U-N-I Ch. 13

As soon as we stepped on stage, the whole show was a real rollercoaster ride of emotions. It was brilliant. We knew we had something to prove. People in the audience knew it too. We were so full of adrenaline, so supercharged that I think people could instantly feel it and from the first note, they were totally into it and already dancing and singing along, which to us, was the key to a successful gig. To have people connect with us and to sing along to our songs. We loved involving them the whole time. We hadn't been on stage in so long, and yet, we immediately felt so at ease. To the point that when we came to the end, we didn't even want to come off knowing we had to go back to the real world.

We first played "Hurts like Heaven", followed by "Yellow". When the song neared the end, Rob talked to the crowd as he kept playing,

"Well good evening everybody." he told them, "Thank you so much for being here tonight; that means the world to us. We came out here a bit scared, but to feel the vibe in this place tonight makes me feel like - you guys are great, and together we can do wonderful, wonderful things. We're gonna give everything we have, tonight, for you, and we hope you have a great time!" he strummed his guitar and added, "Now show me what you've got! Let me know you're out there! Show me what you've got!" he said, encouraging them to be louder and louder as we strummed the guitars and Damon loudly hit the drums.

'Turn it up, turn it up!" he said to us. The crowd went wild and we knew the gig was going to be absolutely awesome.

We then played three new songs live for the first time, "Lost", "Talk" and of course "The Scientist," which quickly became a big singalong. The audience left no choice to Rob but to stop singing because they were being so loud. He let out a giggle and had to really push his voice in the next chorus to sing over them. When the song ended, he said,

"Alright, seems like you really want to sing tonight, let's sing this one together." and we played the chorus again, letting them sing it as loud as they wanted to.

The album had only been out for a couple of months, and yet, they were singing the song as if we had been playing it for years. It felt like it was already a classic song. We smiled at each other, amazed at how much people already loved and connected to the song.

Nobody said it was easy

Oh, it's such a shame for us to part

Nobody said it was easy

No one ever said it would be so hard

I'm going back to the start

When the song ended, Jordan said into his mic, "Stop crying, Rach, we can see you!" I looked at him with a slight grin, knowing she would probably kill him for that later.

We then played 'Politik' and as expected, Rob could not help but get back at Jordan. He stood behind him and acted in a flirty way as he sang the chorus "Open up your eyes" four times in a row. Jordan could not really do anything; so he just smiled and waited for Rob to move on as he tried to concentrate on playing as best as he could. Dylan and me watched them and looked knowingly at each other.

There were a few smiles and giggles from all of us but not enough for the public to actually notice what this was about. We had enough professional pride not to go too far and to not ruin the song for the fans.

We continued playing songs from her first two albums. The concert went on with "Low, Clocks, Shiver, Trouble, In My Place and A Message." There was quite a lot of interaction between Rob and me during those songs. He would often look over at me or come over to me and wrap an arm around my shoulder as he sang, when he was not playing guitar himself.

After those songs, we went down the runway to a small cross stage at the end of it, on which we were to play a few more in an intimate set amongst the audience.

We were not quite ready to start playing the first acoustic song when Rob said,"Check this out, it's fucking good!" and began playing as few notes and singing the beginning of a new song called "What If"

He stopped and said,

"I'm joking, I should probably wait for the rest of the band....So we're gonna play a new song again. I'd like to say, we're quite proud of this song. It's personal, and inspired by recent changes in our lives. But if you don't like it, fuck it, just listen to the old stuff," they cheered so he said, "Here we go! This is "What If" hope you like it."

What if there was no lie
Nothing wrong, nothing right
What if there was no time
And no reason, or rhyme
What if you should decide
That you don't want me there by your side
That you don't want me there in your life

When the song ended, Rob spoke to the crowd again. He always enjoyed this, and so did they.

"So, this is something new we've been doing as a band. I know you think we only have sex, drink a lot and count money, but really, the truth is, we really just have a laugh and play music. And lately we've tried to learn new instruments. So Damon's learned the harmonica for this song. This is "Don't Panic!"

We played it acoustically, and when it finished, Rob spoke again. Being on the small stage in the middle of the crowd made it a lot easier to interact with the audience.

