Childhood Revisited!!

So after almost 20 years of waiting theyre finally here. This weekend the Simpsons and Transformers movies both hit the big screen. Very bizarre that both these companies have decided to release these films on the same day, but what can you do.
Go see both of them ....of course!!



First up was the Simpsons, i was pleasantly surprised to find that this was more than just 4 episodes strung together but was a proper movie which was pretty damn funny really and has some revealing insights into the characters without actually delving into proper "adult" humour and losing the simpsons vibe.....oh and it has "Spider Pig"...You'll see what i mean!! Its def worth seeing if you are a Simpsons fan in any way. Out of all the TV cartoon to Movie transfers of the last few years i think its the best one.

Oh by the way check out my new family portrait : )



Next up was Transformers





































This was pretty much as i expected from the king of big budget movies, Micheal Bay!!!

Amazing special effects, high octane action and huge explosions with a big dollop of cheesey moments on the side, now im not saying this is a bad thing, remember this is basically a cartoon youre watching. It certainly doesnt disappoint on any of those fronts. It is pretty much all out action from the first minute with very little down time. Anyone who was a fan the first time round 20 years ago will love this, if you werent a fan and can remember that its just a fun movie, you might just be converted too.

God Damn It!!

Why oh why is it allowed!! Hour after hour of inane drivel!! Im talking of course about daytime TV. After being on tour for so long you never really get to see this stuff so now that im home for a few days i have been privy to Hours of talk show which is just basically people bitching about theyre weight/looks/family/life. Im subscribing to the Dennis Leary school of problem management and pyschotherapy

Patient: I have a problem Waah Waah Waah

Doctor: (Whack) Shut the F**K Up, That'll be $200.....Next!!!

"Nobody cares, now take off your dress and end this little tea party"

Another thing thats really starting to piss me off is "Reality TV".
Big Brother, Im a Celebrity Asshole, Get Me Out of here.
We should be allowed to have Celebrity Hunting Club as a show. I'd watch it!! Every week a "Celebrity" (See Dictionary: Famous for being Famous) is given a 20 minute headstart in a hedge maze and armed only with a compass while an eager member of the public waits to give chase armed with theyre weapon of choice.
Dont tell me you wouldnt watch it, you know you would!!!

As well as all that i hope that whoever either came up with or watches the debacle that is "My Super Sweet Sixteen" meets a horrible and un-natural end. I saw 25 seconds of one show whilst channel surfing yesterday and managed to see some spoilt bitch complain about her $300,000 party and throw a fit because Daddy wouldnt buy her a $30,000 Mercedes. Who the f**k do these people think they are. I got an aerosmith cassette for my 16 birthday and i liked it too.
I know some people say that Americans need to travel and see that the rest of the world is not how they think it is, but im just glad ive been there and know that not all American girls are like these little bitches!!


I've come to the conclusion that any TV that isnt animated or star Keifer Sutherland or John McGinley isnt worth watching.

Time Off Eh!!

So after a flight to Edinburgh and driving straight to site to make sure all the lights and video etc were all good, it was time for the T in the Park headline show, and what a show!! The band played great, the audience were fantastic as always in Scotland and with the time slot we had meant the sun set towards the last part of the show giving it a more magical quality than just playing after dark.

Unfortunately there was no time to enjoy the aftermath as we had to head straight to Dublin. After driving to Glasgow and checking into a hotel at 4.30am and checking back out at 6.00am and getting on a plane it was off to the Oxegen festival. I did get to meet 2 of my childhood heroes at baggage claim in Perry Farrell and Nuno Bettencourt. I have met Nuno before 2 years ago and bizarrely he actually remembered me and was able to tell me who i worked for and where we had met previously.

I have done every Oxegen festival since its inception in various positions from stage hand to Lighting Tech to Lighting Designer with acts 3rd on the bill to now being the Designer for the Main Stage headliner on Sunday night. Although this isnt the bigggest show ive ever done, it was great to feel a sense of acheivement and a career milestone to do shows for 80,000 people in my hometown.

So now that the Killers are having a month off it was off to London to prepare for another gig i had on the side.
The Latitude festival is a smaller and less commercial festival with a much smaller capacity and much more emphasis on family and arts as apposed to a Headline band. There is 4 music stages, a cabaret tent, a comedy stage, a theatre area and various other small performance areas dotted around the festival.

Over the course of the weekend there was sets from

Damien Rice


The Good, The Bad & The Queen


Arcade Fire


As well as a great set from Jarvis Cocker


Every young band should be made to watch his show and learn about stage presence and how to speak to an audience.

So, after the shows end i learnt a painful lesson.
Never trust anyone to do theyre job properly!!!!

