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January 25
As I'm somewhere warm here's somewhere cold - Beijing. Jimmy Page getting his UN Peace Award, plus me and Jimmy back at the Bird's Nest Stadium and the Great Wall which looks inviting - it wasn't, it was freezing...
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January 24
Arrived back in Tokyo for a couple of hours. I like Narita airport, it has a nice clean vibe. I bought eight pieces of take-out sushi without thinking to take on the plane. Paid on my credit card. As I was tired I didn't notice it was 7,500 Yen - about $80 - which is outrageous. The other thing I forgot with being in Thailand is that Japan is expensive...
Watched Vengeance with Johnny Halladay, a Hong Kong splatterfest - a bit silly but not bad.
Flew on to Bangkok, got in at 11.30pm to about fifty flights which had arrived at the same time. The airport was chaos and I left yesterday morning - it felt strange losing a day.
January 23
As I'm leaving today to fly back to the east I wake up to find it's a sunny beautiful day - Los Angeles won't need Noah's Ark after all.
Fly up the west coast then over the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean across the dateline. Flying on United which for a bankrupt airline is always full on every flight I take. I like going this way, instead of the usual chicken/salmon/beef you can get a Japanese meal plus green tea.
Sat and read the papers plus Guitar World where those blues negroes Joe Bonamassa and Rich Robinson name the best of the blues. Whenever I'm asked what I like to listen to I can never think of anything - their taste was more or less what I would have picked.
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres a great record (I have a test pressing of this)
Rory Gallagher - Irish Tour '74, one of the most underrated live albums, Walk On Hot Coals is amazing
Jethro Tull - Stand Up, another record from my school days, with a fantastic cover. Go and find an original at a record fair and play Look Into The Sun or Reasons For Waiting
Free - Tons Of Sobs
Led Zeppelin 1
Muddy Waters - Electric Mud, which I've never heard
Terry Reid - The River, which I gave Rich to listen to (he'd never heard of him). I'd got it in Japan on cd.
Rich also lists Patto - I always remember Mike Patto playing everywhere in London when I was a teenager, I never saw or heard him. I must go and check it out. He had another record Roll, 'Em Smoke 'Em and Put Out Another Line. But then Rich ruins it by name checking Delaney And Bonnie And Friends, a fucking bore of an album. The kind of music Chris Robinson would play when not masturbating to the Greatful Dead. What's missing here is Deep Purple In Rock.
In the same issue is a feature on Joe Bonamassa with art house photos of him by yours truly - the photos are amazing! I can say that as A. They are, and B. It's my diary... They even interview Kevin THE CAVEMAN Shirley who talks about Joe's pain at being NLWW - No luck With Women, a term coined by Pete Way in the good old touring days of UFO. Joe told me 'Women don't like me,' I said 'Go and ask her out, at my age I realise what's the worse she can say - No!' I suppose she could point out Joe's not a full African American from Louisiana or the Compton Hood and doesn't get down or cover NWA but Shiiiiiiiit, as they say in the 'hood, what does it matter when you're playing the blues and eating KFC...
In Bangkok next week. Peter Makowski is joining me to do a travel story for Guitar Aficionado, so I looked at the new issue which has Alex Lifeson playing golf . Yes folks, lots of unrest in the forest as he blasts out the Trees on his ES355 in between holes, looking for Xanadu in the suburbs of Toronto. It was such a shock seeing Alex with his nine iron - wonder if Geddy caddies for him. The low point is a story on Mark Seliger with a portrait of him showing how ugly he is, with badly dyed hair.
January 22
Still raining, it feels like I'm in Manchester, not Los Angeles.
Did a shoot with Neal Schon in the garden of the Sunset Marquis Hotel, under lead grey skies. It went well, I was pleased. Then off to South La Brea to shoot Slash and M Shadow for a cover of a magazine. Spoke to Paul Stanley who thanked me for bringing the weather with me to LA...
Had grand plans for this evening but everyone I spoke to cancelled, and I'm flying back to Thailand tomorrow morning so a night out is probably not a good idea. I ended up going to the gym. Put my ipod on and the first song on was Kiss - Lick It Up. Cycled for an hour listening to various things, I thought I'd list them but my mind is so blank I can't remember...
I'd watched The Road on the flight here, it was a bit predictable, the book is far better. LA in this incessant rain is looking like the film.
January 21
Still miserable in Los Angeles - it even hailed today. Saw Neal Schon and arranged to shoot him tomorrow. I've never seen him so up - his view was 'Hey, LA needs some rain!' I'm more in the 'This is depressing,' mode.
Shot producer Jack Douglas early evening, we swapped Aerosmith stories...
January 20
A bit of travel. Got up at 3am, checked out of my hotel and checked in for United's 6am flight to Tokyo, then on to Los Angeles. Only twenty hours travelling plus checking in time etc...
Security were polite, asked the same questions as Heathrow and the USA but were nice about it. Not aggressive, threatening or unsmiling, like in the west. This is how it should be - they did a body and hand luggage search but you didn't mind that much as it was done properly and not by ill-mannered thugs trying to provoke you.
Got upgraded to First on the Tokyo flight which was a plus. Watched Taipei out of the window, covered in mist. Thought I should take a few pictures, got the first bit of Japan - some small islands. The new style route map was good. Flew over Okinawa (somewhere I have always wanted to go). Landed in Japan at 2.30pm, the odd part was being in Narita airport and not feeling jet-lagged, plus the United lounge has sushi and surprisingly my UK mobile worked.
Flew on to Los Angeles, the flight was packed, plus the Golden Girls were aboard - as in senior air stewadesses who are old enough to be my mother and don't give a shit about the service.
Arrived 8.30am, still Jan 20th (you fly over the dateline) to rainy thunderstruck Los Angeles, with huge black clouds along the coast. I'm picked up by Karan Sihota whose birthday it is today she's forty nine). The weather is grim and cold. Check into the Sunset Marquis and see a "Happy" Peter Makowski who got in last night. He's in such a good mood he starts to irritate me. We are doing a feature on E from the EELS at 2pm today. I think about going to the gym to do something to keep going but am feeling too vague and spaced out by 11am.
Drove in pouring, and I mean by that monsoon, rain to Silverlake to meet E at home. He is accommodating considering the weather, in fact he likes it - it is a cold damp and depressing day. Shoot E for a couple of hours then leave him to be grilled by Peter while I go to Amoeba where I get some LPs, Ted Nugent Catch Scratch Fever plus Free For All and Lou Reed's Rock And Roll Animal all mint for $10...
I have a browse in Borders Books and get some intellectual prose - Tera Patrick, Sinner Takes, All A Memoir Of Love And Porn, where Tera tells you at the end she's ready to be a mother and have children. Can't wait to read the rest. I'd like to have a mother looking like her. Plus Chris O'Dell, Miss O'Dell - she was the Stones assistant on the '72 tour. Of course now she's an abuse counsellor - they all are aren't they?
I came back to collect Pete after his marathon E interview to find E had signed his new LP for me with "To Ross thanks for the history lesson" and his book with "Thanks for being late, E". I quite liked E...
It stopped raining this evening - it's meant to be worse tomorrow.
January 19
Feeling better now - sorry to let you down if you were hoping I was on my last legs.
I walked around an area called Nana in Bangkok. It was surreal, all the signs were in Arabic and Thai, all the shops were halal, plus bars with the ubiquitous smoking pipes you see all over the middle east. And the working girls lined the street looking like the lowest level street prostitute you could imagine. It could have been a rundown area of Dubai, you really had a feeling you were not in Bangkok. I had no idea it existed.
Off to Los Angeles tomorrow...
January 17
Had one of my grand ideas - leaving before dawn for the Great Wall thus avoiding all Beijing traffic. Charlie Hernandez came with me to see the wall that stopped the mongol hordes.
We got there early and watched the sun rise across the mountains - it was cold. Charlie and I were the first on the cable car to the top of the wall at Bad Da Ling. We got out and I swear I have never been so cold in my life. I felt disorientated, it was as if I wasn't there. I wanted to sit down and wait for the cold to go away as it got progressively worse. I stood up trying to figure out exposures and felt giddy and nauseous. I thought I was going to throw up, the wall was spinning. I took a few frames blindly and walked back to Charlie who also looked white and was gripping a hand rail. There was no one else there but us. I looked up at the wall that was nearly vertical, it looked daunting to even walk twenty feet. As I walked it felt as if the whole wall was moving. I just couldn't deal with it and gave up. Walking back into the tunnel to the cable car was worse, the wind stabbed at you. I sat in the cable car going back down doing everything I could not be sick.
As we left I saw a golden statue of Chairman Mao bathed in the morning light. I was going to shoot it until I realised I had to walk through four feet of snow. I just gave up...
I liked Beijing much more than when the Olympics were on. I sat in a car with Jimmy and the bus in front had a number 666 in red lights (this is true). The art district based in old factories was good, and the Xiu Bar in the Park Hyatt was the best place I've been to ogle women. Chinese women are elegant and looked at us with a disdain which I like...
