July 29
Sunny day. I'm off to Denmark with my girlfriend.
Doing a crash course in Danish - should be able
to speak it fluently by Monday... |
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I been asked another set of questions about my work
- here is a sample.
What would you like to be remembered for the most
when you decide to hang up the camera as a music photographer
if you ever choose to?
I'd like to be remembered as a kind, well-mannered,
humble man.
If you
want to see the rest …go
here
July 27
Spent last night watching 2046. Everytime I watch it
I see something different. It makes me think about decisions
in life - great film.
Have started reading Bali, Java, In My Dreams, by Christine
Jordis. It describes the magic and temples of Bali so
well - makes me want to move there. I would if I could
commute...
Nikki Sixx calls on his way home from Irvine Meadows
(he's just played - it's 1.30 am in LA). Nikki has bought
a Nikon and is now camera crazy... We discuss our sons
dating. 'At least they won't be like us,'says Nikki.
'I hope not,' I say. 'How's everything in London?' 'It's
raining today.' 'Not that - the terrorists...'
I haven't woken up yet...
July 26
Bought the August issue of Photography Monthly
at Victoria Station - it has a feature on me.
It is OK, but very toned down from what I really
said and edited rather amateurishly. They have
rephrased a few things, e.g. "One thing I really bloody
hate..." - I would never have said bloody
(maybe "fucking"). Geoff Barton is
called Geoff Barker. The paragraph he is mentioned
in makes no sense. |
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I said Nora Jones was the most awful person I've ever
dealt with. They have withheld her name for legal reasons
but kept my very accurate description of her. They
also say the language was "toned down" in
the interests of public decency. I'm sure all the writers
for Photography Monthly wear ties and work in Jessops
or Dixons on Saturdays...
July 25
Shitty day, sunny then rain - quite depressing...
Got a load of new magazines. New Classic Rock
with Motley Crue and a feature on the Proud exhibition
plus Foo Fighters from the USA...
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My agent sent me a new magazine called Giant
- he claims it's the hottest new American mag...
Here's my Faith No More from it. |
Peter Makowski has come to visit. He has found Keep
Them Freaks A Rollin' by The Edgar Broughton Band. He
keeps playing it over and over... 'The first album I
ever bought was Wasa Wasa by Edgar Broughton,' he declared,
as if it was something to be proud of. 'Why can't someone
let me write a feature on them?'
Mark Blake has also rung me, to ask what I
thought of his Q prog rock special. I tell him
the Rush feature was shite. Paul Elliott was
in Farnham wearing nappies when Rush were at
their peak. What does he know about "Drinking wine and honeydew." Plus
Derek "groveller" Oliver, c'mon...
Still, the rest of the issue was good - it looked
like War And Peace compared to the new issue
of Classic Rock. My Motley shots look great but
then again I would say that... |
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Found some copies of The Powerage. If you want any
write to me at the site. Thirty pounds each plus postage
- Peter Makowski will autograph them for an extra £20...
Staying in with Peter to have an Asian film festival...
July 22
Went to see some finished Led Zep IV art work today.
Jimmy Page is signing the edition. I was late, stuck
in traffic due to the trouble yesterday - arrived just
as Jimmy was finishing. Got to say the print looks fantastic
- it's available through Rockoptic.
Took a bus across London, my second time in years -
most of the tubes are still closed down.
July 20
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Heard fom Sir David Coverdale (what do you mean,
he's not a sir? He should be...), who was looking
for some photos. Found this of him looking very
regal on the beach in St. Petersburg Florida. |
Also doing an interview for Nikki Sixx's book, The Heroin
Diaries, today.
July 19
In the August GQ (with the very ugly Charlotte
Church on the cover) is a feature on the Sunset
Marquis hotel - my favourite hotel in Los Angeles.
They've used a photo of Slash I took outside
my room a few years ago (uncredited)... I have
some outtakes of the session - I'll put them
up if I can find them. |
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Christian from Germany has sent me a very nice
Foo Fighters cover of mine |
July 16
Got lost last night in London - had to drive through
the city to Canary Wharf. I was stopped at a random
security check point and had my car tested for explosives.
