abstractharmony
Super Freak
Was this the greatest weekend of my life?
Well…no. But it certainly ranks up there with them.
As everyone knows (unless they’ve been hiding under a rock) Star Wars is 30 this year and Uncle George decided to throw two parties. On in the US and one in Merry Olde England.
I had the fortune to attend and work as a part of this inaugural Celebration Europe and I’m here to give you the lowdown on my own take on the ultimate European Star Wars Party.
The weekend for me really started on Wednesday night with my packing and dividing all the cash for the Freaks’ print and merchandise orders into separate envelopes so that I could keep track of what I had picked up and booking my cab for the ungodly hour of 5.45am Thursday morning. I had hoped to get an early night but that was not to be and I eventually fell into bed at 11.30pm.
BRRRRRRRIIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!!!
The doorbell rang and it was the cab. 30 minutes early (they thought that I had told them that my train was at 5.45!). So after a few hasty words with the driver he agreed that he’s come back in a while and I hauled my ass out of bed and got ready for what was undoubtedly going to be a long, long day.
Arrived at the station with barely three minutes to catch my train (thanks to the driver being late in returning!!!!! – not using that cab service again.) but luckily was able to grab a bottle of water and some gum from the station shop.
LUGGAGE PHOTO
3 hours later I had arrived – the Capital of England and a dirty, stinking hole to boot. LONDON!!!!!!
I stashed my bags at the left luggage and headed to the County Hall in Westminster for the Star Wars Exhibition, the travelling display of costumes and vehicles that is presently touring Europe. Many of the exhibits were the same as what were featured in the ‘Art of Star Wars’ exhibition in 2000 but some lovely new stuff and after a couple of hours and 250 photos I decided that I had better head on over to the show venue to pick up my Fan Club Lanyard.
EXCEL PHOTO
Arriving at the Excel Centre I was immediately impressed by the scope of what we were about to receive. A hubbub of activity surrounded the centre I was delighted to discover one Mr. David Prowse having a coffee and a chat with Warwick Davis, certainly a case of the long and short of it.
After some initial confusion with the box office staff (ie. – there were none) the staff and the passes eventually arrived and after scoring a few extra ‘friends and family’ lanyards I made my way back to Central London to join the queue for the Gentle Giant World Tour stop at Forbidden Planet to begin my Freaks shopping.
I arrived at the store at 3.00pm and was told to head around the back where the queue had already started to form.
QUEUE PHOTO
The nearer it got to the 5pm kick-off the longer the queue got and the more excitable the crowd became as competition forms were filled in to have your head scanned by Gentle Giant and one lucky winner being chosen to receive a clone trooper body with their head on it.
Then the hour came and Karl Meyer strode out to meet the masses, hand out shirts and confirm that the highly sought after Bly bust would be limited to two per person. A cheer erupted and the doors opened with many folks bring their friends along for extra ‘trade fodder’. I myself was lucky enough to convince a girl standing in front of me (who wasn’t getting any for herself) to obtain extra for me and a friend of mine in the line.
As I entered the store I was loaded up with the goodies and shepherded down the line to meet Mr. Meyer. Emboldened by my luck in the queue I decided to give him some stick about the amount of exclusives for my collecting buddies. His response? Well, lets just say it was a little more dismissive than I had hoped it would be. He said ‘They thing is, if people want them, they’ll get them. It’s a worldwide marketplace these days and the fans can get them if they really want them.” I asked him if he thought it was right that collectors were having to pay up to ten times retail value for a bust. His response “the hardcore fans will pay it. If they want it they’ll get it”. Has this ‘rock star’ really no idea about commercial sense?
From emboldened to aghast in one conversation.
Then, it was time for food and to retire to get my beauty sleep for the 1st day of Celebration Europe.
5.30am. Awake and excited I quickly showered and headed out to Excel for my 7.00 staff call to find out what my duties would be for the weekend and what we could expect to see from the Con. Being given the sweet, sweet job of Guest Liason in the autograph hall I was looking forward to three afternoons of sitting on my backside and gassing with a Star Wars celeb in between Autographs (how wrong I was to be…more on that later).
I then decided, on reflection rather foolishly, to join my compatriots in the queue and wait for doors to open at 9.00 for the early entry for Hyperspace members. The queue was full of excited chatter regarding rumours of the bearded one’s appearance (he didn’t!) and what could be expected from the 72 hours that lay ahead. 8.30 came and we were let in to the lobby where a giant inflatable Death Star complete with lasers and star scene awaited us.
A little bit of excitement followed this as the diving wall between the lobby and the autograph hall collapsed onto the fans prompting swift action from a number of us taller folks preventing the wall from falling any further, the Excel security team sprang into action getting the wall reset and showing the only decent bit of planning they could muster all weekend (again…more on that later).
9.00am. On with the show and we piled through the turnstiles to enjoy the show those of us in the know heading immediately for the Autograph Hall to purchase our tickets to meet the man himself, the boy with the twin suns and the feathered hair, he who would be bringing balance to the force, Mark Hamill.
