The pictures were made by LaLa. The thumbnails were generated by IrfanView.
If you want to, I can send you the original, 1152x864 size pictures in email (about 300KB/picture).
Suggested links:
Back In Time - Live! - official webpage of the event
C64audio.com - Buy the "Back In Time 3" CD here
HVSC - High Voltage SID Collection
Woke up relatively early in Bromley, southeast of London - in the town that is home to Chris Abbott. I certainly didn't get enough sleep, that's for sure. Had breakfast in the guesthouse I stayed at, then went outside and walked to the end of the block at the gas station to wait for Chris and company. They arrived 20 minutes late, but they were understandably busy. We rented a Vauxhall minivan (which I later found out is just the English brand of Opel). Chris put his friend, Ross in charge of his Toyota MR2 and we went back to Chris' place.
At Chris' place it turned out that the minivan is really mini, a lot smaller than Chris thought. So, after some creative packing (in the rain, BTW), we finally managed to get most of the things into it, but not all. We left out 2 boxes of T-shirts, some posters, the TV and a few boxes of CDs. But otherwise the car was jam-packed, and we were on our way!
It was a fun trip to Birmingham with Darren and Ross. At around noon we also stopped at Oxford on the highway to get something to eat. We decided to go to Burger King at this very nice rest-stop (even had fountains and stuff!), so I couldn't avoid eating a burger (which was expensive compared to the US prices!). But it was actually pretty good, even though I had a big breakfast.
We arrived at Birmingham at around 3pm following Warren's excellent instructions. On the way there we had calls from Marcel Donne, Jogeir and Martin Galway (Martin was in Manchester at his parents' house, so he drove to Birmingham - not what he planned). On arrival at the Premier Lodge hotel, the first person we saw in the parking lot was David Whittaker, then soon later Jeff Minter showed up, too. Inside the lobby we also met Tony Crowther, and I think Fred Gray was there, too! Whew!!!...
The first time I met Warren was in the hotel room. I went up to the room I shared with him, and there he was, sitting in a chair watching TV. We decided to go down to the neighborhood pub, because that's where everybody was getting together. And so they were! We spent some time there, everybody had a drink, and after changing clothes in our rooms, we walked down to the DNA club. As it turned out, only Warren knew the way, so everybody else waited for him, which meant a 15-20 person large group walking thru the centre of Birmingham to the club led by Warren. It was a 15 minute walk and it was raining (of course). Upon arrival to the club, we had to beat on the door a few times to be let in, but we got in! Of course, it was too early for anything at that time (I think it wasn't even 5 pm), but it was a huge, very modern venue for sure. Around 6pm another dude showed up who looked vaguely familiar to me. Nobody else had the courage to ask him (not even after he asked us about Chris, who wasn't with us at the time), so I did. I guessed correctly: it was Bjorn Lynne!!! Amazing! It was such a pleasant surprise that he finally decided to come, because - as he said it - if people made the trip from overseas and it was only a 1 hour trip for him, why not? What a great decision, Bjorn!
Since we were just standing around in the empty club, Bjorn had the idea to go to a nearby pub, which we did. We had a nice chat there (not to mention drinks), and then we went back to the club.
Later on we all got together in the VIP room upstairs and the composers started to trickle in. First, it was Benn. A total party dude in loose clothes. He immediately liked the T-shirt Chris made for him! Always fun to be with, a very jolly easy-going fella. Then slowly other people started to arrive, and pretty soon, the VIP room was chock-full of people!
Let's see: Whittaker, Fred Gray, then Martin Galway, Richard Joseph, then people like Puffy64, Slaygon, and of course, Adam Lorentzon (very nice guy, very calm, intelligent!), Peter and Per - wow! What a crowd it was already! It was strange when people got to me and recognized me, and I greeted them like "Hi, and who the heck are you?" and then they said their name and I said "Ahh, yeahh!! Nice to meet you!" It was great to associate faces with the names we all know online. It was lots of fun, even if awkward at times.
