I know this should be in the off topic or tours but there is some general info about Flo and the band :) Just thought some of the regulars might want to know of my night! Sorry if i get carried away! Also before i start i want to say how nice Irish people are! There all really friendly and go out of there way to help you, well, the ones i met did!

 
Firstly i want to say how amazing the gig was. Florence was on top form and really put on a show. It was raining and dark too which for me made it even better! She sung strangeness and Heavy in your arms. Both were amazing. And as all the people who went (5000 i think?) Florence looked amazing too, she looked really full of energy and was dressed in her usual white net gown thing :) But i managed to get two meet and greet ticket for me and my mum to go and see her through a friend that had told the tour manager and Florence's management team about the forum. So we flew over on Wednesday and got back Friday. So when i got to the venue i had to go through a back entrance to put my presents for Florence in her dressing room/trailer. I got her a FATM bear (a me to you bear with a personalised tshirt!), a hand sewn banner i made for the previous tour, two necklaces, bumble and bumble hair products, Vodka, chocolates, a letter i've been writing for a few months and a birthday card with a sign saying 'Twatt' on the front, and on the inside cover i quoted 'One of her pieces comprised the words "You're a Twat" rendered in six-foot-high letters. "I like statements and signs," she explains'. But florence wasn't there so i had to give them to her bodyguard Dan and was told i had to meet her after the show! So then i just went back to the square to watch the performance where Florence dedicated my favourite song 'Between two lungs' to me :D But she read my name wrong and said 'This is for a special person in the audience Kristen who's bought me some lovely birthday presents' (something along those lines, if anyone has the video of her saying it i'd be very greatful for it!). So i just assumed that was meant for me and was very happy with it! which meant she'd already opened my stuff and read the letter before the show to know about it being my favourite song.

Then at the end of the night i had to wait at the gate with my pass. After 5 minutes Dan came and picked me and my mum up and took us to a small tent with a sofa in and told us to wait while Florence got changed. I felt sick with nerves at this point! Then Tom walked into the tent and i had my photo took with him but didn't manage to say alot as he was going somewhere. The big moment arrived when Dan came and said she was ready for me :) He led me and my mum to a trailer where i could see Florence laughing with Hannah (one of her managers) though the window. that calmed me down a bit. Then he opened the door and took us in! Straight away all my nerves went, Florence came straight upto me and grabbed my hand and said 'Sorry i got your name wrong! My dyslexias really bad and i didn't read your name right'. I just couldnt speak! Athough i'd had a drink i was trying to speak but nothing came out. I was really shocked at Florence's build too. Im 6ft but she was smaller than me, she must have been about 5'9, and she was very thin too wearing a plain black top with flowers on the sleeves and a long white skirt. My mum even said she was just very ordinary and different to how you expect her to be, then Flo said 'Everyone expects me to wear massive outfits all the time, and talk really loud because they wonder how my voice can come out someone so small!' (while she said it she was shouting it and spinning around the trailer flapping her arms around, which made us all laugh!) Then she hugged me and thanked me for all my presents, she was even wearing the necklace i'd bought her and she said i'd though alot about her gifts. The gifts id got her were all over the trailer! The banner and bear was laid on the sofa, and everything else on the two tables. Her card was stood on the table too, i asked her if she was offended but she said she found it really funny and then went on to tell me how she didn't know what to do in the middle of the art class so she decided to make the 'Youre a twat' floral arrangement. The dressing room was quite hectic too! Books, clothes, food and drink were laying about everywhere with set lists and notes on the walls :) Then she started going through her handbag trying to find thing to give me, she took a black nintendo ds out and asked me if i wanted it! She said that she never goes on it but her manager looked at her as if to say 'no way, he can't have that!'. Then she picked up the net that she covers her head with during Blinding and passed it me along with a tub of gold watercolour face cream, after passing it me she grabbed her purse and emptied the photo section out and passed me a photo of her, Dan and i think her brother. I was shocked at that but then she walked me to her drink table, gave me a bottle of water, poured my mum a vodka and orange, and pulled a ring off her finger and put it into my hand! She closed my hand with the ring in and held onto my hands for like 2 minutes saying that i was really special and she'd never met anyone like me. Then hugged me again! That's when she told me to write my email down on a piece of paper and said she want's to join the forum! :) But she then followed it by 'i cant use technology so i'll email you when i want the forum to know anything'. Then she talked to me and my mum about her family life and her childhood and stuff. My mum noticed her tattoo so she was telling us about the tattoo and how she's planning on having the same tattoo as Mairead (bridcage, it's on another thread for those who havnt saw it :)) on the other arm.
 

