~~The Flayr Hotline!~~

If you haven't figured it out yet...Flayr is the name of my band!! The group is made up of me, Stefanie and Taylor, (Ashley is an honorary member, she makes up our dances! :), and we're basically just a singing group but we write our own songs and we sing together a lot!! Even though Flayr isn't like it used to be, we've had a number of insane experiences as Flayr&Friends and we'd like to share those with ya!! First of all, though, let me tell you about how Flayr got started.......

Ok...it all started when we first heard "MMMbop" on the radio. We all loved it!! Of course we got the album and we all became obsessoids and couldn't wait to be able to see them in concert!!!! LOL!! Our favorite radio station...Kiss108 Boston...was having their Annual KissMiss Concert in December of 1997. We were trying to guess who was going to be there. I SOOOOO remember the day that they were announcing the lineup for the Concert! I was upstairs cleaning my room and I had the radio on ALL day so I could keep track of the artists. After the first few were announced, I started to realize that Kiss108 would not play an artists song until they were announced...and I noticed that they hadn't played Hanson ALL day! Of course...the phone kept ringing every hour after another artist was announced...it was either Tay or Stef and we would all complain that they hadn't announced Hanson. Finally.....they were announcing the next artist in the lineup and I shushed my family and turned up the radio. All of a sudden I heard the opening music to "I Will Come To You" and I started flipping out and screaming!! My mother reminded me, though, that the KissMiss sounded like a Christmas Concert and that if it was, obviously, I couldn't go! I was like, "Mom...I HAVE to go!!" Of course...Tay and Stef called...flipping out like I was!! After I got off the phone with them, I called Kiss108 and asked if it was a Christmas Concert...they said no it wasn't, they just did it every year around Christmas time 'cause it was a tradition. I was SOOOOO happy!! So I continued cleaning while I was also trying to win tickets. They had already started giving them away and that was THE only way you could get tickets...you had to win them. Well...a few hours later...our fave DJ came on, Ed McMann. He said they felt really bad but the KissMiss was a 21 and over show because it was being held at Avalon, a club in Boston, and they were going to be serving alcohol. I thought I was going to die!! So did Stef and Tay!! We were all flipping out and depressed!! About an hour later, Ed came back on the radio. He said that when Hanson had found out that it was a 21 and over show...they felt bad and decided they'd do an all-ages show at an undisclosed time and place...they would have details later. So of course...we were jumping for joy again. But not for long.....

We eventually found out over the radio that THE only way to go to the all-ages show was to win the tickets. Problem: They were only giving away tickets through one weekend...which meant that only 250 people were going and they were giving out 4-packs of tickets...the chances of winning were VERY slim!! We were so depressed...How could we possibly win when every girl in all of New England wanted to go?? I was talking to my dad about our dilemma and he gave us an idea. He said that we could write a song to the tune of one of the Hanson's songs about how we HAD to be at the concert...harmonize on it...call up Kiss108 and sing it for the DJ...and then maybe they would give us tickets when they saw how much we wanted to go!! We loved that idea so we wrote some lyrics to a couple of different songs and we finally settled on the lyrics we wrote to the tune of "Where's The Love?" Taylor and Stefanie slept over my house the Wednesday before the Friday that the contest started..(got that?) We practiced our harmonies Wednesday night after the meeting and we were going to be calling JJ Wright with the song the next morning at 10....we had plenty of practice time, huh?? LOL!! I mean...we've all been singing our whole lives but we had NEVER tried 3-part harmony before!! We thought we sounded ok so we were gonna give it a try....The next morning we were all really nervous!! Stef decided to be the one to make the call and then we were going to put it on speaker phone when it was time to sing. She got right through to JJ and we put the speaker phone on and said hello. Then we closed our eyes and sang our hearts out. Afterwards, Stef took the phone off speaker and asked JJ what he thought. "That was SOOOO cool!!" he said. Stef was really surprised that he had liked it that much! He said he REALLY wanted to give us tickets but he wasn't one of the bigger DJ's so he told us to call back around 6 and sing it for Ed McMann...that if anyone could give us tickets, it would be him! Those hours between 10 and 6 seemed like FOREVER!! All we did was pace around the house and practice. My dad and his friend, (who is also a musician and even has his own recording studio), came by around lunch time. We sang it for them and they said our harmonies were really good! Gus, (my dad's friend), said he wanted to get us into the studio to record! Of course, that got us pumped up!! FINALLY...it was time to call Ed. We decided to wait until 6:30...(which killed us!)...because his shift started at 6 and we didn't want to bombard him. Stef called and she got an intern who said we couldn't talk to Ed at the moment because he was busy...we had to call back later. We waited a half hour and tried again. The intern again said that Ed was busy. Stef goes, "Listen, we're friends with JJ Wright and he told us to call Ed...now we want to talk to him!" Funny...she put us through! LOL!! Ed got on the phone and he was SO nice!! We put it on speaker, sang the song and then Stef got back on the phone. Ed...like JJ...LOVED it!! We didn't know it but while we were singing, he had been recording us!! He said there was no way he could give us tickets but he was going to play our song on the radio because he liked it so much!! We were SO excited about that but still depressed that we didn't get tickets. We were trying to think of who else we could call when I came up with an idea! "Guys! Let's call the Hansons friend, Jarrod Gollihare!! I have his number, remember?" I had gotten his number and called him in August...before he had become known to the Hanson fans as the author of their official biography. Tay and Stef thought calling Jarrod was a great idea!! So Stef once again picked up the phone and called him. We were totally expecting to leave the song on his machine so it was quite a surprise when he answered!! LOL!! Stef goes, "Hi, is Jarrod there?" And he goes, "This is Jarrod!" And she goes, "Hi, you don't know me!" And he's like, "I know!" and then he laughed. He was really nice and Stef explained our situation to him. And, once again, we put it on speaker, said Hi and sang. And, like the DJ's, Jarrod LOVED the song, too!! He even had us call back after he left to do a gig with his band and leave it on the answering machine because he wanted to show all his friends!! But he couldn't get us tickets because the "guys" were on the road and he had no way of contacting them. Bummer!! He wished us luck and told us to let him know if we won the tickets. He said he had a feeling we would win! Well...that did us a lot of good, huh?? LOL!! All that work for nothing!! We were going to have to win them and this time...we were determined!!!

