Kelly continues her stories from The Young Divas concerts (with more vids).

Saturday 19th August

Our story begins in the wee small hours…

I had an early start on Saturday morning as I had decided to get a few things for the concerts before we were to leave at midday. Luckily my sister was up early as well so I convinced her to drive me to Eastland as it would have been quicker than getting the bus!

At Eastland I bought some chocolate for Paulini (Cadbury hazelnut to be exact – according to Hayden it’s her favourite!) little teddy bears for each diva with a ribbon that matched the colour of their ties and a yellow tie for Di and 2 green ties (one for Jacki and one for me!).

Anyway at about 12 Hayden came by and then we were ready to go – and I was driving haha. So we all – Hayden, my sister, my mum and I – piled into my little automobile (which REALLY is quite tiny!) and set off for the theatre! We got there around 1 or just after and found a little restaurant on Barkly street. After lunch we made our way to the theatre (It was a matinee if you haven’t yet guessed) and found our front and centre seats!

At this stage mum was quite embarrassed about being so close (our feet literally touched the stage!!) but I assured her it was going to be so much fun!

At about 3:15, they are divas so I allow them to be late hehe, the lights went down and the show began! By this point my mum was already laughing at me because I was bouncing with excitement. The girls came out, but because we were down the front, when they looked straight ahead into the audience they didn’t really notice us. Because of this I literally STARED at Paulini for about the first song and a half, whilst singing along hehe, and she still hadn’t noticed us. I then began watching the other girls and turned back to look at Paulini and guess who was doing the staring this time… Yep Paulini. We both waved like mad with big grins on our faces which got Hayden’s attention and he began waving too!! This made my mum laugh even more and my sister looked at me like I was crazy.

VIDEO

Best of my love (Emily and Ricki-Lee)

Best of my love (all girls)

Stand up for love (full version)

Anyway the concert was much the same as the Friday night but the atmosphere near the front is much better than up towards the back!! Ricki-Lee was very sick during this concert and had cups of tea on the stage with her, while the other girls just had their water. So during her set the whole audience helped her sing ‘Breathe’ which I will explain better in the next concert review hehe, and all her other songs!

Interval was next and we got our posters ready as we had one for Kate and one for Paulini and they were on next. The Kate one said ‘The coolest dag ever’ while Paulini’s said ‘Australia’s very own Superwoman’. The girls came out again and were great Cheesy and Kate even made my mum cry, while Paulini had her up boogying like she was 15 again haha. Paulini also put the microphone to my mouth after I repeatedly shook my head, which resulted in me singing the wrong words HAHA, so Paulini if your reading this, please don’t make me sing again HEHE! At the end the girls all go along the audience and shake the crowds hands, and Paulini came along and grabbed my hand, and then Hayden’s, which made me spazz out even more!!

We then packed up our goody bag and said goodbye to my mum and sister who were leaving and Hayden and I started making our way out of the theatre, while thinking about what to do for the next 2 – 3 hours before the next show! Hayden needed phone credit so we walked to Coles, posters and presents in hand, and then decided to go back and sit in the park until the others arrived for the night show. We got to the park and sat down on this wooden bench thing and guess who walked past us… EMILY! She recognized our faces from the front row and as she walked past us she caught my eye and said ‘hello, how are you’ and I replied ‘good thankyou, how are you’ and she said ‘good thanks’ and then she went off with the family… well I think it was her family anyway!

Hayden and I then sat down and got out the MASSIVE card we had bought for Paulini and began writing a message in it. As we finished our messages an older man walked past with his dog and read our sign, so we spoke to him for a minute about Paulini before he continued on his walk!

After about 10 -15 minutes Di arrived and was soooooo disappointed that she missed Emily but we assured her she would have a chance to see her later! We then went to find something for dinner and ended up in another restaurant on Barkley street.

Later that evening…

At about 7:10 Oscar called saying that him and Jacki  were outside the National Theatre so we paid our bill and started walking back. (For those who don’t know the Jacki story, I bought her airfares from Tasmania and Oscar kindly hosted her in Melbourne so she could see Paulini live for the first time and meet her in the flesh!!)

