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October 29Arriving and leaving Los Angeles. The first two are dawn the second, returning home. 
 Weird getting dark so early - I don't like it at all. Off to Dubai tonight to shoot Paul Weller. Here is a sequence of messages from an "expert" on photography and geography called Jaimie - with my replies...
You are wrong - they were taken flying in from Phoenix on a 6am flight so stop being a idiot and get a life...
Now I'm getting paranoid, I'm sure I took them at sunrise...
THE MASTER is always right! October 28Here's an email from Chris, who I guess lives somewhere in the midwest...
The midwest can be fun - Asian women in the midwest? October 27Fly over a sunny London, shoot a bit with my Leica snapshot. I should have used a real camera but to be honest was too lazy. Arrive at noon. I'm stopped by a Pakistani Customs officer. 'Where have you come from?' he snaps. As I've just walked off a plane and he's at the gate I say 'Where do you think?' 'I don't like your attitude,' he snarls. 'I don't care,' I say, 'I live here.' Kazuyo walks up. 'Is she with you?' he says in a threating tone. 'Yeah,' she replies. 'You mean YES,' he says patronisingly. ' No, I mean YEAH, don't tell me how to speak English.' He demands Kazuyo's passport and glares at it as she smiles with no affection and says 'See, I'm Irish.' She then looks back at me and says 'Let the Paki get on with it and lets go.' He's waiting in the baggage hall and pulls both of us with an Asian female to go over Kaz. We both look uninterested. 'I can take your cameras and sell them,' he threatens. I look at him with intense hatred and say in a charming voice, 'You can't, you know you can't and I know you can't.' He then tries 'Where did you buy your clothes?' 'Take them, I don't care,' I say. By this time I'm thinking 'cunt, when did you get in the country?' but I don't say it. He then says we can go. I tell him to put the stuff he's taken out back in my case (I know they have to). He does in snarling silence. Yes, nice to be home in England... It's gone into winter here - dark at 4pm. God, if there is one, please stop winter, or at least let it be sunny... Spoke to Bic Runga. I now might go to New Zealand in the New Year, somewhere I've never been although I've changed planes there a few times on the way to Australia. I have a lot of New Zealand friends, Rangi (The RT Driver), Schnozzle Hepple, and Clutch, now sadly long deceased. Bic and I are planing to destroy Wellington or Auckland, or whichever bit she's from. I forgot - leaving Los Angeles I stopped at Randy's Doughnuts which I've seen from the air and everytime I drive along Manchester Ave. It has a HUGE doughnut on the roof and has been there for sixty-five years - got a t-shirt and a doughnut and took some photos. Chris Cornell at the Ventura Theatre near Malibu. See more... 
October 25Kansas. Yes, somewhere over the rainbow. The airport is about a hundred miles from downtown. Okay I'm exaggerating, but it was a long way. Around the arena are lots of Irish bars and places to eat meat, lots of meat. Most of the people walking around are the size of cows, it's like herds of human cattle. Kazuyo says 'It's so boring here all they do is eat.' I got out of a taxi at the venue. A large heifer comes over, 'Hey are you Lars?'. Firstly, could you see Lars getting out of a cab in the street and saying at the stage door 'Hello my good man. Is this The Kansas Sprint Arena and can I come in?' I say no and he then looks at me as if he's just seen the awakening of Christ and says 'You really look like Lars are you sure?' I'm sure and just to clear up any misconceptions, Lars looks like me - except I'm far more handsome... After doing my usual on this trip and sleeping for two hours I get up at 4am and head back to Kansas, then on to Denver, then LA. I was going to Des Moines Iowa with Metallica but sadly there was no room - Lars and I had a tearful farewell... Get back at 10am. It feels like home at least compared with the rest of America. At least it's warm, LA is having a heatwave. Do nothing then pack and head back to LAX to fly to London. The flight is full - shoot a bit of take off then get bored with it and sleep. Just had this message from Dave THE SNAKE Sabo...
