From Lesley: Went to see VR last night in Manchester, I still haven’t come down from cloud 9. Slash was so close, but so far again. I wish he’d’ve stopped to sign something, but I’ve got some good pics this time. I’ll send more later, I can’t send too many at once. This was my day. Wednesday 1st September. Finished work at 1.30, walked up to the Apollo & asked a couple of people if anyone had been out, they said no. I got chatting to a girl called Kim who had come over from Liverpool & a couple, Ashley & Sam who had travelled up from Birmingham with no tickets, they got some off a tout & paid £70 each for them. We spent a lovely sunny afternoon at the pub by the side of the venue talking & taking pictures & drinking. The guys turned up just before 5pm. Duff was sitting in the front seat & as the van turned to the backstage entrance there was Slash at the window, he smiled (but only at me) & everyone rushed forward. I couldn’t see to take any more pictures & they all disappeared inside. I went home to get ready. Arrived back at the venue 7pm, met up with Kim again, she said Matt had come out & signed stuff & held her camera to take a photo of them both together, Slash had appeared at the door but went back in as there was a huge rush forward of the 100 or so people hanging around. Went into the theatre & my friends John & Emma bought me (for my birthday) a t-shirt with the European/British dates on the back, made our way to the bar, had a drink, then went to see the last couple of songs from the support ­ BCB’s ­ they seemed ok. Just after 9pm VR came on stage, don’t ask me to tell you the order of tracks, I was so entranced by Slash on the stage they could have been playing nursery rhymes & I wouldn’t have noticed. Scott was totally OTT, flamboyant and with hips wiggling he had the crowd in his hands, he raised them & we cheered, he lowered them & we went quiet. They all covered the stage leaving no-one out, you could tell they’d all been there before, but with a fresh energy & seemed to be enjoying themselves. They all looked very fit, but must have been knackered when they came off stage. Anyway they were absolutely brilliant; they did nearly every song from Contraband, ‘Negative creep’ & ‘It’s so easy’ and 2 STp tracks with Slash coming out wearing the hat for old times sake at the encore. One hour and a half later they were gone. The time flew by. I managed to get quite close to the front, but moved back later because the crush was too much. I was lucky enough to stand next to a very tall American called Lowman who offered to take the photos for me; otherwise there would have been more of the crowds’ heads than the band. We went to the stage door later and watched the crew load all the gear back on to the trucks. Matt came out first and spent about 20 minutes signing stuff; he was great, cheers Matt, nice to see you back in Manchester! Eventually Slash appeared but went straight to the bus, nearly tripping up over a step. I was really disappointed at not getting the chance to have an autograph, but maybe one day. I’ve seen him closer than ever & he looks great. We set off for home & whilst walking down the road the bus passed us I shouted ‘bye Slash, love you’ and away it went to London. I went home a very tired but very, very happy bunny. I can't wait for February '05!! Cheers Lesley, Manchester, England