SimplePlan.cz’s brand new project “Fan stories” features a series of fans’ submitted memories from their own experience of meeting the members of Simple Plan in the past. You can check out all previously published fan stories here or you can even submit yours here.
This week’s fan story is brought to you by Ondra from the Czech Republic. Ondra, who often goes by the English version of his name “Andrew” has met Simple Plan several times over the past few years and has been known by the band as “the tall guy”. Check out his own recollection of the first time he’s met SP:
“I’ve been listening to the Canadian band Simple Plan for about 12 to 13 years now and the first time I heard them, it was clear to me that this band is somehow very special and interesting. I didn’t know what the song that kept being played on the radio at that time was called and who the band even was. But when I finally found ut the song was called ‘Welcome To My Life’, I started getting to know something about the artist too.
I think I found out the name of the band from the radio station, or when the musiv video was played on TV and one day I tried looking up Welcome To My Life online and was finally able to listen to more songs are really get to know how special this band was.
I never knew that American (sic!) bands tour all around the world, so I always thought that if I were to ever see them play live, I would have to travel to the U.S. The hardest moment for me was when I found out Simple Plan were to play in Prague, Czech Republic and I wasn’t able to come. I couldn’t attend the second show in Prague either because of school stuff but I knew that after I was done with school, I would enjoy shows so much more.
The photo I enclosed is from my very first Simple Plan show at the one-day festival called Rock’n Heim in Germany (2015). This festival is carved into my memory as an incredible experience, since I traveled all across Germany to see Simple Plan and seven more bands, including Linkin Park.
A day on the road can be hectic for various reasons. It took us a while to find our accommodation and I also still didn’t know whether I was meeting Simple Plan or not. That’s why I was jumping for joy when I got a text from Dominika (SimplePlan.cz), who told me I would be attending the meet & greet with Simple Plan there! And that day of great news continued when I got a reply from Chuck on Twitter.
The impossible became reality! From the moment I entered the festival grounds, I started searching for where the meet & greet with Simple Plan would be taking place. The security and the festival’s promoters told me that I was making stuff up, so I decided to go to the merch stand and just waited till anybody arrived. A few minutes later fans started gathering around the merch area, so I started to relax. After that, Sim from Simple Plan’s crew got there and organized the whole meeting with the band and after about 15 minutes, we were able to enter the backstage area.
My first impression of seeing the guys stand beside me was truly incredible. It seemed as if we’ve known each other already. I loved how Chuck immediately informed me that he just wrote me on Twitter and the rest of the guys were also very friendly and willing to chat to everyone.
The fans were alright but my favorite moment was when the guys came up on the stage, started playing Jet Lag and Pierre pointed at me several times and Seb kept saying stuff like: “I hope you guys get front row… buy YOU will probably see anyway, since you’re so tall!”