This is where we had the first taste of what was to come.
No-one knew what was going on, people were spread from one queue to the next and were turned back when it was revealed that there was only one queue for the Mark Hamill tickets and much queue jumping (by our continental bretheren) and heated discussions ensued. However, I got a ticket so, quite honestly, I no longer cared (I decided that I was entitled to little bit of selfishness here…) and pocketing my ticket headed off to spend all my Freaky Funds in Artist’s Alley.
This was tucked away in black panelled booths at the very back of the hall in front of a huge black curtain with nothing really to guide your eye or your wallet to the esteemed pencil wranglers that lay within. My first port of call was the extremely cool Russell Walks where I obtained his ‘Greetings from Cellblock 1138’ print and got a free Artist’s Proof of his CIV print that is absolutely stunning.
I then headed off to meet fellow Freaks, Allison, Adam and Cat and sorted out the print requests. Already, with the show open less than 30 minutes Adam’s time was being eaten up with numerous requests and so I enjoyed the company of two of the loveliest ladies, Allison and Cat. But I couldn’t stop and shoot the proverbial all day as I had more prints to pick up so it was off to the table of ‘J to the V’ Jerry Venderstelt to marvel at his simply jaw dropping Yoda print (which was easily the bargain of the show at £30!!!!).
Scoring the other prints I went off to pay and was grinning like a fool at spending £2000.00 of other people’s money on prints. I was able to stash the print tubes at Cat’s stand and went off to join the queue for Mark Hamill.
I will say at this point that I was very fortunate to be in the first 50 or so people to join the queue and therefore didn’t really see (at least on that day) the chaos being caused by the ridiculous queuing system. After waiting about 90 minutes to 2 hours Mark arrived with his agent (the much maligned Derek Maki) and the queuing was immediately forgotten. Expecting the experience to be somewhat of a ‘Shat’ experience I was overjoyed to see Mark really, really taking the time to make sure that everyone had a very pleasant experience (he was especially fantastic with kids).
Then it was my turn and time seemed to slow down as I got nearer the signing. Here in front of me was a guy who had been my hero since I was four. The man whose adsventures had got me through so much stuff, the guy who quite frankly changed my life with his filmed adventures and gave my mind the first taste of imagination. I hope that you can feel from this the immensity, at least for me, of meeting this man.
I made sure that I stopped and thanked Derek for bringing him over for the con and he seemed genuinely touched that I had taken the time to do this. Then. Here I was. Mark & Mark. Face to face. I went to pieces. Inside though.On the outside I called on my professional reserves and remained calm thanking Mark for coming, he asked me about myself and I repeated the story he no doubt heard 300 times that day and we had a brief chat about his voicework. He signed my book and then we had a picture together.
The entire thing probably took something like 5 minutes but will be etched on my heart and my brain forever.
So once again, THANK YOU to Mark and to Derek for making this possible.
It was then time for my shift to start so pulling on my Crew shirt I tracked down the ‘floor boss’ John to see where I would be going. Would it be Anthony Daniels who was being great with the fans, chatting and posing for pictures, working his own line with a great sense of humour? Would it be Shannon McRandall, the face of Mara Jade? Peter Mayhew? Jeremy Bulloch? Kenny Baker?
No. It was to shadow the Excel security guards for an hour or so and try and stop them from ****ing things up too much for the visitors to the show.
However, as the autograph area was fairly quiet (apart from Mark) I was told that I could see what else needed doing and was released from the Autograph Hall and decided to swing by Artists Alley again to see the folks. Good job I did too. Cat was dead on her feet with jetlag and as she went off to have a nap at her hotel I took the opportunity to do some ‘print pimping’ on her behalf much to the amusement of Chris Trevas, Joe Corroney & Cynthia Cummins who I don’t think had ever seen anything like it. I did the job though and I was able to shift some of Cat’s prints and sketchbooks.
When Cat returned looking refreshed after a little….wait for it…wait for it…cat-nap (Bwah-ha-ha-ha) I decided to do a drink run for the artists and then use my pass to queue jump (ah, the benefits of staffing…) into Mark Hamill’s panel where Warwick Davis did an astounding job of MC-ing the panel. Brief highlights :-
He doesn’t know any of the further storyline for his character as he is very possessive of any character he plays
He loves George
He was open to the possibility of a further trilogy
He would really like the extra Luke scenes put back in to EpIV not so it’s more of him but because he felt that it added more emotional weight to the moment that Biggs dies and Luke relies on the force for the first time.
He would do anything George wanted him to.
Then it was time for the ‘opening ceremony’ – I couldn’t see the point of having the opening cermony at the end of the first day but maybe that was just me. However, the sight of 10,000 Star Wars fans sat on a field in the open air was truly something to behold as Steve Sansweet officially opened the Show, Mark Hamill introduced Ian McDiarmind who, in turn, introduced ‘Star Wars ; A New Hope’ to the assembled throng thus beginning the open air showing of the first film in the original trilogy.
