Melissa B Photography

One good thing about music .. when it hits you feel no pain!

how can you go to a reggae show and not let the rhythm and music just take over!! I love reggae music .. always have since I was a little girl. My mom started taking me to listen to her friends band play… it was then I became knowledgeable of reggae music and my love for Bob Marley and The Wailers began. I started to listen to other reggae greats such as Third World, Black Uhuru, Steel Pulse, Buju Banton, Morgan Heritge, Garnett Silk, Beres Hammond and many others… it was something we shared as a family… my mother, my brother and I… our mutual love for reggae music.. for the culture, the food and the West Indian people .. we have all been to Jamaica now and enjoyed all that there is to love about Jamaica.. the food. the music. the culture. the mountains. the rivers and the falls.

I was thrilled when Ziggy was coming back to St. Pete.. it had been sometime since I enjoyed a good reggae concert… and he never disappoints..  he put on a great show and seeing him on stage always makes me think of how it was his father, Reggae LEGEND Bob Marley who first led me to this love of Reggae music and all the joy that love has brought me throughout the years.  The wonderful people I have met and the people that have had lasting impact on my life… because of Bob.. who has left such a lasting impact on the world with the music that still continues to live through his family who continue the legacy ..   The Music lives on…

So I have to give you the story about this one!!!!

Let’s just say.. I BELIEVE THAT DREAMS CAN COME TRUE…. and when those dreams belong to my kids… I am going to make sure I do WHATEVER it takes to make sure their hopes and dreams are realized!!! I am a dream believer…

So when my daughter was 15, she discovered a band on the internet.. They were from England… just starting their music career together as a group… very unknown to American mainstream music,  we both watched their first video on Youtube together  “All TIme Low” and as each member of the group appeared, we were both like “WHO are these guys!!!” she started to watch EVERY online video they had.. stalked their website and began to talk about them… EVERYDAY… EVERY HOUR… EVERY MINUTE… It was “Tom Parker” this… and “The Wanted” that….

so when her 16th birthday was coming up… I photoshopped a photo collage of Tom Parker from The Wanted and had it printed on her birthday cake..  made her a scrapbook of pictures of the guys and had a sweatshirt made that said… ” Mrs. Tom Parker” for pretty much the entire year from August 2010 to August of 2011 … It’s was 99% of what she talked about,  how much she Looooved “The Wanted” and how she wished she could go to England to see them. Then one day I heard a scream come from the living room…  they were COMING TO AMERICA… FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY… and of all places … TO NEW YORK CITY!!! ( My favorite place on the planet ) … I knew at that moment I would take her to New York to see The Wanted… I bought the tickets to the concert that night when she went to bed… I had no plane tickets… no hotel… but I had the concert tickets and a little thing called a dream about to come true… the next day as Aiyana sat at the computer wishing she could go to NYC to see the boys,.. I whipped out the tickets and told her  ”WE ARE GOING!!!!!!”  It was awesome!!!!!!

And just 2 weeks later we were sitting on a plane on the way to make my daughter’s dream come true.. We arrived in New York City on a Sunday… the concert was on a Tuesday… what Aiyana did not know was .. I had already contacted the management company the night I bought the concert tickets and explained to them that I was flying my daughter to New York and it would be absolutely awesome if she could meet the guys and have a meet and greet. They responded immediately and set it all up… she had no idea she was going to meet the guys…. However that Sunday night in NYC.. she received a tweet that the boys were going to be at a specific location and wanted to meet their fans and that they would be selecting 5 fans to go on a private tour bus around New York City with a private acoustic concert!!!  She was ecstatic to FINALLY see the boys and meet the love of her life Tom Parker.  We mapped it out and set out in the morning to find the location, we stopped at Staples bought a poster board and markers and made a sign… something to the fact that they should pick us since we came from Florida to meet them!   We got there very early, no one else was there.  We wondered if we were in the right place, then about a half hour later some other girls showed up… we started to talk to them and they were from Florida too!!!! The crowd started to grow.. and so did Aiyana’s excitement and anticipation.. I was trying to prepare her for when they would arrive… but nothing can prepare you to meet your teen idol, and heart throb!!!

And as the bus pulled up… the crowd started to rush towards the bus and the guys,  including me with my camera, shooting the pictures as they were walking out of the bus.  Then I realized Aiyana was NO WHERE to be found… I looked around for her in the crowd and she had actually drawn back behind everyone  because she was a sobbing mess at this point. Siva, one of the guys in the band ( he is the beautiful model gorgeousness one)  saw her and walked right through everyone and towards her , he grabbed her face and wiped her tears.  It was absolutely a magical moment for me to see this moment actually come to fruition… ..and THERE HE WAS .. It was Tom Parker… walking right up to Aiyana .. and then the absolute most UNEXPECTED thing happened… He grabbed her in the tightest hug and kissed her … dead smack on the lips!!!! It was literally worth EVERY PENNY to get there… Every traveling headache… Every and anything it took me to get her there… That moment right there was ALL WORTH IT!!!!!!   But wait… It gets Better!!!!!

They began to select the 5 for the private tour bus. We both pulled out of the box for the “golden ticket” and pulled blank ones. We watched as the others in the crowd pulled the blanks… and then a scream would rise from the crowd when a ticket was pulled…. 1, then 2, then 3, then 4… and then I noticed everyone that had pulled tickets was pulling again… I told Aiyana to “maneuver” get back there and pull again… by this time it had become a frenzy as there was only one ticket left…. Aiyana punched her hand into the box and it was like the slow motion part of  a dramatic scene in a movie… SHE PULLED THE LAST TICKET!!!!!! and it sounded like this…. “Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh Myyyyyyyyyyyyy GAWWWWWWWWWDDDD!!!!!!!!

Here we were 2 days ago sitting in our house on Mary Sue Street and now here she is in the Greatest city in the world having the greatest experience of her life!!!!!! she boarded the bus for the private tour…. it was truly one of the greatest moment in my life for her…. I was so excited for her… and off they went… Aiyana with the biggest smile I had ever seen!

The next day was the concert and we got to go back and hang out with the guys prior to the show… and I got to take our new friends, the ones that were from Florida,  back there with us too… it was the best trip everrrrr….

Nevermind the fact that when we got home from New York… the images were electromagnetically shocked off the memory card and  I had to research and find a company that could recover the images from the disc when the mainframe is burnt… There is only one company in the world that does this and I am so grateful for them!!!!! They restored 80% of the images… and I am soooo glad we have those memories and they weren’t completely gone! )

Surprise trip to New York: $1300

Cost to repair disc to recover every image taken on trip: $400

meeting Tom Tom “for the first time”: PRICELESS!!!!

and it was worth EVERY PENNY!!!!!

Here are the images from a dream come true trip!!!!

BTW: we have been able to hang out with the guys in Orlando and Tampa.. and they pretty much love us!

watch?v=MQyHyfLp5NI&ob=av2e