Some of the images and sounds at this site have been "borrowed" from Michael's Official Lord of the Dance WebSite to help set the stage and keep you in the mood while you read about one family's adventure with Michael and LOTD . . . (Please be patient, some of this may take a little time to load - depending on the speed of your computer, modem, etc.) Hope you enjoy reading all about it!)

LOTD Visits San Diego

We saw LOTD on Opening Night in San Diego, but didn't wait for Michael's autograph because Katie, our 7 year old, had school the next day. Katie has been dancing "tap and ballet" since she was 4 and has been in about 1/2 dozen recitals with full regallia. Katie is obviously an avid LOTD fan and knows the show inside and out - including the song order and costume changes. She watches the video and listens to the CD and dances constantly to both. Needless to say, she was "crushed" that we couldn't stay after the performance to get Michael's autograph. We got her a large T-shirt to help her feel better about leaving. She now wears it to bed nightly. We were very disappointed to later discover that Michael came out early that night (about a 1 hour wait). We had already waited almost 45 minutes to calm Katie down and get her a T-shirt. Oh, for a little more patience!!! After all, it's only school, right?

We continued to feel badly about Katie's lost opportunity, and finally decided on a whim to return to the San Diego Sports Arena for Michael's final performance on Thursday evening to see if we could get his autograph for Katie. No school on Friday, the 4th! We live in San Diego's North County which is about a 45 minute drive to the Sports Arena (the main reason we felt it important to leave without Michael's autograph on Opening Night).

We arrived at the Sports Arena about 1 1/2 hours before the show was over and were magically the only fans in line - everyone else had tickets for the performance and were inside enjoying it! We wish we could have seen it again. However, it was almost more exciting to "hang around" the exit, watch the activity, and talk to the guards and ushers. I guess we've finally evolved into groupies!

While we were waiting and immensely enjoying the sounds of the show that drifted from the stage, up the ramp, and floated into the quiet San Diego evening, we noticed a bright red sports car parked inside at the base of the ramp. We figured it was Michael's Ferrari and that he was probably going to drive it to Las Vegas for his next show, which opens tonight (the 4th). Well, we were ALMOST right! As it turns out, Michael bought a shiny new red Lambourghani yesterday afternoon for about $250K, and even gave the salesman 7 tickets to the evening's performance (probably backstage passes or some other wonderful place to enjoy the show). Why weren't we car salesmen? Oh Well!!

During the intermission, we saw several of the dancers come outside for a quick cigarette break. How they can smoke and still dance like that, I'll never understand. Must be youth! Then we saw Cora Smyth, one of the violinsts come out for a break too. We talked one of the ushers into taking Katie's program down to her and she gratiously autographed it for Katie. She seems really nice, as does everyone we met (with the possible exception of the security guard who wouldn't let Katie accompany her program down the ramp).

The tempo really picked up after intermission. Tony, the head of security for the Sports Arena, had his crew start setting up the barricades to get ready for the end of the show, the exit of the performers, and the transfer of the "Entire Everything" to Las Vegas for the next show, less than 24 hours away. Tony finally made us move from the top of the ramp to a place behind the baricade. He pointed to a place at the junction of the ramp wall and the barricade fence - right at the top corner. Thanks Tony, if you read this, you made Katie a very happy girl. This location turned out to be the center of all the action!!! And we had "front row seats (vision - sorry, standing only)". Once the barricades were up, they drove Michael's Lambourghani up the ramp and parked in right in front of us (REALLY NICE CAR, Michael!). Then they backed one of the trucks down the ramp to prepare for dismantling the stage. Next came 2 of the 5 buses to load the dancers for the trip to Las Vegas. During all of this the "Roadies" started arriving to begin the massive dismantling job ahead. Some were allowed to go below, while others had to wait above with us (too many people underground already). The Limos had been arriving periodically for the last 45 minutes (some were there when we arrived).

Just before the end of the show, some of the Show VIPs came up the ramp, thanked Tony for his help and jumped into their Limos for the trip to Las Vegas. The crowd swelled immediately after the final bow and ultimately grew to over 200(?). We got to talking to some of those nearest to us and everyone said the show was again WONDERFUL! One nice thing about LOTD, the fans ("groupies"??) are a much nicer crowd than some of the more raucous crowds surrounding some the Sports Arena's Heavy Metal or Punk type concerts. These were really genuinely really nice people who have all the symptoms of "groupiedom" but would rather not admit it - for now!

