April 28th
I was going to Los Angeles today, but as it's raining
there all weekend .I'm staying here.
April 27th
Had dinner in Fulham with Kevin Shirley
and Gordon Gheller... I drove and was sensible, Kevin
was intent on destroying London again. He told me
for the 10,000 time how great the Iron Maiden album's
going (well he would say that) and how overwhelmed
he is to have his hero Rod Smallwood back in London
after a HARD month in Barbados... I left them
on their tenth bottle of wine.
Speaking of hero's John Bionelli emailed to announce
that is was his HERO'S Ace Frehley's sixty ninth
birthday (I thought he was dead or had joined Vinnie
Vincent's Invaison)... and to think I thought John
only loved Aerosmith.
April 26
I'm
even going to send her to a spa so she can have a
bath... I'm such a kind man.
April 25
If anyone is interested www.hungryeyeimages.com have
put some more of my travel up. I've tried to caption
them where I can remember... Go to portfolio and
click on my name.
Off to see my agent this morning to go through my
Bon Jovi file in a blaze of glory... which is as
fun as going to the dentist. I am actually joking
I like my photos of John.
April 24
I went out with Kevin Shirley on Saturday... he
decided to destroy London. Had a great time, wandering
around Soho and Shaftsbury Avenue... I'm still recovering
today.
  Raining today and gloomy....shooting those Seattle
grunge legends Pearl Jam, they must have brought
the weather with them.
My photo session is at that famous grunge hang out
The Mandarin Oriental Hotel (where the cheapest room
is the price of a small apartment) in the centre of
Knightsbridge, opposite Harvey Nichols (must be in
case they need some $500 faded t-shirts).
I am met by
Yakob, the bands PR... who informs me that the
photos HAVE TO BE QUICK... 'Is this coming from them?'
I enquire.' No the bands US PR'
Which of course means it's coming from them.
 I am meant to have half an hour and I want the allotted
time. Stone Gossard arrives first and looks frankly
bored, then Mike McCready, Jeff Ament and Matt Cameron...
Matt asks what I've been doing 'Listening to Soundgarden'...
'Did you try and kill yourself after? '... finally
Edward Vedder arrives.
  We set up in Hyde Park... the band look as happy
as a child going to the dentist... After about ten
minutes I think fuck it, thats enough. I take Edward
aside... 'For the people's band, you have more rules
than the army'... he thinks for a moment 'What do you
want to do ? '... I finish with Edward happily
posing in his Who t-shirt... the PR and entourage
not looking very pleased. As I leave the sun is shining...
April 22
Saturday morning and who's gonna play with me - home
alone, but it's a nice day...
Had a call last night to tell me I'm shooting the Def
Leppard tour - well, I'll believe it when I do it, as
I haven't shot them since the dawn of man. Quite looking
forward to it , if it works out...
April 21
I found an old file of Metallica negs today - a lot.
Much to my surprise were photos I didn't even remember
I'd taken in black and white. New York '85, San Francisco
'84, The Day On The Green (including Lars' hero, Cheesy,
eating all the backstage catering), Tom Araya and James,
The Iowa Jam, having breakfast in Denny's (Iowa again,
I think), Cliff Burton cuddling his girlfriend, Kirk's
stag night (or his bachelor party) which are unprintable
and prove Kirk's not gay. And backstage the first time
they played Donington, which I rather like - I even
have Lars painted silver in black and white (I know
how much he'd love this). My absolute favourite is Lars
with his idol Don Dokken. Lars is wearing Don's hat
- something Don would only let his closest friends do.
The pictures showed me I wasn't a bad photographer even
drunk... In fact they are an inspiration to start drinking
heavily again! I will put them and Def Leppard up soon.
|
Found a Van Halen shot I really like from
Houston Summit, 1984. And here are UFO and ZZ
Top bootlegs I just got from Japan - they've
both lifted my photos... |
|
|
Been listening to The Who, Chicago '79, a soundboard
bootleg called Long Live Rock, and The Faces, Reading
Festival '72 - The Faces sound like they're having a
good time.
Staying in to watch a nice romantic film, Miike Takashi's
Agitator.
April 20
Up at dawn and off to the American Embassy to renew
my visa - this should be fun.
April 19
 A
bit more of David Gilmour.....
Went to the Royal Albert Hall with Jimmy Page to see
the fake David Gilmour - The Australian Pink Floyd.
It was ok, the show was a mini '90's Floyd. They came
on and played the whole of Wish You Were Here. It all
started to sound the same to me... The second half started
with Astronomie Domine followed by Learning to Fly.
We decided to fly to High Street Kensington for a Thai....
