I read this in the newspaper first thing Monday morning, and I guess this guy isn’t the sharpest knife in the cutlery draw. A drug dealer in Itapetinga Brazil, made addicts get a tattoo of his name on themselves, and he only served clients who had his body art! Mario Sergio Freudenthal was caught by police, and easily traced, as he was the only man in Itapetinga with that name in the phone book. Doh!

Now these guys are a sandwich short of a picnic too! In Wrexham, a Contractor called Forest fitted Solar Panels on a council house the wrong way round. The panels were facing away from the sun! Tenant Gerald Evans, pointed it out and claims he was ignored, being told they were fitted and assessed with a compass. Maybe next time they should go down the local scout hut, and get some guidance on how to use a compass! Doh! They have now agreed to come and fix it free of charge. That is big of them eh!

One of my hero’s Muhammed Ali is 70 years old! That is astonishing, as he has for the last three decades suffered from Parkinson’s Disease. His fights in the early hours of the morning on the other side of the world in the 60′s and 70′s, would be the first thing half of Britain wanted to know about when they woke up. The poetic pugilist, was more than a boxer, and apart from fighting the worlds toughest boxers, he fought racial prejudice, the USA Government and Parkinson’s Disease.

One of his famous poems that I love, apart from the most famous, which was “Float like a butterfly, stinging like a bee, your hands can’t hit, what your eyes can’t see,” is “I done wrestled with a alligator,I done tussled with a whale. Handcuffed lightning, and threw thunder in jail.

I can run through a hurricane, and not get wet.
Only last week I murdered a rock, I injured a stone, hospitalised a brick. I’m so mean I make medicine sick!”

The Louisville Lip really was the world champ, and in my eyes and many others, he still is! He retired in 1981, after losing a unanimous decision to Trevor Berbick, and he had a professional record of 56 wins and 5 losses

It was not all good though, as Ali had death threats, the CIA and the FBI had files on him, and he was embraced by the KKK. His flamboyant boxing style, and outspoken stances on social issues made him a controversial figure, and he is even now to this day, still one of the most recognised of world figures.

Chris Evans has always been a car nut, but his latest purchase of the iconic car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is right up there in his collection. The Radio 2 DJ is reported to have paid £500,000 for it, and he has now sent it away to be restored. The previous owner from Los Angeles sold it because at 17feet long, it would not fit into his garage. Surely he would have known that when he bought it, or maybe he has more money than sense.

Evans aged 45, already has a multiple million pound classic car collection, and his son Noah is a huge fan of the 1968 movie musical starring Dick Van Dyke as madcap inventor Caractacus Potts. How cool is that, that your dad now owns the car. Imagine his school friends going to his house to watch the film, and afterwards he takes them into his dads garage, and they see the car for real! Wow! Evidently the V8 engined car, built by the Ford Racing team, has raised millions in charity appearances. 

Well all of you puzzle freaks out there, this week is the 40th Anniversary of The Times Crossword! Puzzle number 25,061 is the work of Wadham Sutton, who is not only the longest serving compiler of modern times, but he has compiled the largest number of puzzles by a long distance. He says he starts his day much like any other day, with a cup of tea in bed, while he dreams up new examples of wordplay with which to baffle and delight the readers. When he has finished the spadework, he then sits down and fleshes out the clues, and makes them effective.

Over the years he has compiled 1,414 crosswords including 79 Jumbos, all of which have not seen the light of day, as with all compilers, he works well in advance.

The Times Crossword puzzle on Tuesday the 17th of January, was in fact puzzle number 1,404!  I must say I do occasionally dabble in crosswords, but I am more of a Sudoku fan, and  in the Times Newspaper they come in four categories, Easy, Mild, Difficult, and Super Fiendish. The later bring a real test of your skills I can tell you! I do love it though, and I play Sudoku either from a book, newspaper, iPad or iPhone, whenever I am on tour with Heep, and even at home. I’m hooked!

I was having a spot of lunch this week, and I flipped through the Sky Arts channel, to be surprised at finding Pete Townsend of the “Who,” singing and playing live. I watched for a moment and lo and behold, it was a performance of both Tommy and Quadrophenia in a live setting. I was riveted, as it was great! The nucleus of the band was Townsend on guitar, Roger Daltrey-vocals, John Entwistle-bass, and Zak Starkey on drums. It sounded very powerful, and they were augmented with other musicians and singers.

There were a number of star appearances by the likes of, P.J Proby, Billy Idol, Alex Langdon, Simon Townsend, Phil Collins, Elton John, Patti LaBelle and Stevie Winwood, and what amazing pieces of work these two rock operas are. It was a real musical feast, and most enjoyable. I don’t know why, but I was surprised at how well Daltrey played acoustic guitar, and it was all very exciting to watch. Unfortunately I did not find out what the venue was, and although I only managed to watch the last half of the show, I was delighted to have come across it, as it was fantastic. Entwistle played a stunning bass solo on one of the songs, and all I can say is, what a happy lunch break that was!

Now here is technology working for the good! An edible microchip that records the precise details of a patients pill regime, will be available in Britain by the end of the year. There is a huge problem with medicines not being taken correctly, and as anyone knows taking several medications, how easy it can be to lose track of whatever or not you’ve taken, and the correct amount of tablets that day. The digestible sensor embedded in an edible microchip is taken with a pill, and becomes electronically activated when immersed in the acidic solution of the stomach. These pass harmlessly through the body, so there is no danger. The health carer can then via Bluetooth and a phone app, calculate how closely the patient is conforming to the drug regime, and what further steps may be necessary. That really is fantastic, as Lloyds Pharmacy in the UK have found that half of all patients failed to take their medicines correctly, which could lead to people not getting the full benefits of the treatment. This will be a great aid to the elderly I am sure.

My wife Sheila’s sister Anne-Marie, is a London Blue Badge tour guide, and for Romeo’s 11th Birthday, (which is next week,) on Saturday, she arranged for him to have a private one on one tour, of the Imperial War Museum, with her fellow Blue Badge Tourist Guide Mike Armitage.

I went with Romeo, and we had a great time. IWM London, is located on Lambeth Road, and it explores how the history of modern conflict (War) affects us all, from the front line to the home front. Exhibits range from tanks and aircraft, to photographs and personal letters. They also show some film and sound recordings that are unbelievable. There is a section where you can experience how it was to be in the trenches, including the smell!

One great thing about the IWM, is that it is free for everyone, and it is such an amazing building. Having Mike there showing us everything, and talking about it, we learnt so much. It was so much more informative than hiring the audio and headphones, plus he knew where everything was, and no time was wasted trying to find things to see. It really was inspiring to have Mike show us around, and he kept Romeo’s interest the whole time we were there, which was just about 2 1/2 hours, and he learnt so much.

It really was a great experience, and a big eye opener for Romeo. They do touch on stuff like this at school, but to see it so vividly, and in such detail was incredible. He just loved the spy section as well, and seeing all of the gadgets that MI5 and MI6 used for real. It was a really cool and excellent birthday present indeed. If you are interested in a tour like this, then please checkout Mike’s site, and you will not be disappointed www.mikearmitagetouristguide.co.uk

Romeo and a few of his school friends from his school music class, have been commissioned to write a song by their end of term, and they have to perform it. Well we had over to our house Saturday afternoon, Osita (Piano,) Luckshman (Flute,) and Romeo on drums and vocals.

We managed to finish a little song that they were all happy with, and I sent them away with their lyric and chord sheets to practice. We will convene next week, and I for one will be delighted if they have practiced, but I am not holding my breath. It was a lot of fun, and it was good to see the boys contributing and enjoying it too!

In the evening Romeo had a sleepover at Luckshman’s house, so Sheila and I took advantage, and went to the cinema to see a film called, “The Artist.”

This was Directed by Michel Hazanavicius, Produced by Thomas Langmann, Written by Michel Hazanavicius, and the Music was by Ludovic Bource.

The film is a French film, starring Jean Dujardin as silent film star George Valentin, and Bérénice Bejo as Peppy Miller, who is a dancer, who slowly rises through the industry, earning more prominent starring roles.

The story takes place in Hollywood between 1927 and 1932, and focuses on a declining male film star, and a rising actress, as silent cinema grows out of fashion and is replaced by the talkies. Most of the film itself is silent, and it is shown in black and white. The film has received wide praise from critics, and I can see why. It is brilliantly done and both Dujardin and Bejo put in extremely powerful performances. It is well worth seeing, and is a 100 minutes long!

Spurs played Manchester City on Sunday, and this was a very big game indeed. We needed to win this one to be title challengers in the Premier League. It was a tough game, and when we went down 2-0, I thought all was lost. Then we came back with a poachers goal from Defoe, and a brilliant long range volley from Bale, and things were looking good. Then in injury time Ledley King gave away a penalty, and Man City won 3-2. However the controversy rained, as the penalty taker Balotelli should have been sent off, for stomping on Spurs Scott Parkers head earlier in the game. How he got away with that is beyond me, but still the end result from this particular battle, was that we had lost.

Never mind, we are still in the top three, and that is pretty good at this stage of the season.

Well that is goodbye to another week, and I hope to see you all next week for next weeks instalment.

‘Appy days!

Mick

Monday was a day off school for Romeo, so we had a good Father/Son day, doing all sorts of stuff. He needed a new phone, so we went around all the shops in our area, of which there are many, and we found the one he wanted. He wanted to be able to BBM on it, so we ended up with a Blackberry, so that he can be in contact with all of his school friends at once, I believe. This is all new to me, but at least the guy in the shop knew what he was talking about.