And here's a picture of me photographing your heroes at Glendale, sent to me by Monty Jay,
October 24A film star day - no, I wasn't hanging out with Steven Wiig, I saw the Osbourne's, Sharon, Jack, Kelly and a very trim and funny Ozzy. Also ran into Billy Bob Thornton at my hotel. He introduced me to Gail Zappa, wife of Frank. Billy Bob asked me to come on tour in November with his band all around the midwest where he's opening for Willy Nelson. Why couldn't it be Japan or say Hawaii? The midwest, a tour of hell. Billy Bob wants me to shoot a black and white tour diary. Had dinner at Sushi Wa. At the next table was the most stunning Japanese girl. Kazuyo knew her, 'It's Seiko Matsuda, the Madonna of Japan'. Kazuyo then said she's older than me and has had more surgery than Michael Jackson. She looked exactly what I like. 'You have no chance, she likes young boys,' said Kazuyo, throwing down the gauntlet. 'Anyway, she's a granny'. I don't care if she is a geriatric, she was yum yum... October 23Los Angeles to Albuquerque. I didn't look at my ticket properly and got to LAX four hours before my flight. Let me tell you LAX is a boring place to kill four hours. Los Angeles was so hot I expected Albuquerque to be hotter (being that it's the desert). It was freezing, fucking freezing, colder than England, a biting cold, real brrrr... Saw Dave THE SNAKE Sabo who seeing me carrying my camera bag massaged my shoulder, a talent he learned from Jon Bon Jovi (In A Blaze Of Glory). I like SNAKE a little bit. I'd like him more if he renounced his sins from being in the Jersey Brotherhood (In A Blaze Of Glory). Metallica are playing the Tingley Coliseum, another place I haven't been to since the days of Def Leppard or Ratt (I mean the 80's of course) and it was a toilet then and it's still one now. Metallica's show was so big they had to compress it to get it in, the lights were just over the band's heads. It made it better to shoot as it was packed and sweaty. The band were "SO AMAZING" I could hardly shoot, tears welled up in my eyes watching them making it difficult to focus my autofocus cameras. They were nearly as good as Down... Flew back after the show across black nothing until Las Vegas which glowed on the ground even from 37,000 feet. I was looking down on Sodom and Gomorrah or a neon hell glowing in the desert. I cannot work out why people like it... Some pictures from Phoenix a couple of days ago 
 October 22Headed off to the Ventura Theatre (or something like that) to see Chris Cornell. Quite old world California there, just above Malibu. Got there in time for soundcheck - Chris played Hands All Over, Like Suicide, Moth and I'm Down. Went to shoot him warming up with his acoustic guitar before going on. He played me a Soundgarden request set. I got Hands All Over, Beyond The Wheel, Blind Dogs and Slaves And Bulldozers with original lyrics about drug-taking "Take drugs get high!" or something like that - he changed it into a doomy love song. Chris said he thought the band played it wrongly until they told him they learnt it off the records, 'So I played the cd and realised Kim Thayil fucked it up on the record - it's all wrong' He tells me this laughing. Did some portraits as well. Chris wanted to know where Nori, my one-armed, one-eyed assistant was... Not bad to shoot live, the stage was low but right on top of me so it's all shooting upwards into the lights. He played Blow Up The Outside World and hardly anything from the soundcheck - I enjoyed it. After two hours sleep at the one star Marriott Hotel at the airport, I get up at 4am and fly back to Los Angeles, shooting a bit of the dawn light on the way. Thailand. See more... 
October 21Spent the day at the Wigwam Resort. It had adobe-style rooms, palm trees, a golf course, two pools - very relaxing. Kazuyo walked around in the 96 degree weather taking photos as evidence of how awful it was. 'Get me back to a city, I hate it'. You could lost walking across lawns to the front desk amid the swaying palm trees. She even said, 'I prefer Brixton, at least they have a KFC'. Did a constructive photo shoot at the venue, quite abstract even, took a few frames out of focus in a tribute to "Anton" - if you know what I mean... The legendary Sword were playing (must be as it's the school half-term), plus the mighty Down (as in Down the toilet, or Down the pub, or getting Down). See my hero, Phil Anselmo (who I like a lot), plus the number one ugliest human I know, Dave "THE SNAKE" Sabo. I introduce Dave to Kazuyo as Jon Bon Jovi's best friend, as he went to school with him and was in the Jersey brotherhood. Dave (to be nice) sings Blood On Blood and Runaway, but Kazuyo is not having him charm her, 'I hate Bon Jovi'. She leaves "THE SNAKE" singing to himself. First show tonight of the Death Magnetic Tour, I shoot mostly from high up in the arena, in between watching Kazuyo head banging. October 20Phoenix today for Metallica, who are rehearsing for the American tour (starting tomorrow). Think of the 02 show with a much lower stage, which is better for me, and with pyro and lasers. The