There is usually a hole in the stage about 8 inches in width for all the cabling etc to run up through during the show, but after the show when the cables are removed the Health And Safety people are responsible for making sure the hole is secured. Unfortunately they didnt covered it properly and yours truly walked across it to get a case and my left leg went straight down through it right up to my hip so i ended up with a nicely brusied and swollen leg.


Nice Eh!!!

Home Stretch!!

So we here we go for the last couple of shows of the tour, first up was the show in Cesky Brod in Czech Republic on a now defunct Soviet Military Air base for some quality breakfast at catering.

Maybe the Hot Dogs were in honour of today being 4th of July!!!!
When we arrived they werent quite prepared for the combination of grass, lots of rain and a heavy 40ft truck.

So they called in the heavy army trucks to pull us out of the mud. The driver didnt exactly inspire confidence though.

Unfortunately it worked or else they would of had to go get theyre Tank to pull us out. Damn It!!

I did however find this seemingly innnocuous looking bunker which was the staging area for preparing the dressing room area riders for the bands.


Upon further inspection this is what i found inside...



Apparently it still runs, they wouldnt let drive it though!!


After a 2 hour drive to the hotel and an hours sleep it was back up and off to the airport for the flight to Copenhagen. Guess 3rd time lucky does apply!! 10 days, 3 flights into Copenhagen with the same airline and this was the first time we didnt lose our bags, we thought it was about time for a bit of a good day at the Roskilde festival but unfortunately not. The torrential rain didnt let up for the entire day and everyone on site got absolutely soaked. Was still a pretty good show all the same.


Although i did have to wear a bizarre pass to get to FOH in addition to my wristband and stick on pass.


So after braving the rain for a little bit to watch Bjork


It was back to the hotel and dry clothes. So now im sitting in the airport hotel at Copenhagen before heading off to Edinburgh for tomorrows T in The Park festival and then onwards to Dublin for the Oxegen festival before its time for a month off from the Killers tour.

Bones And Handguns!!!

After our mammoth drive to prague, it was time for a couple of days off.
Spent the first night walking around the old town for a few beers and some dinner.

Next day we took some of the sites of the city including Prague Castle





it was 500 steps to get to the top of the tower but i think the view was worth it!!


As well as laughing at some of the signs around the city when translated in English as a foreign language which it is to most of these people.





Just remember - All other music = NO!!
Jazz = OK!!!


I also saw that the power of advertising doesnt always work......


This guy was still there 5 hours after i took this photo!!!


Next day was a trip to the town of Kutna Hora which is about an hours drive from prague. The town itself is not really worth the trip but what is is this church called the Ossuary!




Now, i know it looks kind of plain and ordinary until you get inside.

Yes those are all human bones and skulls!!





The church was decorated with all these remains by an artist in 1847 who obviously thought it was a good idea. There is over 60,000 pieces of bone in the room, all from people who died in the 1400's from plague.

This was my personal favourite i have to say.


After that it was off to a shooting range to fire off some guns including a .44 magnum, Beretta, Luger, Revlover, a .5 Desert Eagle and some weird tein chamber thing with a sniper sight on it!



Having never fired a gun before in my life i thought i did pretty well

Bags With Homing Beacons

So after a show in Luxembourg with Queens Of The Stone Age and the Hives. It was off to Helsinki for our only indoor show of the tour and of course it was a beautiful day out while we were stuck inside. Typical eh!!

We flew from Luxembourg to Copenhagen to Helsinki and unfortunately our bags didnt. They eventually caught up with us the next morning just before we were about to go back to the airport.

The show was at the Ice Hall Arena which holds about 9,000 people. We had 3 local support bands as well, one of which had the most insanely thick hair ive ever seen. Its not 1987 and we're not in LA and your not Motley Crue Damnit!!!


I swaer to god that is real!!!

I also met a sound engineer who was kind of uptight about his chair been "Borrowed"



So, after picking up my bag at checkout it was back to the airport to fly from Helsinki to Copenhagen to Kristiansand in Norway. And guess what....thats right they lost our bags again. Well Lost is an unfair term implying they didnt know where they were. i knew where it was as i got to see it sitting on the tarmac while we taxi'ed away from the gate. Bloody propeller planes. This time we didnt have the luxury of having a hotel to deliver them to as we were back on the Bus to drive to belgium that night. Luckily the bags were delivered to us on the festival site just 20 mins before we had to leave.

After a 10 hour drive and a 6 hour ferry we stopped in Hamburg for the night and hit the famous Reeperbahn. This was where the Beatles got theyre start and it hasnt changed much i can tell you.
I did mange to find the most well presented Burger King i think ive ever seen.


it amazes me that someone would allow a burger joint to be built ina nice building like this. Surely there is a better use for it.
Now im one to call "Shenanigans" too often but i think this shop is slightly guilty of false advertising.


