Meeting Rob and Tom at Lyric Lounge

I am so excited to have a very special guest blogger today!  "BarnesGirl11" was lucky enough to attend the Lyric Lounge event last weekend and met Rob and Tom Sturridge right before Rob left for Budapest.  Here is her story:

Warning: LONG! (TWSS)

Lyric Lounge, produced/curated by Tom Sturridge and Henry Lloyd Hughes

with Marcus Foster, Johnny Flynn, Jack Penate and others on Friday 26 March 2010

I have never been lucky enough to see Marcus foster play live (too much RL stuff going on), and so when he was added to the bill for the Lyric Lounge event on 26 March, I decided that fate had stepped in, and this was my opportunity, as I had bought a ticket in early January and promptly forgotten I had it!

The Lyric bar was packed when I arrived….”Ghost Stories” is on there at the moment in the main auditorium which is creating A LOT of buzz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_(Play)

The first people I spotted were Tom’s family. I used to quote “Brideshead Revisited” (1981) like I now quote “Twilight”, so Charles Sturridge and Phoebe Nicholls (especially) are legends in my eyes

Then I spotted Matilda Sturridge greeting a familiar looking figure! Yes, RP had turned up to support his BFF, what a STAR! A couple of girls in the queue went over and although he was hidden behind the pillar, flashes went off, so I guess he was kindly having pics with fans.

The seating at the Lyric Studio is bench seating and we were not allocated specific seats. As we filed in, I noticed that the first 2 rows were “reserved for latecomers”. I chose a seat in the middle section of Row 3, at the end of the row, with the aisle/steps to my right and then 4 more seats. The Sturridge family were already seated on Row 2, and just after I sat down TS said to his family to reserve the end of the row seat for him 

Just before the performance started RP arrived and sat across the aisle from TS. So TS was in the seat in front of me, about a foot from me (my knee was practically touching his beanie) and RP was about 4 feet from me.--------------->

The studio is about 6 rows of maybe 20 people - not big at all, and it was sold out.

Tom introduced the evening, he was articulate but clearly happy to hand over the main job of MC to Henry. And Henry was superb…..relaxed, funny, complimentary, eloquent…..did I say funny? The whole audience had big grins plastered on their faces for his intros and outros. Which is a bit odd as the theme was “Heartbreak” (Henry mentioned that they intended to have exploding papier mache hearts for set decoration, but in end just had a banner, created by TS’s girlfriend)

There were 6 acts in all, divided equally between a 10 minute interval. The music acts did 3 songs each and the Time Cats opened the second act with the MOST hilarious poetry rendition dressed as sheep.

The line up was:

Part One:
Blood Royale (Henry’s cousin is in this band)……..who were great (@bloodroyale)
Alan Pownall and band…………………..also great (@alanpownall)
Marcus Foster plus bass and percussion……….excellent (@marcusfoster1)

Part Two:
The Time Cats (Sophie Wu and Emily Beecham)………...hilarious (@sophiewuface)
Johnny Flynn………………outstanding
Henry Lloyd Hughes…………performed one song (@matineeidle)
Jack Penate (a real pop star here in the UK)…….great but I wish he has performed his singles, loved his quick rendition of “Across the Universe” (@jackpenate)

All the music acts performed three songs each.

Throughout the first half particularly, TS and RP were leaning across the aisle to chat to one another, both seemed extremely relaxed and smiley. Not gonna lie, I DID steal a few………okay A LOT of sneaky glances at RP…..and the jaw porn…….. and the eyelash porn..,.…the rip in the jeans……the long fingers . He is an international film star FFS, of course I am interested!!!!

RP defs whooped for Marcus, and clapped a lot for Marcus. He sat next to Marcus’ girlfriend on his RHS and Tom on his LHS (with the steps/aisle) between them.

RP also kept talking to TS across the aisle about the microphone. It seemed to me that he thought it was not affixed properly and both Tom and Henry fiddled with it a bit (TWSS) to try and get it right.

I could swear that at one point RP was getting frustrated about the mic and TS said something like “Well you fix it then!” Can you imagine? RP going on stage and taking the microphone and 120 people thinking he was about to perform *THUD*

The audience were really lively.

It was a really funny night - the bands chatted a lot with the audience, and Henry pulled it all together beautifully in his lilac corduroy suit . You may recognise Henry from The Inbetweeners or from some movie called “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” when he played Roger Davies, who attended the Yule Ball with Fleur Delacour.

Chatted to Johnny Flynn afterwards - WHAT a great guy , truly lovely and self deprecating and seemingly delighted that fans enjoyed his set.

Got a pic with Phoebe Nicholls….thanks K for taking the pic 

Afterwards, there was a cordoned off area for the performers and their guests. And I am fairly sure that a cordoned off area could have been arranged outside for any famous smokers if necessary. You know, just in case anyone special asked for it to be arranged. But they didn’t. So yes, although having pics with fans may not be a movie stars favourite thing to do, perhaps they do it because they are kind and generous and know how happy it makes their fans.

So then: A few people DID get pics with Robert - he was amazingly accommodating 

I got a pic with him and chatted to him briefly about “Bel Ami” whilst my friend was getting an autograph. I asked if he had nearly finished and he said “No not really” so I said “of course, you are off to Hungary” and he agreed. He was courteous and kind but not chatty. He did NOT mention that they were travelling to Budapest the very next day for example.

To the fans who think nobody should ask for a pic: If you had seen how relaxed and friendly and kind he was being to ALL his fans who asked for a picture (and there were quite a few), I honestly doubt you would have been able to resist asking him.

He could NOT have been sweeter, I honestly think he REALLY appreciates his fans.

I have seen him on a few occasions now and he has ALWAYS been generous with his time and utterly gracious towards the people who support him.

He is a TOTAL star!

And just to add.... there were LOTS of "pleases" and "thankyous".......

There was no screaming, no shouting, no grabbing, no crazy assed stalker fans, no bodyguards (well, just Marcus LOL), no fuss.........

...just some fans asking for a photo with their idol, an international film star at a low key event, supporting his bezzie mate.

(THANK YOU BarnesGirl11 for sharing your story and photo with Rob, and robmeblind for additional pics!)