"We're gonna play "Green Eyes", and we're gonna play it for Leighann on Instagram. But first if that's ok with you, I feel like we should introduce the whole band. We don't often... we never used to do it before, but maybe it would be nice to do that tonight!"

The audience got very loud as they cheered and clapped.

"Yeah, so let me introduce my awesome bandmates to you! So, first I'm Robbie. I used to be married to George Michael as most of you know. He was sweet but things didn't go so well!" he joked, as a way to say that he was gay.

"I'm one fifth of our band. I don't know why the media always seems to forget this but everyone is equally important in this band so I think it's time to start acknowledging the fact that there's five of us and not one or two of us. We've been gigging together for, I'd say ten years now, the five of us!" they screamed and he added jokingly, "Yeah, that long. And if you had to hang out with me and Jordan for that long, you'd realize how much of an achievement that is for the rest of these guys," he joked pointing at me and Dylan essentially.

"So you know, the plan was to become famous actors, or firemen, or doctors, or dentists, I don't remember, but none of us were really good enough. So we just said, 'Oh Fuck this, let's just make a band!' So that's what we did, you know, between crunching our abs and polishing our teeth, we've made songs!" he joked.

"Now to my left, first of all," he smiled wickedly turning to Jordan, " He's just the sexiest bass player you can ever dream of! He's like a cross between Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake, he's like Jordan Bieberlake! He's... I mean you'll never see his abs, but they're just delightful!" he said with a laugh.

Jordan feigned a bit of laughter. He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows a few times as he raised his t shirt a little.

"Oh there you go! Look at that!" Rob exclaimed. "See! Delightful! Yeah, he's just pure gorgeousness! Plus he's the best bass player I've ever met! There are better ones probably but he's my favourite! So he's crazy but amazing and he's a bit mad but he's sweet and generous and very kind. This is Jordan, our beautiful bass player!"

The audience clapped and cheered very loudly and I think Jordan was almost embarrassed.

"On the piano, we've got Dylan! So you may have noticed that we don't need Dylan on all of our songs. So, sometimes he just wanders off. He's like the ghost member of our band! He goes off stage, maybe has a cup of tea or goes and has sex with his many girlfriends, who knows? And then, he forgets to come back on when we do need him!" Dylan laughed and gave him the finger.

"Don't pretend that's never happened!" Rob laughed.

"Not tonight, " Dylan replied with a laugh.

"But he's an awesome piano player and most of all, he's probably the most centered and serious member of the band, and he really keeps us together. I don't know what we'd do without him!"

"On the drums, we've got Damon ..., he doesn't look like he does, but I'm telling you he's got the strength, he's got the muscles and he's got the power to hit those drums! He's the most awesome drummer in our band and probably in the world, and he's great!" the crowd screamed.

"Yeah, we often make bad jokes, but really he's against the grain. He is really a technically brilliant drummer and he can also play plenty of other instruments. Seriously, he's brilliant!" Damon just winked at him.

"And on my right," he slowly said, pointing at me and the crowd went wild, "yeah, yeah, you should scream! I know. I would totally do that too if I were you!" and he just encouraged them to be louder.

Now that was embarrassing.

"So, he used to be my secret gay lover," he laughed; the people cheered and he added, "Not so secret anymore I'm afraid!"

"It was fun while it lasted." I said.

"Sure was! Being in the closet is actually not so bad. No one gives you any shit."

They laughed and he added,

"So that's Mark Emery for you, my perfect perfect boyfriend. First of all, he really is an amazing songwriter. Like, he won't admit it, but he really does pretty much all the work. In fact, we just pretend to help him!"

A guy in the front row shouted,

"I LOVE YOU MARK!"

and Rob answered,

"Yeah, I know, he's gorgeous. He's my best friend, the best friend I could possibly ask for! He keeps me sane, let me tell you! He's my soulmate, and he's got a smile brighter than a thousand candles," we laughed at the cheesiness of that sentence, and the crowd cheered. "Yes, he's beautiful, and I love him!"

They cheered louder and longer and so he added,

"That's right! I get to see him in his underwear... and without 'em!"

