MadonnaTribe reader Paul from Nottingham has sent us his review of the Saturday, August 14 show in Manchester together with some greats picstures from the show.

“I’ve been a Madonna fan for over twenty years, I’ve bought every record, I’ve been to see her once on every tour and always had a great time (but DWT was probably the worst for atmosphere). I got tickets to Wembley Arena on August 22nd as soon as they were on sale but only a few weeks ago did I decide to go to the August 14th Manchester gig too. I decided on just getting the £75 ticket thinking that at least I’m at the gig and I’ll get a better view at Wembley anyway.

Well, something so amazing happened that night that I’ll never ever forget.

I was sitting in my seat in Block 205 with Ian getting fed up of waiting for the gig to start when around 8.30pm two American girls walked up to some girls on the row in front of me and asked them if all four of them were together, it
turned out that they weren’t.

I then heard one of the
American’s say “who’s the biggest Madonna fan out of
you four?” I then realised what she was doing (thanks
to reading other stories of this happening in American
on this very website) so I leaned over and shouted
“I’M A BIGGER MADONNA FAN THAN ALL FOUR OF THEM PUT
TOGETHER”. The American girl then gave two tickets to
the girls on the left. I carried on shouting “ME, ME,
ME” while pointing at myself. Then the American girl
leaned over to me, handed me two tickets and said
“these are a present from Madonna!” I looked at the
tickets and they were for Block B, Row A, seats 1 and
2!!!! I told Ian to get up and I got a move on as
fast as possible. In the corridor I saw the American
girls who gave me the tickets, I hugged one of them
and said “You’ve made me the happiest boy in
Manchester!”

When we finally got to Row A (after wanting to push
everyone else out of the way) I was in shock. The
only way I could’ve been closeer to Madonna would be
by being on stage!! I looked who was sitting on the
next seats to us and it was the two girls from the row
in front of us (I can’t remember your names, sorry,
but I remember you were from Lincoln and sisters. You were both cool and I know you had an amazing time
too).

When The Beast Within started it was just amazing, we
were standing right under the left hand video screen
that moves from the front of the stage to the side. I
looked up and was so close I couldn’t make out what
was on the screen. I didn’t care though!!!

When Madonna rose out of the floor it was very strange
‘cos she didn’t look real. It was like being at
Madame Tussards!

I can’t tell you what the set list was (but we all
know that anyway) because I was just in awe for the
whole show. To be so close to someone you’ve admired
for over twenty years was just an unbelievable
experience. I always thought that if I ever got close
enough to her and she looked into my eyes that I would
faint. Well she did and I didn’t!!! I just shouted
to her really loud at every opportunity. She looked
at me during Nobody Knows Me and it felt so good. The
best bit of the show for me was when she started doing
the little dance with the bagpipe player and I laughed
just as she looked at me, she laughed too and then
turned away still smiling. It was like she had to get
back to concentrating on what she was doing.

The show seemed to whizz by, it was over too quickly.
But all the best things usually are aren’t they?

i could probably go on and on about how great this
show is, how amazing it was to be picked to go in the
front row, how I’ll never get over her looking into my
eyes, how great she is as a performer but I’d better
not. I don’t want to sound like an obsessed fan ;o)

Thanks to the two American girls who gave me the
tickets, to Ian for going to the gig with me, to the two girls from Lincoln who were great, to Madonnatribe for keeping up the good work and to Madonna for being
the best!!

Thanks

Paul Sharman, Nottingham

And thanks to Paul for sharing his story with the Tribe!