Meeting Pearl Jam and inviting them to Belfast
Here's a little story of how we bumped into Pearl Jam last year and how I got to invite them to play a show in my hometown.
Apologies as it's a rather long post - but it was a pretty cool experience! And I figure some of you guys will love reading this - maybe put yourself in my shoes! haha
Anyway here goes!
For the last 4 years Caroline and I always check the tour dates and pick out a couple of cool places to visit.
Recently, we’ve been lucky enough to catch concerts in Prague, Copenhagen, London, and Dublin. Last year we gave Rotterdam a go.
I’ve been a big fan since I first heard Pearl Jam way back in 1993. Like many of you, I am a complete fanatic - I love all the music and over the years the music has just grown and grown in terms of meaning.
For every point in my life I could reference you a Pearl Jam song and know exactly what it means. I listen to PJ almost every day.
In August last year Caroline and I traveled over to the Netherlands from Belfast.
We booked what we thought was going to be a nice quiet hotel in Amsterdam only to be stuck right next to the elevator - it was a bloody nightmare - no sleep at all!
So a couple of days later, upon checking into our hotel in Rotterdam we asked for a quiet room and happily got placed on the top floor. Magic!
We then spent the next couple of hours looking out over a rainy Rotterdam listening to the (then) newly released ‘Speed of Sound’ demo over and over - all the while wondering what do you do in rainy Rotterdam! (not a lot!!
)
That night we had dinner and a couple of beers with friends. Afterwards, we hit the hotel bar as it was middle of the week and everywhere was closing up early.
So into the hotel bar, order a few drinks and sit down on the comfy sofa. A few people around but not too busy - just nice and quiet so we carry on with our chat.
When we’d gone in I’d noticed a few Americans in the corner next to us watching a baseball game on TV but never thought anything of it - we'd just carried on chatting.
After about 30 mins this big guy walks across the bar towards the group sitting next to us - and then to my complete amazement I noticed Stone Gossard!
:shock:
My jaw hit the floor - there we were sitting right next to a Pearl Jam posse for over half an hour.
Then I also realised - here we were staying in the very same hotel as the band!
Sitting with Stone were about 6 or 7 people including manager Kelly Curtis who I recognised from over the years - Single Video Theory, Lance Mercer’s photographs etc.
Not once did it ever cross my mind that we could be staying in the same hotel as the band - I suppose I’d just thought 'yeah, there are hundreds of hotels in this city'.
Anyway, it was quite late - about midnight - all of a sudden Stone gets up to leave - so - I just had to go over and shake his hand.
I just introduced myself, shook hands and said how cool it was to see the band back in Europe.
We exchanged a few words about their tour so far (they were about 2 or 3 gigs in) and he told me they’d just finished rehearsal at the arena, played a couple of gigs and were looking forward to playing some fresh new stuff.
I told him that Caroline and I had always picked out a place on the tour and made a little holiday out of it and here we were in sunny Rotterdam!
After I told him I was from Ireland he told me that they had plans to head back to Ireland next year, I said that’d be great we’d look forward to that.
:idea: Then I asked him if they’d come north and maybe do a show in Belfast? :idea:
To which he replied ‘ah I’m not sure about that’ ...
But that at least implied tour plans for 2010 were semi-finalised. AND a show in Dublin at was on the cards! Good stuff all the same!
So I said ‘hey, that’s cool - we’d travel anywhere to see the band’!
So then we bid each other good night and as he’s walking off he looks over to Caroline and our two friends, smiles and nods. Very cool!
Anyway - I have to say I was very impressed with him - he had so much class just to spend a couple of minutes talking to me even though he was probably way too tired and ready just to head up to his room.
But I just had to go over and say hello. :roll:
I mean what do you do if you bump into someone whose music has been inspring you on an almost daily basis for nearly 20 years!!
So then all night I was thinking - ‘Hey what if the rest of the band are in the rooms right next to us? Imagine bumping into Eddie Vedder over cornflakes at breakfast?” haha
The funniest thing was that while I was chatting with Stone, my friend Maartje had asked Caroline “hey, is that someone Dylan met earlier today?” - thinking Stone was just another fan...
...yeah about 20 years earlier... through a big pair of speakers!
Anyway, the next night the show was pretty amazing as you’d expect.
The morning after the show we go to checkout and trundling our suitcases down the corridor of the 12th floor, we turn the corner and catch a glimpse of someone just ahead of us.
Instantly I think, shit - that could be someone from the band!
So - we turn the next corner and there standing before us, with a big beaming smile, waiting on the elevator - is Matt Cameron!!
We shake hands and chat about the gig.
He asks “so how did you guys get here” & Caroline proceeds to tell him about taking the plane from Belfast to Amsterdam and the train down to Rotterdam etc. etc.
So I asked him what plans the band had for the next few months. He told me about them heading back to the states for the new album release, then the shows down under and then back to Seattle.
The elevator doors open and as we walk into the lobby he says to me ‘hmm Belfast? I don’t think we’ve played there before...’
