| Fan Story - Petra Meckenstock | |
|---|---|
| Author: | Petra Meckenstock |
| Date: | |
| Source: | |
| E-mail: | petra.meckenstock@Wuppertal.netsurf.de |
| Website: | |
Hi you out there, I know you started all this discussions about the bios some time ago and even if I enjoyed it very much, I didn't really feel like joining and I also was short of time. I hope you don't mind, if I give you a short bio now: I am 32, I live in a small city called Solingen in Germany and I discovered Mary about 6 years ago while I was in Ireland, when I bought a Woman's Heart 1. I got curious and bought The Collection soon-I got hooked right away. I planned to go to Ireland again with a friend of mine the next summer and I thought, well, if there is a MB concert, I'm going. She liked her music too, she wasn't really a fan, but at least she promised to accompany me. I found the fax no. on the back of the CD's and the address as well (you can only find this, if you bought them by Dara Records) and I wrote a fax asking for Ireland Summer dates. A few days later a fax from Joe arrived (of course I had no idea, who he was) and it said, that there was a concert in Germany on the 13.2.94 in Hamburg. Hamburg is about 500 kms from where I live. I talked to my friend and I convinced her to go there. So we went and it was her first concert in Germany ever, just 200 people in a very small hall. Mary was rather nervous, it was the Holy Ground tour. She didn't know, that most of the people had been to Ireland before and knew her songs quite well. So she had to give 9 encores, it was really incredible and the audience was thrilled. I was hooked and could hardly sit still. My friend always tried to calm me down and really got on my nervs. Shortly after the concert she wanted to get home and I was furious with her, but thought, well may be she wants to talk to me, may be she's tired and then she wanted to go to bed. I was much too excited to sleep, still so filled with the music and the experience. We stayed in a youth hostel and so we had to lie down and be quiet- not really the end I had wished. When I returned home, I was still so filled with the experience that I felt like buying a book about Germany and sending it to Mary via Dara Records, my own way to say thank you. I didn't expect anything special to happen. A month went by, another, half a year, nothing happened, I forgot about the book, but still listened to the music a lot. The next year Mary came over to Germany again in April, a few days before my birthday. I bought a ticket for a concert in Bonn, because I still liked the music. This time I went there on my own. I was sitting in the first row and enjoyed it very much. After the concert I bought the song book and waited for-I don't know what, I just didn't feel like going, so I stand there with a handful of other people waiting for something to happen. About 20 mins. later Damian, Mary's tour manager, asked all of us to come into her wardrobe. I was rather surprised but heard later on, that this is more a general thing, whereever there is a small venue. The guys even asked us, if we wanted a drink and they were all very friendly. A guy took a picture of Mary and me and so I got a memory on this first evening backstage. I got my songbook signed and Mary asked each of us, how we had come across her music, she was rather nice and approaching, like always. I felt, that I had to ask her, if she received the book I sent her. She said, yes, but didn't I say thank you? No, you didn't. When I said this, she was rather embarrassed. Didn't I write back? No. She said, that I have go give her my address again, so that she can write me again - she promised to do so and she did about 6 months later, when I had nearly forgotten about it, but only nearly. As I had some more days off, I was playing the thought around to go to Frankfurt the next day, which is about 200 km from where I live. I asked Mary, if she knew, if the show was sold out, she said, that it might be. She asked me, if I really wanted to drive that far. I told her, that I had some days off and she said: Well, I can put you on the guest list, if you want. Don't worry if you can't make it. Did I have to tell you that I of course made it? It wasn't that easy, because I had to get my exhaust repaired the next morning before I was actually able to go there, I feared that the car wouldn't have made it there otherwise but I felt I just had to get there, no matter what... So this was the first time for the guest list and my second time backstage. Nowadays everything's a lot easier. I saw over 10 concerts in the mean time, including the whole Celtic Flame tour. I also had the pleasure to be able to listen to rehearsing. I can't afford all this travelling and pay the concerts, so I get on the guest list quite often too. I got to know Mary and the band personally and I saw a lot of interesting places. I even followed her to Northern Ireland 2 years ago, what really astonished her and to the Guiness Fleadh in London and a concert in Belgium. She said, with me, you never know, where I might turn up and I guess she's right.... Through her music I got curious on a lot of other Irish and Scottish artists and nowadays I mostly listen to this type of music. Petra from Germany