Miss Saigon
 |
| Kim and Eva at Miss Saigon |
 |
| Get it booked! |
We always have a laugh when we get together and I was swayed by the promise of pizza beforehand. I now realise the promise of pizza was used as a distraction. It was like rattling a set of shiny keys to distract a toddler.
This was a professional hit
 |
| Seating plan at the theater |
We entered the packed Hippodrome foyer via the double doors, I was able to roll straight in. Everywhere was accessible in the wheelchair. There was a nice section in the middle for sitting while you're waiting for your taxi, that was set up in such a way it didn't matter if you were able bodied or wheelchair bound. There were many different levels taking you to different theatres that could be accessed via lift or stairs. There were staff everywhere - one of which directed us to the theater Miss Saigon would be in and told us where the bar was as the performance wasn't starting for 20 minutes.
It wasn't going to be long enough to get blackout drunk, but every little helps.
I detached my testicles,
put them in my pocket
and made my way into the theater
I took a deep breath, looked around to make sure there was nobody I knew, and showed our tickets.
 |
| Tickets for Miss Saigon |
The tickets clearly showed that two of the seats were half priced. However, I hadn't noticed that they were both for support/companion, 1 of them should have been for a wheelchair user. I could have transferred into the seat, but I didn't go into the theatre as apparently there were steps to get to the seats.
"Great, if I can't get in, I'll just re-attach my nuts and go and sit at the bar" I thought
"If there's room you can watch it from the lounge. Let me just check" the attendant said.
"Oh, great thanks!" I said, while also thinking "free upgrade? Yes please!"
I pictured us being led to a room where people were wearing tuxedos', sipping champagne and carefully removing Ferrero Roche so they didn't all topple, like they were playing Jenga. We were walked about twenty metres away from our original seats, went around a corner and up a ramp to the 'lounge', an area right at the back with some cheap chairs, one of which was removed so I could get in. It did have a small wall but you could see over it. We were basically in the same part of the theater as everyone else.
I think I may have misheard the original offer, or the attendants offer was rejected by someone higher up in favour of this.
 |
| Watching Miss Saigon |
My Review
Miss Saigon is a very popular musical, the place was packed, the whole place stood up at the end and clapped and whooped.
It looked like a top production, they hadn't scrimped on the sets, they were fantastic and they would rotate so they could change location on the fly. There were a lot of extras as there were a couple of scenes in a bar. I guess the speaking cast were good, but I'm not the right person to ask, the standing ovation at the end says they were.
My review is in no way a criticism of THIS production, but the musical in general. In fact I'm not going to give my opinion. It is just my opinion...and as I don't like musicals, I wouldn't be able to give it a fair review.
Simon and Garfunkel
 |
| The Simon & Garfunkel Story |
These tickets were bought as a Christmas present for my parents. My Brothers and I hadn't got a clue what to get them, Daniel was looking on the Internet and came across these tickets. Simon and freaking Garfunkel! They hadn't toured in about 25 years! It was a tour called The Simon & Garfunkel Story which makes sense because they'd been quiet for a long time, there was a whole generation that didn't know them. I was surprised they were coming to Bacup Lancashire though, they had once played to a few hundred thousand in Central Park, now they were playing to a few hundred in Bacup? Oh how the mighty have fallen.
We snapped the tickets up for £40...er £400 (Dad might read this).
Unfortunately the Wheelchair access wasn't great...at Daniel's house. Daniel lives on quite a steep hill, has a gravel drive, a step into his house and an upstairs toilet only. Come to think of it my other brother - Adam - has got a gravel drive as well, he doesn't live an hour and a half away though and has got a downstairs toilet, so Adam obviously doesn't hate me as much as Daniel does. It was a relatively small venue (a few hundred) and it wasn't particularly wheelchair friendly. It is like all 20th century theaters I've come across, wheelchair accessibility was necessary long after it was built. The first few rows of seats are on a flat floor but then the rest of the seating is on a rake so there are steps. There is a gallery above but there are steps to every row up there. The only option was to get a front row seat, but what were the odds of that? I mean Simon & Garfunkel...in a few hundred seater theater? Those tickets would be like gold dust, but Daniel was able to get some. He had got us the five seats at the end so I was able to transfer into a big boy chair. Unfortunately it was a considerable obstacle for anybody to get past. It would be quite a fire hazard, although hopefully people would help the bloke who needed it first.