thing about shooting the beginning of a tour is that by ten shows in it will look different. Nice here, hot at mid-afternoon, cooking hot. Went to the Jobing.com Arena. It took me forty minutes to figure out how to get in - the windows were all mirrors and I couldn't figure out where the entrance was... October 19Went out record shopping to the valley to Freak Beat Records, they have some good stuff. Found an Immediate (Pink label) British Blues Album for $6.99 which Jimmy Page wrote the sleeve notes for. Got Easy Rider Original Soundtrack and Zachariah, The First Electric Western (white label promo). I think I've got both already but in a truly boys own way I had to have them again. Watched John Kay And Steppenwolf, A Rock & Roll Odyssey, crap title for a DVD. I'm a big Steppenwolf fan - one of my regrets is never seeing them live. Been reading Danny Goldberg's Bumping Into Geniuses. His chapter on Led Zeppelin is good and it's all true. I'm sure some "Fans" won't like it but what do they know - he was there. I spent the evening at the cinema watching Wong Kai Wai's Ashes Of Time Redux. I couldn't get into it at all, in the end I gave up... October 17A film star morning at my hotel - saw Kevin Costner having breakfast, then Lisa Minnelli all in black, porcelain white skin, standing in the shade (it was baking hot and sunny). I told Kazuyo I thought she looked good. 'Good? She looks like Michael Jackson!' She looked okay to me... I did a quick photo shoot at midday with a hungover-looking Kings Of Leon, then we headed up to San Francisco. Them to play the Warfield Theatre, me for some "Blitzkrieg" at the Cow Palace. I expected to see the "Legendary" Rob Flynn backstage screaming 'Motherfucker' and 'Aaaargh'. Disappointingly no Rob, but I did see Mike Bordin, drummer to the stars, and Steven Wiig (actor/lover/fighter). I saw a lot of people from my past (as in the 1980s). The last time I think I was here was with Metallica on the And Justice For All Tour. I remember going to someone's house to a party and being disgusted with their record collection not being "Metal" enough (The Dark Side Of The Moon being one of them) I burnt them on the fire in the front room, the whole room filled up with black smoke. I blame Kirk Hammet for encouraging me... The other time was with Def Leppard on the Hysteria Tour. They made the aftershow guests wait two hours backstage and when they came out of the dressing room found John Fogerty waiting with his son, stuck in a room full of fans. Quite embarrassing for them (serves them right for giving out a shitty passes that didn't work). I did get a photo of them all together - I meant to tell John Fogerty at the Mojo Awards but forgot... October 16Woke up at 5am, quite late for me - yesterday I woke at 3am. Photographed the dawn. It looked truly beautiful from my room with downtown LA in silhouette. Flew up to San Francisco yesterday. Kazuyo, my smelly chain-smoking assistant from the far east (who now claims to be Irish as she married a Paddy so the home office didn't deport her), looked out of the plane window as we desended into San Francisco and said in a loud voice 'Is this the city that's only full of homos?' it is, kind of, but Santa Monica or Sydney has more. On the east coast there's always Boston - it has John Bionelli and Donny Shiteman, two real women... Shoot LA late afternoon flying back - nice light. Karen, my Los Angeles assistant, took me to dinner at Mozza, Mario Batali's upmarket Pizza. It was full of my people - I thought Yom Kippur was over. I had a glass of Stella Rosa desert wine, it was phenomenal, and so was the dessert. I photographed Mario last year, he looks like a ginger Pavarotti. His wife (I'm told) looked at my photos and said 'These photos are awful, he looks fat!' The camera doesn't lie, he is indeed fat - very fat... Saw designer Tom Jerman who brought over the proofs of my travel book, which need a couple of things changed then it'll be printed and available next month. Saw Sparks at my hotel - I still love Kimono My House, just for the cover. The brothers Ron and Russell both looked like they were from San Francisco, as Kazuyo would say... One of the things I miss here is Tower Records, I used to love walking up there to mooch about. Sir David Coverdale (who's also at the hotel ), feels the same. It's sad when things go - it's now a tacky clothes shop. By 11am this morning it is 96 degrees - nice for the middle of October... Got this from Mark Blake,
And this from Arjen,
I photographed them a lot around 77-80 when it was the original line up - why bother now? My shots of them from The Reading Festival in 1977 are some of my favourite pictures, they were exciting in the day. A pity that RP was always a knob... It's always the bad stuff they pick up on on fan websites. I like Quo... October 14Off to Los Angeles this morning, then in and out of San Franscisco to shoot Metallica. I haven't been to LA since the end of May so I'm quite looking forward to it. But I can't say the flight excites me at all. Here are some more pictures to be going on with.  
