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March 28
A night at the TCT at the Albert Hall. I went with Jimmy Page we both wanted to see Roger Daltrey play his acoustic set - which we missed… So, we got there in time for Kelly Jones who to be honest was boring, with Ronnie Wood doing Oh La La and an even more boring Beatles song. Paul Weller and band played an acoustic set of hits.
Roger came back and played The Kids Are Alright , Who Are You and Behind Blue Eyes, which I've heard so much I wouldn't care if I never heard it again. It's the Who's Smoke On The Water. Then Amy McDonald was sort of okay, she gave her best on Born To Run. Followed by Steve Winwood who was amazing. I mean he was so good he got us on our feet. Higher Love and a long, jammed Gimme Some Loving - his playing and voice were to die for…
Roger finished the night with Pinball Wizard, I Can See For Miles, Won't Get Fooled Again and Young Man Blues. His band were, and I have to say this, better than I've seen The Who in years. The playing was like the records and his voice was perfect, it was exciting. His guitarist was playing a Gibson with lots of attack. The night just got better and better. I left during Baba O'Reilly when Kelly Jones and Ronnie reappeared both doing sort of nothing. But still a great night.
Here's a couple of photos from my Leica. The lighting onstage was boring - the light on the ceiling was far more interesting.
Been working hard in my office in the, ermmm, garden as it's in the 80s today. I dug out The Groundhogs at the BBC and put it on loud - it was so boring I fell asleep. I have the early LPs, Thank Christ For The Bomb, Split, Who Will Save The World, Crosscut Saw and all the Live cds and apart from the artwork they just aren't VERY good. I'm sure the snobs on the staff at Mojo love them.
I picked up ACDC FIrst Show In NYC on light blue vinyl on Factco (instead of Atco) records, it begins with someone shouting "JUDAS PRIEST"… Good show for a bootleg, featuring a ten minute version of The Jack'. And also got Led Zeppelin in Central Park from 1969, A Walk In The Park. Good as well.
But best of all is Black Sabbath Live Longest - Die At Last, New Jersey 1975, showing us what heavy really is. And just because I've been going through my file here's a real guitarist in his Heyday - Richie Blackmore.
Me photographed by Lars Ulrich in the deep south of Rio - a while ago. This was the last time I had long hair, I found it in an old box of slides. FYI girls I'm a single man...
March 26
For the last few months I've been working helping build my new website. This site's nearly 10 years old, so it's definitely time to update it.
The new website will have a large selection of my pictures on there, all available to buy as signed and numbered limited edition prints. It's being built in such a way so they will be really easy to browse through. You will be able to use a keyword search to look for pictures through tags attached to each picture. Much more straight forward than it is now, the bands will be organised. I've been working on doing this as best as I could by putting them in categories of dates and tours. It will also have a HUGE media image archive for licensing purposes and of course the diary will still be a part of it.
So I've been digging through years worth of work and cataloguing it. A pain in the arse to be honest as a lot of it has been in a mess since I stopped working with my last agent. But I have come across some GREAT stuff that's never been published before, even some bands I'd forgotten shooting.
Here's a mixture of shots I found that I like and some Mighty Priest. A taste of what is to come...
A Polaroid I found in the bottom of a drawer of me and Steve Clark in Dublin at Joe Elliott's wedding. I think I'm holding Steve's drink as I hate Guinness. I was there with Steve Harris and Clark had just come out of re-hab and asked us to get him a drink. Steve's attitude was we might as well get him one because we saw him sneaking into the bar and ordering shots on his own. Steve is a person I really do miss at times - and I love the shirt he's wearing...
March 24
Here's a photo of Randy I love, shot at the Hammersmith Odeon. It was used on the cover of my US edition of The Power Age. I never got the original slide back from the book company so this is all I have. I like it... Plus the new cover of GW with the great Joe Walsh who I photographed in Los Angeles. I like this because it's simple.
And some Classic Iron Maiden from Classic Rock- I have no idea where I shot this...
March 23
I got the re-issues of the first two Dio records on cd. What's funny is I looked at the art work and tried to read it. The copy was so small it was illegible. I put glasses on and still couldn't read it. It says a lot for vinyl and how much you enjoyed the artwork - an art almost gone now.
There is a new DVD coming soon of Thin Lizzy at Dublin Stadium, which in reality is an old boxing club, if I remember rightly. I think I went there with UFO or Iron Maiden many moons ago. I got a promo of it, which has Thin Lizzy from 1975, very raw sounding guitar playing, promoting the Fighting LP. It's basic which makes it better. They were so good - it's out soon.
And here's a Jeff Beck promo LP I found with a simple cover which says it all, plus Rock Love by Steve Miller from 1971. I have a Rush one from the same mid-70s period which Cliff Burnstein, manager of Metallica among others, put out when he was a record company man.
