THE ROLLING STONES AT THE FU CENTER PHILADELPHIA,PA MARCH 15-16 1999 CONTINUED

The Backstagers party went on until the wee hours, thanks to Blinded and T&F for the best BS Bash yet! Finally, we packed our gear & T&F drove Jhabel, E & I back to the train station. We had to wait for what seemd like forever to get a train, but finally one came by. E had her own fun on that ride..don't ask me what was so funny! Problem was, that when we returned to the station in Philly there wasn't a car in site, let alone a cab of any sort, so at 3am it was a sorry, wet & cold site to see we three Hags walking down the middle of deserted, snow & slush covered streets, my friends alternatly carrying my guitar due to me coming down the with Philly Phlu mid party. God it felt good to get back into the warmth of our hotel room & crash into bed. The next day early afternoon Jhabel found a tailor to alter her No Security vest she had hand made. We made it back to the Four Seasons by 3:30 in time to hit the bar for a few drinks in hopes of seeing the boys. We were later told that the Stones had been through the lobby & had signed autographs. Some guy at the table next to us said he saw Keith & his buddy remarked "how did you know if was him?" and he replied "no one else looks that bad". Jerk.

We were quite psyched about the first show that night & it was funny that we had a cabby that had not clue where the First Union Center was, he kept asking if we were going to a basketball game! Finally we made it to the FUC & our seats that night were back by the B-stage Ronnie's side, not what we had hoped, but they were ok.

Bernard Fowler at Philly Crew Doo, photo by Blue Lena

Turns out we couldn't find which box our friends were in, so we wandered the halls a bit more & then found our seats, but before the show began, we discovered our friends to be in the private box just above us & we simply climbed over the rope & walked right into their box, where we spent the rest of the show (thanks Holly!), at least no one could tell us to sit down :-) Here is the setlist from the 15th from IORR:

Start time : 9:25 End time : 11:25 The set list: 1.Jumping Jack Flash 2.Bitch 3.You Got Me Rocking 4.Respectable 5.Honky Tonk Women 6.Moonlight Mile 7.Saint of Me 8.Some Girls 9.Paint It Black -- Introductions -- 10.Before They Make Me Run (Keith) 11.Thief In The Night (Keith) 12.Out Of Control 13.Route 66 (B-stage) 14.When The Whip Comes Down (B-stage) 15.Midnight Rambler (B-stage) 16.Tumbling Dice 17.It's Only Rock'n Roll 18.Start Me Up 19.Brown Sugar 20.Sympathy for the Devil (encore)

Once again that thrill of seeing the video of the men in black, and then Keith and the boys materializing on stage to the crash of JJF. Nice that they threw Bitch in again, as they had in Pittsburgh. Moonlight Mile made tears run down our cheeks, the sheer beauty of it..when the wind blows...and the rain feels cold with a head full of snow...the crowd tried hard again on Saint, but they just can't cut it like the Europeans can. Some of you white girls just wanna get fucked all night, I just don't have that much jam! I was surprised that Keith played BFTMMR first, the rocker, then the ballad, Thief & I must say Thief that night was one of the most lovely versions I've heard. Keith's daughter, Angela, was in the front row somewhere & he made a comment about it & you could see him looking down at her. Midnight Rambler once again ruled the B-stage set tonight, there had been a problem with an amp as the set began which made Ronnie come to the mic & say something like "sing amongst yourselves for a bit". Then we had another laugh when Ronnie broke a string & Start Me Up went awry, Mick singing Start me Up when he should have been singing 'You make a grown man cry" or something like that. We love when they mess up, they're only human after all & Keith says that's the beauty of playing live.

We left the show happy & content, not believing that a 4th show was under our belt in a mere 8 days. Hitched a ride back to the hotel from Jime & Ami, thanks guys, it saved us from freezing our arses off! Then we of course were starving again & went next door to the only Chinese place on the block that was still open at 3am...had a Chinese feast & plenty of hot tea, as by this time I think we were all coming down with the Philly Phlu. To bed at 4am, and up the next day in time to meet the Jersey crew for lunch.