Erm, That Ain't Simon & Garfunkel
Yea, so it wasn't Simon & Garfunkel. A bit annoying actually as we'd forked out £40...£400. They should have made it clear that it wasn't the actual 84 year olds, I'm sure I wasn't the only person in Bacup who felt cheated that night.
Fatboy Slim
 |
| Watching Fatboy Slim |
I had been to a gig at the Chase back in 2008 while I was still in hospital.
The venue was only a few years into hosting these festival style gigs in 2008 and was a lot more basic and nowhere near the scale of this.
I arrived at 20:30 about half an hour before Mr Slim was set to start. We drove a good distance once we got onto the Chase, directed by stewards in bright jackets. We stopped and showed a steward my access to the blue badge car park ticket, we were able to take a road right upto the field by the venue, cars were parked neatly as if there were white lines marking out parking spaces. As I was only being dropped off, an actual parking space wasn't needed, so were able to stop right next to the entrance. Tony met us and I rode into the venue with all of the 4mph capability of my iM4.Elite. The grass had been kept short and because it had been incredibly hot for days, the ground was hard so it was no different to travelling on concrete. We showed our tickets and entered the venue. The scale of it was unbelievable. There were people as far as the eye could see. There were burger vans, chip vans, hot dog vans, drink vans...well let's just say there were lots of vans. We were at the tail end of a heat wave, the weather was cooling off and compared to the last week was going to be a lot cooler. I don't think the weather could have been more perfect. I was in a t-shirt, hot, but not uncomfortably so. People were sitting in groups, drinking beer out of plastic cups, people were running around and doing cart-wheels, people were queueing at the food/drink vans, people were walking here there and everywhere.
What I'm trying to illustrate is that there was a freedom to what people were able to do. There was a happy summer vibe, people were loving life and dancing to the quite loud dance music that was being pumped through the stereo by the DJ that was currently warming up the crowd.
 |
| Access to the raised viewing platform |
In my experience wheelchair access in newly constructed venues E.G The Utilita Arena in Birmingham or Cannock Chase is excellent. The view of a wheelchair user seems to have been at the front of their minds, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if it was the first thought they had, and
then everything else was designed around it. In most theaters it is an afterthought, because, well it WAS an afterthought. In some cases it's a 100+ year afterthought and the view you get isn't very good, often at the back or behind a pillar.
then everything else was designed around it. In most theaters it is an afterthought, because, well it WAS an afterthought. In some cases it's a 100+ year afterthought and the view you get isn't very good, often at the back or behind a pillar.
Holy mackerel that's a lot of people!
We made our way up the ramp and found a space towards the end of the viewing platform. It was quite long - I would say about 100 meters - there were a lot of wheelchair users taking advantage of a decent view. There were loads of portaloos behind the viewing platform, it seemed to be where all the toilets were. People were walking in front of the viewing platform all the time I was there. When I bought the tickets it did say there were disabled loos but sadly I didn't have the need for them. Sorry to disappoint.
Fatboy Slim
I won't write a wordy review of the concert, because, well it would be simply IT WAS F*****G AWESOME! I spent virtually the whole concert stood up as there were bars along the side of the raised viewing platform, and I can stand without problem as long as I've got something to hold, plus the bars were exactly at eye height. If I didn't stand I had to look through the gap in the bars, hunched, like I was peering through someone's letterbox.
There was a woman in front of us who didn't stop dancing for the whole time he was on. And I don't mean dancing secretly on the spot so nobody could see. She was jumping around, arms out wide, sometimes running from side to side with her knees almost touching her ears I would imagine shouting something like "MAD FER EET"
Our view was excellent, although if it wasn't I wouldn't have been missing much, you're not really there to see a performance, he is just in a DJ booth in the middle of the stage. He did come to the front of the stage a couple of times to interact with the crowd and went into the crowd at one point to show people how to dance to a particular song.
