Those Eyes
Our community member Ged from Middlesbrough was also among the fans in queue at Selfridges:
“Right, Ok!!!! It can’t have been a dream, unless we all dreamt the same amazing experience on Thursday. So, in-that-case I really DID meet Madonna.
My day started at 11.30pm on Wednesday night. I set off from Middlesbrough and travelled through the night to make sure I arrived at Selfridges for 7.00am On Thursday morning.
As I started to walk down Edwards Mews I saw a queue had started. While walking past the tired but excited looking crowd I began to count, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5……….68, 69, 70, wow, I’m easily within the first 100 never mind 250”. But, I still wasn’t going to get my hopes up, as I’m never this lucky. As I joined the queue, I asked a couple of Girls in front if this was the right one for Madonna. “Yes” they replied in a shivering voice. As the day went on around 20 people must have pushed in saying they had been for coffee and were going back to their place. Yes, I’m sure some had left to eat or get a drink but most of them hadn’t. However, the Girls in front suggested to security that they should hand out some sort of ticket so that this sort of thing wouldn’t keep happening. Sure enough about an hour later I was handed ticket no. 91.
At around 2.00pm I finally got into Selfridges where I paid for my copy Adventures of Abdi. I was given a receipt with my ticket attached and another ticket (no. 212) with a Selfridges stamp on it. We were asked by the head of Selfridges security (Peter, I think his name was) not to start queuing at the Designer Room 2 until about 2.30pm. Silly me followed his request. When I got there, there must have been 100+ already waiting. Even at this time I wasn’t 100% sure that I would meet her. (Always the pessimist). When we started to move, at about 4.00pm – an hour late, but who cares – I was calm and possibly bored looking but inside I was nervous, excited, wondering what I was going to say and anxious. I remember a Girl came out and was literally in state of shock, she could barely talk and walked straight over to her friend and hugged her. Peter came round and said that he’d asked Madonna to speed it up a bit; this was good news because we would see her sooner but wouldn’t have as much time to spend with her. After about 30 minutes those beautiful black curtains were in my sight. About every 10 seconds or so someone came out with either tears in their eyes or shock on their face. As the curtains opened I could see what awaited those of us that were still left. The time had come; I handed my bags over to a lady on the other side of a barrier then along with 2 other people was ushered into the room.
There was Madonna, no more than 20 feet from me.
Within a minute the lad in front was stood at Madonna‘s table, and I found my self stood on ‘X marks the spot‘. A thousand questions and thoughts ran through my head in about 15 seconds. What do I say? How do I act? Will I make it or will I pass out? Is there going to be fire alarm and we will all have to leave, and so I won’t get to meet her after all? Am I going to cry? Then……………………………there I am, face to face with the person I have wanted to meet for over 15 years.
She said “Hi” then I put my hand out and shook hers while I said “hello” back. “How are you?” I asked with a crumbly, nervous, almost ill sounding voice. “I’m well, thank you, and yourself?” I know it’s been said that she didn’t have any trace of an English accent, but to me she did. Her words were pronounced perfectly, she sounded very ‘prim and proper’, and to me, very English. However, I began to mumble to her that I had travelled through the night and queued since 7.00am to meet her, but she was worth it. “Where are you from?” she asked in a polite but not in a curious manner, “Middlesbrough” I replied, as if she knows where that is. “And what is your name?”, “Ged” (f*cking hell, Madonna knows MY name, I thought – but not that she will ever remember it or even me, for that matter), “Well Ged, would you like a book?“, “Yes please” I said, like a little school boy in front of his teacher. As she handed to me I said thank you very much Madonna and walked away. When I look back, there doesn’t seem to be any time connected with it, if you know what I mean. I can’t say that it flew by or it seemed to last forever, it just happened. Throughout the whole conversation her head was level and her eyes were looking up at me. Those eyes………….only people that have been face to face with Madonna can try to explain how transfixing and powerful they are, it’s hard to explain. It’s like she has hold of you and you can not move until she looks away.
While walking up to the curtain, I was fine i.e. no tears, but when I stepped back through and saw those still waiting and knew what they had instore, well that was it, my eyes welled up and I just had to get out of the store. The emotion was toooooooooo much.
I immediately jumped into a cab, went to Victoria coach station and got my coach home.
Within 24hrs I (along with 249 others) had queued for over 9 hours, suffered the bleak English cold weather (thank God it didn’t rain), went through a hundred different emotions and best of all…………………….met MADONNA.
An experience that will stay with me until the day I die.”
Special thanks to Ged and all the people who shared their experiences with MadonnaTribe on our forum and news page making this site a home of Madonna fans