We also set up his X- Box that he was given by Mum and Dad for Xmas. This took a little time, as I am useless at this sort of thing, but we managed to get it done, and boy are they a lot of fun.

Tuesday it was back on to the family grind stone, as Romeo was back at school, so it was up at 6.30am, so I could drive him to meet his school bus. He was extra excited today as he had his new phone, so I guess he texted the world twice, and then some again, once on the bus.

The good thing about getting up early, is that I can tune my radio into Planet Rock Radio, and listen to my old mate Paul Anthony, who now does the breakfast show. He moved from Total Rock Radio in Manchester, and is now down in London. I must say he does a great show, and I love the “Full English” bit, where people can send in their favourite 3 tracks of all time, and Paul plays them.

I saw a full page add in Classic Rock Magazine this month too advertising his show, and that is just great he is getting a big push like that. He is a really nice guy and deserves it! I have done numerous interviews with Paul and it is always a pleasure.
I remember I had arranged an interview with Paul at the first High Voltage festival in London, and I arrived with my family and next door neighbours to the usual chaotic backstage area, and Paul kindly waited for the interview, while I settled my party down with a glass of wine in the dressing cabin, before we could talk. A top man indeed, and a top DJ as well!

At the start of the week I read an interesting article, about a bedroom entrepreneur who started a new health energy drink called, “Pussy.” The name came to Jonnie Shearer, long before he decided the brand name for a soft drink. He admired Richard Branson’s “Virgin” brand, and he knew that “Pussy,” would stand out.

He saw a niche in the energy drink market, purely because the existing ones all tasted terrible, and he could not pronounce half of the ingredients written on the cans.

Since people were interested in healthy eating, he came up with a natural energy drink. Eventually he hit on two final flavours which were, Lychee and Granadilla, and Ginger and Plum.

He was invited over Xmas 2004, to a party at Richard Branson’s house by a friend who knew Branson’s daughter Holly. He filled empty fish bowls with the two flavours, and asked the guests to decide which one he should make. The unanimous vote was for the Lychee and Granadilla. After borrowing £25,000 from family and friends, he ordered a batch of 150,000 cans of “Pussy.”

His warehouse was a long way from where he lived, so distribution wasn’t easy to start with. At one point he crammed as many cans as he could into his car,but the suspension was shot, and at one point he was pulled over by the police with too heavy a load. They made him drop off hundreds of cans at the nearest bar, which he had to give away free.

The name of the drink got talked about, but not always in a good way, as one bar owner listened to his sales pitch and said, “Piss off Pussy, were busy.”

He tried to sell it to Tesco who were worried about the name, but undeterred, he pointed out that they sold a magazine called, “Nuts.” After four months of negotiating, he agreed to asterisk out the middle on the can, and now Tesco sell 50 cans a week at each outlet, which amounts to a lot!

He now sells 200,000 cans a month in the UK alone, with distribution deals in Spain, Germany, Australia and Russia.
He employs 12 staff to work on sales and marketing, and even the Branson’s have joined “Pussy’s,” board to help with the branding.

I just love success stories like this, which is why it is in this blog. Shearer’s friends who used to laugh at the name of the drink called “Pussy,”, don’t laugh anymore, – they drink it.

It was disappointing, but no surprise to read that HMV over Xmas had an 8.2% fall in it’s like for like sales, for the 5 weeks to December 31st. As it seeks to diversify away from CD’s and DVD’s, the group touted a 51% jump in sales of technology products. HMV has debts totalling £164 million and is trying to sell it’s live music venue business to cut borrowings. Simon Fox the chief executive, said that it still has to convince the City it has a future, although he is hopeful they will be around for some time, as they have a strongly supportive group of suppliers and banks.

Over the years I have been one of HMV’s best customers, buying all of my CD’s and DVD’s there. I love going into the shop and flicking through all of the racks of stock, and coming out with armfuls of good music. I spend hours in there enjoying every minute of it, finding and discovering interesting product. Long may it continue, but I do fear for it’s survival in today’s market.

Tuesday morning I was devastated to read in the newspaper, that Tony Iommi 63 of Black Sabbath, has been diagnosed with cancer. He will undergo treatment for Lymphoma, and is working with his doctors to establish the best treatment plan. Tony remains upbeat, and is determined to make a full and successful recovery. I bet

Black Sabbath recently reformed with the original line up, and are working on their first album together for 33 years.

I can only wish Tony all the very best, and pray that he does indeed make a full recovery. Whenever I have met him over the years, he has always been the perfect gentleman, and he truly is a Rock God of Heavy Metal.

On Wednesday we had a band meeting at Martin Darvill our managers office. Well all except for Bernie, who was on his way back from Canada where he had a Xmas and New year break with his family.

The meeting went very well, and it looks like we have a super busy year this year too. No complaints there then, as I always say, “a working band is a happy band,” and no band works as hard as us! It will be an exciting year, and I cannot wait to get started. In the interim period, and personally, I have lots to do on the home front, and I really want to get my teeth into some serious songwriting. I have a stockpile of ideas, so I cannot wait.

On Wednesday night it was a huge football game with Spurs playing Everton. Thank goodness we managed to win it 2-0, and we now sit 2nd in the Premier League with Manchester United, who unfortunately for us, have a better goal difference. In the early part of the season Man U were banging them in by the bucket loads. However it was a great win for us, and we are now up there in the top three, which is great.

I was texting Charlotte and Baden, throughout the game, as they were watching it on their computer, whereas I was standing on a cold rugby field watching Romeo train and play. Of course we were all delighted with the result, and my mobile phone was red hot with the texts coming in, which to be honest was most welcome on that cold rugby field.
Wow, a gang took just seven minutes to steal a Picasso worth millions, when they raided the National Art Gallery in Athens Greece, and escaped with the oil painting “Woman’s Head,” given to Greece in 1949, by the painter to celebrate the country’s resistance to the Nazi’s.

A painting by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, and a sketch by Italian Gugielmo Cacciatore were also taken, being stripped from their frames.

The gang forced a balcony door at 5am. Earlier they intentionally set off alarms, prompting officials to turn off at least one circuit to check for faults. A guard gave chase seeing a shadowy figure run away, and the thief dropped a fourth painting.

These guys must have gonads the size of basketballs to do this, but I always wonder what they will do with the paintings
once they have them. Surely they can only really make money by going through a third party, and selling them back to the gallery they were stolen from. Either that, or they were stolen to order, and will be lost in a private collection forever.
It is so sad that this happens, as people get so much enjoyment from seeing this artwork in the galleries.

I would have loved to have gone to this show! Birmingham held the largest ever Elvis tribute artist convention in Europe, attracting over 80 impersonators. This was watched by 3,000 cheering fans, who also dressed up for the event.

This year Eireann Elvis from Ireland won, and he said those immortal words, “Thank you, thank you very much,” as he was crowned 2012 European Elvis Champion. He picked up a cheque for £2,000.

At the event there were live rock n’ roll bands, showcases from professional tribute acts, Elvis merchandise, and you could dance at Elvis discos and watch Elvis films. Now that surely is Elvis overload, but I would have loved to have been there. It is just incredible that 35 years after he has died, so many people still adore him!

I went to his home in Gracelands in 1976, and it was just amazing then how many people on a daily basis made the trip around the grounds. The queues went on for miles, and at every corner there were Elvis clones singing and gyrating at you. There were also miles and miles of shops all selling Elvis memorabilia, plus an awful lot of tut!

Still it was amazing to see, and it did show you just how popular the “King,” was, even though he had taken those three steps to heaven, as Eddie Cochrane once said in a brilliant song!

A 1966 Vox UL730 amp and speaker, formerly owned by George Harrison, was up for sale at Bonham’s for an estimated £50,000 to £70,000. The amp was used on the “Revolver,” and “Sgt Peppers,” recording sessions. The name George Harrison was etched on both the chassis and the speaker cabinet, and further research revealed a photo of Harrison with the amp identified by corresponding chalk markings on the casing. The rare Vox model thought to be only one of 26 UL730′s in the world, has since been verified by a Beatles gear expert, who frequented the studio sessions during the recording of those albums. I would love to plug in my guitar, and have a play through that!

Now there is earning, but this is in different league. The new boss of Apple Tom Cook, earned £244 million last year, and analysts say this will make him the best paid chief executive in the USA. The pay package was mostly made up of stocks. A million stocks granted to Mr Cook 51, at the time made up the vast majority of his 2011 pay. They were valued at £243 million, and his salary and performance bonus which are about £500,000 each, made up the rest.

In a survey of the top ten earners, the next nine top earners after Mr Cook, only made a combined £230 million. Mr Cook took over from Steve Jobs who died in October 2011. I know Apple is a successful product story bar none, but it is hard to get your head around figures like that.

The Albert Hall has been cautioned by the charities regulator for allowing members and trustees to make thousands of pounds a year from events like the Proms and Cirque du Soleil!

Holders of the debenture style seats at the Victorian venue, can resell their tickets at a profit, thanks to a legal loophole. More than 1,200 seats at the concert hall are held on a 999 year lease, by about 320 individuals or business’s, under arcane laws.

Some people have taken to touting their tickets online for up to £20,000 for a box. However this side issue of reselling tickets is a side effect of the venues success.