We all decided that we would take turns during the weekend...staying up during the night and trying to win. But all of us wanted to stay up Friday night...the first night of the contest. We all stayed at our separate houses because that gave us a better chance of winning. It was already decided that if any of us won...we would all go and my mom would take us....

At 2 P.M. Friday afternoon, when the contest started, we were all set at our own houses...we each had a phone in one hand and a radio by the other. We stayed like that for HOURS upon HOURS.....3pm, 4pm, 7pm, 9pm.......around 11 my parents went to bed and I just sat at the computer playing solitaire and listening to the radio and trying desperately to stay awake. I was bored out of my mind!!! We all kept calling each other to check up and chat away boredom...didn't work all too well. Stefanie convinced me and Taylor to try coffee to stay awake...well...that didn't work, either. All that came out of that was 2 pots of coffee going cold in the kitchen and 2 bottles of Diet Coke slowly being drained out of the fridge! LOL!! Time kept passing....midnight....1 am....around 1:30 it was time to try calling in again...punch in the number...busy signal, hang up, re-dial....that went on for a few minutes and then on the radio you heard the music that indicated that they had a winner. I hung up the phone and waited to hear what fortunate girl had won the tickets this time....I also thought about the fact that I had to be up yet another hour!!! Kid David was the DJ at the moment and he came on then as I started a new card game. "Man, "he said, "I love this contest! I would like to congratulate Taylor...." He paused. I didn't move because I knew it wasn't our Taylor. A Stefanie and a Shanon had already won...why should I care just because he said Taylor? I waited for him to finish, though. "....Tudisco of Merrimac, Mass has won a 4-pack to go see Hanson at the all-ages show!!" I couldn't breathe!! I just started rocking back and forth in my chair...laughing hysterically...and whispering to myself, "We won! We won!!" I had never been so happy!! Of course the phone rang then..it was Stef. "OH MY GOD!!! WE WON!!!!!!!!" she screamed. "I know!!" I screamed back and then I hung up on her...lol....I just had to talk to Taylor!! I called her house and she was flipping out!! At this point...I had woken up my entire family!! We chatted for a while and then all 3 of us just HAD to watch the "Tulsa, Tokyo" Hanson video before bed!! We were up till 3 in the morning...more happy than we had ever been in our entire lives!!

Ok...I know, I know....this story has been WAY too long but I had to put in the details to give you the real effect of it!! Anywayz...I called Jarrod the next morning and told him we had won. He was SOOO nice and we chatted for a while about music and his band, The MellowDramatic Wallflowers. (Not too long after I talked to him, his band was renamed Admiral Twin.) He said we could call him anytime and he ended up giving us his personal e-mail address so we could keep in contact with him!! He also wanted us to keep him up-to-date on our own singing...he was SOOO cool!! We still keep in contact with him and he's been very nice and patient with us!! He ROCKS!!!

Our parents ended up renting us a limo for the concert and we all got new outfits, too. We decided to make a present for Hanson to bring to the concert...a decoupaged box filled with some necklaces that we made them and some other stuff they liked and also a tape of us singing. It was during the making of that tape that we came up with our band name. We had been trying to think of one for hours! I wanted it to be "Look", Stef wanted "Touch" and Taylor wanted "Purple Moon Waters" or sumpn!! LOL!! We were all getting aggravated because we wanted the name to fit perfectly!! Stef stood up and flipped her hair over to put it in a ponytail. I go, "Hey how about "The Flip", ya know as in hair flip?" And Taylor goes, How about "The Flayr?" And we all stopped and looked at each other and in unison shouted, "FLAYR"!!!! We had found it!!!

So that's how Flayr came about! I know it was a VVVEEERRRYYYY long story but...oh well!! LOL!!! Now you can look at pictures of the concert instead of just hearing me ramble!! LOL!! Thanx for reading it!!! Enjoy the pics now!!!

Ok...the picture at the top is all of us at Taylor's house the day of the concert...December 10, 1997. From left to right is: My mom Sher, Taylor, our limo driver Bruce, Stefanie and Me!! Isn't our limo cool??? And we had been hoping for a silver one!! Whoo hoo!!!

Here's me and Ashley in Boston...we were hangin' out at Fanuel Hall and we ran into this dude so we decided to strike a pose with him...check it out!

Here's me and Ashley striking a pose with another guy at Fanuel Hall only...I don't think this guy gets around too much....LOL!!!

Here's me and my friend, Kelsey! She lives in Maine so I don't get to see her as often as I'd like but she's really awesome and fun to hang out with and we keep in touch through gool ole' letter writing...which is cool! :)