelled at Gareth. He just looked back at me, the expression on his face one of sheer disbelief and anticipation. By the looks of things, everything was going just that little bit faster than he'd expected...

Then the show started - the entire arena was plunged into pitch darkness and everything went quiet. Then there was a crash from on stage.

"Hey - anyone got a torch?" asked Zac's amplified voice from the centre of the stage. A huge scream went up from the crowd as he said it, quite taking me by surprise (although I guess I should've expected it...)

"Over here, Zac," came Tay's reply from the right. Tay then switched on a torch and pointed it at his own face. The scream that went up then was something else: it must've been four times louder than before! My hearing started crackling like a tape that's been over recorded...

"Uh, guys, I think I've found the power switch," said Ike from somewhere off the side. A couple of second later, there was the sound of a large circuit breaker being thrown and the three brothers were each illuminated by their own private pool of dim light.

Ike came out from the wings (to yet another scream) wearing a hard hat with a head torch strapped to the top with parcel tape, and picked up his guitar.

Without saying another word, they immediatly started playing the opening bars of "Thinking of You", the lights on the stage coming back to life one by one with each of Zac's drum beats. It must be said that these guys sure knew how to put on a performance!

Throughout the whole song, almost every time Tay sung "I'll be thinkin' of you..." he kept glancing at me. Here were thousands upon thousands of people, all desperately wanting his body (and I'm sure he could've had any of em - boy or girl - if he'd have wanted to) but he kept looking at ME! To say I was happy was a severe understatement...

As I was leaping around with the camera, I noticed that Gareth was still stunned: he was hardly moving and just gawpsing at the Adonii on stage.

"Dean, I want a shot of Zac from the side so he can mug at the audience..." I decided to really make Gareth's day, so I grabbed his arm and began pulling him towards the stage with me. I suddenly felt the resistance increase and looked round to see what was wrong. The expression on his face had gone from disbelief to shit-scared. I smled back to encourage him and yelled "YOU DON'T HAVE TO COME ON STAGE - JUST STAND IN THE WINGS WHILE I GO FILM ZAC!"

He nodded his ascent and allowed me to guide him back stage. We jogged round the backdrop and I strode on stage, leaving Gareth in the wings. Zac didn't disappoint and immediately started showing off - not looking at his drums or the others, just the camera. I saw his eyes leave me a couple of times, something that he doesn't normally do. As soon as my "on-line" light went out, he mouthed "Who's that?"

"A friend," I mouthed back. Zac just grinned widely and craned his neck to try and get a better view. Not wishing to put him off too much, I stood out of his way and started filming Tay instead. Just as the song was finishing, I got a "OK, Dean, I want... Oh, you're already there!" through my headset. As he said that, I was back on-line to cover Tay addressing his adoring fans.

"Hiya, Birmingham!"

<<>>

"Shhhhhhhh...." The screaming died down to a more reasonable level. "There's only one rule at Hanson concerts - you must NOT stand still! We want you all to join in!!"

That did it. The room virtually exploded with sound. Just to top it all, Ike picked up a sound meter from by his mic stand and announced: "Now, Zac and Tay here think you're the loudest crowd we've ever had - BUT I DON'T BELIEVE IT!"

The scream that went up that time was louder than all the rest put together. I just gave up trying to hold my headphones over my ears to block it. I already had permanent hearing damage...

"Dean - get over to Ike and film that sound meter..." the director yelled in my ear. Good thing, too, or I wouldn't have heard him...

"Who's your favorite group?"

"Hanson!" yelled the crowd in unison.

"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU..."

"HANSON!"

The sound meter was peaking at about 115dB. That's almost as loud as a jet aircraft at 30 metres...

"ONE MORE TIME!"

"__H_A_N_S_O_N__"

That did it. The needle buried itself over on the far right of the scale at the 135dB mark and got stuck. Permanantly.

"Well, that's it - you're now officially the most rowdy crowd we've ever played for!"

A huge cheer went up, everyone obviously impressed with their efforts.

"And as such, we couldn't possibly go for more than A Minute Without You!"

The rest of the concert was excellent, Hanson shining through and performing (and I mean performing) every song from "Middle of Nowhere" and in the middle of it all, completely unanounced, sang such a moving vocals-only rendition of O Holy Night it nearly brought me to tears. Just hearing those three voices - nothing else - singing those immortal words in perfect harmony was just magical:

          "Fall on your knees,
          O hear the angel voices,
          Night devine
          O night when Christ was born..."

If you weren't a Christian when you entered the building, you sure were when you left...

It all went without hitches bar one: Zac got a little too over-enthusiastic in MMMBop and managed to break a drum stick, sending it flying about five feet into the air. Luckily it was in a convenient place and the crowd did an excellent job of singing for them whilst one of the guys backstage raced around looking for a spare pair.

The concert finished with a lot of stage re-arranging, something that I was not expecting. Off went Zac's drums, Tay's keyboards and Ike's electric guitar, being replaced by a full size grand piano and a string quartet! Everyone in the crowd looked as puzzled as hell, but soon everything became clear as Tay sat down at the Steinway. The whole arena fell to silence as he played the opening bars of "At Christmas", soon being joined by Ike leading the vocals and accompanying Tay with his acoustic guitar, and mainly the double bass and cello from the quartet.

During the second chorous, the heavens opened, snowflakes and baloons gently falling from the roof onto the crowd, me getting it all on tape. By the end of it all, I could honestly say I'd been shaken by my emotional foundations: the intenation and feeling that Ike, Tay and Zac put into this performance surpassed my expectations ten-fold. Every note, every chord, every harmony - they all came from deep within their hearts and there wasn't a single person there that didn't feel the magic generated by these three talented young men.

The cheer that went up at the end wasn't just one of "well done", it was a sincere, heart-felt emotion that was amplified by the shere number of people, darting from euphoria to sadness and back again, all in a split second. It was unlike anything I'd ever witnessed before or since.


On to Chapter Fourteen

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Email the Author - dean@meta4.org