Back in Bangkok now where it's nice to be warm, except I now am sick with a chest infection from flying. Spent the day sweating and feeling generally sorry for myself - by the pool watching the "Whiskey Ferangs" with their Thai girls from the night before looking stupid as they preen around arm in arm.
January 14
Went to look at the Birds Nest Stadium in the snow. It was bearably cold, after a bit I managed to switch off to it. Inside they had built a winter wonderland with ski rides etc. It had a real feeling of deja vu about it as we were led down the same entrances as the Olympics two years ago - plus the signs were still up saying Beijing 2008. Took some photos in the crisp white snow - the building looked amazing with no one around.
January 13
A press conference today for The Beijing Concert For Peace, which is happening on April 17th. Jimmy was given an award by the UN for his contribution to Music. Michael Johnson from the UN had flown in from New York to present it. Took some photos of them together, the first time I'd used my new flash gun. It took me a while to figure it out. I practised on Jimmy with Charlie Hernandez and entourage - think I sort of got it right.
We went shopping to a huge Chinese department store, a "House Of Snide". Every single thing was fake, it put the Thais who know how to make snide to shame. Plus the Chinese girls hustle you, slapping you if you don't buy a load of old shit. It's charming in a strange way...
January 12
In Beijing with Jimmy Page. Beautiful day until you go out. It is the coldest I have ever been in my life. I thought Chicago or New York was bad. Years ago I shot the Specials for Sounds magazine at the Statue Of Liberty - it was so cold my hands went blue,I thought then I've never been so cold, but this was colder. I just wanted to pee all day. I couldn't take photos, the cold sapped my energy. I took two pictures, one of a door, the other of what looked like clouds but turned out to be steam flowing from a giant chimney. And the traffic was endless, the whole city seemed to be locked in a giant traffic jam - progress...
The cold made me feel brittle, as if your body could snap just like an icicle.
Went to the D22 Club - think a cleaner CBGBs - to see a Chinese band called Luxin. It means the road with the match to light, so I'm told. They were two people playing through lots of effects pedals, reminiscent of The Velvet Underground or Can, not bad at all. What is bad in Beijing is that everybody smokes. Bear in mind I am a devout anti-smoker - I came back to the hotel smelling like an ash tray, it is truly disgusting...
January 7
Still in Thailand as England freezes, my son got home yesterday then they closed the airport. I felt guilty sending him on his own but he is twenty two, I still think of him as a child.
Been looking at Facebook. I only like doing it to annoy people. I have been contacted by people from my past, good and bad. I had one today for Melanie Safka, which must be someone taking the piss - I don't know her and she's about ninety - my first girlfriend and I would listen to Candles In The Rain (I think that's the title) and think at fiftteen we were very adult.
Tried my D3s which does shoot in the dark as I saw a huge overweight western man, about twenty stone (or three hundred pounds) being led down a dark alleyway by a Thai boy holding his hand. I was quite disgusted, and I'm used to stuff like that. Anyway, I took a photo and it came out. Also shot some workers cleaning a huge roof from my room in a kind of abstract way, plus a football pitch with no one on it. I saw a boy begging at a giant market last week, completely burnt. I didn't take a photo just gave him some money. I felt shooting him was defiling him. I've been avoiding shooting temples.
I'm off to Beijing Monday where it's colder than England - I want to go to the Great Wall in the snow.
The cover of the American Anvil DVD, which I shot a couple of years ago - I just got sent a scan of this...
January 4
Welcome to 2010. I hope any of you who got hangovers feel ill, you fully deserved them, you did it to yourselves, plus I hope it took you days to recover. Plus remember God hates you all and he's not waiting for you sitting on a fluffy white cloud, look at the world in the last ten years... Perhaps one day I'll turn into Kevin Shirley and put myself in the hands of Jesus.
Back to work today, which I'm doing from Bangkok. It is okay, email does work. I have three or four biggish shoots and they all clash - London, Miami, Los Angeles, New Zealand and maybe even South America. Saying all this I'll probably not get any of them...
After a week of Thai food I had a KFC. Let me tell you it was "Wonderful". Even without a hangover it made me feel... Well, American.
I've been hanging out (if that's the right phrase) with my son Oliver, who flies home tomorrow. I haven't been away with him here for ten years, so it's kind of strange dealing with an adult. I let him pick where we ate this evening. It was McDonald's, the golden arch beckoned him in - I haven't eaten McDonald's in Asia since I ordered some to annoy Ultravox in Tokyo in 1980 something or other. Perhaps Oliver's not an adult - he could be American...
The new issue of Mojo, with Jimmy Page shot at his home with the portrait of the King plus the King of Thailand. The picture was a present from Peter Makowski.
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