PS. They did have great T-shirts, putting a kangaroo
on all the Floyd art work...
Got a great book on the Who today called The Who in
Denmark & Norway & Finland. It's for hardcore
fans and it's in English.
April 18
 As Easter's gone here's the John Frusciante cover.
Not as holy as I'd wanted
it, but it's a beautiful day - John must be smiling...
April 17
Had a clear out of books and magazines I don't want
or need (I can scan the magazine covers, then throw
them away). Found a great book from the 80's by Ray
Stevenson called Photo Past 1966-1986 Access NEARLY
All Areas. Fantastic title. It covers those years brilliantly
(no rock from '76, only punk) - his photos speak for
themselves. The kind of book which encourages you to
become a photographer...
Drove up to London again for a wander around. It was
the most beautiful evening. The sky, the light, everything
- and I didn't take a camera...
April 16
Easter Sunday. I go for a run, put my ipod on random
songs - the first that comes up is Easter by Patti Smith
then Privilege by Patti Smith where she recites the
Lords Prayer as lyrics. I am not making this up, something's
going on.
 Out of boredom and the fact I've got nothing to do,
I drive up to London. Try to shoot Battersea Power Station
but the light isn't right. Drive south again to shoot
around Cringle Street. It occurs to me I've shot The
Black Crowes, The Cult and Thunder in these streets
in the '90's.
I end up wandering around the City of London, which
I love on a Sunday - it's a ghost town. If the photos
don't look too boring I'll put them up...
April 15
Watched Wolf's Creek last night, well filmed but not
scary. Then Dracula Has Risen From The Grave with Christopher
Lee was on TV - Dracula scares me. Had nightmares all
night.
Had various calls about going on tour with Def Leppard.
We'll see, I'm not holding my breath.
It's Saturday morning - got up to a very nice email
from David Coverdale. And it's still Easter and I'm
not in a good frame of mind... Decided that I am to
old to have long hair so I went out and got my head
shaved - feel liberated, somewhat...
The only thing I found out of interest today was not
spiritual or religiously enlightening. Have you ever
wondered where the word shit comes from? If you have
I can tell you. In the 1800's ships transporting manure
used to get waterlogged. This would create methane,
which was highly flammable. So the sailors would write
on the containers Ship High In Transit or abbreviated
S.H.I.T. - amazing what you can learn at Easter.
April 14
Good Friday - ugh, I hate religion. Well, forced religion
anyway. You should pick what makes you happy.
I am having Easter on my own...
April 10
 Got up to a sunny day - freezing, but in a nice way.
Got my camera and photographed my garden, the light
was perfect, very cold and crisp. In fact, it reminded
me of Asia.
I watched a Japanese film last night called Dolls.
It was long and dark. Still, it was good. I'd had it
for about three years and could never settle down to
concentrate on it.
Got to find my Robert Plant photos for a Rhino Nine
cd set. I've finished sorting out Def Leppard (which
I'll put up soon). I've had people writing to me complaining
about the ticket prices for their American tour - $300
for the front section. What's it got to do with me?
And what do people think, I'm going to do ring up the
band and suddenly the prices will be lowered...?
Fans don't seem to realise the music business is a corporate
world and just like everyone else musicians care about
two things - themselves and money...
April 8
Had a very quiet evening. Watched The Skywalk Is Gone,
a short film, and the epilogue to What Time Is It There?
by Tsai Ming-Liang. It was very sad in the same way
as the extra deleted scenes in In The Mood For Love.
The two characters just miss each other, it ends with
a Chinese song as two clouds in a blue sky never quite
touch. It was beautiful. Then I thought I'd try to be
normal and watch a Hollywood blockbuster. So I watched
The Constant Gardener - what a load of rubbish. Rachel
Weisz is unconvincing as a caring jewish princess (how
did she get an oscar?) and Ralph Fiennes looks like
he needs to go to the toilet badly all the way through.
In future I'll stick to independent art films...
April 7
 Been
digging out more Monsters of Rock for a big Classic
Rock feature. God I hated that festival. It was always
cold and nearly always rained. It was NO fun at all.
The promoter, Maurice Jones, got Donington cheap as
it was in a natural rain belt. Anyone who looks back
with fondness and gets misty-eyed about it needs their
head examined... Michael Johansson, a fellow photographer
(and YngwieMalmsteen clone) from Sweden, has sent a
photo of me shooting Ritchie Sambora about to go on
stage. I'm glad it's from behind, I looked fucking awful
- nearly as bad as Ritchie...
The festival is now called Download to make it trendy.
It's still a load of old shit - you just get charged
more.