At 1pm we met at the Hard Rock Cafe, checked out the Stones memorabilia on the walls-nice pic of Keith in a cheetah frame. Then they sat us in the BEATLES room! How dare they! We made a fuss & they promised to put on all Stones tunes to appease the angry mob, which they did. I had some hot tea to soothe my throat before moving onto a Stoli & Cranberry, and we all pigged out on some good food, while trading stories from last night's party. We thought all the wild antics had taken place at last night's fiesta, but little did we know that when a banana split arrived for dessert...well, let's just say "the tricks with fruit, were kinda cute..with whipped cream too." Again the video is forthcoming. As we left the HRC, we were later told that people asked "who were they?" thinking the three of us were someone famous because of our big crowd gathered out front! Hey, even the bellman at the Four Seasons has asked if we were a three piece rock band! Maybe we should start one, but of course rehearsals between Pittsburgh, Monterey & Australia may prove difficult.

So, we left the HRC for the Four Seasons once again, this time accompanied by Mars Bar as our chaparone (although] he may have needed one more than we did!). We missed Keith by seconds, but later were rewarded with seeing Mick & Ronnie & Darryl leave. We later grabbed another cab & this time he knew where he was going & headed once again to the FUC for night #2, thinking this may be better than the rest. Philly always has a good crowd.Tonight we had seats row 18 Keith's side on the floor, much better than the night before.

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We stood in a alcove behind the stage to catch the Corrs for a bit, who put on a nice show, then we headed down to the floor. Never once did I show my ticket on this night. Our seats were 18th row Keith's side, but when we did try to get into our seats there were already several people sitting in them. We asked the security guy to move them & he kept asking us for OUR tickets, which we replied were section 3 row 18 seats 13 & 14, he seemed too timid to kick the other folks out of our seats or to ask them to show their tickets to prove they belonged there, yet kept insisting we sit in our seats. We weren't about to sit on anyone's lap, so we just proceeded to the front row & joined Jime & his wife Marla, who had legitimate front row Keef seats. Soon, the lights were down & unbelievably we were in the front row! I think we all lost it completely when Keith strode out onto the stage & ripped into JJF-SO CLOSE to us! God, it was amazing. At times like that I can't even hear the music, I just absorb it & feel the riff & Keith's presense with every inch of my being. We were just mesmerized watching the man move, play, slide, kneel, glide, slip us the tongue-ooooh! Too much. And when JJF ended Keith flicked out the first pick of the evening which bounced off Jime & landed in the grate beneath his feet! Way to go Jim! I got down & helped him dig it out, some other guy to the right of me was trying to worm his way in & I wasn't about to let that happen! We all high fived as they kicked into Live With Me. Here's the setlist from IORR for the 16th:

Start time : 9:25 End time : 11:25 The set list: 1.Jumping Jack Flash 2.Live With Me 3.You Got Me Rocking 4.Respectable 5.Honky Tonk Women 6.Fool To Cry 7.Saint of Me 8.Some Girls 9.Paint It Black -- Introductions -- 10.You Got The Silver (Keith) 11.You Don't Have To Mean It (Keith) 12.Out Of Control 13.Route 66 (B-stage) 14.Get Off Of My Cloud (B-stage) 15.Midnight Rambler (B-stage) 16.Tumbling Dice 17.It's Only Rock'n Roll 18.Start Me Up 19.Brown Sugar 20.Sympathy for the Devil (encore)