I smile and turn round and there’s Stone standing with the rest of the band - all waiting on Matt to arrive so they can all leave and get on the road to Berlin. My jaw hit the floor (again!)
Stone smiles over, we say hello again and I compliment them on the great show and wave goodbye.
They walk out the door and get into a couple of SUVs to drive up the road into Germany.
I turn around to check out of the hotel and think to myself - did that really happen?
Meeting the band and in the way that it just casually happened was a big thrill for me.
But imagine my complete amazement in December when I saw Belfast included on the tour dates!
Good people of the Tenclub world - it just doesn’t get any better than that!!!
Apologies as it's a rather long post - but it was a pretty cool experience! And I figure some of you guys will love reading this - maybe put yourself in my shoes! haha
Anyway here goes!
For the last 4 years Caroline and I always check the tour dates and pick out a couple of cool places to visit.
Recently, we’ve been lucky enough to catch concerts in Prague, Copenhagen, London, and Dublin. Last year we gave Rotterdam a go.
I’ve been a big fan since I first heard Pearl Jam way back in 1993. Like many of you, I am a complete fanatic - I love all the music and over the years the music has just grown and grown in terms of meaning.
For every point in my life I could reference you a Pearl Jam song and know exactly what it means. I listen to PJ almost every day.
In August last year Caroline and I traveled over to the Netherlands from Belfast.
We booked what we thought was going to be a nice quiet hotel in Amsterdam only to be stuck right next to the elevator - it was a bloody nightmare - no sleep at all!
So a couple of days later, upon checking into our hotel in Rotterdam we asked for a quiet room and happily got placed on the top floor. Magic!
We then spent the next couple of hours looking out over a rainy Rotterdam listening to the (then) newly released ‘Speed of Sound’ demo over and over - all the while wondering what do you do in rainy Rotterdam! (not a lot!!
)That night we had dinner and a couple of beers with friends. Afterwards, we hit the hotel bar as it was middle of the week and everywhere was closing up early.
So into the hotel bar, order a few drinks and sit down on the comfy sofa. A few people around but not too busy - just nice and quiet so we carry on with our chat.
When we’d gone in I’d noticed a few Americans in the corner next to us watching a baseball game on TV but never thought anything of it - we'd just carried on chatting.
After about 30 mins this big guy walks across the bar towards the group sitting next to us - and then to my complete amazement I noticed Stone Gossard!
:shock:
My jaw hit the floor - there we were sitting right next to a Pearl Jam posse for over half an hour.
Then I also realised - here we were staying in the very same hotel as the band!
Sitting with Stone were about 6 or 7 people including manager Kelly Curtis who I recognised from over the years - Single Video Theory, Lance Mercer’s photographs etc.
Not once did it ever cross my mind that we could be staying in the same hotel as the band - I suppose I’d just thought 'yeah, there are hundreds of hotels in this city'.
Anyway, it was quite late - about midnight - all of a sudden Stone gets up to leave - so - I just had to go over and shake his hand.
I just introduced myself, shook hands and said how cool it was to see the band back in Europe.
We exchanged a few words about their tour so far (they were about 2 or 3 gigs in) and he told me they’d just finished rehearsal at the arena, played a couple of gigs and were looking forward to playing some fresh new stuff.
I told him that Caroline and I had always picked out a place on the tour and made a little holiday out of it and here we were in sunny Rotterdam!
After I told him I was from Ireland he told me that they had plans to head back to Ireland next year, I said that’d be great we’d look forward to that.
:idea: Then I asked him if they’d come north and maybe do a show in Belfast? :idea:
To which he replied ‘ah I’m not sure about that’ ...
But that at least implied tour plans for 2010 were semi-finalised. AND a show in Dublin at was on the cards! Good stuff all the same!
So I said ‘hey, that’s cool - we’d travel anywhere to see the band’!
So then we bid each other good night and as he’s walking off he looks over to Caroline and our two friends, smiles and nods. Very cool!
Anyway - I have to say I was very impressed with him - he had so much class just to spend a couple of minutes talking to me even though he was probably way too tired and ready just to head up to his room.
But I just had to go over and say hello. :roll:
I mean what do you do if you bump into someone whose music has been inspring you on an almost daily basis for nearly 20 years!!
So then all night I was thinking - ‘Hey what if the rest of the band are in the rooms right next to us? Imagine bumping into Eddie Vedder over cornflakes at breakfast?” haha
The funniest thing was that while I was chatting with Stone, my friend Maartje had asked Caroline “hey, is that someone Dylan met earlier today?” - thinking Stone was just another fan...
...yeah about 20 years earlier... through a big pair of speakers!
Anyway, the next night the show was pretty amazing as you’d expect.
The morning after the show we go to checkout and trundling our suitcases down the corridor of the 12th floor, we turn the corner and catch a glimpse of someone just ahead of us.
Instantly I think, shit - that could be someone from the band!
So - we turn the next corner and there standing before us, with a big beaming smile, waiting on the elevator - is Matt Cameron!!
We shake hands and chat about the gig.
He asks “so how did you guys get here” & Caroline proceeds to tell him about taking the plane from Belfast to Amsterdam and the train down to Rotterdam etc. etc.