Now we all know why people have to do this but the security
seemed rather heavy handed... Anyway, it's boiling today.
I was going to go to REM at Hyde Park, until one of
my so called "FRIENDS", Rangi, suddenly couldn't
get me passes when he realised I wasn't bringing Jimmy
Page. Rangi has worked for REM for three tours and can
get any pass he wants - it's a shallow old world I work
in. I'll remember it next time he wants something. I'm
off to Tesco's instead...
The interview I did with The Scotsman came out today.
Okay, but my quotes are out of context and I hate
the term "snapper"... Read it....
July 15
England's hot, really hot, and I should be in the garden.
Instead I'm in Ikea, but I won't bore you with that...
Mick Wall has written something very nice for my website.
It's the nicest thing a friend has done and I'm slightly
embarrassed - thank you Mick. Read
it...
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Here's a photo I like, from Denmark
- a tree and the sea... |
July 11
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Spent a very hot and humid day looking at hundreds
of Iron Maiden photos. It got to the point where
all I could think of was 'Scream for me Helsinki'
over and over and over... Got some nice black and
white of the sky while landing there. I'll stick
them up this week. |
Keep getting requests from magazines wanting photos
to advertise the Proud exhibition - except that they
want stuff not in the exhibition...
Spoke to Kevin Shirley who is (sadly) looking forward
to going to Las Vegas... 'It rocks' he says. I'll stick
to L.A...
July 8
After dosing off for about an hour, leave at 5am for
the airport (that's 3am London time). Fly home at dawn
- well, it looks like it could be anytime...
The stewardess brings around a horrid omelette. Laurence
Baker whom I'm with tells her 'No thanks, it's awful.'
She goes into 'How can you say that when people
are starving in Africa???!' 'Look, I lived in Africa
for ten years and the food wasn't as bad as this,'
says Laurence. I join in. 'How can you charge £957
plus tax to fly a thousand miles and serve this rubbish?
I could fly to LA for half that and get two decent meals.' The
man next to us goes 'I'm not eating this rubbish either.'
Oh, the joys of flying British Airways...
Get home to see all the awfulness in the papers.
Oliver is taking my film to London. 'Do you think I'm
safe?' I hope so...
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Here's a nice Thai EP I got from Pete Makowski.
And some more pics from Scandinavia. |
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July 7
Didn't sleep at all. It's daylight all night
and the sun was blasting through my curtains. No wonder
they all kill themselves here - by drinking themselves
stupid...
Go out and spend the morning record shopping. I am
very pleased with myself as I get some good stuff. I
even buy a copy of Slayer live just to annoy people...
Heard about all the bombings in London, everybody was very freaked
out. You feel a bit helpless, it was hard finding out
what was going on.
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Here's something from the gallery in the paper. |
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Iron Maiden flew straight to Sweden after the
show. I stayed and still couldn't sleep - it's
too light... |
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July 6
Woke up, went to Heathrow, paid 350 pounds for a salad
- and a hot towel... I managed this by flying business
class to Helsinki on British Airways. That was the difference
between economy and business - the only difference -
seats are the same and you get there just as quick. Actually
it's a lot further than I thought. Fly past Estonia
and Tallin. Shoot clouds coming into Finland... Here
for Iron Maiden at the Hartwell Arena - haven't been
here since 1997 with Aerosmith...
Mastodon are the opening band - a bit like a thrash
version of Rush... Meet the bass player.
Tell him I know his urban photographer Jimmy Hubbard.
Mike Patton is here - haven't seen him since Poland
with Faith No More.
Nico is not feeling his best, after changing
his hotel room five times he's feeling rather slow.
'Must be the four bottles of wine I had last night,'
he tells me... Good
show, sold out tonight and tomorrow.
The audience
were quite young, makes a change from the usual
bunch of balding old geezers with tattoos. |
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Went for a wander after the show as it was still light.
Tried to take some pictures of the night sky, it doesn't
really get dark here at this time of year - really weird.
