The Horrors for dummies

How do you approach a member from The Horrors' band? What would be the best thing to tell them? Will I ever dare to talk to them? Here's the questions I kept asking myself, while they kept going pass us, outside of the venue. Only Tom was missing.

We were four girls queueing early at the front doors of Le Bataclan. And none of us felt brave enough to try and communicate with them. These guys sounded so intimidating. We were so afraid of bothering them. Even Rhys, who was smiling in such an endearing way everytime we crossed his eyes. Rhys, our favourite, unanimously. But couldn't manage to tell him not even one single word. 

After two hours, Alicia and I took a deep breath and went to him, fearing to lose our only one chance to talk to him, but our first attempt failed; Rhys apologised, saying he had to get dressed, before running away. I just felt so embarrassed, and was convinced I would never dare to talk to a Horror guy again.

It was before meeting Tom Cowan after the show. 

I had actually never seen him smiling before that very moment. On stage, he always looks so serious, always avoiding eye contact. But off stage, he looks so different. When I spotted him leaving the venue, he was smiling so peacefully at the crowd, that my fear wore off at once. 

And I started chatting with him. He's such a gentleman, quiet and well-mannered. Incredibly sweet and friendly. As a massive fan of him, it was a great moment for me to meet him finally. We got to chat about the show. He told me he really enjoyed that one. And we ended up talking about his little brother's gig in London on that very same night. He even told me his parents were attending to that show. 

That was such a pleasant encounter.

Meanwhile, Rhys was surrounded by fans, accepting all photos, agreeing to sign autographs for anyone asking. Clémence and Mathilde, my new gig buddies, had already got their precious samples from our dear bassist, their hands full with open notebooks and switched on cameras, euphoric. But despite the sudden rush of confidence I got with Tom, I still felt too shy to approach Rhys a second time. However, I really didn't want to leave without getting the chance to talk to him.

"Err... Excuse-me... Rhys?"

He turned back. His face brightened when he recognised me.

"Oh HEY! My favourite audience!"

And then he hugged me. Yes, Rhys Webb hugged me. Not just a hello hug. A big proper hug. As if he was greeting an old friend. WOW. If there were a band, one single band in the world I would never have expected a hug from, it would have been The Horrors... Truly in the top5 of my greatest fangirl moments. 

We got to chat for a bit, and then, like Tom, he signed my setlist, asking my name. 

 "- Laurie.

 - L A U R I E ?, he spelled.

 - ... Yeah...
 - No, tell me!

 - Ok here's the thing; my actual name is Laure, but it turns out it's too complicated for english-speakers to pronounce my name, so my gig name has been Laurie even since Freddie Cowan started to call me like this. It's just easier."

He signed. "Lots of <3 Laurie! Rhys." Couldn't help but check later on the autographs my friends got: he had only signed his name. And I may have been the only fan he hugged. Unbelievable. This was unbelievable. 

Joe and Josh disappeared straight away in the tour bus, but Faris lingered a couple of minutes with the fans. And just so you know, he's not so scary when you treat him as a mere human being! It turns out he's happy to chat with you if you ask him which one was his favourite show on the tour. Budapest, he answered. And Paris was number 2 in his heart, not so bad! 

I was aware of his well-known refusal of photos so I didn't ask him, but he kindly accepted to sign my setlist too. Check out the masterpiece:

Faris' is down on the left

Moral of the story: The Horrors are very surprising boys, so don't get judgemental before meeting them!