#TBT Gaga Oh Lala

22:51 Lauren 0 Comments

My bestie and I are massive Gaga fans. I became a fan kind of accidently. I had her album for a long time before I'd actually listened to it. My sister took a liking to "Love Game" and wanted to go see her in concert. At the time, Gaga was supporting The Pussycat Dolls tour of Australia. Neither of us were particuarly fond of The PCD so we hesitated to buy tickets. As fate would have it, they announced on the day of the concert that tickets were buy one get free. We pounced and ended up going along, somewhat aprehensively and completely unsure of what to expect. Oh. My. Gaga. It was beyond my wildest expectations. From the opening number, I was hooked. I saw her first solo tour of Australia twice. I gobbled up her albums. I listened to all of her interviews. I loved her. 

When they announced the premise for the Gaga Monster Hall concert, my initial reaction was "I'll never win tickets" because seriously, every Monster and her little sister were desperate to win. After discussions with my BFF, we teemed up and decided to kick the competition in the balls. Mediocracy was not acceptable. We spent a small fortune on wigs, costumes and props and spent our weekends dressing up and scouting locations for potential shots. We posed out the front of cathedrals. We went to an old goal (now a major tourist attraction) dressed in coats with Gaga costumes underneath and bags full of props to sneak photos in dipilated gaol cells. We went hard. 




After two weeks, we still hadn't received that fated call. We had one last hurrah, a big weekend full of ambitious photos and designs but it was with empty-hearts. We were despondant, to put it midly. I returned to work on Monday morning feeling resigned to the fact that we just wouldn't be going along. It was still early morning when my phone rang with an unfamiliar Melbourne number. I answered aphrensively - half-hoping, half-too-scared-to-hope. 

"Hi, this is Take 40. Have I reached Lauren?" 

"Oh my god." (insert 10 minutes of squealing here) 

As soon as we knew we were going along, we immidiately swept into action. We knew our costumes had to be bigger and better. We wanted to take things to the next level. We immidiately decided to recreate Gaga's Origami dress.  The only hitch in our plan was that neither of us knew how to sew.  We eventually tracked down a wonderful Japanese seamstress named Kyoko who didn't immidiately hang up or freak out at the prospect of recreating a Gaga costume on a budget. She was flippin' delightful. The only catch was that she didn't have time to make the dresses AND the origami diamonds, so we were charged with making the diamonds ourselves. Cue 2 weeks of sleepless nights, cardboard, glitter, superglue and scissor cuts. It felt like the origami diamonds WOULD NEVER END.  Eventually though, we'd made our designated 100 diamonds and our seamstress was charged  with hot-gluing them to our dresses. What could possibly go wrong? Only everything! Luckily, nothing did and we ended up with the costume of our dreams.  

We went to Sydney the night before the big day. We checked into our apartment, hung up our dresses and promptly went to the bar across the road to drink cocktails and celebrate. We'd made it, motherfuckers! The day of Gaga dawned bright and early (well, as bright and early as you can get in freezing July weather). We walked up the road to The Hilton Hotel, got our magical tickets, got our coffee and reported back at 11am for a security briefing (I'm not even kidding, it actually happened). In line at the security briefing, we made friends with two INCREDIBLE people - a gorgeous couple named Mitch and Brett. Naturally, I decided we should be Best Friends from this point on. 

After the security briefing, we headed off to Napoleon Perdis to get our makeup done. At this point I was so nervously excited I could barely sit still. We had our makeup done and I could see everything start to come together. After a quick last minute shop in Pitt Street Mall with an old friend, we headed back to the apartment to get our Monster buts ready for Mother Monster. 

When I put the costume and the wig on, I felt equal parts ridiculous and incredible. I was almost unrecognisable but at the same time, I'd never felt more like myself. 


We decided to get a taxi to the Town Hall instead of walking (even though it was probably less than 900m) because heels combined with Gaga dresses just ain't made for trekking around a cold and windy Sydney. Getting into the taxi without fucking up 100 origami diamonds was a mission. Getting out of the taxi without fucking up 100 origami diamonds was a nightmare. But we did it. 

As soon as we crossed the road to line up for the Monster Hall, two things happened. Firstly, my new Best Friend's Mitch and Brett arrived and told us we looked "fucking amazeballs, girls". Secondly, I got my first (and only) taste of what it's like to be truly famous. Someone yelled out "Oh my God, look at those girls" and (what felt like) 5000 cameras and flash-bulbs started going off. Everyone wanted to talk to us. We did interviews with Channel V, Channel 9, The Fix, Take 40, Austereo, Sydney Morning Herald, Ninemsn just to name a few. We recorded a special video message for Lady Gaga (in which I, drunk on my new-found fame, called Gaga 'babe'. Multiple times.) It was intoxicatingly wonderful. The hardwork, the super-glued fingers, the sleepless nights were all worth it. 

The concert was amazing. Seriously, amazing. I cried. Multiple times. 

Afterwards, we left and decided to hit Oxford Street with Brett and Mitch. Many, many cocktails were consumed. We were mini-superstars all over again with everyone in the bar wanting to get photos with us. We danced until 3am when we took our tired and tipsy selves back to the apartment (via the 24 hour convinience store to get 2 minute noodles and Powerade). After not-enough sleep, we were up and heading home to a life slightly less-glamarous than the previous 24 hours had held but with 2 new friends and enough memories to last a lifetime.