GOLD Signing – October 2001

Monday, October 15 saw around 500 STEPS fans queue in the pouring rain (I think I’m getting deja vu here) to meet their idols. This time round, it was being organised by Virgin Megastores instead of Woolworths, and it showed!

Virgin were on call handing out foil blankets to keep fans dry and warm, and once inside they started giving out glasses of ice cold water to keep us all hydrated in what was becoming an increasingly hot store. Everyone was organised into one, rather long, line which ultimately led to STEPS.

The group appeared, and those who had won competitions were the lucky few at the start of the line who got to meet the band first. While waiting in the line, we were all treated to GOLD: Greatest Hits playing through the store to keep us happy. Some fans even started dancing while in the line.

Finally, after waiting what seemed like a lifetime, I got to the front of the queue. Lee was first, followed by H, then – looking stunning as ever – Claire, then Faye and Lisa. I handed my two items (they were being rather strict about the number of items people were being allowed to get signed) to the guy who put them down in front of Lee to sign.

Lee signed, and passed my picture of me with STEPS and the inlay from GOLD to H. Who then looked at the pic and said “Where am I? I can’t find me!!” I told him that he wasn’t on my plane and that’s why he wasn’t in the picture – his reponse, “why wasn’t I on the plane??”. So it seems that even H doesn’t know why he wasn’t on the plane to Glasgow last December. Before getting to the delectable Clara, I was checking my rose to make sure it hadn’t wilted, and H put out his hand to take it, I had to disappoint him and told him it was for Claire.

On getting to Claire, I gave her my rose, which she thanked me for, I pulled my TSD single from my bag, put on my best puppy dog eyes, and asked her to sign my TSD vinyl. When Claire saw the vinyl, her eyes popped out of her head, and she was rather shocked. She hit Faye on the shoulder, and said “look, look, Oh My GOD, WHERE did you get this?!” and began talking about how awful she looked in TSD and how she was so embarrassed.

Then came the creme de la creme, when she asked me whether I wanted a picture with her. And of course, my response was yes.

Once Claire had signed my TSD single, I got her to sign my picture (I should point out by this time, we’d held up the line a little – and there was a HUGE backlog forming behind me) and when she eventually found herself on it, she shrieked, “Oh, I look like a boy!” She thanked me for the rose again, gave me the cutest little smile, and I moved onto Faye.

I don’t remember much about talking to either Faye or Lisa, I was still in 7th heaven from Claire’s reaction to my vinyl – although Lisa did sign my picture twice for some reason! It must have been a long day.

All in all, Monday’s signing was FAR better organised than the previous signing in Woolworths, and full credit to Virgin, who put on a fantastic show. And I hear that STEPS even put on a little show just for the competition winners before the rest of the plebs were let in – more from Kay on that one later.

Claire you were nothing short of astounding, and a HUGE thankyou for a fantastic start to my week – I’ve still not stopped smiling! 😀

Read more classic STEPS interviews in our Interviews and Reports section here.

For more pics from the Gold signing (and bigger versions too!) click here.