 I'm flying somewhere over the top of Canada looking at bleak nothingingness... Well, the flight is empty (oh joy) and I read the papers then the music press. Lots about Seasick Steve who claims to be a hobo and ride trains, being a real transient. The reality is he's from Seattle, worked in a recording studio in Olympia and only recently developed a Southern accent. I have met him twice, each time he was a wanker, saying he was going to punch me. My crime was asking the stupid old drunk to look at the camera. He is a cunt, a complete CUNT, in capitals. The editor of Mojo, Phil Alexander, calls him 'Your friend Seasick Steve'. Kevin Ayers is celebrated at the moment because, 'Wow', he's put out a 4cd set of average songs from his not very stellar career. Another drunk who lives in the south of France on what appears to be Daddy's money (Kevin is 64). He's held as an icon 'cos he knew Sid, as in Sid Barrett, and played in Soft Machine, a useless band from Cambridge who only Omar from The Mars Volta could like. Fuck me, what a load of old shit, old being the right word. I'm going to play Beyond The Black by The Metal Church or the new Tesla cd - Brian Wheat sent me this email from his fan club.
Brian, I'm glad your fan base LOVE me so much. Logan's Run is out on DVD, I loved the book and made love with my hand many times over Jenny Agutter - must buy it, beats Cockasian Vol II. I've decided I need to see the sky, as in the stars, so I'm off to Ayers Rock before the New Year. You can understand how people used it to travel. The best place in the world to see the sky... Warm in Los Angeles. Saw the valley on fire out of the plane as I landed... Got this illustration based on one of my photographs, sent by TSgt Brandon Harrelson, who's in Iraq at the moment
Here's the introduction to an article I wrote about working with Metallica, for SW!
October 13After several plays of Quo it's not as good as I remember, in fact it's pretty poor - must dig out Piledriver. Played The Who At Kilburn 1977, which I just got on DVD. Nice to have as I went to the show (it was in the afternoon), they played longer than I remembered. Well filmed but not a great Who show (at the time I thought it was "AMAZING"). Still, it has good footage of Dreaming From The Waist with John Entwhistle's bass solo. The extras consist of The London Coliseum 1969, not great film but the band look like they are having a good time, and the between song intro on A Quick One captures the real humour of The Who.
Here's a Who patch I still have from the 1975 tour.
The leaves were yesterday in London.
The clouds are from a painting by Gil Rocca. The other paintings are from China... 
Some magazines I just got -
Jimmy Page and I in China, Metallica at the 02,
Tony Iommi on Tony Iommi....
October 11The weather in England is still "Utsukushii" as they say in the east. Reading a book on England called Azincourt, by Bernard Cornwell, about the battle of Agincourt which has lots of killing on both sides and we won and we hate the French etc. Still, I like a light read. Been playing Dog Of Two Head by Status Quo, and before you scoff it has Umleitung, Mean Girl, Gerdundula plus many more. A classic from 1971 and a young person like me doesn't have to be ancient to appreciate it. Great album, great band, unfortunately every time I'd shoot them or meet them they would be tossers of the highest order, particularly Rick Parfitt. I did an interview with Jack Osbourne today for a film he's making on Ozzy. He told me 'don't hold back, do tell...' Might do a bit more with Ozzy as well next week... Got a mention in the LA Times review of the Sunset Marquis, sent to me by Karen, one of my slaves...
If you'd like to see the rest, Read more... October 10If I remember rightly this was the date Metallica played Oakland Stadium on the Black Album tour. Don't know why I remember that. Also remember taking a photo of the empty stadium with the band and Bill Graham, who died not long after. I'm off to Los Angeles and San Francisco with my heavy metal buddies next week for the start of the Death Magnetic Tour. Classic Rock has a new issue out today with a jaw dropping-amazing photo spread on the London 02 show, the pictures are "Amazing"... I would say that because I took them. Also in the magazine there are features on Black Oak Arkansas, ACDC, Cheap Trick, Ian McLagan, then, yawn, Marillion, with photos that are so dumb they are insulting unless you are, say, ten years old. Then to follow that up The 30 Greatest ACDC Songs - Ever, As Chosen By The Stars, and what a list of C-List Stars they are. Now hold on, I'm being too kind, maybe Z-List is kinder. You get Guy Griffin, Matt Pike, Ginger, Frank Bello, Rachel Bolan, Ryan O'Keefe, Bernie Shaw, Hirsh Gardner and even Ricky Warwick. The folks at Classic Rock have gone all out to get the stars for you readers, if only Dave Ling had done this. Oh, he has... October 9Some new vintage Metallica. See more... 