Found a HUGE box of unscanned Metallica - here's a little bit of Justice and Black Album 'Tallica
March 22
I've been putting a few pictures on my diary that have been taken on my point and shoot Leica D-Lux 5. It's a great little pocket camera for shooting on the go. I've been shooting a lot over the past few weeks and there will be some new pictures going up soon. Still using my Nikon D3x for most stuff, but the Leica is a very handy camera - you can find the it here http://en.leica-camera.com/photography/compact_cameras/d-lux_5/
So here are a couple of pictures of Battersea Power Station, taken from the train - one of my favourite hobbies...
March 20
Just out in France... a bit of Heavy Metal
March 19
The anniversary of the sad death of Randy Rhoads, and also Paul Kossoff, two exceptional guitarists who both died on aeroplanes. I never knew Paul Kossoff but I saw him live with Free and Back Street Crawler, both times at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon. Randy I photographed many times and knew him fairly well.
So spare a thought for them and go - dig your records or cds out and give them both a listen.
March 16
Journeyed to the Far East, to Spitalfields Market with Mr Page and Mr Wheat. It wasn't very good at all. We did find a good place for a late breakfast though. I don't think Jimmy had been on the tube since the 1960s…
We headed back to the West and JP bought me a Howlin' Wolf LP which he said has all the stuff I should listen to, and Miles Davis, an original Sketches Of Spain (which he said was amazing). I'm playing it - it's, ermmm, "Boring". I'll stick to Judas Priest….
March 15
A picture I like of Neil Peart from Rush - one of the truly great drummers. Funny, I always thought of Neil as a technical drummer, but he's a big fan of Keith Moon and if you listen to say Live At Leeds or Who's Next you can hear it in his playing.
It was taken as he was about to go onstage at the Ice Palace, Helsinki
March 12
In photo hell - Aerosmith photo hell. I have loads to sort through and Kazuyo, who knows what is what, is off to Japan this week. Plus I've been scanning lots for my soon to be seen new website.
Peter Makowski got me CCR Live In Europe on vinyl, which I'd never heard. It has nice rocking version of Keep On Chooglin'. John Fogerty rocks - good record, funny what you ignored at the time and now find sounds good. Pete also had an LP by Tom Jans (I'd never heard of him) who he knew in the 70s. It's mellow and nice - he od'd in the early 80s.
Here's a couple of shots of Pete Townshend from Shepperton 1978 and Bingley Hall, Stafford '79, printed for the first time as Lith prints.
Pete Townshend, Shepperton 1978, and at Bingley Hall, Stafford in 1979
I found this photo in an old box of slides. Taken late afternoon in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I was with Jimmy Page, it was 98F and humid, he complained the whole time. 'Why are you taking all day?' etc. It took me five minutes. And people think I'm the only grumpy old man...
March 9
UFO from the new issue of Classic Rock. I have to admit the new cd is good....
Joe Walsh
March 8
Flew home to a sunny London, shot a bit of it with my Leica as with turned over the city. Seems ages since I was home. I'm trying to sort through old negs, and Kazyuo is in Aerosmith land sorting through my huge three day shoot.
Here are two new covers of Kiss shot by me in the distant '80s. I can't really decide if I like them - kind of, particularly the head shot.
Got the new UFO cd Seven Deadly where it looks as if they've spent 10 cents designing the artwork. I always was impressed with how good UFO artwork was, now it looks as if a five-year old has done it and the group photo looks as if a fan took it - rubbish… But the music is supposed to be good. Been playing the Van Halen cd as well which has four good songs, the rest is just okay. Also Jimmy Reed, Found Love, which is fantastic - from 1959.
March 6
Steven Tyler shot with my Leica snapshot in sunny Los Angeles...
March 3
Ronnie Montrose has died. The best opening band I ever saw was Montrose at Charlton Football Ground on a baking hot day - May 18 1974. They came on at 11.30am and were rocking, playing the whole of the first album. I also saw them at the Rainbow Theatre on the Warner Bros Music Show. Strange, Mark Reale of Riot dies, Mark was a Ronnie clone, and now Ronnie… I never photographed Montrose, a bit too early for me. I'm still trying to find Jump On It in mint condition on vinyl. As Sammy Hagar sang on the first LP "Have you heard the news there's good rocking tonight'
Go and get the first Montrose record, all of it is fantastic.
March 1
In the studio with the 'Smiths, shot Joe, Steven and Jack Douglas for a magazine cover. Joe was recording an acoustic track which sounded good.
Rock'n'roll John Bionelli was entertaining everyone by playing a Kiss melody - we got Deuce, Shock Me, a really bad version of Firehouse, and he finished with Love Gun. His only comment at the end was 'YOU WANTED THE BEST - YOU GOT THE BEST...'
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