on the following few pages are stories and concert reviews submitted to us by some of the fans. if you would like to contribute a story feel free to (details on the ‘contact us’ page) we would really appreciate it. thanks. m&s

this is our story.

we want to make this a fleming and john story, not a ben folds five story. on the 14 december 1999, ben folds five were playing at the royal albert hall. we bought our tickets the day they came on sale and were in row 4 seats 7 and 8. when we arrived after sitting through geneva- a shit british band- an usher came up to us and was like "can i check your tickets because i think you are sitting in the wrong seat". it turned out that in fact row 4 was row 2 because rows 1 and 2 had been taken out! ben folds five came on and played a flawless show. in 'don't change your plans' john came out and played fluegelhorn, and fleming came on and sang. it was a complete bonus, neither of us had heard that they were going to be there. (afterwards we were disappointed when we realised they could have opened the show instead of geneva!) john had arranged the strings, which featured in a lot of the concert. he also played horns with a few others in 'army' and 'fair' which were great. by the end of the show everyone in the arena had left their seats and were at the front of the stage. after the show, when the roadies came on the clear the stage, trey hamilton recognised michael (he had taken a photo of me at the front of a concert at the london forum a year or so before, recognised me at a concert in portsmouth where we had spoken briefly a week before and now at the front of the stage at the royal albert hall). he gave michael two backstage passes!! we hung around for a while in the arena boasting to other fans and watching them all turn green! we left the arena and made are way to the aftershow party. we came into the room, which at this time was only about half full at the time, and found the free bar! after about fifteen minutes and a few complimentary drinks the room was filling up. one by one robert, darren and ben came in. we had a chat with robert and then with darren, then we saw fleming and john. we went over and said 'hi'. fleming asked us our names and was really shocked when we said we were fans! (i don't think there are many of us here in england) we explained how we got the backstage passes, john was saying he was taking some photos at the end of the concert and thought that he would have some with us in! (i wonder how they turned out?) fleming fell in love with sarah's hair and the way she had put it up. after a while paul may (owner of the irish ben folds five website ) came up and i took a photo of him with fleming and john. he also took a photo which none of us new about when we were all talking. it is a great photo of fleming, john and michael's ear! we told fleming and john how disappointed about the fact that they didn't open the show. they said it had all been arranged before they had become involved in the project but they would definitely like to support them another time. (in an e-mail we received from john he said he would love to promote the next album in the uk- so we can't wait for that!) fleming said that she ' felt like a proud mum seeing ben play at the royal albert hall'. we said that we had spoken to rob and darren and fleming found it really funny that we didn't want to introduce ourselves to ben! she insisted on introducing us and they took us over. apparently 'he loves meeting new people!'. we were really touched when they introduced us as fleming had remembered our names. fleming took a photo of us with ben. we were really annoyed that we had taken so many photos during the concert, we only had 1 picture left on the camera backstage so we had to save it for us and ben. fleming and john also introduced us to frally, ben's wife, they seemed to be quite good friends. when it was time for us to leave we felt we had to say goodbye to fleming and john as they had been so friendly to us and introduced us to ben (also it was a good excuse to speak to speak to them). we said goodbye to fleming and she was concerned that we were driving back after drinking or getting the train at 'this time of night'- we didn't want to tell them our mum's were outside to drive us home! it would have ruined are casual after show party look!

here is the picture of fleming, john & michael's ear ( by paul may)

this is a great story given to us by ryan. thanks a lot!

“i have seen fleming and john 3 times here in springfield missouri. he first time i was supposed to see them was at a ‘dare to care’ concert given by a local radio station here in town, "i'm not afraid" was getting heavy circulation on this alternative station and i was excited to see them along with the many other acts that were to be performing that day. but it as announced during the show that the band was having transportation problems (the bus broke down) and that they wouldn't be able to play. normally that probably would have been the end of their fledgling success here in springfield, but the band must have made some serious apologies to the station because within a day or so i heard the dj's saying that the band would return hell or high water. so months later, after "love songs" had received it's rotation on the station and "rain all day" was just starting to the band returned to headline the ‘dare to care’ show, they played late in the evening to a packed house (at this time i was only familiar with songs from the radio so i can't remember the set list but there weren't any of the cover songs they do). i crowded my way to the front and i was enthralled by it all, the music, the voice and the rain stick (lol). i will never forget the joyous mayhem that flooded the audience during "a place called love" it had such a fresh, fantastic, white hot energy it gives me goose bumps now today as i think about it. of course i rushed out to buy the cd the next day. ‘delusion of grandeur’ is a cd that i never tire of listening to, i compare it to fleetwood macs ‘rumours’ (not in the style so much as in the fact that it is solid from beginning to end, not a bad track in the bunch) the second time i saw f&jwas for a listener appreciation show for 106.7 here in springfield. they announced on the radio that they would be giving away the invitations at a remote broadcast sponsored by the station. i was in the parking lot 2 hours before the station van arrived (lol). needless to say i was one of the lucky few that got to attend that invitation only show. this show took place right around the time "the way we are" was released maybe even the same week so i didn't have the album again, but "the pearl" was getting some airplay. the atmosphere of the show was really cool, there were round tables with table clothes in front of the stage, where people normally crowd and there were candles lit on all of the tables (it was very civilized-lol) the show was an acoustic show (meaning just flemings' voice and johns guitar) but it rocked.they answered some questions from the audience one of which was about flemings' musical influences a guy made the comment that she had a very similar stage persona to janis joplin (i personally was thinking more like stevie nicks because of the platforms and the shawl she was wearing but yaknow) she said that her and john went to some tropical island (bahamas?)when they were first starting out and played in a band there , they played reggae and even covered some janis tunes. this was the first time i met fleming face to face she was exiting the stage after the show and she was just swamped with people trying to get autographs and such. i sort of cleared some people by moving around a little and when i did the security people who were leading her through the crowd headed my way :) they were moving rather slowly still and when she passed by me i told her that i loved her music and that the show was awesome. she thanked me for coming out tothe show and then she was hustled away by security. i think she was kind of overwhelmed by the crowds response to her, she didn't seem scared but more disappointed that she couldn't make everyone happy. the last time i saw f&j was with the full band at the ozarks empire fair grounds i bought track seating of course which was row 3 dead center. i was a little disappointed by the crowd turnout i figured the place would be like jam packed since springfield is f&j country ya know, but i mainly blame that on the fact that the radio station that was promoting it did a lousy job. anyhow the show was stupendous (did you expect me to say anything else lol) but fleming did seem a little out of sorts and she messed up the lyrics to several of the songs (john did too, i have all of his parts memorized as well). but the set was long which was awesome, the only thing they didn't do that i wanted to hear was "don't let it fade", they also included a great cover of the blondie song "rapture". i waited in line with several hundred other fans at the autograph booth for about an hour and a half before i got my t-shirt autographed. john didn't say much (i don't think he ever really does in public) but i told him he was a great a guitar player while he signed my shirt. there was another guy in front of me and i snapped a pic of him with f&j, i could kick myself for not making him take one of me with them. while fleming was signing my shirt, she told me that she recognized me from the audience "yeah i remember you, your the one who knew all the words" (i have the feeling she may have been watching me during the show when she forgot them lol) so I gushed all the typical "i am a star struck fan" compliments at her. she wrote "hi ryan - thanks" on my shirt. I do believe she really appreciates her fans. so if you guys ever get the chance you have to see fleming and john they are so superfantasticaly incredible you must! “