I was very tired by this point and decided to head back to my hotel for my first bit of food of the day.
Apologies for the following photos, my camera was on maximum digital zoom :-
SANSWEET PHOTO
HAMILL PHOTO
Day two. Saturday, the busiest day of the show, 24,000 tickets having sold in advance and me on duty at 8.30am in the Fan Section.
But that’s not right. At 8.30am I was still in bed having slept through my alarm some 45 minutes away from the show at my hotel in Kings Cross. Waking at 9.15 I dived into the shower, grabbed my bag and got to the centre as fast as I could arriving at 10.15 much the amusement of my show colleagues.
I had my shifts changed and had an hour to spare so for the first time headed up to the ‘Clone Wars’ panel in the upstairs, Platinum Suite. I WAS FLOORED. I had seen the trailer before online but it was nothing like this. The room shook, my eyes welled up at the glory that is the new ‘Clone Wars’ show. An added bonus to this was a great little making-of video feature with the production staff. I HAD to see this again so waited for the next panel to start and sat through it once more. AWESOME!!!!
It was them time for me to head into the depths of the convention hall and check out the sets, the costumes, the dealers and the exhibitors before my shift started. Then I was given the task for the day. The Costume Competition. I made my way around the entire convention taking photos and inviting folks to join the competition. Aside from the usual Jedis, Slave Leias and Troopers there was an outstanding array of ladies dressed in Padme’s many outfits all of which were very well done my favourite two are below :-
FRENCH PADME
AOTC PADME
There was also a couple with him dressed as ANH Leia in the white dress and her dressed as Dagobah training Luke. Very Cool and oddly bizarre also.
After I had completed seemingly hundreds of forms (actually only 75) with costumers it was time for my lunch break and instead of eating (who needs food right?) I took in Shane Turgeon’s Tattoo booth and now, more than ever, am inspired to take the needle. Some of these guys had some oustanding work done. Buy his book immediately, you won’t regret it.
1.00pm and it was back on duty and back to the autograph hall as I entered the hall I knew that something wasn’t right. Raised voices, stressed looks and screaming children. That’s right folks. The Mark Hamill queue had gone nuclear.
Mark had set a limit of 600 tickets per day and was intending on signing for 3 hours within the first 10 minutes of Friday it was apparent that it was going to take a lot longer than that as Mark was doing his utmost to make it an fantastic experience for anyone who met him.
Unfortunately, a delayed arrival on Friday meant that it had a knock on effect with Mark having to sign 200 of Friday’s tickets (so I am lead to believe) on Saturday as well as all of the tickets sold for Saturday.
This, combined with the crazy queuing system instituted by the Excel staff was leading to some frayed tempers from all parties (including the other artists who had hadn’t had anyone to see them for an hour due to the Excel staff using the queue to block the entrance to the hall. It was into the thick of this that I waded with Gusto.
Swiftly clearly a path to the autograph hall and ensuring the security were keeping the space free I went along the line ensuring that everyone had tickets for Mark ( they didn’t), everyone was only queuing for Mark (they weren’t) and suggesting that people not wait in line, go and enjoy the rest of the show and come back later when the queue had died down (they wouldn’t).
Making sure that the queue outside the enclosure was as calm and as orderly as it could be I headed back into the main hall and tried to restore sanity to the ‘snaked’ section of the queue. Not an easy task and one that took my, not inconsiderable, reserves of humour and the ability to smile and be polite. However, with the assistance of Danny from Coolwaters (Mark’s agent) and Derek Maki himself I was able to provide updates and keep the queue flowing, albeit slowly, for the rest of the afternoon.
Some people however insisted on talking to me like dirt and shouting at me despite my assurances that we were doing what we could. I certainly saw both sides of the ‘good old British spirit’ that day. The lowest point came when I had to inform the gathered hordes that Mark was no longer doing posed photos due to a lack of time. It was not pleasant.
The best thing about it though was that no-one left without a smile and an acknowledgement that the wait had been ‘worth it’ which is testament to Mark’s graciousness with the fans.
Quite bizzarely, a number of the people who had been in the queue made a special effort to find me and thank me personally for looking after the queue and some even requested photos with me (which I found a bit odd…).
At 5.40, the last Autograph was signed and Mark requested that the ‘survivors’ of the queue wranglers pose for a group picture with him and he thanked us all profusely for our assistance. To me, this was certainly part of the weekend that I won’t forget in a hurry.
I then hauled booty up to the Platinum suite where the world premiere of a rough cut of the movie ‘Fanboys’ was being shown together with a Q&A afterwards. The movie is great but I’m not sure how it would play to people who weren’t Star Wars or genre fans. There’s far too many in-jokes but certainly a very nicely made, funny yet touching movie celebrating the excitement and joy we all felt when Episode One was being readied for release.
I saw the start of the Q&A but was woken up by a fellow staffer to an empty screening room my having dropped off from sheer exhaustion.
