Let's just say I tried a few questionable things to get the tickets to
the private gig, because I was making myself sick trying to
phone in and win the fair way (through the radio station).  The gig had
only 107 tickets, and the only way was to win through
the radio station.  So eventually what I did was track down another
winner only 7 minutes after he had won his tickets by going
through the phone book and phoning everybody with his last name.  

Anyway, this was the weirdest setting ever for a Mel C concert.  It was
completely sit-down!!!!  And because the theatre
only fits about 150 people, it was very intimate and very different from
a regular Mel C concert.  My friend and I
got 2nd row (because they let a few seats in the front row to some
"special" people), but it was close enough.  I had
a perfect unobstructed view of Melanie only a few feet away.  tight
brown shirt - blue jeans worn low - big white belt
white very-plain trainers.  I got some great pics, so I hope they turn
out.  Anyway, because the gig was so intimate and
because there were many many shy people there, I got to yell out to my
heart's content and she heard me every single time (and
so did the rest of the audience)
When the band first came out, I yelled "I love you Claire" (only because
I was excited and didn't know what to yell),
and Melanie laughed and turned around and said to Claire "we love you
too".  and this was before anything had begun!!

She sang 5 songs, if I recall correctly in order:
Never Be The Same Again
Be The One
Northern Star
If That Were Me
Going Down

After the 2nd song (because NOBODY spoke while she was singing as it
wasn't exactly a rock concert), I yelled out:
You have a beautiful voice!!
and she turned and looked and me and smiled and said nicely: "thank
you...  (pause) I work very hard".
I had nothing to shout out in reply, I just remained silent and smiled
back at her.  Literally, because the only people who were willing to
talk was
me, and my 2 friends in front of me (who are also major major fans), it
was just a really cool session where she could hear
*every single word* we spoke, but of course, we didn't speak too much in
fear of holding up the concert.  The venue was so small
even the audience heard every word we said (because we were the only
ones saying anything).

She sounded very very very good live, practically just like how she does
on the album.  Very strong voice she had.
In fact, I'm amazed at how good her voice is live, it is incredibly
strong and clear, and I'm so not exaggerating.

She had her gold tooth in.

At the end of the songs, she left and then her band members left, and
then I was the only person to say something, so I said
"bye Paul", because paul was the last person to leave the stage (Paul is
her main guitarist).  And Paul said a nice "bye" to the audience,
and so the entire audience laughed (because again, you could hear *every
single person* speaking in that room, it was kind of
bizarre).

Then she came back out later, and sat down *right in front of my friend
in front of me*, so again, she was only a few feet
away, and her head was at the height of our eyes.  It seemed more like a
living room setting than anything.  I was only able
to take one picture of her here, as I was at the last shot in my roll.

She then fielded a few questions from the audience.  She first answered
a question from my friend Jenn in front of me, about
why Independence Day was not on Northern Star because she (Jenn) loved
it.  Remember, she is sitting right in front of Jenn
so Jenn was shaking like crazy.  Melanie said something about how the
song wasn't completely finished/ready when the album came out,
or something like that.

Then another person asked something, probably about how long she's been
singing (sorry, but a true fan should know this, but I think it was a
young boy who asked her).  She said that she's been singing ever since
she's been young since her mom sang in a band.

I then got to ask a question.  But before I did, I said:
"I think I speak for everyone in this room when I say that we so
appreciate you coming to Calgary and I nearly cried when I found out you
were coming here."
The entire audience clapped and cheered and hissed when I said this, and
melanie looked truly flattered by the audience because of this.  I then
asked my question:
"Your last track on your album, Feel The sun, is just so powerful.  I
remember I was listening to it kinda half-asleep one day and I just woke

up crying and I don't know why.  Can you explain this song for us?"
When I said the part about waking up crying, I heard some people in the
audience go "aww" and I know Melanie did the same, and her reply was one
of the longest drawn-out replies I've ever heard.  To be honest, I don't
recall exactly what she said, but it seemed to go on forever, and she
looked at me the whole time, so I was in heaven, no matter what she
said.  :-)
Here's basically what she said:
"When I was writing that song, I had undergone a lot of things over in
the UK and with the Spice Girls, and I just needed to get away.  When I
sing about "this angel's my salvation", the "angel" is LA, because that
was the time where I took off to LA to write my album.  I was going
through so many things, and I just needed to clear my head and find
myself again.  You know, the papers in the UK can be pretty awful, and I
needed to feel something else, so when I went to LA, I wrote the song
about how I needed to find myself again."  (and this is the short
version of it, I honestly don't remember everything she said, but even I
was amazed that she went on and on and on and looked at me the whole
time.  Eventually the MC had to cut her off!!  Oh yeah: she also said
something about how answering this question was important because she
"felt so emotional right now".