And then, of course, the last one to arrive was Rob Hubbard himself. No long hair, very elegantly dressed, vibrant eyes and that unmistakable smile under his moustache. People flocked to him in numbers, and throughout the night he was surrounded by big crowds until he finally managed to go one level down to the lounge and talk privately to people. But he didn't mind at all that people asked for his autograph, all the flashes of the cameras, and he just smiled and smiled...
So, the VIP event was a total blast for everybody who was there, even for the composers themselves. Hubbard and Galway also met each other, the two big legends of the C64 scene, and I think a lot of them appreciated the opportunity to finally talk to each other just about anything they wanted. In fact, a few of them were even interviewed by the local BBC crew (Benn and David was definitely interviewed).
Unfortunately, the club itself didn't fill up. The few people who danced on the dance floor were mostly those familiar to the C64 scene and were the people who came down from the VIP room. As the evening went on and as the number of people inside the club didn't increase, so grew Chris' frustration and disappointment. I think, everybody who was at the event appreciated it very much and thanked Chris for it, but financially, it was definitely a bust for him. I think, secretly he hoped to make some money to cover at least the cost of hotel rooms and plane tickets of the VIPs, but I seriously doubt he managed to do that. Which is too bad. I think, the primary problem was that the event was Wednesday night, which is a weekday, and not very good for university students when most of them are in the middle of their exam season, too... But everybody who was at the event enjoyed it a lot!
What was also really amazing to me is that I wasn't the only Hungarian in the VIP room! Believe it or not, Michael Delaney's wife is Hungarian, her name is Csilla! Somebody told her that I am Hungarian, too, and she greeted me so, then we had a nice chat - in Hungarian! In fact, we had a few nice chats throughout the evening about various things. Who would've thought!?... It's a small world, and now I am absolutely convinced that Hungarians are everywhere! (And since she has never been into the C64 scene, she didn't even realize that she was sitting next to some big SID legends, she even had Richard Joseph's coat on herself because she was cold, and later in the night she sat right by Rob Hubbard!)
In fact, at around 1pm I also sat down by Csilla, Michael and Hubbard to have a chat, and I finally had a chance to have a human conversation with Rob himself. (I am amazed to even say this - I talked to Rob Hubbard! Think about it!!!) But it all seemed very natural at the time, and we were just two strangers sharing a similar interest when we talked, nothing more.
I asked Rob how he deals with all this sudden celebrity status that materialized around him today. He told me he wouldn't do it on a daily basis, but once in every 16 years he can deal with it...
Adam was so shy, I had to walk to Rob and tell him: look, here's the guy who made SIDPlay for Windows! "Really?", said Rob and he and Adam had a nice conversation with each other about SIDPlay and other things.
While the composers and the SID fans were busy talking to each other in the VIP room and the lounge, excellent, mostly never-before-heard remixes provided the dance rhythms on the lower floor. On the wall was a video projection of many C64 games (thanks to Kenz, who spent 2 days putting that video together), and later on, Jeff Minter's light show (featuring llamas, of course) took place there, too. Actually, the stream of remixes started out with the BIT Live Anthem by DHS - it's an instant classic, and more so when you listen to its lyrics!
I haven't talked a lot to the composers, but Rob seemed like a very intelligent person. He was talking faster than in Justin's radio interview. Martin was a very plesant surprise who was also very intelligent and fun to be with. I haven't talked much with Richard Joseph or Tony Crowther to formulate any opinion about them. I had a short chat with Fred Gray, he seemed like a very curious person, asking many questions, also very knowledgable. He even asked me to email him the pictures I took of him! David always had a big smile on his face (like everybody else tonite, I think!), and not only he drank a lot, he also bought drinks to others (most notably to Peter), and he got so drunk he had to be carried out of the club!
Right before the end of the event I saw Rob and Martin shake hands, thanking the opportunity to meet each other (and I didn't take a picture of this - damn!).
The event ended after 2am, when everybody got into taxis back to the hotel. I haven't seen the legends any more, except Jeff Minter, who was standing in his 1st floor window in the hotel when Warren and I walked under it and he said "Baaa!", which was very funny! (At the event he was showing videos of his favorite sheeps and animals to everybody on his digital camcorder...)
What a day, man, what a day!...