I decided that I’d better forego the Party and head home to pack my stuff together ready for the final day of the show. On my way out however I witnessed the amazing site of a impromptu mass Force FX lightsaber duel taking place on one of the bridges from the centre which looked great.
YOU TUBE LINK
Stashing my bags at Euston train station I headed to the show early so that I could get my picture taken on all of the main props without Joe Q. Public and his kid getting in the shot and myself, Jerry Vanderstelt, Randy Martinez and his partner made our way round the sets taking each others photos.
I was also able to play (and beat) Jerry Vanderstelt at Dejarik – take that brush jockey!!! (Obviously because of the higher frequencies at which the holodeck works you can’t see the table monsters using a normal camera but rest assured they were there and I beat him – Ahem!).
Taking advantage of a morning off duty I wandered around the show taking advantage of the many great deals both at the Celebration Europe store and with the dealers (I was however able to resist a Sideshow Jabba for £60.00! I was gutted but I really have nowhere to display him).
The Ray Park panel was the main draw of the day in the celebrity stage and once again Warwick Davis did a great job and made a special appearance as Obi-Wan in a recreaction (replete with audience members as Qui Gon and the Laser Barriers) of the final duel. Ray was on top form (as usual) and answered all questions with a smile and a tale or two. Always a fan favourite.
The Indy old boys panel was next with a discussion with Sideshow friend Lorne Peterson, Robert Watts and Norman Reynolds going over some footage from the first two Indy movies and this panel gave us some really interesting titbits like the fact that Robert Watts, a very slight man, was first live guinea pig for the boulder stunt in Raiders and that the Bridge scene in Temple of Doom was done in one-take completely live.
Lorne told us that they had got their bid accepted for the Indy models and that they begin work on those shortly and it was roundly agreed that everyone is looking forward to Indy IV (except Warwick Davis who wanted to replace Harrison as Indiana – even showing us a hilarious ‘audition showreel’ for the part).
I was able to catch Charlie Ross’ One Man Star Wars show before I started my last shift and without ruining it. If this show comes to your town you MUST do everything in your power to obtain tickets. He has an amazing take on the trilogy that will have you in stitches.
After my sterling work on Mark’s queue the day before I was asked to work Billy Dee William’ queue today and this basically involved my taking people’s names and writing them down on post-it notes if they wanted anything personalising. This the queue was much more managable and allowed me time to interact with Anthony Daniels who was trying (with some success) to poach people from the queue into his own.
Mr. Williams was extremely tired and headed back to the hotel leaving us with no indication of when, if at all, he would return closing the queue down for a while we were able to joint the rest of the volunteer crew in the rest of the hall which was really quite nicely busy with Bulloch, Park, Prowse and Baker still pulling crowds umpteen convention appearances later.
Once we heard that Billy would be back we opened the queue and waited, and waited, the crowd were getting anxious asking for updates which we were unable to give them until at last Mr. Smooth returned and signed for everyone who was waiting and for the volunteer staffers who had helped that weekend, as did Anthony Daniels who although has a re****tion for being ‘difficult’ could not have been nicer with visitors or crew.
To be completely honest, this weekend has really opened my eyes to the so-called ‘nasty’ stars and agents. The bottom line is that they aren’t nasty, they’re really, really nice people. Speak to them nicely without the demand in your voice and they will do the same.
All of the staff from Coolwaters were great this weekend, amazing even at some points and this was only underscored by a gesture made by Derek Maki last thing on Sunday after the show had closed.
He gathered all of the volunteers round and handed us all a stack of autographs from all of his clients who had been at the show, including Mark and Billy, some £300.00 of free autographs. It was a gesture he didn’t have to make and one that, if he was as bad as people would have you believe, he wouldn’t have made and this simple yet heartfelt gift was the icing on the top of a sweet tasting cake that was Celebration Europe.
AUTOS PHOTO
But what about the cherry I hear you ask...
Well…I took myself off to Artists Alley to say my farewells to the folks that I had met over the weekend and to wish everyone a safe journey home when Jerry Venderstelt stopped me and handed me a signed Artists Proof of his Celebration Three piece as a gift!!!!!!
CELEBRATION THREE PHOTO
How’s that for cherry?
With that I walked out into the balmy Sunday evening and said my goodbye with a lump in my throat to Celebration Europe and everyone still hanging around outside, laughing, joking, duelling, exchanging e-mails, forum Id’s, phone numbers and more importantly, looking forward to the next time that Uncle George allows us to play.
LUGGAGE PHOTO 2
Thanks for reading my very personal account of Celebration Europe and now…
The competition!
As you can see from the photos above I have on a very splendid, not to mention limited, cast and crew shirt. I have however managed to secure one that has not been worn and sweated in and is pictured below.
SHIRT PHOTO
In order to win this shirt, the Hasbro CE Coin and a postcard of Russell Walks print all you have to do is try and guess (to the nearest £10.00) how much, in total, I have spent, this weekend (including Freaks orders…) on Merchandise at Celebration Europe.
Answer in this thread and the competition will close at Midnight BST on Wednesday 18th July 2007.
Nearest answer wins.