I shook my head and laughed,

"Yep!" he grinned at me, "I'm allowed to say that now. Told you you were gonna get embarrassed a lot tonight!"

And the crowd started shouting and clapping "Ink, Ink, Ink" over and over.

"Oh nooo!" I laughed in the microphone.

"Oh, you want us to play 'Ink', do you?" he said sexily.

I played the first few notes, which made the crowd go crazy. Rob gasped,

"Oh come on, do it. Don't chicken out!"

I smiled at him,

"I never said I'd do it!"

They wouldn't stop shouting 'Ink',

"Oh no, I'm screwed!" I mumbled with a laugh.

"Well just so you know, I will NOT sing that song! So, if you want us to play it, you'll have to encourage him to sing it!"

And encourage me they did.

"Alright, alright, I'll do it!" I finally caved and they cheered super enthusiastically.

"Really?" He asked me surprised and turned to the crowd a little, "Well done! It takes me five years to get him to sing a song in public and you just have to cheer for one minute to convince him. I'm jealous."

"Now, it's my turn to embarass you," I said to him.

"Are you kidding? I'm gonna enjoy this!" he laughed. "So, you know, this is a song that was never supposed to be released and we hid it on a single B-side, thinking you guys wouldn't notice it. It's just a song that was quickly written in our bedroom really."

They all cheered and whistled, mostly the girls.

"Yeah, yeah, it was as sexy as it sounds!" he said sexily. "This is probably the first and only time this will happen, so enjoy it.... I know I will!"

I laughed. He was on fire,

"Ok I'm gonna shut up now! I really have to stop talking. We may seem pretty relaxed tonight and not very professional but it is a special night because there are so many special people in this venue tonight you know, everyone's here! From our families, to our friends, and a few celebrities up there who got curious! Not to mention you guys, who are the best audience in the world and who have always stuck with us! Everybody here is pretty fucking special to us, so we hope you have as good of an evening as we're having and thank you for coming and being with us tonight!"

They clapped and he continued,

"Ok, Let's do this. I'm really sorry for all the talking, please don't put it on Youtube, it's terrible! But if you do, please add a little disclaimer that we haven't been on stage for over a year and that we spent hours and hours rehearsing those songs and then you just decide to make us play whatever you want, no rehearsals at all. Alright, switch guitars?" he asked me so I'd play the acoustic guitar on the song.

His guitar was not in the right tuning so I started tuning it, although we had someone to do that for us and I had several different guitars in different tunings ready for the songs we had to play, but 'Ink' wasn't planned. Unfortunately, it turned out that in front of twenty thousand people and the noise in the arena, it was a lot harder to do than I had expected.

"Sorry," I laughed. "I've never tuned a guitar in front of twenty thousand people," I told them and played a string that was totally out of key.

"This is why!" I joked and laughed.

I tried again while I spoke,

"But hey, you can say, I was there! I was there when it took U-N-I's guitarist twenty minutes to tune his guitar, bear with me!"

"WE BELIEVE IN YOU!" a girl shouted.

"Thank you so much," I said in the microphone. "The power of belief is what's gonna get me through," I laughed with them. " 'Cause I've got no fucking idea what I'm doing!" I joked., "You know I did write this song. Which is weird, 'cause now I can't play it in front of you!"

"Hon, you can try all you want but they're not gonna let you get away with this!" Rob joked. I smirked at him.

"Can I have another guitar please? In the right tuning," I asked, " 'cause I've just pretty much screwed this one up!"

The roadie in charge handed another one over to me and I asked him skeptically, "Is this one in the other tuning?" because I was pretty sure it wasn't. He nodded yes.

"Alright... I played a few notes but as expected, it still wasn't in the right tuning.

"Shit!" I let out a laugh and began tuning it again.

"FUCK IT!!," a guy in the front row shouted really loudly. Everybody around heard and laughed.

I turned to him and stopped tuning the guitar,

"No, I can't fuck it man!" There was laughter in the whole venue. "I can't do that. I'd fuck it, but then end up going viral."

And then we heard another guy yell even louder, "FUCK ME ROBBIE, I LOVE YOU!"

