We’re pretty proud of this one. The CONCERT 1000 PLATINUM.
When Bill and I were planning the August 2024 riding trip we had an idea of what we wanted to do, including the 4 Corners and the Trans Canada rides, we’d also kept an eye out to see where Los Lonely Boys were playing on Tour. Initially when we checked there were now tour dates announced beyond April / May. But then as luck would have it, they announced some new dates in August which included a show in Ojai, CA on the 8th Aug.
Well, given that opportunity we had to align our tour with their concert and so some careful calculations around timings and dates was done and we were then able to determine our starting date for our ride. Working back from the 8th, we’d need to start a SaddleSore on the 7th from Olympia at around 10pm. Working back from there, we’d need to finish in Vancouver in the evening of the 6th…. We’d need to leave SC on the 1st August for all of this to line up. – I’d fly out from NZ on the 27th July.
This Concert truly underpinned the whole tour. Bill and I set about coming up with a new ride-type for this, the Concert 1000. The idea being that you’d ride a minimum of 1000 miles, ending the ride at the Concert Venue, and taking a selfie at the Concert all within the 24 hour riding window. Using SpotWalla, the timing and location of those photos can be determined.
We came up with three levels of cert:
- Concert 1000, a selfie at the concert.
- Concert 1000 Gold, a selfie with the band at the venue.
- Concert 1000 Platinum, a selfie with the band, on stage during the show.
So that this idea didn’t degenerate to ‘a ride to a pub where a band is playing’, we introduced a minimum limit of a 500 capacity venue, and suggested it ought to be a ticketed event.
We’d set ourselves a goal, we wanted to knock it out of the park and get that selfie with the band on stage. We designed some small banners which we could carry around Canada with us, printed them out in NZ. Bill’s said ‘We’ve travelled 6000 miles on motorcycles for a selfie with the band on stage’, mine read ‘I’ve travelled from New Zealand for a selfie with the band on stage’.
More than a month out, I started to message the band’s social media account telling them what we had planned, and asking whether there was any chance for us to have a meet and greet with the band at the venue. (This was pitching for a Gold level cert). Unfortunately we got no response from their messenger account, but we could see that they were reading the messages. Encouraged by this, we continued to message the band through our trip and sent them updates as we were heading up to, and then across Canada. We messaged them photos of us finishing our Trans Canada ride, saying ‘we can’t wait to see you tomorrow in Ojai!’. Still nothing directly back from them.
We wanted to give ourselves as much time at the Concert within the 24 hour riding period as possible, we figured the majority of the Concert would have happened by 10pm, and had placed all hope of the selfies happening before then. The Concert had an early start time of 7:00pm. So our start time of 10pm for the ride meant that we’d had the biggest possible time window available at the Concert for us to try to get this done.
Bill had secured us tickets in the ‘VIP’ section, on the second row. From here we were certainly visible to the band! We worked several angles during the concert to try to secure that selfie. But, importantly we took a standard level selfie at the concert to ensure we’d done ‘the bare minimum’ too.
As the concert progressed, Bill went and chatted to security and one of the organisers to tell them what we’d been up to, how far we’d come and our hopes to have a selfie with the band – ideally on stage. 🙂 – Meanwhile I was making friends in the seats around us so that when the final songs were being played, I was OK to shuffle forward to the front-row without anyone objecting, holding my signage suggesting they should invite us up onto the stage for our selfie.
Well, during that final song, one of the brothers saw and read my sign, caught my eye and gave me a head nod, then pointed this out to his brother who also looked slightly amused. He gestured to me that they would but to just wait for now. As soon as their final song finished, before their final bow etc, they invited us up onto the stage for our selfie. Because Bill had been working security, the guy he had been talking to was on the radio telling the others that it was all OK, and that the band had asked us up. Meanwhile, the organiser who Bill had been talking to, videoed the whole thing. 🙂
I managed to get the selfies, they were all pretty rushed, but they did capture the moment well. 🙂
So, much to our surprise it all came together and paid off, we managed to get selfies, on stage with the band, during their concert! – INSANE! 🙂
And so, the Concert 1000 certificate was born.
To make this story of planning, effort, chance and luck even more striking; unfortunately just days after the concert in Ojai, on the 12th August the brothers lost their father, then cancelled the rest of their immediate tour as a result. We’d like to express our sympathies to the family.