The place was at capacity, an estimated 10,000 people. The atmosphere was epic, the only disadvantage was the viewing platform was at the side. It was an occasion to be with a group of mates, drinking beer and dancing around. I can't complain though it was brilliant.
Something Rotten!
 |
| Something Rotten Opera House, Manchester |
I arrived good and early, announced my arrival at the ticket office and was told that the train I was booked on is now arriving at a different platform and is running slightly late. I was to wait by the passenger assistance collection point and somebody would take me to the platform.
Tony arrived and we had a Starbucks while we waited. About 10 minutes before the train was due to arrive passenger assistance came to inform us there was a decent delay and the train was going to be about 20 minutes late.
We eventually got on the train at 12:02, that was 29 minutes after it was meant to arrive. I had booked the train to get us into Manchester much earlier than necessary as this is always likely to happen when involving train travel...in England. We were supposed to be getting into Manchester Piccadilly at 12:30 which would give us a leisurely thirty four minutes to transfer to the train that would take us to Deansgate. As it stood we would get in at 12:59 and have 5 minutes to transfer.
TOILET watch
The toilet was tiny. I obviously couldn't turn around - and I can turn on a six pence - but the gap between the toilet and the wall was just wide enough to fit the wheelchair, there was no room to manoeuvre. I couldn't shut the door yet because the controls were behind me. There wouldn't be enough room to fully retract the arm of the wheelchair once the door was shut, so I retracted it enough to swing my legs around and transferred to the toilet. I then held onto the bar around the sink, stood up and pressed the button to shut the door. I then pressed the lock button and the door opened. With the train throwing me around and having tried many different combination of buttons, I shut the door, left it unlocked and hoped I wouldn't get a visitor.
1/5:
We're on Time!
Even better than that, we were one whole minute quicker than previously expected. Which means we had got to Manchester Piccadilly at 12:58. In fact, we were so quick our connecting train wasn't here yet. A guy from the train company took us to a tram platform that was inside the train station and told us to stay on for three stops. Then it would be a five minute walk to the theatre.All of Manchester Piccadilly (or at least the area we went in) was like rolling on an ice rink...but not cold...or slippy...or wet. Actually, this is a really bad analogy.
He waited with us until the tram arrived and hovered with intent to assist me when I couldn't get onto the slightly raised tram. He didn't need too though as I pushed my feet into the ground and lifted the front wheels over the lip.
We were shown to our seats and Tony was sitting behind me. I had specifically asked on the phone if that was the case as the seats were on different rows, I was assured they were next to each other. The woman sat behind had booked the other wheelchair spot. It had been double booked though and as she could transfer out of the wheelchair, she sat in a normal seat and they took her wheelchair out. The tickets required the wheelchair be no longer than 83cm, seemingly because the space for the wheelchair was about 90cm long. I had to reverse into aisle, with Tony guiding me in and then lifting the back of the wheelchair to position me as there wasn't enough space to turn. Our view was excellent though. Once again the after thought of wheelchair access turned out very well.
We arrived at the theater with plenty of time to spare, despite the trains doing there best to ruin our plans. We were taken through a different door to the theater and I was given a quick unthorough search. I would like to point out, my wheelchair has a pocket on the back of my seat. If you are going to search me it makes sense for you search this as well.
As we were shown into the theater I was shown where the disabled toilet was, so...
TOILET watch
This was an old theater so it was fortunate they had what was probably a store cupboard next to existing toilets. When the legislation came in for disabled access they obviously thought they could convert the store cupboard and keep all the toilets together. It was convenient, the toilets were right next to the theater, but it was tiny. With the door shut, there was just enough room to the wheelchair arm back hop across to the toilet, transfer back to the wheelchair and reach across to flush it. Thankfully a lady took pity on me trying to back out and guided me out.
1/5:
