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January 28Had a boring day sitting at home while my kitchen is rewired - worse was having Peter Makowski making more mess than the electrician. We looked at Dave Ling's site and saw the sad news that CPFC have been kicked out of the FA Cup, for being useless. Yes, it was that boring a day. Perhaps Dave should support Chelsea or, as Peter said, Southampton FC... Pete tells me the new remastered Stormbringer is underwhelming. He says it wasn't that brilliant in the first place, as everyone was coming and going. You know the sort of behaviour, 'I've had enough, I'm off to snort cocaine in my private jet on the way to the pub.' As you do. The brightest part of the day was Peter telling me the first two Heavy Metal Kids LPs are coming out on CD, remastered with extra tracks on Cherry Red - please send if you're reading this! I've been playing an old tape I have of them live on the BBC In Concert - Bottle Of Red Wine plus Boogie Woogie, great. We even looked at Blackmore's Night website. 'At least he's doing something...' sniffed Pete. He has a point, if you call dressing up like Robin Hood and shredding on a lute to sad old men in tights and ugly women dressed up as milkmaids entertainment. As I said it's been a boring day in the Surrey 'hood... January 26Just got this enquiry from Marco
Tomorrow morning, 9am... Fog above London, shot looking down onto the city and St. Paul's. 
The animal up the tree was Scottish, looking to fight whoever he could - shot in Sydney in the early hours of January 1
January 25Saw Gran Torino, the new Clint Eastwood film, not as good as I was expecting. I want Clint cleaning up Detroit - which he does at the beginning. The rest of it he's an American Alf Garnett. The weekend papers are carrying ads for the Mott The Hoople shows at the Hammersmith Apollo (or Odeon as I call it). I'm looking forward to it - would love to shoot it or just see them. One of the best memories I have of being fourteen is seeing Mott play at the Oval, opening for The Who. I remember it being 3pm and Ian Hunter sitting on a stool berating the crowd until they got up and joined in - it was magical. I watched the Mott Anthology I got in Sydney, the early period is rocking, not so much with the later Mott. I liked them up until they got to glam rock which they were far too old for - Overend Watts in too tight clothes and silver hair does not work and Ariel Bender, pleeeeeeeease - give me Mick Ralphs anyday. The early Mott also looked cool, the footage of them from the Olympia in Paris in '71 is seeing a band who gel and are having a good time. The Moon Upstairs, Walkin' With A Mountain, Rock And Roll Queen, Keep A Knockin, pro shot and in colour, wonderful. It even has Mott filmed in black and white from what looks like the Fulham Greyhound (a pub I used to go to, all alpine-style wood in the '70s). The DVD finshes with a couple of Ian Hunter shows from 1980. Mick Ronson looking bored and out of place and Hunter's band are terrible a bunch of New York musicians, all over-playing and posing, it made me appreciate why the original line up was so good. I'm going to dig out Brain Capers, a highly underrated Mott LP. Go and discover them... I've been deluged with emails from concerned homo sapiens who say my cull of t-shirts, tour jackets and so on should go to them. But, well, life can be cruel and I'd rather see the local Epsom and Sutton binmen in various vintage metal regalia than you... If you're interested I also got rid of various Rush stuff from A Farewell To Kings tour, Killing Machine, Judas Priest, Kiss '76 UK tour, Long Live Rock And Roll Rainbow, and various UFO tours. I've got some Bon Jovi stuff that the binmen wouldn't wear... I did keep my Led Zeppelin and Who and even my Anvil Metal On Metal shirt. It felt quite liberating. I'm told I feel liberated after my girlfriend threw it all out, telling me 'You're never going to wear it and it's rubbish...' Just got an email from "The Mysterious Stranger"
January 24I did a couple of interviews for updated Behind The Music - Judas Priest and Def Leppard. I hope I was quite honest. You can't be too truthful. If I was I'd be banned from doing my job. Talking of banned I was going to shoot Pearl Jam for Mojo but the PR said it can't be me as 'There's too much baggage,' whatever that means.The last time I saw them was at the Manderin Oriental Hotel in London. I was supposed to have 45 minutes to shoot them. The PR at the time was Jackob from BMG. As I arrived Jackob looked at me with a worried look on his face. 'Can we do this more quickly?' 'How quickly?' I asked. 'You have 4 minutes.' I lost it at him and the American PR who worked for them who was standing behind Jackob directing him, acting as if I wasn't even standing in front of her, a real American bitch. Jackob was like a puppet, repeating exactly what she was saying. 'Fuck you all,' is all I could think of, 'treat people with some respect.' As this was going on Eddie Vedder came out the lift and I told him what I thought of his kind, caring and people friendly management. I got the time I needed only because of him. "Baggage" - give me a fucking break. Bands always will come back and be your friend if they want something. Had a clear out at home, found all this stuff you think you want and must keep. Metallica and Iron Maiden tour t-shirts and jackets, now woefully out of date after twenty-five years. I mean I'd look fantastic walking around London at my age wearing a Killers Tour t-shirt or a Master Of Puppets tour jacket. I put the lot in the bin then felt bad doing it. Bad about what I don't know - saying goodbye to a t-shirt? January 22Some more Travel - still more to come. See more... 
 
 
 January 21Well, I watched Taken, which was so implausable and stupid I was enthralled. Liam, a retired secret agent, starts off protecting a pop singer at what looks like the Staples Centre in LA. As her limo screeches in past the backstage security (holding M16s and handguns - really realistic huh - I can just see that happening at the O2, or better still, the Albert Hall), old Liam foils a fan waiting backstage with a knife, showing his secret service skills are fully honed even if he's retired. Liam's spoilt daughter and her even richer more spoilt friend go off to Paris to follow U2 around for the summer. Liam's daughters stepdad is mega rich and has got them tickets for every show in Europe - wait it gets better folks - the girls are followed from the airport and abducted by Albanians who make the girls into junkies before selling them into a life of prostitution. Now personally I would have left the two spoilt cows and let them join the real world but no, Liam is on the stepdad's private plane and is on a killing spree all over Paris with out a tiny bit of jetlag. It transpires that most of the elite Parisian police are in on this (which shows you can't trust the French) but good old Liam kills anything in his way taking his daughter home to get singing lessons from the kind singer he saved from the knife attack two hours earlier. It's armchair-gripping stuff and the Oscars are only round the corner. I tell ya, if Liam can do it so can I, I'm becoming an actor - and I might even dye my hair... More from from my recent travels 
 
 
January 20I had to turn off the tv, it was Obama, Obama, Obama. Went to the gym and he was all over the screens there. He hasn't done a single thing yet and people are going crazy drooling over him. Let's not forget one thing, he's just a politician and you can't trust them - I thought Tony Blair would be good and look at what a total shit he was. Let's see if Obama does something about the middle east and Iraq - I'll stop now before I become a political bore... Saw a DVD, Memories Of Matsuko with the lovely Miki Nakatani, it was good and I didn't expect it to be. I'm now in love with Miki and Koyuki and Gong Li and Maggie Cheung... I watched a film called Flanders by Bruno Dumont which I think was analogy of the current state of people and war. The war scenes were disturbing - not a Hollywood-style war. It came out of nowhere and made me flinch - it bothered me. Instead of more Obama on the TV, I've started to watch Liam Neeson with exceptionaly badly dyed hair in Taken. It flummoxes me why men over forty dye their hair, it looks so unreal. When mine goes it will stay grey - even if I become a film star. Not a bad idea, perhaps I could meet Gong Li... The top row of photos are from Australia plus the bottom right of the two boys looking out over a rainy Sydney airport at the aeroplanes. I like the one of black nothing with a bit of blue as the dawn begins, that's what makes flying enjoyable for me. The rest of the bottom row is in Thailand - The Bridge Over The River Kwai and one of the trains, plus I thought the sun-washed grey foliage had something. My friend Michael could not understand why I wanted to take a photo of some palms. He lectured me on how to take photos and said my little Leica "Sucked" Michael would know he works in "I T" and is American. 
    
 
January 16Watched The Wrestler last night, got it for $3.00 in Thailand, and yes, I'm depriving that nice, kind, wholesome, film industry of financial reward. After all the great reviews I was looking forward to seeing Mickey Rourke's alleged return to form. It wasn't dull, it was awful, like a second-rate TV movie disguised as a cool, hip indie flick. The amount of money they wasted making this could have been better spent feeding a third world country. It has every cliche in the book - the wrestling version of, say, a bad Rocky. The music starts with Quiet Riot blasting Mental Health then a bit of Ratt (Round and Round) then Accept/Scorpions/Cinderella and your heroes GNR, and just when it's a hair band singalong it's ruined by Bruce Springsteen crooning The Wrestler - fuck it is so crap. Micky Rourke's wrestler would have been great played by Jean Claude Van Damme. What a load of old shit. And I've a few more $3.00 Oscar movies to watch as well... The Master with the slightly older Master, Baron Wolman, plus me taking a picture of Baron with my Leica in Bangkok. 
 Vast clouds over the Timor Sea as dawn came up. The huge black grey clouds were Sydney the day I arrived and the fireworks were New Years Eve. 
 The white beach is Whitehaven in the Whitsunday Islands and the turquoise sea is the Great Barrier Reef.... 
 Me with my hooligan haircut in Bangkok. I tried telling a Thai hairdresser I'd like it messy and shorter, she interprerted that as I wanted it all chopped off. Plus few studies of Peter Makowski - his nose to show he is truly Polish, in love in Demonia, and the girl is his future wife... 
 The posters are some I have unframed, so thought I'd stick them up. The Alice Cooper is from the Killer tour, Rainbow theatre 1971 - a great venue now a church, I just traded for, I like the simplicity of it.
January 15I am on planet Mars or feel like it. I am so spaced out - and England is cold especially when you've been to where I've been. I hate the cold. Might go back to Singapore next week. Heard from Dave Grohl in sunny Hawaii who turned forty yesterday making him an old man like me. I always thought he was "Older". Hawaii? Give me Asia anyday... An email about Queen,
Yes they were overrated, pompous is possibly a better word. I saw them at the Rainbow '74 and photographed them at Earl's Court '77 and Wembley and they were just okay. Nick Kent is right on, read it. Peter Makowski says 'They were wankers but the music was brilliant,' and anything that Taylor Hawkins likes has got to be bad. I rest my case! Peter really Polish? What do you think? He couldn't be Russian like me, Poles just aren't good looking enough... As I've been in Sydney, here's Sydney's finest, Rose Tattoo. The shot of Angry Anderson picking his teeth is from Portland Maine. The others are from London - the live and group shots are from the Marquee Club with the late Pete Wells and Digger Barnes. 
January 14Up at dawn - it was still pitch dark when I checked in for my flight. Singapore airport I like, easy with lots to do - free internet shops, cafes, even a gym if you want it. The downside is my companion, Peter the Pole, who is so useless in the morning that words fail me. He wanders around like Albert Steptoe saying 'What, what?' in a loud voice. He's a bit like having your Grandad with you, half asleep. At least I can leave him in the back of the plane. The reality of going home hits me as I take off. No more sunny weather, the cold is coming. I start to miss Australia and a few 'No worries.' in fact, halfway home I want to move to Australia. Bought the new issue of Classic Rock at the airport for $15,00. Ridiculous for a magazine but it beats reading Fortune or Golfing Monthly. The cover is exceptionally bad, a collage of Deep Purple. The kind of thing you'd do if you were twelve and wanted to start a fan site with cheap photoshop. CR might get an award one day for Exceptionally Bad Cover Of The Year, or something like that. It reeks of being desperate to sell an issue and they don't have to do that. The American cover was supposed to be one of my Scott Weiland photos but the editor decided that my pictures were not good enough - which I think means they're not putting SW on as they think he won't sell issues. Or yep, I really don't know what I'm doing.,, Inside has some of the worst amateur photography I've seen in a while. The Answer on tour features a main shot where the singer has a nice fat double chin. I 'd be ashamed to even take that, what does the imbecile who took it think, the singer will look at it and go wow, nice photo. And the backstage stuff is lifeless. It is only just outdone by the Status Quo portrait. I thought it was done by the local wedding photographer in your local high street. Rick Parfitt may be a wanker but at least try to make him a "Rock" looking wanker. There is some classic photography by me, of course. Biff Byford, Slash, and my Scott Weiland photos. Good Scott feature by Peter, and the Deep Purple is good, I just don't get the layout. Deep Purple looked good - this looks like a fan's scrap book. It would have been "Classic" over three issues with DP Mark I, II, III and it would sell. Highlight of CR is a review of the first Queen LP by Nick Kent from 1973 and he is right on, Queen were always overrated. I was thinking of who was good and bad to work with in Pete's and my world, and CR have a short bit on Tyla from Dog's D'Amour. Now there was a wanker, a class A one, talentless as well and so up his own arse I'm surprised he isn't dark brown. People say Scott Weiland's a nob. I find him anything but - difficult, (a bit) late (always), the difference is he has the X factor and Tyla has zero.
We gave up on this list at this point due to feeling vague and tired - to be continued on another long haul flight... Looked at Newsweek's (about the only half decent magazine on the plane) Society & The Arts page, which has Yousuf Karsh, who took the famous photo of Winston Churchill looking angry. It is a classic portrait. The article shows others like Albert Einstein (looking like your kind uncle), Margaret Thatcher (yuk), Ronald Reagan (rubbish). I looked at this and think old Karsh wasn't that good. Karsh shot a Rush cover. If I remember rightly they all looked kind of effeminate and Rush are a man's band - they're Canadian, the land where men chop trees down and go hunting in the dead of winter, drink whisky and sleep in igloos. Found Yousuf's work nondescript. I remember my father telling me how much Churchill let the working man down and how hated he was after WW II by the working classes who fought for him (my father inculded), yet Newsweek see him as some great statesman. What next, Tony Blair, the saviour of the Middle East? Finished Blood Meriden (Cormac McCarthy), started re-reading it after finding it a bore. It is called his Moby Dick with the Judge as Captain Ahab. I found it becomes boring halfway. Cormac tries to show you he's eaten and digested the Oxford English Dictionary and defecated every long word over the second half of the book. If you want to read a book by him try No Country For Old Men. Come in early to Heathrow then circle for an hour because of fog. Get a shot of St Paul's through the cloud/fog layer as we finally come in to land. By this time I'm plane sick. Kazuyo is waiting to tell me it has been the coldest winter since 1983... Home feeling spaced and I've a list of stuff to do for the Metallica European tour book. January 13Dentist again which is one of the reasons I left the colony down under and came here. I had two crowns done plus various other oral bits and it fucking hurt. My gums are killing me - if only I still did cocaine, what a pain-killer that was. Peter is on a last minute panic shopping expedition, buying fake whatever he can - I will only buy real stuff. Got some good photos of him last night, happy and content in the dungeons of "Demonia" with a girl whose tongue was longer than Gene Simmons' and she did know how to use it - on Peter... We sit having our last of the summer sun before flying back to the cold winter of the west. Tonight we're off to Singapore. I've landed so many times there but never been outside the airport so we plan an expedition into it's darkest realms. We land at night so it'll be dark. Flying today on Thai. As we sit in the lounge there is a programme on the giant flat screen TV called Destroyed In Seconds. It shows a Thai Airways jet on fire at Okinawa airport, with people jumping out of windows etc as it goes up in flames. Nice, bodes well for our flight to Singapore. As I board the plane I visit Peter down the back in the third world. I bid him adieu and am stopped by a camp Thai steward who places his hand on my chest and who wants to know if he can "Help" me... 'No, I'm fine.' He doesn't remove his hand and repeats his question with 'This is business class,' while looking me up and down with obvious distaste. 'Move your hand now,' I tell him. He looks at a colleague and speaks in Thai with the word economy in the middle. I go mental, the purser comes over looking worried. I am so angry I don't care if I get thrown off the plane. There is lots of discussion in Thai and I get a grovelling purser offering much apologies. I am livid. 'How dare you judge people just because I'm not in a suit and tie...' I get moved to the front of the plane by my new friend, the Purser. I'm the only one there which is quite nice. I tell Peter about it as we get off. 'It must be your new Millwall United haircut (I chopped off all my hair yesterday), or hanging out with me economy's rubbed off on you - welcome to the back of the plane!' Shoot the sun going down, then, just when I think it looks ordinary, dark blue clouds move in making the sky malevolent. It is what I love to shoot. This part of the world is always good. Fly into Singapore just as it's dark. You can still see the armada of oil tankers off shore. You will see them if you're sitting on the right side of the plane. They fascinate me - landing in Singapore never disappoints... Staying at the Crowne Plaza airport hotel (as I'm off early in the morning). I was amazed, it's the best airport hotel I've ever been in. Service was five star, room was ultra modern - the bathroom was glass and see through. I'd have happily stayed here for the last three weeks. It was exceptional... Took a cab into Orchard Road and visited Orchard Towers where you can sample all sorts of cuisine. They have Chinese, Indonesian, Vietnamese and of course the ubiquitous Thai. Walked around taking in the sights. I loved it here - clean, up market, with everything I like, you want to go shopping, they have it. If I had a Singaporean wife I'd be gone... January 10
A message from BFG - strange, I was watching a dvd of ZZ Top yesterday. I'd got a load of dvds in Sydney, all old TV and In Concert stuff - Old Grey Whistle Test outtakes, Taste from Europe, Mountain from Goose Lake Park Jackson MI and Randell's Island 1970 (Leslie West's guitar sound is unique), The MC5 A True Testimonial, Mott The Hoople very early '70s French TV - lots of all the bands I like. I was looking at a cd store in Bangkok thinking what's new that's good and the truth is not a lot. Music has become boring. Watching the MC5 movie (I was never a big fan) I realised how exciting they were. Music just isn't exciting now. Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park, The Answer, come on, they are rubbish. When I was young you had rock bands like UFO - whether you liked them or not they were exciting. Now music seems so limp. January 9Baron joined Peter and I for breakfast. He gave us both signed books - Baron Wolman, The Rolling Stone Covers. It has all the covers he did for Rolling Stone, surprisingly. I looked at a contact sheet of early Alice Cooper, 'What year did you shoot Alice?' 'That's not Alice, that's my ex-wife!' 'Oh...!' Peter pointed out Alice Cooper based his makeup on the groupies scene in LA, The GTOs, so I was kind of forgiven. I've offered to photo edit the book he's doing at the moment with Dave Brolan. I had a long talk about a couple of photographers that don't like me and have revisionist memories of my crimes. I don't care because people are so petty. There is a saying, "Do not engage the disengaged"... January 8Peter and I met up with author Jerry Hopkins (No One Gets Out Alive, and various books on Elvis) and Baron Wolman (famous photographer who started Rolling Stone). Baron is on holiday and has brought me some Pete Townshend prints from the Fillmore West 1968 for New Year. Jerry lives here to escape the real world or the dealings with the real world. I felt quite young in their hallowed company. We had a quiet Thai meal, it was a pleasent evening out in the realm of the 60's... January 7Another thing about Australia - no Americans. I didn't hear one. Plenty in Bangkok, the hotel I'm in has a convention full of Americans walking around with badges with their names on. I overheard one say, 'Hi, I'm Mike,' then the other said ' Hi, I'm Steve.' Both had their names in big letters round their necks like five-year olds... Spent the day with the Pole, Peter Makowski. He came to my hotel, The Shangri La, and sat by the pool. Both of us watching gay Germans and some loud queenie British Airways flight crew cuddling in the pool. Peter said 'I got you a present from a Japanese dvd store, it's a dvd by the girl you like, Koyuki,' and fished out of his bag a dvd with a cover of a smiling face with rosy red cheeks. It was of a fey man called Yuuki. 'What's this - it isn't Koyuki.' Peter examined it closely. 'Are you sure? I didn't have my glasses on, I thought the guy serving me was smiling...' We do fit in well by the pool...
Me onstage at the Los Angeles Forum, December 18 last year... January 6I'm on such a different time zone I slept all of three hours - shouldn't have slept on the plane. I read an article that says you sleep more than you realise, even just dozing. Shot the dawn, a warm heat you only get in Asia. Jimmy Page told me that yesterday was sixty years since the first vinyl single. I told him about the book The Long-Player Goodbye. We also agreed how sad it is that Olympic Studios in Barnes is closing. David Coverdale emailed to tell me one of my favourite book shops, The Book Soup in Los Angeles, is for sale and will close as the owner just died. Tower Records long gone - what is the world ruined by? Downloading and internet buying, where have all the shoppers gone...?
Coming soon - the cover was shot by me at the Donington Festival...
Got this email from Piotr about lith prints, which is rather appropriate to the last paragraph - you can't do everything on a laptop...
Perhaps Piotr should just buy a film camera, rather than wasting his time with Photoshop... Had a fun morning at the dentist, where I had three injections so my face was lopsided and I felt like I'd been kicked in it. I'd told a friend of mine who lives here, Michael O'Connor, I'd always wanted to see The Bridge On The River Kwai. He said 'Come on, let's go.' So we drove out for the afternoon - it took a couple of hours to reach Kanchanaburi. Stopped at Chanburi Susaan (or Cemetery) on the original site of Chanburi prisoner of war camp. It was immaculately looked after, which was a touching thing to see. There are 5,000 British dead plus Australian, Dutch, French and Indian pow graves including two mass graves with the names listed, and several rows of graves for the unknown. Most of the headstones are for very young troops, twenty one and twenty two. It was sobering looking at them. The bridge was a five minute walk. Lots of people say it's not worth seeing and not that big. It looked big to me and it's how it got there that's important. I shot it just as the sun disappeared. I will go back and photograph it again - my uncle was one of the people who built it. As the sun set in the distance on the other side of the bridge there were mountains engulfed in red sky. I wanted to go until Michael pointed that they were four hours away at the Burma border so I settled for shooting a tree full of birds and some palm trees that looked grey in the twilight. I had dinner on the River Kwai overlooking the bridge - it's quite a monument. January 5I finished last night at the Rum Bar where I gave in to trying two types of the dark brown liquid. Went to Sushi Hi as everywhere else was closed. 'What do you have a la carte?' I asked. 'Loads mate.' 'Yes, but what types?' ' Oh loads of the fish stuff.' The man serving me looked at me as if I was being a "Bloody pain". I gave up and dined in McDonalds. A couple of cheese burgers went well with the exotic rum. Got up at dawn this morning and took a very choppy ferry to Hamilton Airport. Getting off I felt decidedly seasick. The airport staff were quite nice. 'No problem mate, your girlfriend can come through and see you off.' I go through security. 'Over here mate, you've been selected to be tested for explosives.' I look annoyed as I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt. 'Are you serious, who selected me?' ' I did, you look the type.' 'What type?' ' THE type, come on, let's have your bags.' I acquiesce, leaving him to it. I'm the last on my flight, the highly average Jet Star (think Easy Jet or Ryan Air). The airport security guard follows me on. As I sit down he points at me and tells the cabin staff 'Watch him he could be bloody trouble.' 'Right,' I think, 'enough!' 'And what bloody trouble have I been?' I say in a firm voice. 'Listen mate, if you talk like that to me I'll kick you off.' I realise Thailand is only a connection away so say nothing... I connect through Melbourne. As I get off the gate agent says 'G'day mate, thanks for flying Jet Star.' At least Australians are friendly, I suppose, in their own way. They just come across a bit basic, and I'm from a basic background myself. Maybe my view is tainted from travelling so much. I had a good time, I just found Australia a bit worn out and expensive - but then it is the expensive time of year. Fly out across desert, nothing/bleak/nothing. I like bleak nothing. The captain announces we'll be flying over Ayers Rock and I regret not going even if it'd rained. If I come back here again I'll go - if my girlfriend has her way I'll be married and living here. 'Do you take this sheila - great mate, that'll be fair dinkum...' I'm napping, the sleep where you don't actually sleep, the plane starts shaking in a violent way. I sort of charm myself by thinking there is a man with a long white beard watching me from his white cloud and he likes me as we drop dramatically. I then think this is flying at 39,000 feet and is meant to fly though this... Looked out as the plane is bouncing away to a jet black sky with thin red sun bleakly going down. I ask the crew where we are - flying over Bali. I shoot a bit of it. Get into a packed Bangkok at 9.30pm and am met by my Man Friday, Peter, who brings me coffee - milk and water, and complains that it costs $30 and can I pay him back? Happy New Year Peter, nice to see you too... January 4G'day etc from down under.... While in Sydney noticed adverts all over for White Lady Funerals, A Women's Touch. It features a painting of a woman smelling a white rose wearing a bush hat. The small print even tells you that you can pre-pay for your funeral up front. Amazing, what do you think happens with the women's touch? You fly up to a big white cloud and a bloke with a long white beard is waiting benignly with some angels holding harps? Let's face it, as much as it sounds a good idea I have a suspicion the cloud may be empty. Maybe White Lady will give you your money back if you come back and haunt them. I can't believe this ads exists - what happened to fair trading mate? 'Fair dinkum etc...' Now in the Whitsunday Islands also known as the Great Barrier Reef it's been raining rather a lot, all the time in fact. Hot tropical rain, not the Sydney English type rain. Plus it's boring, like being in a tropical prison. I mean if you like fishing (and I sincerely don't) 'Bloody great mate,' or looking at backpackers (vermin that should be exterminated), getting pissed, and lots of families with screaming children all burnt bright red (okay I'll admit I was on the first day) this could be fun. I have never been so bored in my life. I did take some good photos or at least, photos I'm pleased with, shot on Conway Beach at dusk when there was no one there. A huge long beach with armies of soldier crabs walking in formation. The beach looked out at a vast storm of clouds, it was like being Robinson Crusoe. I was caught between thinking this is beautiful and thinking 'Help'. I took a helicopter with no doors on from the mainland to the Great Barrier Reef. It was one of those things in life I'd advise anyone to do, you left the rain behind and flew over and onto crystal white beaches (Whitehaven is quite stunning, completely white sand) with no one on. It was weird without doors on the helicopter, I was a thinking 'This is not a good idea,' but after a while you don't think about it and I had a sensation that I could have stepped out and I'd have been perfectly okay. I'd only felt this once before at the top of the Twin Towers the first time I went to New York. The Barrier Reef appears sixty miles out like a turquoise oil slick in the deep blue ocean. It is worth seeing. Stopped for an hour on a tiny sand reef called Langford Beach which was a bit spoilt as it looked on the Hayman Resort. Flew back to Airlie Beach and a grey vista of black clouds. Yes I realise I'm sounding like Kevin THE CAVEMAN Shirley so I'll stop with the description. The trip made my holiday. I had lunch today in Airlie Beach along it's ocean front promanade. The sun even came out for a bit. There was a choice of Airlie's finest restaurants like Off Ya Noodle, Sushi Hi - my girlfriend enquired if they had any Uni or Ikura, 'None of that but we've got bloody boatloads of sushi.' We decided to pass on the local culinary sushi experience and opted for Fish D'Vine which was a delight. Next door was a bar called The Rum Pig which only sold 74 different types of rum. I was perusing the menu when the barman enquired where I was from. 'London.' 'Where in London?' 'Wimbledon.' 'I'm from Richmond but grew up in Wimbledon,' said the barman now sounding fully from the south. We chatted for a bit then I promised to come and sample the good man's wares this evening. It was refreshing finding a civilised human in the colony... Been reading a bit over the New Year...
Off to Thailand tomorrow to be reunited with Peter Makowski who tells me he's been bitten on the nose and he now looks like the WC Fields of Poland. Looking forward to torturing him - he deserves it for being Polish... January 1Been in Sydney, Australia for New Year. Flying across Australia was complete cloud. Dawn came above the top and looked quite beautiful, then white nothing like an iced cake for five hours. Sydney on arriving was pouring rain, it was depressing. I looked out of my hotel and wondered why I came here for this... When I'd been with Soundgarden in Sydney it rained for a week - I should have known. I was going to Ayers Rock but it was raining there the day I'd booked a flight. It took a couple of days to clear up. New Years eve and New Years day have been nice but give me Asia anytime. The beach's are okay at best. I went to Bondi (full of teenagers), Manley (not bad but pretty boring) and Balmoral, which was rather quaint - I expected a castle with the queen. It is also expensive here. They have all these restaurants that have three chefs hats like Michelin stars. I ate in two of them and they were average. I'd rather be at Ago in LA, at least it's always good. This Modern Australian cuisine is awful, the best thing I had was a meat pie at a cafe, or fish and chips on the beach and that's British cuisine. On Manley is a war memorial which I spent the late afternoon reading the names of all the dead next to names like Flanders, Ypres, Somme, Paschendale, it was quite sobering and quite old school England, King and country and all that - sad and pointless too... The one good restaurant in Sydney is in Chinatown, called the Golden Century. It has no hats or stars. You go in and it's full of tanks holding giant crabs, lobsters, albacore - you name it. All fish from the deep, they look so large you'd think they were mutated from a '50s horror film. It is freaky looking into the tanks. My joy was thinking you can glare at me but I'm going to eat you and I did - the Tucker was fantastic. Sydney has good eclectic bookshops - I enjoyed browsing. Bought a book, You Can't Always Get What You Want by Sam Cutler, the Rolling Stones tour manager at Hyde Park and on the 1969 US Tour. Sam coined the phase "Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest rock'n'roll band in the world, the Rolling Stones", which you can hear on Get Yer Ya Ya's Out. I always wondered what happened to him. According to this he lives in Melbourne which explains the book. It tails off and doesn't explain how he got there etc. But is a good read on the '69 Stones Tour. Walking around I noticed all the women seem to smoke. It is vile and they're nearly all ugly too. Perhaps we deported only ugly girls to the colonies. The other thing is people do say things like "G'day, no worries, good on ya, enjoying your tucker, you right" all the time. I'd shoot my child if he talked like this. How anyone would want to move here is beyond me. The first couple of times I came here to Melbourne then Sydney I thought this country is amazing like America with no Americans! Then I came in August and it was depressing and you are cut off from the rest of the world. You fancy a trip to Paris, no problem, only twenty-eight hours. London belongs to me...
Odd being here for New Year. When I woke on New Year's Day England was still in 2008.... The new Metallica 2009 calendar, nearly all shot by me - in my youth... 
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Spent New Years Eve in Sydney Harbour. Toyed with taking my camera then didn't and kicked myself, the restaurant was at the edge of the harbour looking directly at the bridge and opera house. There were so many people, I'd never seen anything like it, and the fireworks were spectacular. The downside was walking back to my hotel through over a million drunk people. A lot of Scottish walking around in kilts looking for fights. I took a photo on my sureshot of a Jock up a tree screaming at people offering to fight anyone - animals, no wonder we deported them to the new world (and Toronto). The impressive part of New Year was the police who were friendly and helpful - you wouldn't see that in US or London. They handled the drunk hordes with aplomb, in a cheery way. I was hoping they were going to "Bash" tarzan screaming up on his tree...