In one case, a seat holder bought places in the stalls for £40,000 each in the year 2007, and has almost doubled that investment money already. Similar seats are selling for £75,000. In 2008 a 10 seated box in the grand tier went for £1.2 million. For smart investors it really is the land of hope and glory!

The Russian craft, “Phobos-Grunt,” is the size of a small minibus, and is heading towards the Earth at several miles an hour. Scientists say that when it arrives on Sunday it is unlikely to cause disruption. The 13.5 tonne craft has been in orbit since rocket boosters failed to ignite and send it to the Martian Moon of Phobos. Nevertheless on Sunday I my be glancing towards the sky a little more than usual, just in case!

I read an interesting article about the supermarket Tesco, which was started by a trader called Jack Cohen, who knew how to make a profit on his East London Market stall in 1919, when he sold £4 of groceries and made a £1 profit.

Five years after his first day at the Market, he started selling his first brand, “Tesco Tea,” which was the name which ultimately became the name of his company, and this was derived from T. E. Stockwell, a partner in the tea suppliers, and Cohen.

Cohen opened up the first Tesco shop in Burnt Oak, North London in 1929, and in 1932, Tesco Stores, was incorporated as a limited company. In 1947 (the year I was born) it was floated on the Stock Exchange at 25p a share.

After the war Tesco boomed, opening one of Europe’s biggest stores in Leicester, and minting a new word: Superstore!

In 1963 Cohen introduced the very popular Green Shield Stamp loyalty scheme, (which I vividly remember my Mother collecting,) but he abolished this in 1970 using the saved cash to reduce prices. They then moved into Petrol Stations, which was a very profitable move.

A key difference between other supermarkets, and I see this as a clever move, they still had every faith in the High Street, and they launched a new format of Metro and Express shops all over Britain. This being somewhere to, “Pop to,” as well as do the weekly shop. The “Every Little Helps,” slogan encapsulated the brand’s selling point as “Value.”

They now have outlets in Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, Japan, China and India. When Heep tour in these territories, we often see them, and quite often pop in for a little shop.

Tesco have even moved into the financial sector too, but Phillip Clarke who took over last year has warned that cracks in the empire are appearing, due to them driving productivity a bit too hard. He said, “We’ve run hot too long, and we have been chasing our tail.” However it has been reported that their shares have crashed by £5 billion. Doh! Other stores to have suffered like this are, Argos, Mothercare, Halfords, Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s!

There was a point when in 2005 they were collecting one in every eight retail pounds spent by British Shoppers. Now that is an amazing success story, but they have a hill to climb now for sure. I bet Jonnie Shearer of the “Pussy,” energy drink has his fingers crossed too, as this is a major outlet for him.

Saturday morning it was up at 5am, because I was going to the Whitechapel Mission for the homeless in the East End of London, to help in the kitchen and cook breakfasts.

To give you a brief run down on the Whitechapel Mission, it is dedicated to providing a lifeline to the men and women caught in the cycles of poverty, hopelessness and dependencies of many kinds, and to see their lives transformed to hope, joy and hopefully lasting productivity.

Their goal is to simply help people to help themselves, and give them the confidence that they need to become independent, which is done through practical support and advice, and also by teaching them the life skills they need to succeed.

The Whitechapel Mission believes that everyone deserves a chance, regardless of their background, race or religion, and they are open every day of the year, and each day they help as many as 300 homeless, and vulnerable men and women.

109,111 breakfasts were served in 2010/11, which is an average of 298 a day, and a 9% rise on last year.
4175 different people used the services in 2010/11. A 36% rise on last year.
2702 people used their advice services in 2010/11. A 23% rise on last year.

The director of the Whitechapel Mission is an inspirational man called Tony Miller, and he has just been rightfully made an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours. He is now in his 30th year at the Mission, and Tony said that the award was a “fantastic honour,” and that he was grateful to all those who work, volunteer, support and serve the Whitechapel Mission, as they are the true deservers of this recognition.

Our kitchen team consisted of Bernie (who kindly came even though he had just come back from Canada with his family, and he was truly jet lagged,) Sheila’s nephew Mark, and a nice guy he works with in the city called Mike, Christine who is Sheila’s cousin, and myself. We did extremely well, and it was a very ‘umbling and rewarding experience, and one we will repeat.

A special mention has to go to the kitchen Boss Lilli who works there everyday, and is from Lithuania, and she was terrific at running a tight ship, with the right balance of humour. Some of the other people there helping out were doing community service, and what better way to do it than at the mission.

Later on in the day my beloved Spurs played against Wolves and drew 1-1. This was a major disappointment, because if we had won it, we would have remained 2nd in the Premier League with Man United, even though they had the better goal difference. Still we remain third, because of a good Modric goal, and we can be thankful for that.

Well that is another week flown by, and I hope to see you all next week for more of the same!

‘Appy days!
Mick

Mick talks about his Xmas and New Year with is family, Stavros Flatley and son, Sweden’s Stieg Larsson’s film adaption of his book “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” Vinyl Records and B-Sides of singles. He also talks about, departed friends, Londons National Art Gallery and Leonardo Da Vinci, Spurs, and Bowie on the BBC Top of the Pops Xmas special. He also discusses, Carnaby Sreet, and coming back next week for a cup of coffee and a read! 

My Xmas and New Year with my family was just wonderful! We had Xmas in Cornwall, and we saw in the New Year at Sheila’s brothers place up in the North of England. It was a welcome break, and much needed quality time with my family, after last years heavy touring schedule.

Sheila’s brother was keen for the family and friends who were at his house to see in the New Year, to all do a turn, or a little show. Now generally I avoid these sort of things like the plague, but I did get into the spirit of things once Romeo and I hit on the idea of doing Stavros Flatley and son.

These are the Cypriot guys who did a take on Irish Dancing for the TV show, “Britain’s Got Talent.” If you check them out on YouTube, you will see just how hilarious they are.

Well Romeo and I found the exact shop where they purchased their stage clothes and wigs, which was luckily quite local to us. Anyhow after a few rehearsals, and a few laughs, we had it down, and on the night it went fantastically well, making everyone cry with laughter.

Now that is the way to see in the New Year, with a few glasses of wine or three, good company, and laughing!

Sweden’s Stieg Larsson’s successful trilogy of books, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” and “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest,” are a fantastic read, and this week I went to see the film version of, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” with Sheila at one of our local cinema’s.

This stars, Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist, and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander. They both put in powerful performances, as did Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger.

The film is about a discredited journalist, Mikael Blomkvist and a mysterious computer hacker Lisbeth Salander who
discover that even the wealthiest families have skeletons in their closets while working to solve the mystery of a 40-year-old murder.

They are briefed in the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, whose uncle suspects she may have been killed by a member of their own family. The deeper Mikael and Lisbeth dig for the truth, the greater the risk of being buried alive by members of the family who will go to any lengths to keep their secrets tightly sealed.

Now this film has some great twists and turns, and remains relatively faithful to the book, and thankfully avoids the Hollywood overblown trap.

It is a long film at 2hours and 34minutes long, but you will not be disappointed, though there are a few moments in the film that were well…difficult to watch!
It is Directed By: Niels Arden Oplev, and written by:Nikolaj Arcel, Rasmus Heisterberg, and Nicolaj Arcel

I read a great article in the Independant Newspaper the other day, about the loss of vinyl formats hidden treasures, the B-Side! Now Vinyl records were not perfect, as dust would gather round the needle, and even cause it to skate across the surface like a car on ice. The arm would also jump if you danced too heavily or close to the turntable. Still Vinyl is viewed with fondness, and frequently viewed as sounding so much better than the formats of today. Now I personally agree with that!

What we are missing terribly though with Vinyl, is the possibility of finding hidden treasures on the B-Side of singles. Some acts have broken worldwide with the discovery of the B-Side. DJ’s would flip over the A-Side and play the B-Side, and an excellent example of that would be Rod Stewart’s solo career launching hit, “Maggie May.”

Other discovered B-Side tracks are, “God Only Knows,” and “Don’t Worry Baby,” by the Beach Boys, “Gloria,” by Them, “I Will Survive,” by Gloria Gaynor, and “Unchained Melody,” by the Righteous Brothers.

Even more major hits languishing on B-Sides were, “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick,” by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” by The Rolling Stones, “Revolution,” by The Beatles, and “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” by Gene Vincent.”

In the Vinyl era, if tracks had been purchased track by track, as digital downloads are now, they might never have been there for a DJ, Promoter or music fan to flip over and discover.

There was also a business angle to singles, as often publishing was split 50-50 between the A-Side and the B-Side, so a band like the “Sweet,” for instance whose mega selling Glam Rock A-Sides of the 70′s were written by their producers Chinn and Chapmann, would put their own songs on the B-Side, and ride the royalty bandwagon.

A suggestion in the article was that when acts sell a digital single in today’s market, how about giving away a free extra track which would be a digital B-Side in effect, now that is something to mull over!

At the end of last year in December, we sadly lost Heep’s old sound engineer Moray McMillian, to that great green room in the sky! Other people I would like to mention who are no longer with us, are drummer Keef Hartley (I first saw Heep’s now departed bass player Gary Thain playing with Keef at a club in Hampstead, London in the late 60′s,) and rock photographer George Bodner. I worked with George many times, and he was a lovely bloke.They will all be sadly missed!

