This is a video from the Avril Event in London. At about 46 seconds in & 56 seconds in, you can see me in the audience to the very right of the screen. I’m wearing my Green & Black Abbey Dawn Hoody. You can’t miss me as the Green hood is really obvious. :D

My Avril Adventure

My Avril Adventure started with finding out that Avril Lavigne was having a special event in London to show her What the Hell video in 3D, have a question and answer session and let fans hear her new album Goodbye Lullaby on Wed February 16th. Even though I live in Ireland and had tickets to a My Chemical Romance concert on the night of the event, I decided to enter the competition to win tickets to the Goodbye Lullably Listening Party. Avril is my absolute idol and to get to go to such an exclusive event would be amazing.

Unfortunately I wasn’t lucky enough to be a winner……but my equally Avril obsessed best friend Georgie did win and very kindly asked me if I would like to be her plus one! Hell yeah! Last minute flights were booked and I was on my way to London for an Avril Adventure!

On the morning of the event we put on our Abbey Dawn (Avril’s clothing line) and set out for London. In the car I cut out the Avril Bandaids badges that Georgie ahd printed out for us to wear. On the way there we picked up another awesome Avril obsessive, Heather. As we got into London we put the roof down on the pink convertible mini, blasted Avril songs through the stereo and proceeded to get funny looks, waves, and photos taken by people on the streets. Georgie happens to look pretty much like Avrils twin and we are sure she got papped whilst we were sitting in traffic at Piccadilly circus! :)

We parked the car and headed off to the venue where the event was being held which was a cinema just off Piccadilly circus. We met some other Avril Bandaids members there and got a group photo taken. Eventually we got to go inside and I was feeling crzy excited. Georgie got interviewed by a lady for msn, she’s quite the pro in front of the camera! When we entered the cinema screen that the event was being held in, there was a slideshow of Avril photos on the screen and What the Hell was playing on repeat. There were two chairs set up in front of the screen, one for Avril and one for the person who would conduct the question and answer session. We got great seats three rows from the front to the left, perfect view! We were getting quite giddy with the excitement and laughed, sang and danced to What the Hell.

Finally a man came out and said that first we would watch the What the Hell video in 3D first. The best way to sum it up is WOW! I loved the video in 2D but seeing it in 3D on the big screen just blew my mind. Avril looked incredible and the whole video had the feel of a short movie. The end of the video where she is on stage was particulary awesome as it felt like you were actually in the crowd. I’m so glad that I’ve now seen it the way it was made to be seen!

After the video it was time for Avril herself. The atmosphere was just great, everyone was so obviously excited to see her. When she came out I was just mesmerized. To see your idol up close like that is a truly special thing and I couldn’t take my eyes of her. She looked so beautiful as always and was smiling and waving. As they sorted her microphone she looked in our direction and started to talk to my friend Georgie! Georgie, the day before had gone to the Daybreak studios to see if she could meet her after she had been on the show. She did get to see her and had posted on twitter about it afterwards. And now in the cinema screen Avril was telling Georgie that she had read her twitter post but didn’t know how to repy as she was still figuring Twitter out! I and the entire room were gobsmacked! I was so happy for Georgie as it was just an amazing moment!

Then the question and answer session started and they read out questions from ones that had been submitted as part of the competition. Avril was so at ease and so relaxed. She was asked what her most “What the Hell” moment was and she said it was getting her “Fuck” tattoo and then proceeded to lift up her top and show us the tattoo itself on her ribcage! She was also asked what does she do before she goes on stage and she said “I do yoga, I mean jaeger, no yoga. I’m good I drink tea.” It was funny and showed just how at ease she was. She also got us to decide on the name for the new tour. She was torn between “The Black Star Tour” and “The Lullaby Tour” , we did a show of hands and the “The Black Star Tour” won. She said she liked that one because she thought that when we are at the shows we can all be her little black stars, which I thought was really cute.

She also spoke about the new album and says that she would like “Push” to be the second single and that “Goodbye” is her favourite song from the record but that we may need tissues when we hear it. She said she made this album at her home studio and produced some of the songs herself. She spoke about how Deryck and Evan helped her to learn alot about producing and she seems very proud of the fact that she produced songs herself. She said the theme for production on this album was a stripped down, raw and acoustic feeling. She also spoke about one of her favourite lyrics from the new album, the lyrics were about getting drunk and thinking someone spiked your drink. She said “it’s not deep” but its funny.

She also gave some insight into her childhood when she talked about how she always wanted to be a singer and came home when she was little singing Jesus Loves You. She said that she would sing herself to sleep and her brother would tell her to stop singing and that her brother and sister made of the fact that her nostrils flared when she sang. It was really nice to hear personal memories like that.

At the end she thanked us for being there and said how she loves to see our faces and know that we enjoy the music. She then signed things for people and Heather gave her my “Sk8er Boi” Promo cover to sign for me so I was really happy about that as I had brought that with me last year to the Alice in Wonderland London premiere in the hopes of getting it signed by her. Whilst she was signing she again began to talk up to Georgie about Twitter and Georgie said that it was really good to know that she read the replys she gets on Twitter and Avril said she does read through them but just doesnt know how to reply. It was another OMG WOW moment and I was just so happy for Georgie. Heather got something signed and also got to hug Avril! So I was really delighted for her too.

The whole question and answer session was just incredible, it was so lovely to see Avril smiling, laughing and just happy. She was so genuine and it was great that she seemed happy to be there. It was ovely to see her bubbly happy personality and I hope that she enjoyed herself because I know that we all enjoyed being there.

After she left we got to listen to the new album “Goodbye Lullaby”. I have been so looking forward to hearing the album and I was honestly blown away by the songs. I literally had goosebumps and chills. The Black Star intro is really good, I hadn’t been sure what to expect but I loved it. “Push” really stood out and I think it was one of the best tracks on the album. “Smile” also stood out to me, I really liked it. There wasn’t one song that I thought, Oh I don’t like that. I loved them all and am really excited to get my hands on the CD in March. The album while different to “The Best Damn Thing” is still very much Avril, her personality shines through in the lyrics but yet the songs have a more mature sound to them and are definitely more personal than thos on TBDT. I don’t think that fans will be disappointed at all. This is going to be Avril’s year!

When it was over, Georgie, Heather, some of the other bandaiders and myself got interviewed for What the Hell TV. We spoke about what we thought of the songs, the fact we were from bandaids, and other things about the event. Georgie and I got to mention Abbey Dawn and I said I had come over from Ireland for the event. It was really fun so I hope we make it onto What the Hell TV on Avril’s facebook!

After that we headed back to the car, all three of us on cloud nine after such a great day. The whole experience was just amazing and I feel so lucky to have been there. I’ll never forget it and I’ll never be able to thank Georgie enough for letting me be her plus one.

Our Avril Adventure was complete…..for now!

Bring on The Black Star Tour!!!

Lisa X

My signed Sk8er Boi promo CD =]

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