It's hard to sleep. Finally end up in the hotel
bar with the band and spend the early hours discussing
the perils of flying to Africa with Bruce. He
has invited me to go with him on a trip to West Africa
when the tour ends in September. His other job is first
officer with an airline that flies out of Gatwick
to several dubious destinations on the dark continent...
July 5
Spending today going through my whole Aerosmith file
- have to find photo's for the new Aerosmith cd Rockin
the Joint.
Ozzy from Classic Rock and new issue of Mojo. |
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July 4
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Had a nice plug for my show from the Evening
Standard. |
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My friend Nori sent me some singles - he's a
kind man... |
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Here's Steve Clark from a competition to win
one of my prints. |
Watched Jimi Hendrix at the Atlanta Pop Festival on
dvd, just got it from Japan. July 4th 1970. Well, it's
Independence Day - somewhere or other...
July 3
Spent the weekend in sunny Denmark. Went to Roskilde
on Friday - watched Snoop Doggy Dog and his posse
of five thousand. Shot Audioslave, who I enjoyed,
and Black Sabbath. Nice day - huge crowd. |
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Got a
great photo of John Bionelli carrying Wilf Wright's
bags... |
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Had dinner in the Kong Heim (I think this is
spelt or pronounced wrongly), the food was incredible
- the restaurant has a Michelin star. Watched a
bit of Live 8 - looked rubbish. A friend of mine
who was backstage with the bands told me they were
having a champagne lifestyle then rattling on about
poverty. You could drink backstage but not in the
crowd. Heard the Beckhams arrived in a stretch
Hummer - how hypocritical... |
In the Observer today is a photo spread by the highly
overrated Jurgen Teller on the not very good Meltdown
Festival. The photos are terrible - a load of pretentious
rubbish. Arrived home to cloudy skies - ugh - this time
last year I was in Bali...
July 1
I quite enjoyed my exhibition, to be honest. A load of
my friends turned up, including Oliver Halfin, Phil Alexander
(editor and tv celebrity), Dave Brolan (photographers
agent), Mark Blake (prog rock expert), Benjamin Mitchell
(writer), Peter Makowski, Michael Wall, Scott Rowley
(editor and linguist), Matthew Kent (Pete Townshend's
south-east London correspondent) and Jimmy Page (guitarist),
who spent most of the evening being harassed by people.
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Barry "Bazza" Drinkwater
(wealthy philanthropist) invited me out for dinner,
and then got my agent, Simon, to pay... |
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I'm off to Denmark now, for a bit of Sabbath...
Here are some of the captions from the pictures in
my exhibition. It opens to the public today - come
and have a look...
Scott Weiland & Lucy, Nijmegen.
Fields of Rock festival. June 2005
Keith Flint , Malaysia. Shot outdoors in Kuala Lumpur. It was 145 degrees. March
2005
Motorhead, San Francisco, 1980. Just before soundcheck. The original
line-up.
Eddie Van Halen, The Rainbow, 1978. This was the last frame on the roll of film.
Lucky aren't I..?
Nixxi Sixx , Nob shot. Backstage, Montreal, 1984. Notice he doesn't have any
tattoos.
Black Crowes, Florida. Chris Robinson. He should learn to wash...
Aerosmith, Japan. Tyler and Perry, Osaka 2002. I was with them for three weeks
and this was the only time I got them together offstage.
Iron Maiden, Rio. Half way up to the statue of Christ. These are the kids living
in the slums.
Iron Maiden, Holland. Backstage after supporting Kiss.
Slipknot, LA. I can't even remember which band member this is - I just like the
photo.
Feeder, Capetown Airport. Grant Nichols moaned the whole time about my abilities
as a photographer. Then whenever I see him, he's my best friend.
Foo Fighters, Long Beach. Dave Grohl and Tom Araya were very drunk. Well, Dave
was.
Iron Maiden, Nassau, Bahamas. Compass Point Studios, recording Power Slave. One
of my favourite pictures of them.