We all sang along with You Got Me Rocking, pumping our fists in the air during "hey, hey", and laughing when Mick sang the "easiest lay on the White House lawn" during Respectable. Honky Tonk Women is a song & a riff I can hear endlessly & I love to watch Keith play it. Keith came to our edge of the stage several times throughout the night & I waved the scarf that matched the one I gave him last year in Philly (the same one he wore for the final bow in 97), I knew he recognized it. Keith slipped us the tongue, which drives the Hags wild! He smiled as he played & the joy of the moment just rolled off his fingertips into the music. E & I shouted a couple "we love you Keith" 's and Jhabel held up her Orgas-MICK sign, to which Mick gave a smile & a nod on several ocassions during the evening. Next the piano came out to the front & we were treated again to Fool To Cry as we had heard first in Pittsburgh on Thursday. We sang as loud as we could on Saint, doing our own dance with the lyrics...looking over at Bernard I waved & he mouthed "hey baby" to me, which was cool. We had seen Bernard in the bar in several cities & of course at the Crew Doo Sunday night. He knew we were the Terrible Trio. After Saint, the security boss decided to have his workers check all tickets for the front row, so he advised us to move back for 5 minutes & then return to the front row when the boss was gone. E & I took a stroll during Some Girls & Paint It Black to check out our strategy for the B stage. We were happy to see Keith's skeleton was hanging on the mic this time, it had been sorely missing in DC the first night. When it was time for Keith's set we made out way back to the front.

Blondie Chaplin at Philly Crew Doo, photo by Blue Lena

THE TERRIBLE TRIO

Keith had on a white open shirt, looking fucking fabulous, as he pulled out the stool & the acoustic slide for You Got The Silver, my favorite Keith song ever. He said "I gotta sit for this one". I don't recall Keith ever getting better reviews for his set than on this tour & YGTS is one reason while, it's just breathtaking. I can hardly stand it, it's SO good. Then he kicks away the stool & proceeds to jam into the reggae tune You Don't Have To Mean It, which gets us all dancing again. No one is even getting beer or taking a piss this time-Keith you are NO LONGER THE INTERLUDE BABY! After Keith set he says "always a pleasure Philly" and he is so genuine when he says it. We decide at the beginning of OOC to make our move to te B stage, finding that unlike DC, it is already crowded down there, but we manage to make second row Keith's side, which suits us fine. As the boys saunter down the runway, slapping hands, gathering trinkets, we get ready for the to rock & roll with Route 66, it's tune #2 that comes as a treat-Get Off My Cloud-wow! Great! And the whole crowd is pressing into the stage with a frenzy, we are almost crushed on a few occasions-but we sing "hey, hey, you, you" in unison which is great & I loved being able to look up at the arena around me & see the whole place as they saw it, on their feet (mostly) & rocking out.

Midnight Rambler, well, what can you say about that? I beckoned Ketih my way & once when he was turned my way lost in a riff, I mouthed "I love you baby" and for the next several seconds I had the pure ecstacy of his intense eye contact, perhaps he wondered "how the hell did the scarf chick get down in front here as well?". Great B stage set guys. Once again it was back to the main stage front row in a hurry for Tumbling Dice, IORR, Start Me Up, Brown Sugar...Keith slipping the tongue a few more times & upon seeing Miss White Sugar at the end of the front row in her too small top & too tight skirt he says "show me your tits" and she obliges, the security guys eyes almost rolled back in their heads. At one point during the show, two guys managed to jump up on stage & it was during this time that the security boss was hassling us again about tickets...we told him if he'd been doing his job those two guys might not be up on stage right now, to which he almost shit & turned & ran backstage! He didn't bother US anymore that night. For me the pleasure of being front row two tours in a row for Philly was just bliss & after the show I said as I did in 97 "thank you Jesus, thank you Lord!" for never in my life did I think I would be blessed with the luck I had for B2B & I didn't dream that No Security would be even better. As Sympathy ended & the boys took their bow arm in arm, we sighed, as yet another great show came to a close. No one could put a price on that evening, Philly #2 just surpasses MSG #2 as my favorite show of all time.

Back to the hotel for some sleep, all of us feeling exhausted & the adrenaline was running low. By the next morning, when it was time to leave town, we all had the full blown Philly Phlu...which as I type this one week later...is STILL hanging on.

STAY TUNED FOR THE APRIL REVIEWS AS BLUE LENA HEADS TO CLEVELAND, COLUMBUS & SAN JOSE!!!