I would also like to remember that it was just over 10 years ago that my guitar technician Jim Hughes passed away on the 30th December.

On Friday evening this week I met Sheila after work, and we went to the National Art Gallery in London by Trafalgar Square. We met Sheila’s sister Anne-Marie outside the gallery, who had previously kindly queued up for 2 hours to get the tickets, as they went like hot cakes. We were there to see an exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan.

This was the most complete display of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings ever held. This exhibition which was the first of its kind anywhere in the world, brought together sensational international loans never before seen in the UK.

While numerous exhibitions have looked at Leonardo da Vinci as an inventor, scientist or draughtsman, this is the first to be dedicated to his aims and techniques as a painter. Inspired by the recently restored National Gallery painting, The Virgin of the Rocks, this exhibition focused on Leonardo as an artist. In particular it concentrates on the work he produced as court painter to Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan in the late 1480s and 1490s.

The exhibition was stunning, and some of the paintings when viewed from a distance, really came to life. It was totally amazing and a must see, though tickets are hard to come by, and you can see why!  Leonardo da Vinci
1452 – 1519.

Well on Saturday it was the 3rd round of the FA Cup, and Spurs played Cheltenham. We won 3-0 which was great,with goals by Defoe, Pavlychenko and Santos.

Earlier in the week we played West Brom winning 1-0 with a superb Defoe goal. This puts us at 3rd position in the Premier League, with a game in hand. Long may the results keep coming! COYS!

Over the Xmas period I recorded on Sky TV a BBC, “Top of the Pops,” music show, with David Bowie and the Spiders from Mars playing “Jean Genie,” LIVE!

I watched it this week, and Trevor looked great, and every inch the glam rock star. It sounded fantastic, and he was playing his Gibson Bass Guitar, and was in camera shot a lot which was brilliant. I have to say that Bowie and Ronson were a formidable pairing, with great chemistry.

This was the holy grail video for Bowie fans, as the original recording in 1973 was supposedly destroyed by the BBC. However a camera man called John Henshall, who was in charge of some of the unique at the time fish eye, and saturated colour camera shots, took his own copy to see how the effects looked.

The funny thing is, that if he was caught doing this at the time of the original recording, he would have been fired, but years on he is being hailed as a saviour for having this film clip.

Anyway it was great to see, and a real piece of celluloid Rock History. Heep played Top of The Pops a few years later performing, “Wiseman.” with John Lawton singing.

It is a real shame that there are no weekly shows like this on TV anymore, as they gave bands great exposure, and added a real genuine excitement to the music business as a whole. You tuned in to hear the latest songs, and just as importantly at the time, what the artists were wearing.

In the Bowie clip, it was quite funny watching the audience dancing, and I spotted in the audience a guy who had long ginger hair, and a ginger beard, and he was dressed like one of the Three Musketeers. I have since forgotten his name, but he used to own a clothes shop in Carnaby Street where everyone went to buy their clothes off the peg, or have them hand made. He was quite a character, and the shop was always a good meeting place on a Saturday. I met so many people there in the late 60′s, it was unreal!

Well that is all for this week, and if you like any of the above, please come back next week for a quick coffee and a read!

‘Appy days!
Mick

 Monday morning, we left the hotel early to get to Glasgow Central, to catch the train to Newcastle! It was a journey of
2 hours 35 minutes, so it was enough time to play about on the iPad, or join the nodding dog club. I played about on the iPad, writing my blog!

We did pass some beautiful countryside, and there have been some amazing views. The sun was shining, so that gave everything a nice dimension.

We arrived in Newcastle, and checked into our hotel. We had a couple of hours before the soundcheck, so it was nice to relax for a bit. The O2 Academy venue in Newcastle was pretty similar to the Glasgow one, so we knew we were in for a good night sound wise. At the soundcheck we had eight VIP’s, who heard us run through, “I’m Ready,” and we also jammed a bit, before going out to meet them, and of course signing items they had, and having our picture taken.

For dinner that night, Geordie boy Daniel Earnshaw from QEDG Management, bought us all a Stottie, which is a local cuisine, that he and his mother Wendy arranged in the dressing room. This is a huge circular piece of bread, the size of a vinyl record, that you then fill with chips and pour either gravy or curry on top. Most of us only made it half way through, as it was a mega amount of stodge to consume in one go! This was the basic food that the miners in Newcastle used to eat way back when, and you could see why! It is cheap, and very filling!

The audience were well warmed up that night with an excellent set from, “Virgil and the Accelerators.” The guitarist definitely knows his way around the fret board, and the other guys are right up there with him. They are a three piece, but very exciting to watch and listen too, and steeped in the blues. My only comment was that they could do with some strong songs, as there is only so far you can take the blues format, and the virtuoso playing side. Even Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Hendrix had great songs! Anyway they will be interesting to watch, and see how they develop.

The venue was nicely packed when we walked on to the stage, and it was a good atmosphere from the off. Once we had started, we could see that the crowd were well into it, and it was good to be back in Newcastle, as it had been quite a while since we had played there. I loved the show, and the responses to the songs definitely kept the adrenaline pumping.

We usually try and find a way to get people up for the head banging section ahead of time. But that night for some reason, we hadn’t arranged it. Anyway as I was announcing the song, a security guard walked along the front of the stage with a step ladder. People climbed over the barrier, and up on to the step ladder, and then on to the stage. Now that was a first, and it was hilarious. Still this did not deter anyone at all, and we had a full stage of head bangers in the end.

It was a great evening that we then finished off back in the venue bar with the VIP’s, friends, and it was really good to see Steve Dawson from Marshall Amplification there.

After that it was back to the hotel on this never ending Groundhog Day, that it seems we have constantly been on this year.

Tuesday morning we caught a taxi to the Newcastle Central Station, all except for Trevor, who took the painful decision to go home by train leaving at 6am. He then drove the 3hours to Milton Keynes for the last show at The Stables. After the show he drove home, so he will be as they say in the East End of London, “Cream Crackered after all of that, as that will be one long day!

The rest of us plus Daniel caught a train to Birmingham, where we then changed to a train going to Milton Keynes. We had time between trains to have a quick lunch in a pie shop, which was very nice. I tell you what, I cannot wait to get down to the gym after this years touring, and I will love the long walks with our dog Iggy in the forest. Exercise and fresh air will be on the top of my list, in the break!

The Stables venue was actually built by Jazzers SirJohnnie Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine. Saxophone player Dankworth has since passed away. It certainly wasn’t a rock venue, and was fully seated, so it really was more of a Jazz, Folk & Blues club. Still in true Heep style we adapted to the job in hand.

This was our last show of the year, and it was a sell out, so we feel we have a good foundation now in the UK, and something to build upon, whereby we may be able to look at a UK tour every year, which would be great. 

Our support band, “Virgil and the Accelerators,” played a good warmup set, and it was soon time for us to go on to the stage. Trevor turned up with Tony Gallagher who co- wrote,”War Child,” with him on WTS. It is always good to see Tony and he is a really nice guy! David “Bucket” Colwell of Samson and Bad Company fame turned up too, which was cool, and I had not seen him for ages either.

It was really cool that Paul Marshall, son of Jim Marshall could make it, as he could see the equipment he has arranged for us, in full use. Now where would Rock Music be without Jim Marshall? I have used it from boy to man,  and I will continue to do so, as there is no other sound like it.  I have proudly taken Marshall to the 55 countries that we play concerts in over the last 41 years, and Marshall’s are on every album, CD, and DVD I have ever played on, which have sold in excess of 30 million. Marshall’s have truly been the landscape of my musical life. They are the best by test, and I get great joy in turning on young guitarists to the sound. Ask my guitar tech Adam, I am always wanting to get to the next gig and plug in……….!

The show was a good one to end on, and because they were seated it made us work a little harder to get them on their feet. We did this in the end, and we received a loud roar on the finale of the show for an encore, and all in all it was a fine night.

After a few drinks with VIP’s and  friends, it was time to jump in the car to drive home. This took an hour and a quarter, and it felt so good to get home with the knowledge that I did not have to pack and move on in the morning!

I enjoyed being in the heart of the family again, and there was much to do in the run up to Christmas. Sheila had done a marvellous job in keeping things running smoothly while I have been away, so it was nice to be able to lend a hand and muck in.

The Spurs game against Shamrock Rovers was a good 4-0 win, but it was not enough to keep us in the Europa Cup. Still now we can concentrate on keeping our 3rd position in the Premier League, or indeed improving on it.

Friday was the last day of school for Romeo. I had planned to pick him up at 11.30am, but I received a call that a couple of the parents were presenting his teacher with a present, and they thought it would be a good idea if I could play, “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” on guitar, with the boys singing. So I packed my acoustic in the car, drove down to the school, and it went very well indeed. His teacher was delighted, and of course so was Romeo. I should have played, “Free & Easy,” with the boys standing on their desks, but that would have been a bit too radical.

Saturday and Sunday were days of madness trying to get everything done for Xmas, plus running Romeo to Rugby training, along with long walks with Iggy.

On Sunday, Spurs kept the smile on my face with a 1-0 win over Sunderland, and a fine goal from Pavlychenko.
Chelsea are our next opponents, so I am praying for a good performance, though we do have a lot of important first choice players with injuries. Still my fingers are crossed, along with everything else, for a good result!

Well the Xmas tree is up at home, and everything is beginning to feel like Xmas now. Next week Romeo and I will do some serious power shopping for presents, and then we will be all set.