Take your best shot!!!!
Well…no. But it certainly ranks up there with them.
As everyone knows (unless they’ve been hiding under a rock) Star Wars is 30 this year and Uncle George decided to throw two parties. On in the US and one in Merry Olde England.
I had the fortune to attend and work as a part of this inaugural Celebration Europe and I’m here to give you the lowdown on my own take on the ultimate European Star Wars Party.
The weekend for me really started on Wednesday night with my packing and dividing all the cash for the Freaks’ print and merchandise orders into separate envelopes so that I could keep track of what I had picked up and booking my cab for the ungodly hour of 5.45am Thursday morning. I had hoped to get an early night but that was not to be and I eventually fell into bed at 11.30pm.
BRRRRRRRIIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!!!
The doorbell rang and it was the cab. 30 minutes early (they thought that I had told them that my train was at 5.45!). So after a few hasty words with the driver he agreed that he’s come back in a while and I hauled my ass out of bed and got ready for what was undoubtedly going to be a long, long day.
Arrived at the station with barely three minutes to catch my train (thanks to the driver being late in returning!!!!! – not using that cab service again.) but luckily was able to grab a bottle of water and some gum from the station shop.
LUGGAGE PHOTO
3 hours later I had arrived – the Capital of England and a dirty, stinking hole to boot. LONDON!!!!!!
I stashed my bags at the left luggage and headed to the County Hall in Westminster for the Star Wars Exhibition, the travelling display of costumes and vehicles that is presently touring Europe. Many of the exhibits were the same as what were featured in the ‘Art of Star Wars’ exhibition in 2000 but some lovely new stuff and after a couple of hours and 250 photos I decided that I had better head on over to the show venue to pick up my Fan Club Lanyard.
EXCEL PHOTO
Arriving at the Excel Centre I was immediately impressed by the scope of what we were about to receive. A hubbub of activity surrounded the centre I was delighted to discover one Mr. David Prowse having a coffee and a chat with Warwick Davis, certainly a case of the long and short of it.
After some initial confusion with the box office staff (ie. – there were none) the staff and the passes eventually arrived and after scoring a few extra ‘friends and family’ lanyards I made my way back to Central London to join the queue for the Gentle Giant World Tour stop at Forbidden Planet to begin my Freaks shopping.
I arrived at the store at 3.00pm and was told to head around the back where the queue had already started to form.
QUEUE PHOTO
The nearer it got to the 5pm kick-off the longer the queue got and the more excitable the crowd became as competition forms were filled in to have your head scanned by Gentle Giant and one lucky winner being chosen to receive a clone trooper body with their head on it.
Then the hour came and Karl Meyer strode out to meet the masses, hand out shirts and confirm that the highly sought after Bly bust would be limited to two per person. A cheer erupted and the doors opened with many folks bring their friends along for extra ‘trade fodder’. I myself was lucky enough to convince a girl standing in front of me (who wasn’t getting any for herself) to obtain extra for me and a friend of mine in the line.
As I entered the store I was loaded up with the goodies and shepherded down the line to meet Mr. Meyer. Emboldened by my luck in the queue I decided to give him some stick about the amount of exclusives for my collecting buddies. His response? Well, lets just say it was a little more dismissive than I had hoped it would be. He said ‘They thing is, if people want them, they’ll get them. It’s a worldwide marketplace these days and the fans can get them if they really want them.” I asked him if he thought it was right that collectors were having to pay up to ten times retail value for a bust. His response “the hardcore fans will pay it. If they want it they’ll get it”. Has this ‘rock star’ really no idea about commercial sense?
From emboldened to aghast in one conversation.
Then, it was time for food and to retire to get my beauty sleep for the 1st day of Celebration Europe.
5.30am. Awake and excited I quickly showered and headed out to Excel for my 7.00 staff call to find out what my duties would be for the weekend and what we could expect to see from the Con. Being given the sweet, sweet job of Guest Liason in the autograph hall I was looking forward to three afternoons of sitting on my backside and gassing with a Star Wars celeb in between Autographs (how wrong I was to be…more on that later).
I then decided, on reflection rather foolishly, to join my compatriots in the queue and wait for doors to open at 9.00 for the early entry for Hyperspace members. The queue was full of excited chatter regarding rumours of the bearded one’s appearance (he didn’t!) and what could be expected from the 72 hours that lay ahead. 8.30 came and we were let in to the lobby where a giant inflatable Death Star complete with lasers and star scene awaited us.
A little bit of excitement followed this as the diving wall between the lobby and the autograph hall collapsed onto the fans prompting swift action from a number of us taller folks preventing the wall from falling any further, the Excel security team sprang into action getting the wall reset and showing the only decent bit of planning they could muster all weekend (again…more on that later).
9.00am. On with the show and we piled through the turnstiles to enjoy the show those of us in the know heading immediately for the Autograph Hall to purchase our tickets to meet the man himself, the boy with the twin suns and the feathered hair, he who would be bringing balance to the force, Mark Hamill.