And anyway i dont think he wears Tag Heuer.


Onwards we went to the Werchter festival in Belgium which is for my money the best run festival in the world. Everything both backstage and out front is fantastically organised. Its also somewhere i go every year and find a huge lighting rig to play with.


Also today we played with Keane and Peter Gabriel.


While Gabriels set wasnt probably best seen at a festival in front of an impartial crowd, you cant argue when he plays "Solisbury Hill" and "Sledghammer" back to back. I had a brief encounter with him backstage and he seems like a very nice guy. No security teams or hordes of assistants around him which was very refreshing to see.

So, now its the 14 hour drive to Prague as the sound of the Chemical Brothers drifts away behind us from the stage.

So Much Mud!!!

After our coupled days off in London it was off to the chaos that was Glastonbury. This is one biggest festivals in the world with 180,000 people watching over 300 bands on 10 stages.
This year featured, to name only a few, Chemical Brothers, Rufus Wainwright, Duke Special, Charlotte Hatherly, Arcade Fire, Bjork, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Kasabian, Iggy Pop, The Kooks, Paul Weller, Lily Allen, The Who, Kaiser Chiefs and hundreds more.
Some people go to Glastonbury and not even see a single band. Just like this guy


This is an area of Glasto called the Greenfields, where hippys basically sit around smoke pot, take magic mushrooms, convince themselves they can solve every one of the worlds problems and say "Maaaaaaan" at the start of every sentance.....Damn Hippys!!! : )


As we arrived Friday night we started to see the full extent of the mud and madness. After a couple hours of programming lights over night i surveyed the scene as the sun came and thought there was hope for the rest of the day.
But i was wrong and we spent most of the next walking around in what felt like chocolate spread



This were my feet at 5am


Eventually it came to showtime and we tried to pull out all the stops for the bands biggest headlining show of theyre career yet which was also watched worldwide by an estimated 8 million people.



Check out the opening of the show with a bang (Or 3000)



The only real downer on the night besides the mud was the fact that Glastonbury impose such an incredibly strict noise limitation on the main stage making the sound difficult to hear at times, you would think people in the local village could get over a bit of noise for the weekend considering the money it brings into the area every year. James our sound guy was pulling his hair but unfortunately there wasnt anything he could do about it.

Right then on the bus and off to Luxembourg we go.

Heading North!!

So after the fun that was Venice, it was off to Interlaken in Switzerland for the Greenfields festival. As you can see it was a pretty amazing drive on the way to the festival.


As we got closer to the site we saw all these weird shapes above us, turned out to be people hangilding


Also on the bill today were

Flogging Molly


The Hives


Queens Of The Stone Age


Also on the 2nd Stage were 2 of my favourite bands

The Lemonheads

&
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes


It was my first time to see the Gimme Gimmes and they were great fun. If you've never heard of them then check 'em out. They are essentially a covers band who play everything from Andrew Lloyd Webber to The Eagles in a punk rock style. They also feature various members of NOFX, Lagwagon, Foo Fighters and No Use For A Name.

Next it was off to Austria for the NovaRock festival alongside

Less Than Jake


Slayer


Oh i learned a painful lesson during changeover by the way.....Never trust a sound engineer to put his gear in the same place everyday.


Thats my shin after i ran to get a new battery for my radio and ran smack into our monitor guys speaker which was in a different place than normal. Doesnt look like much i know but it was actually pretty deep and i managed to freak out the Austrian lighting guy who was sitting next to me while i was standing up operating the show as he saw the blood running down my leg all through the show and he thought i was completely insane.

So after the show was the "Fun" part of the week. A 23 hour drive to London with a 9 hour stop in Cologne thrown in for good measure. After we left Austria on Sunday and arrived in London on Tuesday, i needed something to do. A few calls were made and we were off to see Ozzy Osbourne at Wembley Arena.

And while it was sometimes like watching your drunken Grandfather doing Karaoke, it was worth the trip to see a fully fledged "Rock God" in action.

So a couple of days off and rehearsals in London were to follow so the band can fine tune the extra bits we are doing at Glastonbury this weekend. I decided i would take in a bit of theatre while i was here.

First up was Avenue Q.


This is basically "The Muppets" for adults and it is hilarious. Its a little disturbing seeing "Muppets" doing some of things they do in this show but its definitely one to see. Some of the songs featured are "If you were Gay(But im not)", "Everyones a Little Bit Racist" and "The Internet is For Porn".

After that i decided to take another trip to a show tonight and see Blue Man Group


I have to admit i was sceptical at the beginning as im not a fan of "Art for Arts sake" But you should see this show if you can, it is fantastic, very funny and at times surreal. The finale is also fantastic fun.