All that is left for me to say is that I hope everyone that reads this blog has a fantastic Xmas, and a wonderful New Year, and I am not sure If I will keep this blog up over the festive season, as I need to spend some much needed and valuable time with my family.

It has been a very exciting but extremely busy year, and we need some quality time together as a family. However I will pick it up again in the New Year for sure, as it feels really good when I travel around the world and meet people who read it weekly, and I am humbled when they say they look forward to it every week.

At this time of year please give a thought to those less fortunate, and lend a hand wherever you can to those that need it, and in anyway that you can.

I always think of the homeless a little more at this time of the year, and since being home, I have cleared out all of my clothes, shoes and coats to give to them, as warm clothes are paramount in keeping them warm and alive in these freezing temperatures. Especially as they have no roof over their head.

I would also like to thank everyone who participated in my Cancer Charity in 2011. I will be handing over a nice cheque to Cancer Research in the New Year, and I will take pictures and post them up on my website. Then we can start a fresh auction in 2012.

It has been a brilliant year, and many thanks to all of the fans, friends and Heepsters that have come to our Concerts, and bought our CD’s, DVD’s and Merchandise. Your support is much appreciated, and we do have the best fans in the world, bar none!

I cannot finish this blog without thanking Dave White for keeping my website up and running all year, and putting my blogs up each week, when I send them to him from the many countries I have been in this year. Thanks mate!

A very “Heepy Xmas,” to you all, and a very, “Heepy New Year.”

‘Appy days!
Mick

From Dave White:

Hi all,

I’d like to take just a minute to wish all of you around the world the very best of  Health, Happiness and Heep in the upcoming Year.
Things have certainly notched up a bit in the Heepcamp would you have to agree ??

That having been said , I’d like to echo Micks thoughts regarding :
” At this time of year please give a thought to those less fortunate, and lend a hand wherever you can to those that need it, and in anyway that you can.”

Micks Charity Auction is located at http://www.shirtoffmybackauctions.com/.  Please do consider bidding on items in the upcoming years as the monies received are donated to
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/ - a very very worthy cause.

It’s been a great run with Mick and the gang all these years and it’s only going to continue to get better -

Dave White
www.uriah-heep.com

Let’ s Go 2012 !

Dave and Mick in Trenton New Jersy 2002

I met Russell at Paddington Station to travel to Bristol, and we both got there early, so we went for a coffee. I did have to laugh, because I got there earlier than Russ, and bought our tickets. The price for the two of us was £59 one way. I thought I would enquire about upgrading to a first class ticket, and the lady behind the counter embarrassingly said, that would be £279. How on earth can they justify that!

However the seats we had were fine, and it was only a 1hour 40minutes journey. They even had TV screens in the back of the seat in front of you that played films, sport, TV shows, news, and travel maps, much like the airlines on long hauls. The only difference was that you had to pay £1.49 for the films, sports and TV shows. There was even a power point to charge up your mobiles and lap tops, which was cool. 

We arrived at the hotel at 3pm, so we had a couple of hours before we had to go to the soundcheck. Bernie, Phil and Trevor had just checked in, having driven from Brighton. In fact Phil was still in reception changing his room, closely followed by Bernie. They are the precious sleepers of the pack.

We were playing the Bristol O2 Academy, which was a cool gig. The soundcheck went really well, though we had to drag Phil out of the pub next door, as he was having a pint! I kid you not!

We then went to the same 400 year old pub next door, that Phil was in at soundcheck time, for dinner, and in doing so, we met a few fans in there, who obviously frequent that pub pre gig. It was cool to talk with them, and we had a few pictures taken with some of them before leaving! The food was excellent!

The support band were called the, “Howling,” and they were nice guys, in fact for most of our show, I saw them rocking out in front on my side of the stage. They are going to be In Oxford with us too!

We did have a Spinal Tap moment, when we arrived at the back door of the venue for the show, as there was an over  zealous security guy on the door, who would not let us in without a pass. The support band were there, and they told him who we were, but he would not budge. We explained to him, that we came to the venue earlier for the soundcheck, and left our gig bags with our passes in them. When we explained that it would be a very quiet night, and please use some common sense, he relented and let us in. Still alls well that ends well, and I did shake his hand on the way back to the van after the show.

This was an older crowd in Bristol, but they were well into it, and surprisingly they cheered loudly when Bernie announced anything from ITW. It was a good gig, but on stage the sound was seriously separated, and a lot different of late. Still we played well, and there was a really warm response from the audience, who were intently listening to every note sang and played. 

The head banging section was a hoot, though it did take some cajoling, to get everyone up on to the stage. As Bernie said, he didn’t think Bristol did shy.

Back in the dressing room the, “Howling,” boys came to say hi, and we met a VIP guy, who was nice, and we had a good chat and a drink with him. Then it was back to the hotel and bed!

At breakfast we met a guy and his wife who were at the show last night, and he wanted a picture taken. He just loved the show, and said it was a real no gimmicks rock show, which to him was so refreshing.

The journey was only a couple of hours to Bournemouth, and lo and behold there was a Toby Carvery next door to the hotel, and we could not check in until 3pm, so off we went for lunch. Full as a goose springs to mind, the way we were feeling when we left there.

I sent a text to Charlotte on the way, as she was coming to Bournemouth to see the show with her husband Baden. I also sent her a belated Birthday wish, as it was her Birthday yesterday. I have a little present for her that I bought in Russia, and it is of the feline variety.

The venue in Bournemouth was the O2 Acadamy, which was a nice venue. The interior was quite ornate, especially in the roof and balcony areas. There was a support band on, but their name shamefully escapes me. They were local to Bournemouth, and seemed to do pretty well.

Before the show we met local boy John Wetton, (Roxy Music,King Crimson,Asia,UK and Heep,) who popped in to say hi, and he was delighted we were playing, “Return to Fantasy.” It was nice to see him, as always.

The show was pretty good, and I have never seen an audience so attentive. Even on Bernie’s announcements, he had to stop occasionally, to see if they were still with him. This bought a few laughs all round! The same thing happened in Russell’s drum solo, and my Acoustic flourish, as you could hear a pin drop.

In the end though they opened up, and a good time was had by all. There was a huge roar for an encore, and the head banging section, was a laugh!

What did make me smile, was that when Bernie was getting the audience to sing on the Ah! section in “Lady in Black,” he pointed to the balcony after a few rounds, and said,”You up in the balcony, it is your turn to sing loud,” and downstairs obediently stopped singing. I have never seen this before, and that just proved how intently they were listening.

A good night was had by all, and back in the dressing room we met our Charlotte and her husband Baden, and it was quite emotional. We had all signed a birthday card for her, and gave her a small present, and she loved the little ornate cat I bought for her all the way from St Petersburg. It was so lovely seeing her, and it was just great to see her so relaxed. It was quite funny as she arrived wearing make-up, and a few people did not recognise her as our Charlie.

It must have been very strange for her, but she said she enjoyed the show, though for the first time as part of the audience. That must have been a spin out, but I am so glad she came. She has been a huge part of our life, and she kept repeating the mantra, “My boys.” Love her to bits!

Both her and her husband Baden are Spurs fans, and if I can get some tickets to a game at White Hart Lane sometime, we have promised to go and see a game together. COYS!

In the morning we headed back to London. Phil took the train from Bournemouth, but the rest of us were dropped off at Hammersmith Station. I had to then get a train to Kings X, then another to Finsbury Park, and then another home. I walked home, pulling my brief case and suitcase. In truth, I could have taken a cab, but I needed the exercise, and after that I had a nice cup of tea.

The rest of the day was organising our bedroom, that had been freshly painted, and a new carpet installed. I had another workout, pushing, pulling and carrying furniture around, to get everything in position and ship shape.

It was a special day that day, as it was Sheila and my 9th Anniversary! So when she came home from work, we went out for a lovely relaxing meal. Delightful it was too!

Sheila was up at the crack of dawn, as she was going to help out in the kitchens at the Whitechapel Mission for the homeless, before going in to work for a full day, and then on to see me in concert at Shepherds Bush Empire. I did get up with her in support, and drove her to the railway station, as it was dark and rainy. I am immensely proud of her for doing this, and it does send out a great message to Romeo, as to what life is all about.

There was a bit of a mix up with my car time to pick me up, for Shepherds Bush, so consequently I was an hour and a half late for the soundcheck.

It is amazing as things like this always seem to happen at London shows. Still I rushed in and completed the soundcheck in record time, and this was only made possible because Adam my guitar tech had everything set and ready, just how I like it, with only the smallest adjustments to make.

After the soundcheck I went for a Thai meal with Bernie. I did not get to see anyone before the show, which was most unusual, but I did receive texts from everyone saying they had arrived.

Our next door neighbour Alan, kindly drove Romeo, a school friend of Romeo’s called Olly, and our Au Pair and her boyfriend to the concert. He also dropped them home after the show, so that was most kind of him.

I have to say it was good being back in London, and they gave us a warm response as we walked on to the stage.

“Snakecharmer,” were on before us, and this was their debut show. It was nice seeing my old mates, Micky Moody, Neil Murray, and Laurie Wisefield again! With that much talent on stage, it could only be good. They did a fine set, and went down very well. I must say I did like the singer Chris Ousey’s,and I thought he had an excellent voice. I met him later in the bar, and he was a nice guy! I look forward to seeing how they develop as a band! Also in the band were
Harry James:Drums (Thunder/Magnum), and Adam Wakeman:Keyboards, who is Rick Wakeman’s son, and he has played in Ozzy Osbourne’s band!