Blind Melon from the Astoria - more to follow. See more... 
 October 7Just got the new John Woo movie, Red Cliff, from my mate Richard in Hong Kong. A historical drama, which in English means lots of killing. Pete and I are going to watch it today... More Metallica at the O2 Arena. See more... 
 A bit of colour from the east. The red walls are the side of a brothel in Bangkok, the smiling girl is one of Pete's many girlfriends, the fish were my dinner... 
 
October 5Bangkok was odd, most of it was closed due to today's elections. Flew home in the early hours of this morning. I got Peter two seats to himself (while I sat up the front and gobbled caviar) and by the time we landed he'd met a beautiful Korean girl and is now engaged. I got home looking forward to Sunday lust with to my girlfriend only to find out she's run off with a surfer from down under. Love can be a fickle thing. I thought I'd be married by Christmas. Gong Li where are you...? Home, home to the Sunday rain of not very sunny England. I had a sausage roll or three for lunch - enough Laotian food! Had another Laotian meal last night, served by Ladyboys, it put me off my food. I have nothing against homosexuals, just imagine being served by say Paul Brannigan in full make up, unshaven, in high heels, and you'd be put off your food. I mean, I love Kiss - Paul and Gene are real men. Read Spin, which has a feature on Anvil - not bad. And Shirley Manson saying 'After I see anything of Tracy Emin's I feel like weeping at her feet in gratitude.' Fuck me, after I see anything of Tracy Vermin's I realise why I left art college. Maybe Shirley's been on the whiskey (being jockanese) and it's blurring her vision. And then King's Of Leon going on about drinking, yawn. Look, they are children and can't drink up against say Lars or Kirk, or me when I get going. One bit says 'work out which one isn't the brother', it's easy, it's the fat one with the stupid haircut. Had a look at the awe-inspiring Classic Rock website with the hot news that Derek Oliver is launching The Powerage label and will be head of A&R - looking for "Classic Foreign Acts". First is Lethargy from Wales - really foreign huh, Derek? - followed by Primal Scream and the Diamond Head back catalogue remastered by Malcolm Dome. Dave Ling where are you when the world needs you... Noriega is coming from Japan tomorrow to sort out my file - he'll start with Metallica or ACDC. I'll try to put up some travel photos this week. Metallica at the O2 Arena. More on the way. 
October 4Nice weather in Bangkok, hot sunny. I got up at dawn and went to the local market, at 6am it was packed full of saturday shoppers. Lots of butchers/fishmongers. I found an ironmonger selling machetes and lots of other weapons - cleavers, hatchets, you name it. Watched a butcher blow torch a pile of pigs legs. All the locals eating everything. I've been trying to not shoot temples etc. Found some nice dilapidated walls. Even took some of the street girls, but they weren't too keen. Found that I'm not using all my various lenses and am going back to my 85mm, it makes you think more and not be so lazy. On the way here I spent most of the journey looking at the route map (as usual). Thai Airways had a zoom function on the map so you could see where you were up close. When I was looking we were flying over Dnepropetrovsk in my grandfather's homeland of sunny Russia, which I'd never heard off. I looked at Russia most of the way and it looked bleak. Had Laotian food last night, from northern Laos. William Nash always raves about how great this is and he was right. While I have been here Bangkok has relatively tourist free, apart from Pete. This morning a large group of Ferangs were at the pool, all white (being burnt bright red), smoking and drinking (at 10am) and complaining to the waiter about the local food. At first I thought they were Finnish or Norwegian speaking bad English, when I listened closely I could hear "Jockanese" - Scottish! All moaning about everything being foreign. Animals - the Romans were right... October 3In Thailand. It's raining with quite amazing thunder and lightning, Here's some sunny England from last week... 
October 1
Cover and booklet for the new Tesla cd, with my photos. See more of Tesla... 
 
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My name is TSgt Brandon Harrelson and I'm currently deployed to Iraq. I admire Mr. Halfin's work. I wanted to send this drawing that I did of James Hetfield. I do alot of drawing to pass the time while I'm over here.
And here's their greatest hits cd.