I laughed,

"Oh man, this is getting out of control," as I continued trying to tune the guitar. "he would but then that'd be the end of the band ... just because some horny guy said 'fuck me'! ... and then everybody here's gonna hate you."

Everybody laughed and booed.

"Yeah, boo him for me!" I encouraged them.

"We're staying at the Ritz," Rob said seriously into the mike.

I laughed as I raised my eyebrows to him,

"Are we?"

"I feel this is already going viral," Jordan said as he looked at Damon who was laughing his ass off.

"You gotta love those guys," Damon said.

"YOU'RE THE BEST," we heard someone shout in the audience.

"Yeah, right!" Jordan exclaimed, "I think we all need to hear this right now!" he laughed.

"Wait, I think my guitar needs tuning!" Rob said, as he was going to play the electric guitar on the song.

"No," I answered dramatically, "you're fine!"

"Maybe I should play 'The Scientist' instead'," I joked because the High E string wasn't a standard tune, it was F tuned and it had to be changed from E to F, which made it quite hard to right tune it by ear, and the guys knew that of course.

People cheered, wanting me to do it, because they couldn't really understand the joke.

"He's kidding!" Jordan laughed. "It's a different setting tune, not standard, that's another half an hour of waiting for him to tune that guitar!" he said and I mouthed 'fuck you' to him jokingly.

Then, I began singing in the microphone, "Nobody said it was easy - nobody said tuning a guitar was easy"

Everybody clapped and the roadie finally handed me the first guitar, which was now perfectly tuned.

"Alright, great! Thank you so much. Let's play 'Ink'. Another embarrassing moment," I laughed before pointing my finger at Rob who had a mischievous look on his face that didn't presume anything good, "Don't!" I told him under my breath. I didn't want him to distract me.

He just raised his hands and gave me an innocent smile, promising he wasn't planning on doing anything.

"Hit it!" I told Damon and we started the song.

I tried to block the whole venue and to concentrate on Rob and on my guitar. I looked into his eyes for most of the song and my eyes would only leave his when I needed to check the chords, just as he sometimes was. I think for a brief moment, when I sang these lyrics and gazed into his eyes, it was only the two of us on the stage.

" I see you road begin to climb,

I see you stars begin to shine,

I see your colours and I'm dying of thirst,

All I know, is that I love you so,

So much that it hurts."

I'm not sure how we managed to keep playing without getting a note wrong, I know I was relying on muscle memory to correctly and automatically play all the notes and he obviously was too. When the song ended, Jordan and Damon left the small cross shaped stage and went back to the main stage to play, and so it was just the two of us left to play "Green Eyes", and then "A Rush Of Blood".

I began playing "Green Eyes" on acoustic guitar, and this time, he was the one singing to me. Again, I didn't pay much attention to what I was playing as I knew the chords so well, but when in the second part of the song, Rob had to start playing the electric guitar, he messed up the first note. He just laughed at how distracted he was, and so did everyone. We just stopped and I picked up where we had left off and the whole venue cheered for him when he played the note right. He kept looking at me and changed the original lyrics, "I came here with a load and it feels so much lighter since I met you" to "since I told you" and as he was singing this twice during the song, I was genuinely worried that he would change it to "since I've done you" because that's totally something he would have been cheeky enough to do. I actually looked at him with a smirk, and I think he understood I didn't want him to sing that and he sang "now I'm with you"

Before we started playing, "A Rush Of Blood To The Head" he briefly spoke into the mike and said with a bit of resentment,

"Got a special message for someone in the audience tonight. Thomas... just so you know, as far as I'm concerned, sorry doesn't cut it! You can just fuck off home! This is " A Rush Of Blood To The Head "

I slightly laughed and we began playing. Again, we looked at each other a lot for most of the song and he actually came over to me before he had to start playing the electric guitar, as the beginning of the song only required me to play. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and sang to me,

'Oh, I'm gonna buy this place and start a fire
Stand here until I fill all your heart's desires
Because I'm gonna buy this place and see it burn
Do back the things it did to you in return'

I locked eyes with him and smiled before he rushed back to his mike to start playing as he continued singing the song.

He then sang the line

"I said I'm gonna buy a gun and start a war,