Our show was cool, and we hit our stride pretty well from the first note. It was a good reaction to the classic songs, and equally good to the new ITW songs. Brilliant!

It was a great night, and the head banging on “Free & Easy,” was an extra blast, as we had some of our family come on to the stage with us. Mostly all of our kids! Romeo and Oliver just loved it, and I am sure it was the talk of the playground at school the next day! Bernie had his little girl Maddy up centre stage, and Russell had his 3 boys, Kai, Sonny & Brandon.

It is always nice to have a successful London show behind us, and we then met everyone in the bar afterwards. There were family, friends, and VIP’s in there, and it did go on a bit, but it was all good. One guy showed me his tattoos, of which he had many, and a lot of them were Heep related. Amazing!

We got to bed a 2am in the morning, and I had to get up at 6.30am to take the boys to school, as Romeo’s friend Oliver had a sleepover. That was an hours drive there, and an hour back! I then took Iggy for an hours walk in the forest. After that I was not much use to man or beast, so I went back to bed, for a bit of catch up sleep!

By early afternoon, both Sheila and I had to drive to a restaurant where Romeo’s school rugby coaches were taking the “A” and “B” rugby teams to dinner. Sheila had been busy arranging presents for the boys to give to the teachers, and she did a marvellous job! After that it was back home, a chill, a glass of wine and relax!

On Saturday the rest of the boys took the train to Oxford, but I drove with Sheila, Romeo and a couple of friends of ours. The funny thing was that Russ, Bernie and Trevor had forgotten I was driving, and they all texted and called me to say the train was leaving in 10 minutes, and where are you. Doh!

On the way to the O2 Oxford soundcheck, I was met by a few fans outside the venue, and I signed a couple of things, and had some pictures taken!

The soundcheck was pretty quick, and we then went for some dinner at a local Italian. Bernie was with me and my family, and friends! The manager of the restaurant came over to the table, and asked if we were UH, and he was delighted we were eating there. He was from Brazil, and he said that his brother was a super Heep fan. Well we had a few pictures taken with him, and he then sent them to his brothers mobile, and he was over the moon.

Bernie and I had to leave the restaurant to have a meeting with Martin our manager with the rest of the boys, in our dressing room. We are coming to the end of a very busy and successful year, and there is a lot to discuss for 2012, and I can report, so far, so good!

The “Howling,” were with us again as support! For some reason they played a very short set, which enabled us to go on a little earlier,which was no bad thing,as there was a curfew, and we could do a full set!

Well the show was great though it was a strange one for sound, as there was a lot of bottom end running around the stage. There was so much of it, that Bernie commented it was the first time he had sang on stage, and at the same time had a foot massage.

Still the show was a lot of fun, and I loved the head banging section, as my son Romeo came up with me, with a friend of his called Joseph. I had to laugh, as quite a few Heepsters have been to a number of shows, and now know the format, so they all jumped up on to the stage super quick, when I announced, “Free & Easy! ” We had Heepsters Kevin and Yvonne up, and Pete Wharton, which was great.

At the end Romeo, Joseph and his long standing friend Woody, came up to throw out guitar picks into the audience with me. Both Joseph and Woody play guitar,so they were thrilled, and of course Romeo who plays the drums, was with his Dad, and it does not get any better than that.

Afterwards we drove to Leighton Buzzard to stay in a Bed and Breakfast in a pub. The reason being that we were getting the train from Milton Keynes in the morning to Glasgow.

Well there was a bit of a Heep drama as Bernie woke up with a sore throat. So it was quickly arranged that he should go to the local hospital for a jab to reduce the soreness and swelling.

To be perfectly honest, with the schedules we have been keeping this year, he has done remarkably well thus far by not getting anything sooner. Just think of all of the flying, time zones, overnight train journeys, extreme weather conditions (Russia to Venezuela-Snow to Sunshine,) and the general wear down of so many shows, he is really quite robust in the throat department. Probably more than any other singer I have worked with!

Daniel (Basher) Earnshaw from QEDG Management, was with him at the hospital, and Bernie managed to phone his throat specialist in London, so that they could advise on what treatment he should have. Both Bernie and Daniel then joined us at Milton Keynes Station Platform 3, with only a few minutes to spare. Phew!

We wanted to upgrade our tickets to First Class, and when the ticket guy came around, he said that would be £15 per person, times 6. Daniel had a quick word with him, and told him we were a rock band of note, and hey presto, there was no charge. Oh the joys of being on a Virgin Train!

Once in Glasgow it was straight to the O2 Acadamy for the soundcheck. We had half a dozen VIP’s to meet, and one of them gave me a present of a Spurs book, which was brilliant.

Outside on the neon Billboard above the entrance, we saw that they had spelt our name wrongly. Uriah Heap! Well this was quickly changed to the right spelling, as they were bombarded with calls from our London management, plus the fans that saw it, the band, and Basher Earnshaw our management representative who was with us.

It was then time to check into the hotel, with enough time for some quick Fish & Chips from across the road, and a shower before going back to the venue. I ordered a large fish and a small chips, and when I got back to my room and unwrapped the food, I found that I had two fish and a small chips. So large means two! What a result!

Daniel alias Basher, ate in the shop, a battered Mars bar which looked quite frankly yuk! He had it in his mind to try one, and try one he did. He ate the lot!

It was really nice playing a proper venue in Glasgow, where we could do our whole show. It was a tremendous turn out, and they gave us a fantastic reception when we walked on to the stage. The band as a whole played great, and we hit our stride from the first note. There was a fantastic response every time Bernie mentioned ITW, and the title track went down especially well. 

Bernie’s voice held out very well, and he did his usual professional job, which was amazing, seeing as how he could not even talk in the morning!

We saw a few faces down the front that we recognised, and most of them got up on the head banging section, which I have to say has been a really successful addition to the show this year.

It was a tremendous night, and back in the dressing room the party atmosphere took off! It was nice to see Alan Hartley who used to run our fan club back when it was all hard copy and post mail outs. He used to do this with David Owen who we also saw in Wolverhampton. Alan bought along his son Josh and daughter Sarah, who appeared to have a great time. 

It was also nice to meet Lee Agnew, the drummer of “Nazareth,” who paid us a visit. We will be working with them again next year, and it is always great to perform shows with the “Naz!”

I also met our friend Robbie Fields, who wrote a book on the  music scene in Glasgow, and Robbie asked me to write the forward in it. He was in good form, and we go back a long way!

After a while it was time to go back to the hotel, as the venue turned into a disco, that attracted an audience of two. I kid you not! It was the Spinal Tap of the disco world! Two lonely people up at the bar, who must have thought, that this was not the night out, they had planned. I can think of other words to use to best describe how they must have felt, but the above will have to suffice, thereby avoiding a censorship warning at the top of this blog!

Spurs lost 2-1 to Stoke, which was most disappointing, but you have to take those losses on the chin, and hope that it is a mild hiccup, and that they can pick themselves up for the next game.

Well that is another week nearer to Xmas, and being home with my family! I hope you enjoyed the read above, and I will  hopefully see you next week, as the Heep Rock n’ Roll Circus continues!
‘Appy days!
Mick

 Tuesday the 29th November, and we were leaving Caracas Venezuela for Frankfurt, and then on to London. In the morning we went to the shopping mall across from the hotel, for some last minute shopping, but that was very unfulfilling, as we drew a blank. Well at least we tried! 

There was a monsoon downpour as we left for the airport, and the journey took roughly one hour and a half. Driving past the Shanty Towns up in the hills, you wonder just how they survive, but survive they do! It is seeing something  like that, when you realise just how lucky you are.

It took an age to check in at the Lufthansa desk, and we had some guys with us that worked for the promoter, and they looked like three huge Maori wrestlers. Well the baggage handlers started throwing the equipment on to the belt, and I mean throwing, and the Maori looking guys asked them not to do that,and respect our equipment, and an argument started. Then there were punches thrown, and you would not want to be on the end of that Maori fist I can tell you. Anyway after that, the baggage handler knew he had bitten off more than he could chew with these guys, and he disappeared. I was amazed that the police were not called.

We said our goodbyes to everyone, and then we went to the business lounge, as we were traveling business class. In there we did a video message to our UK fans, to say how much we were looking forward to the UK tour, but it would not send either by text or email. This happens quite a lot, when you are in these type of territories, and it is most frustrating.

Phil, Trevor, Russ and I went to get something to eat, as the lounge had nada, zip, nothing! While in the restaurant, we had an endless stream of people coming over to our table to have pictures taken with us.

Once on the plane, and in our seats, it was nice to have a cheerful stewardess bring you a drink. It was amazing, because after the first plane meal, and a few glasses of wine, we all fell asleep until breakfast, as we were THAT TIRED. No one looked at any of the movies, and I just finished off my blog, and joined everyone in the land of nod!

Once in Frankfurt we had very little time before the next flight, and it was quite tight to say the least. There were security checks aplenty, but on the way to the gate, which was the other side of the airport, I managed to see some perfume in Duty Free, that I tried to buy for Sheila in Venezuela, but they did not have it. I was quick as lightning, and luckily the shop was not packed with never ending queue’s, and I chose it, and paid for it, and made my way to the gate. I was there in plenty of time, well in fact I was ten minutes early, so there was no problem.