She was later asked when she would come back to Calgary, and she said a
joke about the weather being a factor (as it's so cold here right now).
But she said she may come back in March when she has her entire band
with her.

She was asked how many records Northern Star has sold, and she laughed
and said she wasn't quite sure, but that it was about 2.2 million
worldwide, and everybody cheered this.

A small girl offered her cookies, and had to throw them from the balcony
(there was a main floor as well as a balcony).

Um, her face and hair looked great.  Again, I'll let the pictures
develop first.  I noticed that her brown roots are showing back again.
Her skin and face is much prettier in person, which I find slightly
amusing and even a bit odd (because most celebrities I have met look
exactly the same as they do on TV and in photos).

OH, and I got her water bottle after the gig.  She only had taken a few
sips from it.  I opened it, and smelled the cap and where she put her
mouth (hey, at least I admit this), and it actually smelled nice and
quite distinctive, kind of like a non-strong smelling flower.  It
certainly doesn't smell bad.  But it's not a smell I can describe.

I'll tell you all about the autograph signing later.  I did get my pic
with her, but I don't think it will turn out great, as my friend who
took it was on some odd sort of angle and Melanie had to bend towards
me.

but one thing about the autograph signing: After I got my autograph, I
went back around to the front to just stand and drool over her...
She was talking to one of the fans (I guess or maybe not), and she just
suddenly burst out crying (more like sobbing) and she seemed embarrassed
about this and put her head down.  At first, I thought it was because a
fan said something nice to her, but then I later realized that Ying
looked suddenly quite mad (but didn't say anything), and then I think
that someone must have said something incredibly mean to her or
incredibly nasty to her, because it certainly didn't look like a good
cry anymore.  It turned on all of a sudden, for about 10 seconds, and
then she looked up, and suddenly put on a her happy face again.  so I
think she handled it very professionally.  But I do honestly think that
she was incredibly emotional at that time and perhaps very sensitive
too, and I do think that some things hurt her very badly.  I will tell
more about the autograph signing later.  Because Ying was very nice and
polite during the entire signing, but then she and Melanie and Jennie
all suddenly got very very mad and perhaps a bit confused (Ying looked
very confused) because of this person that made Melanie cry.  Ying
didn't bother to touch or comfort Melanie physically though.  I admit I
actually got a snap of Melanie crying, but she was looking down anyways.

------------------------------------------------------

I remember a few more things now:

In answer to my question, Melanie also added in the beginning: "oh no,
you're going to make me cry now... as I'm very emotional right now".

Melanie kept looking at my 2 friends in front of me a *lot*.  She
obviously liked them very much.  They went through hell like me too to
get the tickets.  In a way, I think they are more dedicated than me...
They got to the autograph signing at 5 in the morning!!!!  I got there
at 1:30 pm.  It was minus 25 degrees at 5 am at least!!

She let something slip about being currently on a diet...  nobody seemed
to notice this comment.  But she does look skinnier compared to pics
taken a few months/weeks ago.

She was asked if there was a certain artist, dead or alive, that she
would want to work with (another nonsense question for major Melanie
fans).  she, of course, said Madonna.  And how she hopes they can work
together some time in the future.

She said that she may turn Independence Day into a duet with Bryan
Adams, so it looks very possible she is to work with him again.

She also said that she is aware of the bootlegs of all her demos
available on the Internet!!!!!!!!  (specifically the one that contains
You Taught Me, I believe she is referring to the work-in-progress CD
here).  She kind of said this in a joking but also pressing
hint-hint-arggghh manner.

She had a small slight belly that was very cute.

