So... when I realized Mr Osbourne was appearing again at Manchester on the 4th of December (Friday), I knew I had to be there, and be the first!
I headed down with a friend at around 7pm on Thursday (3rd) arriving in Manchester at about 10:05pm. Took a cab from Picadilly to the Trafford Centre arriving at around 11pm. My friends decided to stay in the near Travelodge, but I decided to stay outside and wait. I found a nice spot at the door 1 entrance and sat down expecting a cold night.
About 10 minutes later, a security guard arrived, asking me what I was doing. I told him I was waiting for the Ozzy book signing... He looked at me and said, "uh, you're a little early, WHSmiths is closed". I told him that I was waiting outside because I wanted to be the first in the queue. He looked suspicious but he walked away and I put my MP3 player in my ears and started to get set for a night in the cold.
About half an hour later, two more security guards arrived and said "erm, excuse me, what you doing here?". I said, I'm here for the Ozzy book signing. They told me I was at the wrong door, and that I needed to go to door 3 or 4. Bare in mind this place is massive, so I trekked around to door 3, then trekked to door 4, but decided door 3 was nicer so I sat down and started listening again.
About another 20 minutes later, another security guard came out. This one however, said "you here for the Ozzy book signing?". He said his brother was coming too and he said he would see if he could get me inside. He came back and said, someone at gate 1 has been here since 11pm. I told him that was me, and he went back and when he returned said come in, you can sit in the food hall out of the cold. Seeing as this was my first visit to the Trafford Centre, I wasn't sure what to expect but the place is really fantastic. It has been beautifully built and is absolutely fantastic to walk through. He sat me down in the food court and said, he'd pop back when the queue'ing section was ready. He came back at about quarter to 2 and offered me a coffee, at which point I realized I was probably getting better hospitality than my mates in Travelodge.
Anyway, the fella returned with the coffee and I ended up chatting to a lot of different security guards. They were all really nice and said that I was definitely the earliest person to ever arrive for a book signing. They said most people came at about 2am.
Anyway, when they said I could go queue, I went and sat down outside WHSmith and cemented my 001 place in the queue
I could see the guys inside preparing and one of them came out and said "you here for the book signing already?". He gave me a chair and told me I deserved it for being completely insane . At about 4:30 the security guard came with his brother called Danny and we got chatting. The guy was a real big Ozzy fan and we had a great talk about hard rock. We were talking about different gig experiences and it was just nice to have someone to talk to. People started arriving about an hour and half later, so I called my friends to tell them to get down here (I'd told them before that I was willing to reserve their places for maybe 3 or 4 people behind, but many more and it would be unfair). Anyway, we continued chatting and people really started to arrive at about 9am. They opened at bang on 10am and said absolutely nothing to us. There was like 30 people outside looking at each other wondering what the fuck was going on lol. It actually could have been quite dangerous because people started to shove their way through the queue to get into the shop to buy the book. Some women hilariously came over and barked at the guy who had opened the doors and he finally remembered that there was 30 people outside and he made sure everyone got in for a book.
It was a long wait but at about 3pm, security started arriving. They were all nice blokes, but had been told that Ozzys security was restricting signatures of anything other than books. One of my friends had his heart set on a signed pickguard and was very unhappy to hear this. The security kept saying "no merchandise can be signed". The only hope was that the pickguard isn't classed as merchandise.
At around 4:45pm, everything was set up and there was well over 150 people here. I was chatting with the security about different bits and bobs and they were just briefing on what was going to happen.
Ozzy arrived at about 5:25pm. There were 5 winners of a rock radio contest that went before me, but they were very quickly passed through. The security had also said no posed photos and nobody seemed available to take photos. I looked around and asked a girl staff member at WHSmith if she would take as many pictures as possible. I realized, that most blokes when it comes to this can be real dickheads and take 1 photo and say "there you are, now fuck off". She was really pleasent and said "i'll take as many as I can".
I walked up to the man, and something happened that had not happened to anybody previously and didn't appear to happen to anyone after. Ozzy, instantly stuck out his hand and the first thing he did was shake mine. It made me wonder whether he remembered my face from the previous time at Birmingham, simply because he didn't respond like that to anyone else and me and Ozzy had an interesting chat at Birmingham about Randy. He started to sign my book and I asked him about Jake E. Lee. He was incredibly lucid (similar to last time) and he told me that Jake was living in Las Vegas. He then said about Badlands and was very gracious in saying I guess Jake wasn't the right guy for the band (Ozzys band obviously). He then signed my arm, and the girl was still firing shots off with my camera and got two excellent ones of him signing. Security were trying to move me, but I thought i'd be cheeky and ask for another shake of the hand with my signed arm out, he smiled and stuck it out again. I walked off buzzing and then noticed Tony Dennis. I tried to speak to Tony, but he was on his phone and security wanted me out of there. I walked out and waited for my friend.
My friend was with his girlfriend, and sent her in and asked her if she could ask Ozzy to sign the scratchplate. The security guard said he was going to take it. My friend walked out with his bag and Ozzy said "wheres your scratchplate", my friend told him it was in his bag and Ozzy said "well get it out then". Ozzy signed the scratchplate against the security guards wishes and I thought that was fantastic. Another interesting thing which proves Ozzy ain't as stupid as he looks, but as soon as he saw it, apparently he said "so, you own a Fender strat then". While I understand a Strat scratchplate is as common as it comes but I thought it was pretty good.
We left the Trafford Centre and took the bus back to Picadilly, took the train back home arriving at about 10pm. I was really worried about the signing wearing off. Although he had used a sharpie, it was already starting to fade.
Despite being told not to, yesterday, I turned up at the one really good tattoo parlour in my town (there is some piss poor ones) and booked myself in. Many of my friends have told me that they got nervous before their first tattoo and started regretting the fact they were going to have it, but I had never been so certain and calm about it. The tattooist asked me what he was tattoo'ing and I showed him. He looked at it awkwardly and said "is that... Ozzy Osbournes signature?", I said "yeah" and he said "did he actually sign your arm, or is that just a copy". I told him i'd met Ozzy at Manchester and asked him to sign my arm. Just happens the guy was a big Ozzy fan and he thought it was so cool. He told me that he had never really wanted a celebrity signature, but if there was one he would have, it was Ozzy. Every so often during the tattooing, he got a call, and every friend who phoned, he said "guess what stencil i'm tattoo'ing, a real signature from Ozzy Osbourne". The lad spent over an hour making sure it was absolutely perfect. He said "it could be easily done in 20 minutes" but he wanted it absolutely perfect. When he was finished he said "that looks, SHIT hot". I kept it quite hidden for a while as I didn't want anyone punching it (trust me, there are some right dicks at my university) but I showed it to a couple of my friends in the bar and they said it was awesome. A good friend I used to jam with last year said that "thats typical you, total rock n roll, and I wouldn't expect anything less".
Today, it looks brilliant. I expected some scabbing but according to my sister, no scabbing is a sign of a good tattooist, and there is absolutely no scabbing. In fact, it feels great. No pain at all, no bruising, no redness and it feels like its been there for years. I've attached some pictures below. Sorry if this thread lasted a little longer than you expected, just had to say it as it was
ROCK N ROLL BABY!