A Blackmore cover from Spain...
April 6
I'm trying to make more use of my travel photography,
which so far has been really a hobby for me. So I've
made them available through a new agency www.hungryeyeimages.com.
I'm going to concentrate on more travel and shoot as
much as possible whenever I get the opportunity. It'll
make me start thinking a bit more as a photographer...
|
Been digging out my Monsters Of Rock...with The
Mighty Judas Priest and others.
See the rest... |
|
|
|
April 5
 Ohhhhh, I'm Q magazines contributor of the month -
how nice...
I have been informed that the girl in The Bow is called
Han Yeo Reum and is from Samaria. I have no idea where
that is, and I'm good at geography.
 Can't
find two of my digital cards so my Scorpions and half
my Priest are missing!!! So here's some of the end
of the show until they turn up.
Go to Judas Priest...
April 3
I watched Kim Ki-duk's The Bow, a strange film. The
girl in it was beautiful, but I have no idea of her
name as it was in Korean. It had a great "making
of " which I didn't understand a bit of as it was
also in Korean, with no subtitles. Still, good for a
bit of ogling on a Monday night...
April 2
Vartan has called me. He does all the reissues for
Universal in Los Angeles, and he's very nice for an
Eastern European. He told me one of the photo researchers
he uses had pulled a face when he mentioned my name.
Vartan told me he'd been in an English band based in
LA in the 80's but he couldn't remember their name.
Probably some rubbish like Dogs D'Amour. He emailed
me back to say I was right and the person (who's name
is Joe) wasn't very fond of me. I asked Vartan to look
up Dogs D'Amour on my website - it says it all...
April 1
Went to the Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert
Hall last night. It was METAL night, a tribute to the
DJ, Tommy Vance.
The mighty Judas Priest and The Scorpions plus Ian Gillan
and chums are on. Get there and see Roger Daltrey (who's
MC for the event). 'Fucking great, heavy metal in the
Albert Hall, who'd have thought?' Chat to Roger about
The Who tour - well, I am a fan.
See Bill Barclay, an old friend of mine and The Scorpions
tour manager. He takes me in to see my Teutonic chums.
Haven't seen them all for a long time. They are on great
form. I talk to Rudolph Schenker and ask him how his
brother Michael is. He tells me they are launching a
Flying V together in Frankfurt today. I ask Rudolph
how old he is - when he tells me he's 57 I am shocked.
He looks like he's in his forties. It's true, men do
age better, I mean, look at me (ho, ho)...
I head out front before they go on. A guy in the front
row introduces himself - Attila from Hungary. He'd come
over after winning a competition in Classic Rock. He
looked about 22 - he is 38. I think I am going to move
to Eastern Europe. Attila the Hun wanted to go backstage
and get his picture taken with his heroes. I felt sorry
for him as the pass he had didn't work. One of my pet
hates are bands who give out passes that don't work
- I mean, why build up someone's hope and dash them?
Judas Priest should apologise to him. Attila seemed
to be a genuine and humble fan who travelled a long
way to find the garden gate firmly closed...
Anyway, onto The Scorpions. I have to say this - it
was like a blitzkrieg. They came on and rocked, and
I mean seriously. It was one of the best shows I have
seen in a long, long time. The sound, the lights, the
playing and the posing were fantastic. Just when I was
getting fed up seeing the same old thing, The Scorpions
were like a breath of fresh air. I was hugely disappointed
when they finished their set. The Zoo is a great rock
song. The mighty Priest delivered the goods but it was
a bit disappointing as there was no Beyond The Realms
Of Death, Painkiller or Victim Of Changes. Still, Heading
Out The Highway was great. And Rob Halford did a nice
tribute to Tommy Vance at the end. The encore was Take
On The World. I think the last time I saw them do this
was on Top Of The Pops... The Priest are back - AND
The Scorpions.
Spoke to Joe Elliot (who's in Lanzarote) today. As I
was sorting out my Leppard file he was dating it for
me. I told him all about The Scorpions. He seemed more
interested in Ian Gillan as he has contributed vocals
to a forthcoming solo album from the Purple vocalist.
After he told me this highly uninteresting piece of
news, I went back to talking about the Scorpions. He
probably thinks I'm mad. Jimmy Page called me next looking
for Peter Makowski who had stayed overnight. I told
James all about The Scorpions metal domination of the
Albert Hall - he couldn't wait to talk to Pete...
Been spending all day listening to The Scorpions Platinum
Collection on EMI. I'm just on disc two. I know it's
April Fools Day, but I'm not joking - must put it all
on the Ipod.
|