After that i asked her if she could drop any hints about whats happening at the Vma's. She said it's based on the original dog days video and that she's having a team of dancers with her onstage! This was about 10 minutes into meeting her and Dan popped his head round the door and said that she had to go soon. So i never had time to ask about the album (but i doubt she'd tell us anything we don't already know!). So she quickly signed my picture i wanted signing, and looked at some print outs of my FATM monopoly and really liked it. Then she gave me her chewed pen she used to sign my picture with :) She also knows about the FATM army and thinks thats a really good idea :) Then just before i left Florence said she'd like to meet me again and if i ever want to see her again after a gig or want to go to a gig just contact her direct :) (her manager gave me her number :))  (I think i have my letter to thank though, she was really touched by it!) Then just as i left she hugged me once more, had a photo with me, then kissed me on my cheek (and hugged my Mum) :) Im trying to get the picture off my Camera along with all the performance photos onto my laptop. I was so shocked i never got to ask loads of stuff i wanted to or take pictures of the trailer and back stage. But i've took some on my phone of the gifts to put on here :) So that was my 15 minutes with Florence, more happened but some of it was a bit of a blur! But i can honestly say i've never met anyone as kind as Florence in my life. She was so down to earth and was not like a celebrity at all. I think she's just really happy to go along with it all and enjoy what comes her way. Meeting her has made me see her in a totally different light, when i saw her today on tv i saw her as more of a friend or something. she's still my hero though and i look forward to meeting her again in the future :) I was hoping to see her next year after a London gig and want to try and get a few of the forum regulars to come backstage too. And i think we all look forward to Flo telling the forum things, she was deadly serious and enthusiastic about getting involved! Anyway, here are a few pics of the things she gave me.

 

Banner i made Florence

 

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'To Kristian, thankyou so much for everything, you are amazing! never forget how beautiful you are, love Florence xxx'

 

 

OMG

that sounds incredible Kristian!

what a dream that'd be for me, your like the luckyest person alive right now!
Florence seems so down to earth! woww,

i sat there and read through your story on the forum, and imagen every bit of it, the pictures looks abit like isa's brother?

hmm.. did you see any other part of the machine other than tom? :)
wow so many questions!? haha,

just being in the presence of Florence, would be like major WOAH. hah

again, you lucky lucky lucky guy! quite excited if flo email to tell the forum something... oooOOOoO :)

Haha, no it's not Jim, i did see him though. Im sure its her brother, he came into the tent before hand and was like 'So what you gunna say to Flo?', then when he went a woman told me it was her brother, and im sure it was him. And I saw Rob but didn't speak to him, he came to the window of the trailer to say something to Flo, but then went off to Chris' trailer. And i didn't have a clue where Isa was! Btw, are you still friends with Jim on facebook? Or has he deleted his facebook? If not he must have blocked me! (even though i never bothered him :L)

Nice going! That's really amazing; sounded like a dream :D and it would be awesome to have Flo in contact with the forum.

If it was me I would have probably frozen up and just stuttered the entire time, so respect for actually finding your voice xD

 Haha, i only found my voice in the last 10 minutes, and when she hugged me i was really shaking and she whispered to me 'stop shaking!'.

 

I found the birthday card i got her too! I got one for my own amusement!

 

that's so awesome (the card and the flo hug)

 That is so cool,your so lucky.,I was at that concrt(brilliant as you know) but someone was screaming in my ear even when Flo was talking so i didnt hear her say who she dedictaed between two lungs too, but really cool that she dedicated it to you.BTW I saw someone there with a FATM hoodie,does anyone know where  you get those cos there wasnt any in the merch tent and i could of used a hood in all that rain!

 There's not an official FATM hoodie. I've got 5 Florence hoodies but i get them from ebay :) This link show's the ones there are on ebay http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=florence+hoodie&_sacat=See-All-Categories :)

kristian_with_a_k:

 There's not an official FATM hoodie. I've got 5 Florence hoodies but i get them from ebay :) This link show's the ones there are on ebay http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1313&_nkw=florence+hoodie&_sacat=See-All-Categories :)

 

Thank you!

i am quite stunned for words! firstly, thanks for the detailed account, i love reading things like that. secondly, i may have welled up a little about the ring/holding your hand thing! so cute.. ahhhhh my god, insanely jealous but i'm so happy you got to meet her.
i'd be shaking too probably, i get really bad nerves so would probably just be dead silent for ages too!
i'd normally have loads of questions but i can't think of any!!
so hannah was with her and not mairead? what's the plastic bottle in the picture (was it the water she gave you?)
she sounds so nice, i mean we all knew she was nice but it's good to have an insider's view.
i'll probably think of more questions later!

Haha, yeah, the waters the one she opened for me :) And Mairead didn't go at all, and when i was given Hannahs number they were like it's the managers number, so i don't know if Maireads took a back seat. Or they could be like joint management :L

holy crap !!! i have to say i have never met anyone as lucky as you! i am beyond jealous! you must have been so nervous (i know i would have been) i am actually realllly excited for you :p i got the chills when i read that! thanks for telling us in such a detail :D x

Wow! Thats sounds actually incredible you're sooo lucky but i have to say if anyone deserves it you do :) I think I remember her saying "you're doing a brilliant job with the forum" as well before between two lungs. Congrats :D

 There's an old saying that goes "never meet your idols as you'll always end up disappointed" but from your meeting it seems Florence is every bit as nice, if not nicer, than we all imagined.

Must have been a fantastic feeling to be with her and top reward for the work you do with the forum - I wonder what monicker she would use if she did join??

This is the most awesome thing ever!