This is where we had the first taste of what was to come.
No-one knew what was going on, people were spread from one queue to the next and were turned back when it was revealed that there was only one queue for the Mark Hamill tickets and much queue jumping (by our continental bretheren) and heated discussions ensued. However, I got a ticket so, quite honestly, I no longer cared (I decided that I was entitled to little bit of selfishness here…) and pocketing my ticket headed off to spend all my Freaky Funds in Artist’s Alley.
This was tucked away in black panelled booths at the very back of the hall in front of a huge black curtain with nothing really to guide your eye or your wallet to the esteemed pencil wranglers that lay within. My first port of call was the extremely cool Russell Walks where I obtained his ‘Greetings from Cellblock 1138’ print and got a free Artist’s Proof of his CIV print that is absolutely stunning.
I then headed off to meet fellow Freaks, Allison, Adam and Cat and sorted out the print requests. Already, with the show open less than 30 minutes Adam’s time was being eaten up with numerous requests and so I enjoyed the company of two of the loveliest ladies, Allison and Cat. But I couldn’t stop and shoot the proverbial all day as I had more prints to pick up so it was off to the table of ‘J to the V’ Jerry Venderstelt to marvel at his simply jaw dropping Yoda print (which was easily the bargain of the show at £30!!!!).
Scoring the other prints I went off to pay and was grinning like a fool at spending £2000.00 of other people’s money on prints. I was able to stash the print tubes at Cat’s stand and went off to join the queue for Mark Hamill.
I will say at this point that I was very fortunate to be in the first 50 or so people to join the queue and therefore didn’t really see (at least on that day) the chaos being caused by the ridiculous queuing system. After waiting about 90 minutes to 2 hours Mark arrived with his agent (the much maligned Derek Maki) and the queuing was immediately forgotten. Expecting the experience to be somewhat of a ‘Shat’ experience I was overjoyed to see Mark really, really taking the time to make sure that everyone had a very pleasant experience (he was especially fantastic with kids).
Then it was my turn and time seemed to slow down as I got nearer the signing. Here in front of me was a guy who had been my hero since I was four. The man whose adsventures had got me through so much stuff, the guy who quite frankly changed my life with his filmed adventures and gave my mind the first taste of imagination. I hope that you can feel from this the immensity, at least for me, of meeting this man.
I made sure that I stopped and thanked Derek for bringing him over for the con and he seemed genuinely touched that I had taken the time to do this. Then. Here I was. Mark & Mark. Face to face. I went to pieces. Inside though.On the outside I called on my professional reserves and remained calm thanking Mark for coming, he asked me about myself and I repeated the story he no doubt heard 300 times that day and we had a brief chat about his voicework. He signed my book and then we had a picture together.
The entire thing probably took something like 5 minutes but will be etched on my heart and my brain forever.
So once again, THANK YOU to Mark and to Derek for making this possible.
It was then time for my shift to start so pulling on my Crew shirt I tracked down the ‘floor boss’ John to see where I would be going. Would it be Anthony Daniels who was being great with the fans, chatting and posing for pictures, working his own line with a great sense of humour? Would it be Shannon McRandall, the face of Mara Jade? Peter Mayhew? Jeremy Bulloch? Kenny Baker?
No. It was to shadow the Excel security guards for an hour or so and try and stop them from ****ing things up too much for the visitors to the show.
However, as the autograph area was fairly quiet (apart from Mark) I was told that I could see what else needed doing and was released from the Autograph Hall and decided to swing by Artists Alley again to see the folks. Good job I did too. Cat was dead on her feet with jetlag and as she went off to have a nap at her hotel I took the opportunity to do some ‘print pimping’ on her behalf much to the amusement of Chris Trevas, Joe Corroney & Cynthia Cummins who I don’t think had ever seen anything like it. I did the job though and I was able to shift some of Cat’s prints and sketchbooks.
When Cat returned looking refreshed after a little….wait for it…wait for it…cat-nap (Bwah-ha-ha-ha) I decided to do a drink run for the artists and then use my pass to queue jump (ah, the benefits of staffing…) into Mark Hamill’s panel where Warwick Davis did an astounding job of MC-ing the panel. Brief highlights :-
He doesn’t know any of the further storyline for his character as he is very possessive of any character he plays
He loves George
He was open to the possibility of a further trilogy
He would really like the extra Luke scenes put back in to EpIV not so it’s more of him but because he felt that it added more emotional weight to the moment that Biggs dies and Luke relies on the force for the first time.
He would do anything George wanted him to.
Then it was time for the ‘opening ceremony’ – I couldn’t see the point of having the opening cermony at the end of the first day but maybe that was just me. However, the sight of 10,000 Star Wars fans sat on a field in the open air was truly something to behold as Steve Sansweet officially opened the Show, Mark Hamill introduced Ian McDiarmind who, in turn, introduced ‘Star Wars ; A New Hope’ to the assembled throng thus beginning the open air showing of the first film in the original trilogy.
I was very tired by this point and decided to head back to my hotel for my first bit of food of the day.
