For some fans, the decision to support Limahl on the December 'Here and Now Tour' had been made months before - June in fact, when the tickets were bought! Five of them ordered tickets for the same shows, namely for the Wembley Arena in London on Thursday 16th December 2004 and for the Brighton Centre in Brighton on Saturday 18th December. It was quickly decided that these fans wanted to meet in England to pass a couple of nice hours together and to get to know each other a bit better. As they have already met each other and the e-mail contact was already intensive too, everybody was quite sure that they will get along with each other quite well and that this trip would be cool. It’s about Ela, Antje, Katja, Betty and Steffi, and these five girl were joined by Stefan, a very good friend of Ela.

But first of all, a couple of them were still anxious as they haven’t received their tickets yet as they were advised to collect them from the respective venues. So there was nothing else to do but wait and hope that the tickets were actually deposited there.

After a long anticipation it was finally the day had come and time to travel to England. Betty and Katja already undertook their journey to London on Wednesday and the others arrived the next day. Ela, Stefan, Antje and Steffi checked in in the same Hotel. About noon everybody had arrived and could welcome everybody joyfully because it was already a long time since everybody had last seen each other. Also Stefan, the only non-Limahl fan seemed to feel good amongst these girls. And we grew fond of him quickly.

Then it was time to get ready for the concert because Betty and Katja, who had private accommodation, would pop up at the hotel so that we could already gab and get in the right mood for the concert. And we did this quite intensively.

After having a snack a the hotel bar – various Paninis – we made for the Wembley Arena because Betty and Katja still had to collect their tickets at the box office. The hotel was well situated as so it was only a five minutes walk to get there.

16th December 2004 Wembley Arena - London

After having arrived at the arena, Betty und Katja first went to the box office to get their tickets and came back beaming with joy. It all worked perfectly, the tickets were just where they were supposed to be. This was comforting to both Antje and Steffi who also still had this nail-biting event in Brighton. But as it worked fine in London one could assume that there shouldn't be any problems in Brighton.

We also met a couple of fellow countrymen by recognizing the language they spoke. They asked us about who we were there to see but managed to guess before we could answer that it was because of Limahl. We gladly approved of course. These two guys were there to see Bucks Fizz.

Then is was about time to look for the seats. The advantage of seat reservations is that you haven't to queue up for hours, and you can go to have a look at the merchandising corner to buy a couple of tour books. After this, however, it was time to break up as we all got different tickets and therefore we had do use different entrances. But inside the venue we met again and decided to stand up when Limahl was performing to support him loudly despite of the seat reservations. Then it was time to go to our seats. Antje and Steffi sat quite central in the eleventh row, Ela and Stefan rather sidewise in the sixth row. Katja and Betty were sitting more in the back.

Limahl was the first to perform. Joyfully and loudly he was welcomed by his fans and he started with 'Too shy'. And that was the time when you realized the crucial disadvantage of seat reservations. It's certainly beneficial to know you have a reserved seat and you don't have to hurry, but most people didn't seem tempted to arrive in time. This led to the following occurrences: new concertgoers came in constantly to the arena, others provide themselves with a drink, the stewards were asking for the tickets etc. The result was a disquietness, which was a little bit bothering. But this meant no handicap for us to shout encouragement for our star. He rewarded us with two more songs ‘Ooh To Be Ah’ and ‘The Neverending Story’. Unfortunately his show was over before it really began. The next one on stage were Living In The Box.

After three hours with other artists from the 80s like Bucks Fizz, Nik Kershaw or Kim Wilde, all participants came back on stage (this time with guest stars like Paul Young) to perform 'Do They Know It’s Christmas Time' – a wonderful closure for this concert.

After the gig we tried to collect some autographs from the other artists and therefore went to the backstage exit where we met other fans. But it was a very chilly night and the musicians took their time. After the first icicles appeared on our noses, we decided to go back to the hotel and to warm up with a hot chocolate. There we left the day behind and then Betty and Katja said goodbye to drive to their accommodation. We decided to meet the other night at the famous Roadhouse.

18th December 2004 Brighton Centre - Brighton

At the Roadhouse we celebrated Antje’s Birthday until well after midnight, so the night was very short, because we had to get up very early to drive from London to Brighton. Betty and Katja set off bright and early, because they had some things to do. The rest of the dreamteam took more time to get to Brighton – nearly too much time. But they had prepared a surprise for the birthday girl and therefore a little bit of time was necessary. During the breakfast she got a little cake with many, small candles, which she had to blow out. At 1:00 pm they finally sat in the bus to Brighton – on their ride they tried to recover from the last night. After the check-in at the hotel they found out, that the hotel was just a stone’s throw away from the Brighton Centre. In the meantime Betty and Katja told them via sms that the tickets could already collected from the box office. This was done immediately.

Afterwards they ate something in a hurry, because Betty, Katja and a friend of Betty waited in front of the Brighton Centre. Due to the fact that it was a standing event we had to queue up early to reach the first row. After a longer than expected queuing and a short sprint we finally managed to stand in the first row. We were ready, now the show could begin. But a little more patience was necessary and more and more people came into the hall. At last the concert started. Limahl was announced and could show his proficiency. The mood was awesome and he was pleased to see us. From our point of view his appearance was again to short - we would have loved to hear more than three songs. But in life the best things are always over to quick. All the artists got more applause and elations than in London. Limahl remarked in the Christmas chat on 21st December that the Brighton gig was from his point of view the best one during this years 'Here And Now Tour'.

The end of the concert and the closing of the 'Here And Now Tour 2004' was heralded with the song ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ performed by all artists. A wonderful song … and then the concert was unambiguously over. We also tried to collect some autographs backstage, but the only one who showed his face in time was Bobby G from Bucks Fizz. He gave frankly autographs to everyone. The weather was awful – it rained cats and dogs - , the midnight hour was not far away and with an important appointment in mind, we decided to go back to the hotel and refresh ourselves.

After a few minutes we all met at the hotel lobby. With a bouquet of flowers and the birthday card of the fan club we were heading to Limahl’s Birthday party. We were so lucky that his hotel was not far away. We reached the place shortly after midnight and were looking for the birthday boy. We found him comparatively quick, congratulated him heartily and wished him all the best from his fans in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. After that Limahl took the time to open and to read the letters. Happily he saw the fan club birthday card and put it in front of his table for presents. After a while a nice English gentleman sponsored us a bottle of wine. We enjoyed the wine and the evening to the full. Alongside the overall amusement we got a short, but nice lesson in English language and got to know that stars like Kim Wilde or Midge Ure look from close to be as normal as everyone else.

At 3:00 am Limahl had enough from the party and cigarette smoke and said goodbye to us. But before leaving he insisted on taking a picture with all of us. After we emptied a second bottle of wine we returned to our hotel. There we had another talk on Antje's an Steffi’s room. At 5:00 am we went to bed, but after three hours the alarm clock was ringing. After a copious breakfast we set off back to London – at first Ela, Stefan, Antje and Steffi, shortly after Betty and Katja. In the evening we all had to say goodbye England – the aeroplane took of and brought us safe and sound back to Germany.

As a summary it can be put on record: the days in England were again amazing. We enjoyed every single minute of Limahl’s show and of our get-together – the party at the end can be described as the infamous cherry on the cake;-))