Everyone in the crowd busied themselves by talking about the show, the performers, etc. for about an hour until the dancers and musicians started to exit. (One of the buses even had a large "Sylvester the Cat" doll in the front seat. We assumed that one of the dancers had visited the Del Mar Fair earlier and got lucky at the Games.) The first thing up the ramp was 2 of the largest baskets of roses we have ever seen. They went on the first bus. Shortly thereafter, the performers started to exit. Mostly, everyone scurried to the buses and ignored the crowd. We spotted a cure, petite young girl, but didn't immediately recognize her as Helen Egan (Katie's "Flute Girl") and "The Spirit" to everyone else. We shouted to "Miss Egan" for an autograph and she immediately turned, smiled, and rushed over to sign Katie's program. That was the start of a mad rush for autograph's. "Flute Girl" was kept quite busy and programs and fan names flew through the air in the rush to get "personalized" autographs. In this photo, you can see my wife, Carol (on the left) and a very tired Katie (in the lower right) while "Flute Girl" signs another program. As Helen was finishing with our group, we spotted Miss Anne Buckley heading for her bus. As with "Flute Girl", she also responded to the sound of her name and came over to sign Katie's program. As before, the flurry started all over again! It seems as if we had the only pen in our corner and it's covered with the most interesting of talented fingerprints! Anne is absolutely gorgeous in person, and we were a little surprised to discover that her wonderful hairdo on stage seems to be her own.

While Anne was signing autographs for our group, someone else spotted Daire Nolan, The Dark Lord. In keeping with "what works" they called his name and he started signing autographs for everyone. He eventually even got to our group and Katie's program added another impressive signature. As with everyone else, Daire was polite, appreciative, and enthusiastic with his supporters. Most of the dancers ignored the shouts of "Autographs!Autographs! Over Here!" We were of the opinion that many more autographs could have been gotten if people had taken the time to look up the dancers' names and then acknowledged them by using their name. At least it worked for us - everytime.

Eventually, everyone got on their bus and the 2 buses finally left for Las Vegas. Then they moved Michael's Lambourghani again - this time someone actually drove it around the Arena parking lot a little while before parking in another spot. They needed to position another truck to receive more stage and sound equipment. They put the car back in front of us again later. People in the back started telling everyone that they had been told that Michael had already left and the crowd in the back started to disperse. We knew the routine (we read it here first), and were pretty sure that Michael would not leave town with his brand new Lambourghani still in the Arena parking lot.

It seems as if we were right, because almost 30 minutes after the dancers left Michael's Masseuse & Positive Energy Provider exited with her massage table. You could feel the energy level stating to rise with the remaining crowd which I would estimate at still close to 100. Tony had previously moved several people in wheelchairs to Michael's side of the barricade and lined them up between us and Michael's car.

Then Tony got a call on his radio that "He's moving!" That piece of information swept the crowd like a California brush fire - fanning the flames of excitement! Within minutes, Michael appeared at the bottom of the exit ramp. Dressed in blue jeans, dark blue blaser, white shirt, and yellow tie, he looked younger and more exhuberant than ever. His dark tan helped make his blond hair seem more yellow than we remembered.

He worked quickly through the crowd with his autograph pen in hand and his bodyguards providing ample light with miniature flashlights to help him see where to sign. He seemed in a hurry tonight and didn't take time to make small talk or greet the crowd as he went. When he finally reached the corner where we were, he signed Katie's program. Then he reached for an envelope she held to sign that also. Suddenly he noticed that it was addressed to him. (Katie had written him a letter and drew him a picture of the show with the intention of mailing it to him and asking for an autograph before we thought about coming here tonight.) He asked Katie if this was for him, and she shyly said "yes". Then Michael stooped down over the barricade and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek!!

Quickly he moved on to others. He gave a kiss to an elderly lady in a wheelchair, and hugged a lady accompanying someone else in another wheelchair. He also gave a young boy with a poster in the same group a "pat on the head". (We notice with pleasure that Michael's still holding Katie's letter in his left hand while he continues to sign autographs! [see photo on the right]) Then again on to the task of trying to make sure that everyone got an autograph. When he passed us, we and a few others quickly moved ahead of him to the far end of the line to try for another autograph. His bodyguards are really sharp. They spotted us and stopped Michael short just before he started a "2nd round" of signing. Michael quickly returned to his "shiny new toy", waived to the crowd, jumped in, and honked as he sped off into the night.

As we walked back to our car, we could him speeding across the parking lot with a van full of "well wishers" bring up the rear - both honking and having fun. We took almost a roll of film in the darkness of the stage exit and as you can see, many of them turned out quite well. If you want to see the others, just "click here".

We do appreciate all of the e-mail and appreciative comments from everyone who has taken the time to help share "Katie's Evening". A few of you have expressed an interest in getting a copy of the photographs. If you are using Windows 95 with Internet Explorer or Netscape you should be able to download these images directly. Just put your mouse on the picture you want and click the right mouse button. This should give you an opportunity to save the image to your hard disk. If anyone wants a copy of the actual uncropped "pre-scan" photographs, we can have extra copies made (at your expense for prints and shipping/handling - of course), just contact me at jimd@sandiegoshopping.com. Even if you don't need "real photos", please feel free to write us and let us know about your "Michael" experience, or what you thought about ours. We'd love to hear from you.

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All materials originating from this site are copyright Michael Flattley's Lord of the Dance and
Active Engineering Technologies, Inc. 1997.