Daniel Johns/Silverchair, Rio. The band's manager tried to stop me taking this
photo. Daniel had just headlined the Rock in Rio festival.
The Mars Volta, LA. My favourite new band. Great to shoot.
Eddie Vedder/Pearl Jam, LA. Edward being slightly retarded, decided to shave
his head in a Mohican so people wouldn't recognise him. Shot outside my hotel
room.
Chris Cornell, LA. I just like this photo. Every girl I know wants to have sex
with him.
Tommy Lee, Wembley. In Tommyland just before going on stage.
Iron Maiden, Florida. Two minutes to midnight. Single sleeve outtake. I can't
remember who's idea this was, Rod Smallwood claims it's his - so does Steve
Harris.
Page & Plant, Istanbul. This was me doing a great bit of improvisation.
Plant was being difficult about having his photo taken - I'm being kind here.
Shot from my hotel window. Robert was so convinced this wouldn't work he walked
off after three frames.
Plane Shadow. Flying out of Heathrow late afternoon.
Kerry King/Slayer, Long Beach Arena. Kerry stretching before the show.
Joe Perry,Chicago. Let's face it, Joe Perry looks like a Rock Star. Used on the
cover of his new solo album.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers, LA. I had five minutes to take this. John Fruscante was
so smacked out of it on heroin, he kept nodding out. The band tried to tell me
they didn't like the photos because they looked gay. Fine, let's do another session
- we haven't got the time - fuck them, I like the picture.
Chicago. Shot from the Sears Tower. It looks like the city is about to be swallowed.
Chicago, 2001. Coming in to land. It was December, great light - shot at 4pm.
Greenday, LA. Stole the idea from The Who.
Europe. Winter Sky. The last light at the end of the day.
Soundgarden, Sydney/Big Day Out. Jesus Christ Pose, the last song of the set.
Great band.
AC/DC, Hammersmith Odeon. Angus Young, Back in Black tour.
AC/DC, Powerage tour, Hammersmith Odeon. This was one of the hardest things
to shoot. Most of the audience were on my back.
Ozzy Osbourne, Europe. Ozzy throwing a bucket of water.
Himalayas at Dawn. It rather humbles you.
Beck/Page, London. They wouldn't stop talking.
Sky Southwest. On the way home, 7pm.
Guns N' Roses, L A. The band wanted to use this for the back cover of Appetite
for Destruction. Geffen records didn't think the album would sell - it ended
up on the back cover of Greatest Hits.
Iran, Sunset. You always get amazing sunsets flying over here.
Chicago. I love shooting cities.
Buddha of Suburbia. My back garden. March 2005.
Buddha, Phuket. On the way to the airport. November 2004.
Down Under. It's 600million years old. What more do you want to know???
Western Sahara. There was not a sound, very disconcerting.
Slash, L A. First tattoo. He was going to tattoo a skull with a cigarette and
a hat on his arm.
Aerosmith, Reading Festival, 1977. Fuck the Rolling Stones. Aerosmith look way
better.
Van Halen, Rainbow Theatre. I don't care what anyone thinks, David Lee Roth was
a great front man.
Keith Moon, Shepperton Studios, 1978. The last photo of him taken playing live.
Ozzy Osbourne, St Georges Hall, Bradford. Ozzy goes to the toiletThin Lizzy,
Live and Dangerous tour, Wembley. The black Elvis.
Motley Crue,Newcastle Arena. Straight after the show.
Black Sabbath, Toledo, Ohio. The Mob Rules tour. Great light show. With little
Ron.
Eddie, Yugoslavia. Notice little or no production. The leather jacketed person
is Rod Smallwood. He always wanted to be Steve Harris.
Kiss, Grand Rapids. Gene Simmons making another business deal as he goes onstage.
Iron Maiden, Yugoslavia, 1980. Original line-up, lining up on the Blue Danube.
UFO, Hammersmith Odeon, 1978. Just as the drugs and egos set in.
Metallica, Wetcher, during Creeping Death. The audience are chanting 'DIE, DIE,
DIE...' |
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