So we got to the theatre and started frantically searching for Oscar and Jacki. We walked into the theatre, round in a circle and back out again and there they were! We gave them a HUGE hug and then bumped into Talia and some friendly faces from the rlcoulterlounge (Ricki-Lee’s forum), who were kind enough to sell Oscar a front row ticket so he could join in the fun!! So by this stage our small Paulini gang had turned into a massive Young Divas mob.

We all decided to make our way into the theatre to find our seats and again we were front row centre, while Oscar was on the left hand side of the front row. We then got ourselves prepared – put our ties on (our colours matched our favourite Divas, except Hayden wore red as according to him it was the most masculine colour haha, but that did have its advantages which I will go into soon hehe), organised who was giving which Diva what present and got everyone to sign the card. We were then ready to party!!

The lights went out and you could already tell that this was going to be the best concert yet… and it was!!! The crowd really does make a difference with the amount of energy the girls have, as this audience was REALLY loud so the girls were going off!!

Paulini looked for us as soon as she came out and Emily and Kate kinda looked at us like ‘what are you guys doing her again’ lol. We were up dancing the whole time and the girls seemed to be having sooo much fun too! Ricki-Lee sounded better at this concert than during the day but still required our help to sing her songs.

Jacki did an AMAZING job with ‘Breathe’ which had Hayden almost wetting himself for the whole performance, and Ricki-Lee got me to help with Sunshine by shoving the mic in my face so I could sing the word ‘sunshine’ hehe.

Interval was next, and some of the gang went for a smoko while the rest of us made sure we were all prepared presents wise and spent some time getting to know the Ricki-Lee forumers!

After the interval the girls came out as a group again and then Paulini was left to do her solo set. I have to say that this was the best Paulini performance I have ever been to! She was in fine voice but I think I was more excited because Jacki was there witnessing it all with us! She strutted her stuff across the stage and the whole audience was screaming and dancing along!! This time she got Oscar and Hayden to sing (not me – good girl ) and Hayden sounded so much like a fog-horn that Paulini jumped about 10 feet in the air, which made us all lose it totally!!

After Paulini left the stage, Kate came out which started Hayden’s fun!! Kate is extremely funny and quite cheeky so she spent most of her set flirting with Hayden as he and Oscar were the only two guys in the front row, and Hayden had a red tie on, same colour as Kate. After Kate’s set all the girlies came out again and ripped the roof off!! Kate again flirted with Hayden during one of the songs, which made Paulini almost fall over laughing!!

After TTIKIFR the girls started saying goodbye to everyone which is when we gave them all their pressies. This again was quite funny as we gave them so much stuff they could hardly walk off the stage. Paulini in particular had her arms full of goodies and looked like she was about to topple over hehehe.

The lights came back on so we packed up our signs and things and made sure Hayden turned his phone ON and made our way out the back again. We sat in the park and I had literally just sat on the swing when Hayden’s phone rang and the gorgeous Paulini was once again on the other end!! She told us where to go to meet her, so we made our way round the back of the theatre to the CORRECT stage door (yes we are silly!!) and waited at the bottom of some stairs for Tom, the girls manager person who we also met at ITT and who has been on the site before, so if your reading this Tom… hi!! The Ricki-Lee forumers were already there so we chatted a bit before Hayden went up to the door and knocked. He signaled for us to go up and not only did our gang start scaling the stairs but the whole Young Divas mob… yes the mob!!

So when we got into the girls dressing room it was kinda ‘hi, how are you, can u sign this please, thanks bye’ as there were so many people and the girls also had to perform at the D&D ball just after the concert.

Although I wish we had more time with the girls I am very grateful for getting to go back and say hi, so THANKYOU SO MUCH Paulini, Ricki-Lee, Emily, Kate and Tom!! So we hung round for about 10mins waiting for Kate while the other girls got changed and ready for the next gig and we all got our ties signed and stuff and then yelled goodbye and went for a drink!

Overall it was a great night and I’m so glad that I finally got to meet Jacki and go backstage and see them perform and meet the Ricki-Lee forumers and well everything actually!! Thanks to everyone who was a part of this night…. It truly was the BEST of the lot!

Sorry no videos taken Saturday Night, was too busy dancing hehe.

Stay tuned for the next installment!!

NB: If any of the video links don’t work please let us know