Apologies for the following photos, my camera was on maximum digital zoom :-
SANSWEET PHOTO
HAMILL PHOTO
Day two. Saturday, the busiest day of the show, 24,000 tickets having sold in advance and me on duty at 8.30am in the Fan Section.
But that’s not right. At 8.30am I was still in bed having slept through my alarm some 45 minutes away from the show at my hotel in Kings Cross. Waking at 9.15 I dived into the shower, grabbed my bag and got to the centre as fast as I could arriving at 10.15 much the amusement of my show colleagues.
I had my shifts changed and had an hour to spare so for the first time headed up to the ‘Clone Wars’ panel in the upstairs, Platinum Suite. I WAS FLOORED. I had seen the trailer before online but it was nothing like this. The room shook, my eyes welled up at the glory that is the new ‘Clone Wars’ show. An added bonus to this was a great little making-of video feature with the production staff. I HAD to see this again so waited for the next panel to start and sat through it once more. AWESOME!!!!
It was them time for me to head into the depths of the convention hall and check out the sets, the costumes, the dealers and the exhibitors before my shift started. Then I was given the task for the day. The Costume Competition. I made my way around the entire convention taking photos and inviting folks to join the competition. Aside from the usual Jedis, Slave Leias and Troopers there was an outstanding array of ladies dressed in Padme’s many outfits all of which were very well done my favourite two are below :-
FRENCH PADME
AOTC PADME
There was also a couple with him dressed as ANH Leia in the white dress and her dressed as Dagobah training Luke. Very Cool and oddly bizarre also.
After I had completed seemingly hundreds of forms (actually only 75) with costumers it was time for my lunch break and instead of eating (who needs food right?) I took in Shane Turgeon’s Tattoo booth and now, more than ever, am inspired to take the needle. Some of these guys had some oustanding work done. Buy his book immediately, you won’t regret it.
1.00pm and it was back on duty and back to the autograph hall as I entered the hall I knew that something wasn’t right. Raised voices, stressed looks and screaming children. That’s right folks. The Mark Hamill queue had gone nuclear.
Mark had set a limit of 600 tickets per day and was intending on signing for 3 hours within the first 10 minutes of Friday it was apparent that it was going to take a lot longer than that as Mark was doing his utmost to make it an fantastic experience for anyone who met him.
Unfortunately, a delayed arrival on Friday meant that it had a knock on effect with Mark having to sign 200 of Friday’s tickets (so I am lead to believe) on Saturday as well as all of the tickets sold for Saturday.
This, combined with the crazy queuing system instituted by the Excel staff was leading to some frayed tempers from all parties (including the other artists who had hadn’t had anyone to see them for an hour due to the Excel staff using the queue to block the entrance to the hall. It was into the thick of this that I waded with Gusto.
Swiftly clearly a path to the autograph hall and ensuring the security were keeping the space free I went along the line ensuring that everyone had tickets for Mark ( they didn’t), everyone was only queuing for Mark (they weren’t) and suggesting that people not wait in line, go and enjoy the rest of the show and come back later when the queue had died down (they wouldn’t).
Making sure that the queue outside the enclosure was as calm and as orderly as it could be I headed back into the main hall and tried to restore sanity to the ‘snaked’ section of the queue. Not an easy task and one that took my, not inconsiderable, reserves of humour and the ability to smile and be polite. However, with the assistance of Danny from Coolwaters (Mark’s agent) and Derek Maki himself I was able to provide updates and keep the queue flowing, albeit slowly, for the rest of the afternoon.
Some people however insisted on talking to me like dirt and shouting at me despite my assurances that we were doing what we could. I certainly saw both sides of the ‘good old British spirit’ that day. The lowest point came when I had to inform the gathered hordes that Mark was no longer doing posed photos due to a lack of time. It was not pleasant.
The best thing about it though was that no-one left without a smile and an acknowledgement that the wait had been ‘worth it’ which is testament to Mark’s graciousness with the fans.
Quite bizzarely, a number of the people who had been in the queue made a special effort to find me and thank me personally for looking after the queue and some even requested photos with me (which I found a bit odd…).
At 5.40, the last Autograph was signed and Mark requested that the ‘survivors’ of the queue wranglers pose for a group picture with him and he thanked us all profusely for our assistance. To me, this was certainly part of the weekend that I won’t forget in a hurry.
I then hauled booty up to the Platinum suite where the world premiere of a rough cut of the movie ‘Fanboys’ was being shown together with a Q&A afterwards. The movie is great but I’m not sure how it would play to people who weren’t Star Wars or genre fans. There’s far too many in-jokes but certainly a very nicely made, funny yet touching movie celebrating the excitement and joy we all felt when Episode One was being readied for release.
I saw the start of the Q&A but was woken up by a fellow staffer to an empty screening room my having dropped off from sheer exhaustion.
I decided that I’d better forego the Party and head home to pack my stuff together ready for the final day of the show. On my way out however I witnessed the amazing site of a impromptu mass Force FX lightsaber duel taking place on one of the bridges from the centre which looked great.
