If you hadn’t noticed, the Beyhive is currently taking over London. With its cowboy hats, fake Southern drawls, attempts at coordinated line dancing, and mountains of bouncy bouffant hair extensions – it’s quite something to behold. And it reminds me of the moment I met – and fell in love with – Beyoncé.
I’m going to tell you a story of peak youthful abandon, the kind that provokes a huge lack of caution that you can only really achieve before you hit, say, 30 years old. After that, severe adulting comes into play with its bills, responsibility, children, career, mortgage… blah blah.
Before you hit those stressful, responsible milestones in life, your younger self really does take the bull by the horns and basically does a tonne of stupid stuff. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. But the point is, you do it anyway.
The wonderful (and yes, I know, at times reckless) thing about the brain of our youth is it doesn’t always automatically make a list of all the things that could go wrong with a decision. Instead, it tends to focus on all the things that could go right – which can trigger some crazy adventures that you’d otherwise never experience. As adults it can be hard to recall the last time we had a true “adventure”, where everything wasn’t completely in our control.
Luckily for me, back in 2002 my brain was definitely focused on all the things that could go right in a situation. That led me to the pit of the stage at Wembley Arena, three days before my 22nd birthday. I was in front of thousands of fans, standing with the security team, watching Destiny’s Child perform. And it had started in McDonald’s.
Me and the girls had been on a night out in Central London. I was the designated driver that night. We left the club at 2am and I drove us to McDonald’s in Leicester Square. Back then, if you were raving in town you always popped by Maccy D’s for a munch, a raving debrief, and a bit more flirting with boys if you had the energy.
While standing in the queue on this particular night, the flirtation issuing from the gentleman behind me didn’t come with a London drawl but rather with a heavily accented, immediately recognisable, Texan twang. He was definitely not tall enough for me – but I was sold solely on the accent in about 30 seconds.
He was with a group of other guys in their identical American uniform, very typical of the era: low-slung baggy jeans, Timberland boots, and durags. He told me they were backing dancers and had just finished filming Top of the Pops with Destiny’s Child – they’d popped in Maccy D’s on their way on their way back to their hotel.
I vaguely recall asking a maximum of two questions to try and work out if it was nonsense, but figured if he was telling the truth, this could potentially be one of the best flirtations of my life. So I wasn’t that bothered about asking for proof. The bar was very low. My brain was in adventure mode.
Naturally, we exchanged numbers, with promises that he’d call and get me on the guest list for the concert the following night. And guess what? He did. Yes, I was as shocked as you. The one snag was that he could only put one name at stage door, so I couldn’t bring a friend. Did that deter me? Well, what do you think?
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I drove home from work, threw on some clothes, and told my dad I was off to see a friend (because telling him such an implausible truth was obviously a no-no). I then jumped back in the car and made the long drive from south-east London to north-west London. I breezed through Stage Door, was taken for a quick introduction to the girl (yes, I KNOW!), and was positioned next to security right in the pit of Wembley Arena.
As a “special guest” I couldn’t scream my lungs out (I had to be chill). But it meant I could properly take in the magic of seeing these women, but especially Beyoncé, perform. It was almost ethereal: the power of her voice, her stature, the movement of her body and her command of thousands of fans, is something to behold. And yes, I fell in love. It was a moment I’ll never forget.
My cautious adult self would have focused on all the things that could have gone wrong with that scenario. But my reckless youthful brain gave me one of the best and most memorable moments of my life.
Sometimes I do feel as though we need those moments as adults where we ignore those nagging feelings of fear, over-caution and worry and just… let go. Because who knows where the path could take us?
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