Because her jeans were so low, the crotch section looked like it had a
bulge in it.  :-)

---------------------------------------------------------

About the autograph signing earlier:

My 2 friends got to the line-up for the autograph signing at 5 in the
morning, even though it was minus 25 Celcius!!!
That's dedication...  They had to wait until 9 am for the store to even
open.  They did have blankets with them though,
but they said they didn't help.  I myself got to the signing at 1:30 pm
for the 3:30 pm signing.

Melanie had quite a lot of make-up on and she also had her glasses.  She
wore a black shirt with a monkey's face on it
(caricature of a monkey).  She had on a grey sweater so you couldn't see
her arms.  But she later took off her grey sweater
to reveal her incredibly-bronzed unblemished arms (I've seen blemishes
on them before in pictures, so she might have just been tanned).  I went
nuts trying to take pictures when this happened, and tried
not to drool as I was right in front of the gate in front of her.  I
also really noticed her much-bigger breasts when she took off her grey
sweater.
It looked like she was wearing a bra at both the autograph signing and
the performance later that evening.

Ying was surprisingly nice and polite and non-agressive.  She just sat
there beside Melanie (but there was still some space
between her and Melanie) and thanked fans for their gifts and all.  I
gave Melanie a gift bag with 2 shirts and 3 CDs.
When I put my gift on the table, I knew that it was better to hand it
over to Ying, so I did politely put it in front of her
and said to her and Richard:  "this is for Melanie".  I said it
extremely quietly (which is strange because I'm usually
loud), and i didn't expect a reply because I was so soft, but I heard
Richard say "oh, thank you" and Ying looked
at me and said very nicely and gently: "oh....  thank you very much"
(which was something I admit I didn't expect).  I remember that Louis
Malloy, the guy who
does many of the tattoos for the Spice Girls, said that the tour manager
was not very nice during the whole tattoo thing,
but Richard certainly seemed nice here.  He also had the responsibility
of making sure everything went smoothly, so he
was quite busy as well.

Melanie was incredibly nice during the autograph signing, to everybody.
She would pose for pictures when asked, but still
was signing autographs while posing for pictures, so that everyone could
get through the line-up.  *They were rushing people
incredibly fast*, perhaps too much so, my friend barely had time to take
a picture of me and Melanie...  In fact, Melanie
later poked fun at the security, imitating them and acting as if she was
them by saying "Oh Melanie, rush rush rush, go go go".
She laughed when she was doing this.

Again, her face was really made-up, a whole lot of concealer and a
decent amount of black eye-liner as well, so she did look
a bit fake and perhaps not as real as she does when she wears little to
no make-up.  (I prefer the little to no make-up on her).

There were a lot of fans, so I was very happy for Melanie.  I don't know
how she managed to maintain her smile throughout the whole thing, even
my friend, who isn't a Melanie fan at all, commended her for this.
Except for that 10-second cry, she was just so nice and friendly
(without coming across as fake or overbearing).

Ying had a digital camera with her.  In the newspapers today, I notice
that Ying has a ring on her middle finger of her left hand.

Melanie was especially nice to the little kids, and she still was able
to sign like mad-woman.  I heard in Edmonton it was the same thing too:
she was able to get through so many people as the line-up moved so
quick.

I got the picture of me and her from last year signed.  When she saw the
picture, she was looking down at it, and said something that sounded
like "Madonna", but I doubt this was what she said.  I asked if I could
have my picture taken with her, and Melanie instantly said "sure!!" and
then the security immediately said something about it having to be quick
(oh, screw them).  As i mentioned before, Melanie had to lean over to
get close to me, but I don't know if my friend's camera was able to
capture this, we'll see.   Because she had to brace herself, no arm
around me or anybody else who got a pic with her, at least from what I
was able to see.

Again, her arms looked strangely bronzed, and not the normal
skin-color.  Her tattoos looked incredibly large this time, maybe
because her arms are just so huge in general?  I remember in the concert
(where her arms were covered up by her brown top) that her hands seemed
very big, even a bit masculine.

And I do remember that at the performance when she didn't have glasses
on, she said something about not being able to see all too clearly
because she didn't have her glasses.