Once we were sitting in our seat on the plane, there was a huge sigh of relief that after 5 weeks away on tour, we would soon be home, albeit for only 1 1/2 days before we start the UK tour in Wolverhampton.

Sitting in our seats we noticed that there was no Phil, and the alarm bells rang, where the hell is he. Well the worst thing happened, that could happen at that point, he missed the flight, and they took his baggage off the plane.

He had gone to the business class lounge, and seriously mistimed it, and he missed the flight. Well to be honest one look at the boarding pass, and the boarding time was clearly written on it, and there was no time at all to be swanning about in the lounge at all.

His heart must have sunk, once he realised he had missed the flight, and I did feel for him. Luckily there are flights to London almost every hour. He transferred his ticket on to the next one. The poor bugger though, because 5 weeks away on tour, and with the schedules we have been keeping, all he wanted to do was get home.

We arrived at LHR, and then we met our manager Martin Darvill in the arrival hall, who came to meet us. A quick coffee with him, and it was time to jump in the car with Gordon, and drive home.

I was so glad to get home,and there was a huge sigh of relief, as I walked through the front door of my house. After a quick cup of tea, I watched all of the Spurs football games that I had recorded while I was away, then I had a quick nap before driving to pick up Romeo from his school coach that evening.

It was fantastic seeing him, and we had so much to catch up  on it was wonderful. We drove back home, and started doing his homework, and I felt I was well and truly back in the saddle at home. Sheila came home later from work, and we then had dinner, and a lovely relaxed evening!

The next morning it was up at 6.15am to take Romeo to his school bus. The rest of the day I was clearing out our bedroom, as Sheila had arranged for it to be decorated, as well as putting down a new carpet.

In the evening Sheila and I went out for a lovely Greek meal, and it was wonderful to catch up on everything on the home front while I have been away. To be honest it was just lovely to be relaxing with Sheila, and not rushing away to anywhere.

Wednesday morning it was time to pack, and off to Euston Station to meet our manager Martin Darvill, Phil, Bernie, and Russell. We travelled by train up to Wolverhampton where we were playing the first show of our UK tour. It was a couple of hours journey, so it was a good chance to catch up on all things Heep!

Well the soundcheck went very well, and then we had Fish & Chips, with Mushy Peas, for dinner. Luuverrly!

There were two support bands on that night, “Daylight Robbery,” and “Martin Turners Wishbone Ash.” The audience were well warmed up by the time we went on, and it was a fantastic night.

We still had a degree of jet lag, but the audience filled us with adrenaline for sure. We had to cut a couple of numbers out of the show, as there was a curfew, which was a shame. Afterwards we met a number of VIP’s, had a drink, and went back to the hotel, safe in the  knowledge that the UK tour had kicked off to a good start.

In the morning we had breakfast, and then jumped into the van driven by Vic to Holmfirth. We could not check in to the hotel until 3pm, so we had lunch at the pub next door, then Bernie and I went shopping. Bernie for that nights wine, and I went to Boots the Chemist, to pick up some toiletries that I could not get in Russia or Venezuela.

Once checked in, we had a couple of hours before the soundcheck. At the soundcheck we met some nice VIP’s, and then we went for a Thai meal before the show, and lovely it was too.

I did meet a sweet 11 year old girl, who is the youngest Carparelli Guitar endorsee,and she was with her Mother and Father who were fantastic. It was wonderful to see the support they were giving her, and I took them to the dressing room, and she played on my Carparelli S4 warm up guitar, which she loved. Mike Carparelli had given her one of his new Arco guitars, and she showed me a picture of it, and it looked really cool! She had picked it up that day I believe.

The Holmfirth Picturedome was packed when we walked on to the stage, and the audience were well up for it! That night we had one support band called “Aireya 51,” and they did a good job warming up the audience. The guitarist was the brother of our good friend Don Airey, the keyboard player of Deep Purple. It was a great night, and good to be playing shows, back in England.We had a bit of a laugh with the “Free & Easy,” head banging section, and there were no curfew’s, so we could play the full show. ‘Appy days!

After the show we met the VIP’s, and lots of friends, and drank copious amounts of wine. Trevor’s family were there, Scampi had his wife Sue there, and Vic had his wife and daughter there too, so it was a bit of a family affair.

Eventually the venue staff came in, and asked us to leave, so it was back to the hotel and bed.

The next day we travelled down to Brighton. This was a horrendous journey, as there were accidents on the way causing huge tail backs on the motorways. We stopped and bought a map, as the sat navigation kept wanting to throw us back into the turmoil we had just left, and then we zig zagged our way through. We arrived with little over an hour left before our soundcheck.

The venue was a bit of a weird one, as it was in the Brighton Centre, and it looked like a huge convention room, with a low ceiling. On the bill with us again were, “Daylight Robbery,” and “Martin Turners Wishbone Ash.”

After the soundcheck we met a few VIP’s who were great, and we had pictures with them, chatted, and generally signed loads of stuff.

It was a bit of a special evening, as artist Roger Dean came to the show, and introduced us on to the stage. Of course Roger did our “Demons and Wizards,” “Magicians Birthday,” and “Sea of Light,” album covers. It was great seeing him again after such a long time.

Also our producer Mike Paxman came to see us which was great. I had dinner with Mike and Bernie, on the seafront in an  American type restaurant. While sitting at the table, in walked Kim Chandler, who was one of our backing singers for our “Acoustically Driven,” CD & DVD, as well as the famed, “Magicians Birthday Party,” CD & DVD. Kim also played the flute on our song, “Golden Palace,” on “Acoustically Driven.” She was playing a gig later on that night in Brighton, with Amy Winehouse’s Father,who she said had an excellent voice. She had seen our poster, and tracked us down, so that was very cool!

I was super delighted that day, as my beloved Spurs won 3-0 over Bolton, and continued their amazing run of league wins.

The gig was really cool, though from the stage it
was a little strange, as it had a really low ceiling, but we soon overcame that, and had a great time. There was a fine mix of people up on stage for the head banging section, and a good time was had by all. We even sang “Happy Birthday,” to one of the female participants, which was a scream.

In the dressing room it was a quick change, and a meet with the VIP’s again, who just loved the show. Then It was time to say goodbye to Martin Turner, Roger Dean, and Mike Paxman as I was driving home that night, as it was a day off on the Sunday.

Martin Darvill had kindly arranged to drop me off in his car, and I arrived home at 3am. He had also arranged a car for Russell to go home, driven by Daniel Earnshaw, who is part of his management team. Phil had his lady stay with him in Brighton, Bernie stayed there too, and it was way too far for Trevor to travel home. Though Trevor had been home after Wolverhampton.

We will all meet up again in Bristol on Monday. Both Russell and I will meet at Paddington Station, and go by train together.

Sunday was helping out on the home front, walking Iggy our dog in the forest for hours, and trying to fight off an extreme feeling of tiredness, that I am finding increasingly difficult to shake off.

The weeks are passing at the speed of light, and I will be reporting more of the UK tour escapades in next weeks blog.

‘Appy days,
Mick

It was departure at 10am on Monday the 21st of November. We had a 4 hour bus drive to Yekaterinburg, and a day off! We never actually get a day off in total, as there is always some travelling to do. Boy we needed a day off more than anything, what with the schedule we have been keeping, since being in Russia.

I woke up with a text from Trevor saying are you going to breakfast, and I guess he was starving, as he missed out on his meal last night. I turned on my lights, and there was a bang. This fused all of the lights in my room, so I had to get ready and pack in the dark, using my iPad as a light. Trevor was soon at my door, and as I opened the door he saw a fuse box above the bathroom door. A quick look in there, and he pushed up one of the buttons, and I had light again. Well Trevor is a bit of a DIY boffin, whereas DIY for me, stands for, “Don’t Injure Yourself.”

When I was waiting by the elevator with my bags to go down to the ground floor, one of the hotel staff (female) saw me, and thanked me for a great show. Actually I did remember her, as she was one of the headbangers who got up on to the stage. She said that she loved the show, and could not believe she was actually on the stage with us. She came down to reception with me, and I signed an autograph for her, and she was super delighted. 

I had just learnt that the X-Factor show in Bulgaria, had John Lawton on as the vocal coach. Well he will be far better than the UK vocal coach is for sure, as John CAN sing. He still has an amazing set of pipes! He has done really well out there, as he presents travel programmes on TV, which are released on DVD, and I did a film together with him for Miramar films called love.net!  Good luck to him, as he has carved out a nice little career out there, and he still manages to keep singing.

The day off was greatly reduced to a night off, as the 4 hour journey to Yekaterinburg turned into 7 hours. We arrived at the hotel at 5pm.

Well we met in the bar at 7.30pm, and we were taken to an Irish Bar by the promoter for dinner. The restaurant / bar was called, “The Hooch.” The food was good, and the wine was excellent. It was about a 20minute drive from the hotel, and I have to say that Yekaterinburg is a beautiful city, with some amazing buildings. I saw so many top designer shops, but the one that caught my eye, was a wedding dress shop called, “Marry Me.” I thought that was quite direct and to the point, and by the look of those dresses on display, they cost a pretty penny, or rouble should I say.

The Urals are to the west of Yekaterinburg, and they are the gateway between Europe and Asia. Incidentally people buy Asian cars rather than European cars, as they are much cheaper, and of course they are right hand drives, which suits them better!