So I asked him what plans the band had for the next few months. He told me about them heading back to the states for the new album release, then the shows down under and then back to Seattle.
The elevator doors open and as we walk into the lobby he says to me ‘hmm Belfast? I don’t think we’ve played there before...’
I smile and turn round and there’s Stone standing with the rest of the band - all waiting on Matt to arrive so they can all leave and get on the road to Berlin. My jaw hit the floor (again!)
Stone smiles over, we say hello again and I compliment them on the great show and wave goodbye.
They walk out the door and get into a couple of SUVs to drive up the road into Germany.
I turn around to check out of the hotel and think to myself - did that really happen?
Meeting the band and in the way that it just casually happened was a big thrill for me.
But imagine my complete amazement in December when I saw Belfast included on the tour dates!
Good people of the Tenclub world - it just doesn’t get any better than that!!!
dublin 1996 london 2000 dublin 2006 prague 2006 copenhagen 2007 london 2007 rotterdam 2009 london 2009 dublin 2010 belfast 2010 vienna 2014 amsterdam 2014 london 2018
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congrats for u and im so happy im gonna visit your country.. :wave:
p.s.....u cant even imagine what its gonna happen here in the forum if they announce one day Athens..
ALL OF U OUT THERE........U CANT FUCKIN IMAGINE..........U JUST CANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"..That's One Happy Fuckin Ghost.."
“..That came up on the Pillow Case...This is for the Greek, With Our Apologies.....”
"You put some udder cream on that shit?" ~EV 5/17/10
www.cluthelee.com
www.cluthe.com
Cool story, I honestly don't know if I'd be able to speak if I met Stone! I'd probably just mumble like a nervous teenager!
(Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)
“Put yer good money on the sunrise”
(Tim Rogers)
Congrats friend!
hoping we get a mention but it'll just be cool enough to see them walk out on stage!!!
cheers
For some reason, I felt like I was in your shoes. My heart started to race during the parts meeting and talking to Stone and Matt. I don't think I would've been able to speak. I probably would've been red and kind of sweat a little bit if I was ever that close to a member of the band.
Very proud of you for meeting the band. You are one of the luckiest people on the face of the earth to have met them and talk to both Stone and Matt.
Thank you for this great post.
"Becoming a Bruce fan is like hitting puberty as a musical fan. It's inevitable." - dcfaithful
Think of the wild dreams Caroline must have had!
Cool story Dylan! Lucky guys
great story amigo!
I noticed when flicking through the notebook with the Super-Deluxe Edition that the 1992 summer tour was scheduled to start in Dublin, then Belfast. I was gutted to realise how close I could have come to see PJ in their '92 heyday. Anyway, no idea why that didn't happen, but I got to thinking that, in their trawling through old memorabilia, they came acrosss this old schedule and decided to make amends this time around.
That was my theory, but the notion that the OP planted the seed that grew into their first ever Belfast show is far cooler.
96: Cork, Dublin
00: Dublin
06: London, Dublin
07: London, Copenhagen, Nijmegen
09: Manchester, London
10: Dublin, Belfast, London & Berlin
11: San José
12: Isle of Wight, Copenhagen, Ed in Manchester & London x2
wow I never knew that - must go and dig out the notebook...
careful Rita!
haha seriously though I remember laughing thining that ed could have been banging on the walls of our hotel room because we must have listened to speed of sound a gazillion times in a row (it was released the day before on tinternet!!
A few random Belfast thoughts:
I was there a few years back. I loved it, but my wife was a little freaked out.
Back in college, I roomed with a guy from Belfast. (True or not) he told me that during "the troubles," Rory Gallagher was about the only artist who had the balls to play there. Made me love Rory even more! :thumbup:
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Stone was similar - they spent a great amount of time making sure everyone there was happy before zooming off.
We really are talking about a very special band for more reasons than just their music.
London, Copenhagen 07
MSG 08
SBE, Manchester, London 09
Dublin, Belfast, London 10
good times!
astoria 06
albany 06
hartford 06
reading 06
barcelona 06
paris 06
wembley 07
dusseldorf 07
nijmegen 07
this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
ah yes - there it is - it looks like it was a London-based agents suggestions for a possible tour that summer
turns out the band went to Rock am Ring in Germany (instead of doing Dublin & Belfast) - tsk tsk!
Thanks for posting & you're gonna have a blast in Belfast!
~not a dude~
2010: MSGx2
2012: Made In America
2013: Pittsburgh, Brooklynx2, Hartford, Baltimore
2014: Leeds, Milton Keynes, Detroit
2015: Global Citizen Festival
2016: Phillyx2, MSGx2, Fenwayx2
2018: Barcelona, Wrigleyx2
That's so awesome, that story made my crappy day a whole lot better!
we'll have to get a couple of beers in then!! I'll be the one with the biggest smile in the Odyssey
I asked Vedder after the SBE show if they were coming back to Scotland and the lying cunt said yes. I bet they switched it from Glasgow to Belfast after meeting yer man here in the hotel. :evil: