Sorry for the length everyone, but I want to get EVERYTHING in, including my own feelings about this AMAZING day!
So…guess someone was smiling on us as the weather was perfect, a minor detail but it helped make the day all the more perfect in my opinion lol. But anyway I won’t bore you with details of the journey up or anything, so I’ll start from when a group of us started growing at Putney Bridge, most of who we hadn’t met before but who we knew must be attending judging by their t-shirts, hats and gloves etc. It was nice to be around fans, as it always is and it was lovely to at last meet with Diane in person (apart from seeing her once in the distance LOL), having spent the last nearly 2 years chatting online, and the last couple of weeks talking by text/phone etc. Walking to Fulham in a group gave me a feeling of solidarity, i.e “YES we’re Michael Jackson fans and WE ARE going to see the statue that’s been all over the media, WHAT OF IT?!” (probably less aggressive but you get the point). When we arrived at the gate we were greeted by staff (one of whom Diane and Motsey had been liasing with for weeks via e-mail), and after giving our names were handed special VIP passes to wear which had a picture of Michael and Mohammed Al Fayed during Michael’s visit to the Football ground. We were also handed a ticket, which we were surprised to find was a voucher for a free drink and a free burger/pie. We were just commenting on how nice all this was when….OMG AMAZING EVENT HAPPENED!
As we walked around to where the statue was we noticed that Remember The Time video was playing on the screens….and at the end of the path was no other than Mohammed Al Fayed himself which we were NOT expecting at all! There was also more staff with a table of free champagne (and orange juice for those of us who don’t drink!) and of course the statue! After grabbing a drink Motsey dragged me over to where Mohammed Al Fayed was stood, and I kind of hid behind him whilst he enthusiastically shook his hand and thanked him for the statue and for the event whilst I said sweet naff-all (kind of reminded me of when I met Michael himself when I was 8 and too scared to speak lol). We then finally had a good look at the statue itself. I know how it looks on the internet guys, but I would thoroughly recommend seeing it in person, it looks a LOT better. We were then presented with more souvenirs; postcards of the statue, and my personal favourite – a booklet about the statue, why it is there, Mohammed Al Fayeds friendship with Michael and photos from Michael’s time there. I opened it, read a few quotes, felt myself choking up, looked at the statue, choked up more, noticed some huge canvasses on display of Michael visiting Fulham FC, getting more and more choked and then noticed ballads such as Heal The World and Gone Too Soon were playing and found it was better to look at the river in case I blubbed. Somewhere in amongst this blur of being lavished with souvenirs and getting slightly choked up (probably all in a weird order but I was very overwhelmed!) I noticed more and more fans were arriving (including a certain Mr. Thrillerchild at some point lol) which made me feel very happy and comforted to be around like-minded people.
After some chatting and picture taking and basically getting over the shock of how much the staff and Mohammed Al Fayed had laid on for us, we were directed to where we would be eating and drinking….which turned out to be in the VIP lounge!!!! I was just in absolute awe of the whole thing!!!! The football fans don’t get this sort of treatment!!!! AND THEN to top it all I used the ladies toilet and discovered not only posh handwash BUT HANDCREAM AS WELL (yes I do get excited by this sort of thing, I was extremely grateful I was alone in the toilets as I loudly gasped and announced “Oh my days! CREAM!” and then looked around embarrassed to check none of the stalls were occupied lmao). When I went back into the lounge a cameraman asked Motsey and me if we could come outside so he could film us saying a few words of thanks to Mohammed Al Fayed (who had left by this point) as they were putting together a special personal recording of this day for him, and so were getting several of us to say a few words to go on the recording. Once again Motsey in all his usual laid-back style confidently gave his message of thanks whilst I kind of squeaked my name and “thankyou” and nodded here and there. After more picture taking and chat (including discussing our love of MJ t-shirt spotting with others, and noticing one of the bar staff was singing and bopping his head to WBSS leaving us to conclude he was a fan too) we all went back to the statue which is where I think things got more special as we showed the staff what it was to be an MJ fan
After several group shots under the statue we all made a line and held hands and requested some music. Some sort of technical hitch amongst the staff (that I couldn’t hear what was about), lead to a fan producing some sort of speaker thing for their phone, and Hold My Hand was played as we all sang along. The line became a circle with all of us walking/running/skipping (varied from person to person lol) whilst the cameraman stood in the middle filming us with a smile, not a mocking; “oh look at the crazy Michael Jackson fans”, but with a smile of joy at our joy. I don’t know, maybe I am reading too much into that, but it seemed that way to me.
At this point the light was starting to fade and some people started to leave. I am glad I stayed longer as some very touching things were revealed around this time. One of the women who worked at Fulham FC told us of her personal meeting with Michael. She pointed to the canvas of Michael with the Fulham team and pointed to where the picture cut out and said “I was stood just there, and I actually escorted him around”, which was met with questions of what he was like. She said how lovely he was, not a bad word to say about anybody, and described his general presence; “His aura is just all around, you can’t get close because of this aura” (might explain why when I saw him I didn’t run and grab him lol – his aura got in the way!) and then she went on to tell us “He loved his fans, when he said he loved you he meant it, he really meant it. We know how much he means to you, how special he is to you guys, we can see it” and all I could think was “She understands us. SHE GETS US”. She also revealed there is a reason why the statue is placed where it is, but that it is kind of secret so think I better keep quiet for now, but all should be revealed in time
but if it works out it will be lovely (and it’s all thanks to Mohammed Al Fayad!) and will make more sense somehow (even if some of the football fans won’t think so haha).
After all these revelations (which nearly had me in tears) those of us that remained made our way out, thanking everybody on the way (whilst Motsey grabbed a pile of spare souvenir booklets from one member of staff) and the mood was a good one. Whilst some people parted at this point to catch tubes etc some of us went to the nearest(?) pub for a bit. After a lot of laughter (and getting over the shock of the amazing-ness of the event) which included a certain crazy-but-lovely lady befriending a “freak” who she insisted on calling “Seamus” (lol) and one of the guys making an MJ-style “aow!” in perfect timing with the pub garden lights shutting off randomly (magical powers?) it was time to go home.
There is not much more I can say at this point apart from that for the first time in a very long time I left an MJ event feeling happy…elated even. This was a big deal for me as often I end up feeling flat or emotional afterwards, but this time I felt amazing and was buzzed all the way home (and all the next day!)…and something more than that, like I said before, it felt like we were understood…WE MADE THEM UNDERSTAND! Maybe that is just me being OTT, but it felt amazing and I still feel amazing now. I am used to being mocked, I would have almost expected it from the football fans who didn’t like the statue (although I have since been told this has been exaggerated, there is only a minority who have a problem) but actually getting a level of understanding outside of the fan-community was a great feeling.
Finally…a MASSIVE thanks to the two MJJC members who did their upmost to make this event (which was a million times better than we could have dreamed of) possible. I already gush enough about my wonderful boyfriend Motsey, so I won’t do it again but I will say Diane deserves a massive round of applause for all her hard work (and she is a lovely lovely lady in person, it’s not just an online-thing
) and I cannot say thankyou enough to both of you for your persistence when it came to Fulham FC and your gentle-persuasion when it came to contacting the staff that lead to this event happening. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou x x
So….what you guys got planned next
LOL