YOU TUBE LINK
Stashing my bags at Euston train station I headed to the show early so that I could get my picture taken on all of the main props without Joe Q. Public and his kid getting in the shot and myself, Jerry Vanderstelt, Randy Martinez and his partner made our way round the sets taking each others photos.
I was also able to play (and beat) Jerry Vanderstelt at Dejarik – take that brush jockey!!! (Obviously because of the higher frequencies at which the holodeck works you can’t see the table monsters using a normal camera but rest assured they were there and I beat him – Ahem!).
Taking advantage of a morning off duty I wandered around the show taking advantage of the many great deals both at the Celebration Europe store and with the dealers (I was however able to resist a Sideshow Jabba for £60.00! I was gutted but I really have nowhere to display him).
The Ray Park panel was the main draw of the day in the celebrity stage and once again Warwick Davis did a great job and made a special appearance as Obi-Wan in a recreaction (replete with audience members as Qui Gon and the Laser Barriers) of the final duel. Ray was on top form (as usual) and answered all questions with a smile and a tale or two. Always a fan favourite.
The Indy old boys panel was next with a discussion with Sideshow friend Lorne Peterson, Robert Watts and Norman Reynolds going over some footage from the first two Indy movies and this panel gave us some really interesting titbits like the fact that Robert Watts, a very slight man, was first live guinea pig for the boulder stunt in Raiders and that the Bridge scene in Temple of Doom was done in one-take completely live.
Lorne told us that they had got their bid accepted for the Indy models and that they begin work on those shortly and it was roundly agreed that everyone is looking forward to Indy IV (except Warwick Davis who wanted to replace Harrison as Indiana – even showing us a hilarious ‘audition showreel’ for the part).
I was able to catch Charlie Ross’ One Man Star Wars show before I started my last shift and without ruining it. If this show comes to your town you MUST do everything in your power to obtain tickets. He has an amazing take on the trilogy that will have you in stitches.
After my sterling work on Mark’s queue the day before I was asked to work Billy Dee William’ queue today and this basically involved my taking people’s names and writing them down on post-it notes if they wanted anything personalising. This the queue was much more managable and allowed me time to interact with Anthony Daniels who was trying (with some success) to poach people from the queue into his own.
Mr. Williams was extremely tired and headed back to the hotel leaving us with no indication of when, if at all, he would return closing the queue down for a while we were able to joint the rest of the volunteer crew in the rest of the hall which was really quite nicely busy with Bulloch, Park, Prowse and Baker still pulling crowds umpteen convention appearances later.
Once we heard that Billy would be back we opened the queue and waited, and waited, the crowd were getting anxious asking for updates which we were unable to give them until at last Mr. Smooth returned and signed for everyone who was waiting and for the volunteer staffers who had helped that weekend, as did Anthony Daniels who although has a re****tion for being ‘difficult’ could not have been nicer with visitors or crew.
To be completely honest, this weekend has really opened my eyes to the so-called ‘nasty’ stars and agents. The bottom line is that they aren’t nasty, they’re really, really nice people. Speak to them nicely without the demand in your voice and they will do the same.
All of the staff from Coolwaters were great this weekend, amazing even at some points and this was only underscored by a gesture made by Derek Maki last thing on Sunday after the show had closed.
He gathered all of the volunteers round and handed us all a stack of autographs from all of his clients who had been at the show, including Mark and Billy, some £300.00 of free autographs. It was a gesture he didn’t have to make and one that, if he was as bad as people would have you believe, he wouldn’t have made and this simple yet heartfelt gift was the icing on the top of a sweet tasting cake that was Celebration Europe.
AUTOS PHOTO
But what about the cherry I hear you ask...
Well…I took myself off to Artists Alley to say my farewells to the folks that I had met over the weekend and to wish everyone a safe journey home when Jerry Venderstelt stopped me and handed me a signed Artists Proof of his Celebration Three piece as a gift!!!!!!
CELEBRATION THREE PHOTO
How’s that for cherry?
With that I walked out into the balmy Sunday evening and said my goodbye with a lump in my throat to Celebration Europe and everyone still hanging around outside, laughing, joking, duelling, exchanging e-mails, forum Id’s, phone numbers and more importantly, looking forward to the next time that Uncle George allows us to play.
LUGGAGE PHOTO 2
Thanks for reading my very personal account of Celebration Europe and now…
The competition!
As you can see from the photos above I have on a very splendid, not to mention limited, cast and crew shirt. I have however managed to secure one that has not been worn and sweated in and is pictured below.
SHIRT PHOTO
In order to win this shirt, the Hasbro CE Coin and a postcard of Russell Walks print all you have to do is try and guess (to the nearest £10.00) how much, in total, I have spent, this weekend (including Freaks orders…) on Merchandise at Celebration Europe.
Answer in this thread and the competition will close at Midnight BST on Wednesday 18th July 2007.
Nearest answer wins.
Take your best shot!!!!
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