July 28th
Oliver, my son, found three Polaroid's. I'd
forgotten about them. This one is from 1988 (I think).
It's from the Centrum in Worcester of myself and Steve
Clarke from
the Hysteria US tour. I've put the others up on Def
Leppard. Strange I still miss him... |
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July 25th
Woke up this morning to find out the sad news
that Bobby Thompson had died. He was Ozzy's tour manager,
he'd been battling cancer
for a long time..... He was one of the nicest people you could
ever meet. I've known him since the first Blizzard of Oz tour.
When everybody would be stressed out about nothing, he would just
laugh at the absurdity of it all... I'll miss him.
July 23rd The flight is early, land an hour early. Only
thing, this is in the middle of rush hour. Get home at 11am.....Sort
out all the Aerosmith photos with Kicks, I'm seeing double...I'm
tired, jet-lagged and very fed up. The next person who tells
me "It's alright for you" can fuck off...
July 22nd
Get over to the other terminal and get 1:30am flight. I
am the last person on this. Arrive Boston at 2:30am, get
to bed at 3am, wake up wide awake at 5am. Leave at 11am to
see the band. 3:45 back to Boston airport. Go through the
usual Bullshit with the TSA security (it's because I'm flying
on a one-way ticket). 5:50, just make the flight to N.Y,
change terminals, the bus takes 45 minutes because of traffic.
9:20 fly to London.
July 21st
Off to Boston to see Aerosmith to go through photos. Fly
London to Washington. Only problem, an hour before I land
the captain tells us there are storms and Washington airport
is closed... divert to Baltimore, sit on the ground for 3
hours. Fly 10 minutes to DC, arrive at midnight. Customs
is closed so have to go to the main terminal which is miles
away on a bus. It is chaos, people with children, everybody
upset and panicking... The airline's helping no one (all
the hotels in Washington are sold out). By chance I hear
someone say "the flight to Boston leaves now",
I panic and run back to the domestic terminal.
July 12th
The band go out drinking, I with a rare bit of sense, go
to bed. When I get up the next day, the hotel is full of
footballers. It's where the England team and first division
teams come for summer training. If you think bands are arrogant
and vain, you haven't seen anything until you see this.
Shoot a very hung over Iron Maiden in the blazing sun
between 2 and 4pm. Looks very spaghetti western. Unfortunately
half the band look like English men on a Spanish stag night.
Fly to Madrid at 6pm. Get home at 9. Amazingly London is
as hot as Spain. Got to say though, at least Maiden are a
pleasure to deal with.
Fly home to London.
July 11th
Spain Cadiz Esparrago Festival.
Here we go again. Fly to Barcelona (the flights delayed
2 hours). Sit another 2 hours in Barcelona then fly
another hour and 30 minutes to Jarez. Iron Maiden are
on at 10pm. It's like an old town square with palm
trees. No light show, too windy to hang it. Do a shot
of the band with the crowd. |
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July 10th
Fly home with Bruce Dickinson. It's only 2 and a half hours
flight. Honestly it does seem strange not flying long haul.
July 9th Portugal, Lisbon. Iron Maiden, Pavilhao Atlantico
(Indoor Arena).
Fly out on the afternoon of show. It's actually
amazing getting on a flight that's not 11 hours long. New
venue (I've
been here before when Slipknot played). The gig is sold out.
The audience is one huge moss pit
July 4th Independence day...
Up at 4:45am... LAX (the airport) is packed.
7am flight to New York. It's even hotter in New York
than L.A.
July 3rd
Cannot sleep at all. Back to Van Nuys airport. Ozzy's late
again, I get burnt again. Fly to San Diego. Laurence and
The Tattooed Lady, Maria Gonzales have kindly driven down
ahead of me and set up. It's meant to be a session with Manson,
Ozzy and Jonathan from Korn. Only problem is Manson won't
do it. So shoot Ozzy and Jonathan (in kilt), looks great.
Take some pictures of Ozzy and Sharon (it's their 21st wedding
anniversary tomorrow). Drive back to L.A with Laurence and
Maria who wants to stop every 5 minutes to go to the toilet.
July 2nd
Go out to Van Nuys airport to meet Ozzy. He's
late and wait on the runway for 90 minutes. Unfortunately,
it's an 106 degrees,
I get very burnt. Take pictures of Ozzy and jet on the runway.
Fly
to Phoenix for an Ozzfest show, it's even hotter there
than in L.A. Shoot Korn live, it's really hard, plus Ozzy
who
soaks me with his giant water gun.
Run into Michael Schenker
(he hasn't seen Wilf Wright, his old manager, or I in 10
years).
Fly back to L.A straight after show. |