I woke up on Tuesday morning, and immediately switched on my iPad for the football scores, as Spurs played Aston Villa on Monday night. We are still out of whack time wise to the UK by 6 hours. Well there were whoops of delight coming from my room, as we won 2-0, with Adebayor scoring both goals. This puts us in 3rd place in the Premier League, behind Man City and Man United, plus we have a game in hand, which is cool! They must be super excited down at White Hart Lane! COYS!

Dave White sent me a cool picture when I opened up my emails in the morning, as it was a picture of a BMW car, with the number plate, “MRS BOX.” He had been playing a gig in Cleveland USA, and saw the car, and took the picture. I must say there was a wave of panic that came over me, as I thought Sheila had been out on a buying spree, while I was in Russia. Joke!  However there is no connection at all!

Dave White USA and Louis Rentrop NL, our web-masters are great guys, and do so much for the band to keep the fans informed and up to date. We cannot thank them enough, as our website is up there with the best of ‘em!

Dave also does my personal website, and makes sure the blogs go up every week, so a big thanks goes out to him from me, as he posts them from wherever I am in the world. At the moment it is Yekaterinburg Russia, and in a couple of days it will be Caracas Venezuela, and soon to be on tour in the UK. The Rock n’ Roll Circus continues!

We were invited to the Governor of Yekaterinburg’s office, as he is a huge Heep fan! Once there we were taken on a tour of the Government building by the Minister of International affairs, who was a super Heep fan! His name was Solovazov Vladimiz Yurevich. Now that is quite a mouthful isn’t it, but he was a great guy, and he can speak seven languages. First of all went to his office, where he had a picture of all the bands that he liked on the wall, which looked like a Classic Rock version of the Beatles Sgt Peppers album cover, with  Heep, Nazareth, Deep Purple, and the Sweet, all in it!

We were then taken to another room, where we answered questions, much like a press conference, but it was some of the people that worked there. After this we signed autographs, and had pictures taken. Each one of us were given a huge book about Yekaterinburg, plus a framed piece of rock, mined of course in Yekaterinburg.

Then we were shown around the rest of the building, all except for one part, where they were having an important meeting with some Cossacks.

They showed us all of their Religious Icons and treasures, and there were beautiful handmade Jewellery pieces, and items made from Malachite, along with some serious knives and swords, plus there was some fantastic artwork from local artists.

We also walked through their official meeting room, with a huge circular desk, with literally hundreds of chairs, all with a microphone and headset in each position. It felt like we were having a summit meeting experience. Heaven forbid!

We could not help but notice how much Yekaterinburg had grown, especially since our first time there 20 years ago. The Minister said that most of the growth and buildings had actually happened in the last five years, and it is now the third biggest city in Russia.

They are building an express speed train, much like the Ice train in Germany, that will go from Moscow to Nizhniy Novgorod, and then to Yekaterinburg. This is in the development stages at the moment. They are also in the process of making their Domestic and International Airports the second largest in Russia.

The Minister did say that the one thing that they are lacking in Yekaterinburg is a proper music venue, and they hope to put that right at some stage. They are also trying to get a Hard Rock Cafe franchise, but that is proving to be very difficult!

Well the venue we played was called the Tele-Club, which was a huge barn like place, very similar to Z7, in Pratteln Switzerland. It was quickly re-named by us, the Tele-tubby Clubby!

This was our last show in Russia on this tour, and the audience did not let us down. They were chanting Heep, Heep, for at least 30 minutes before we went on stage. They were well up for it. The stage was quite high, but we could clearly see their faces, and they did not stop smiling and singing, and we were seriously connecting with them.

There was a tremendous amount of young people in the audience, and we have noticed this a lot on this Russia tour. They all seem to know ITW, which is great! We had a full quota of head-bangers up on stage, and as it was the last night, it was mobbed. Everyone had a great time, and it was a nice way to finish the tour.

We had dinner delivered to the dressing room, and after
that we said hello to the Minister of International Affairs, who came to the show with a small entourage, proving just how much he loved our music, as this venue was seriously out of town. 

Back at the hotel there were a lot of fans in the reception area, so we signed autographs, had pictures taken, and went to bed. Some of our party though, disappeared into the bar, for a nightcap or three!

On Wednesday it was up to have breakfast, and off to the airport to fly to Moscow. We arrived at the Moscow Domestic airport, then drove across the city, to stay at a hotel by the International Airport, for an early morning flight tomorrow to Frankfurt and then on to Venezuela.

On this tour alone we will have been to Moscow Airport 14 times. That is incredible, when you think that the tour was 4 weeks long. Wow that is an average of once every other day!

We were on an Aeroflot flight to Moscow, and I thought that maybe at last we would get some decent hot food. Now how wrong can you be, as they served us up a bit of old cold chicken on a small soggy salad, a very small sponge cake, and a bread roll that would have made a good Hockey Puck.

Luckily I had purchased my own Greek Salad at the airport, just in case the food was  below par, as I would have gone hungry, and suffice to say it was a good move!

We were just coming in to land, and I was woken up by Phil, to join the lads down the back of the plane for a picture with the Air Stewardess’s. We just made it back to our seats for the landing! The picture was more important than safety evidently! Still no harm done, and they were very happy!

I read in the Moscow Times on the plane, that Pilots are being temporarily blinded by laser points! Attacks on planes with laser pointers have skyrocketed in Russia this year. There have been more than 50 incidents reported, compared to 5 in 2010.

A crew of a Boeing 737 from Vladivostok, were temporarily blinded by a laser pointer upon landing in Krasnodar late Monday. After all of the flights we have taken in the last month, and we have been to both of those places on this tour, that is a bit of a worry.

A bill was passed proposing to step up punishment to a maximum of 10 years in prison, for anyone caught doing this, but a teenager in Barnaul was fined only 200 Roubles which is £4, for a similar attack last month. That is crazy!

The bus journey across Moscow was as ever, stacked, packed and whacked with traffic, and it took forever. We arrived at the hotel, and as I unpacked my bags, I realised I  had left my glasses on the bus. Doh! The bus had of course gone, but Scampi called to say that they had found them, and all they had to do was find a way to get them to me.

In my room I watched the Man United v Benfica football game on the TV, which kept me occupied while I was hoping they would find my glasses. The score was 2-2, and an exciting game. Ex Spurs player Berbatov scored one of the goals, but he missed a sure fire sitter later on in the game.

I managed to speak with Sheila, and she is as busy as ever running everything on the home front. It really is difficult for her when I am away, and I guess that goes for the rest of the bands families too, including the crew.

Especially as a lot of the tours this year, have been butt ended. Still we will soon be back in the UK, and even though we will be on tour, it will feel much closer, and we will be able to pop home every now and again, or have our families join us! We look forward to that immensely.

The glasses saga ended with that they will post them to me in the UK. I will not hold my breath that I will ever see them again, or indeed see through them again. Luckily I have a spare pair of stage glasses to get me through.

I did an interview in my room, for a Brighton newspaper back in the UK, and they could not get me on the phone in my room for some reason, so we had to do it on my mobile.

My phone did not stop ringing in my room, as the Hotel Reception  called me every few minutes, requesting that they could bring a guitar to my room for signing, and Mr Box can we have a picture taken with you, and Mr Box will you autograph our pictures and CD covers etc. I told them that I was coming down for dinner, and I would do it all then, which I did. So it was not much of a night off for moi!

Probably that is why the interviewer in Brighton could not get through to my room, because the phone was busy with those requests.

I went down to reception and dealt with the autographs and pictures, plus signing the guitar, and the Hotel Manager wanted me to have dinner with him and 3 other guys, and a special Russian dinner. I spied the crew in a separate room, and made my excuses and sat with them, otherwise it would have turned into one big interview. Still I had photos aplenty taken with them before I sat down to eat. The food was good, and after a couple of glasses of wine, I was off to bed for an early night. I did leave my phone off the hook though, just in case.

The wake up call for me was 4.30am, so it was an early start. I went downstairs with my suitcase, and there were a number of staff wanting more pictures at that ungodly hour.
Still we did a band shot with staff members, and then jumped into the van to the airport.

We were flying Lufthansa Airlines to Frankfurt Germany, and then on to Caracas Venezuela. They stiffed us on the excess baggage, changing their policy from pieces of luggage, as opposed to the overall weight. They seem to make up the rules as they go along.

We had to say goodbye to our interpreter Harmonica (Our Monica,) and Ivan our merchandiser, as they were flying back to the Ukraine.

After our goodbyes, we went through the security X-ray machines, and passport control, and it was not long before we were sitting on the plane. The food, drink, and service on board, was a lot better than we have had of late, so that was nice, and it wasn’t long before we all took a visit to the land of nod. The flight was 2hours 50minutes long.

Once in Frankfurt we went to the Lufthansa lounge and had a couple of drinks, and something to eat. We also charged up our iPads, phones and lap top computers.

The flight left about 30 minutes late, and we settled down for  the 9hours 45minutes flight to Caracas.

The flight, well was another flight, though we were in business class. The food was average, but the vino was very nice. So the ying and yang of flying continued. The inflight entertainment was less than average, so luckily we had fully charged iPads, but the stewardess’s and stewards were all nice and polite.

Once we stepped off of the plane in Caracas, we could feel the temperature change from what we had been used to in the last 4 weeks. There was no need for our coats, and it wasn’t long before we were all sweating, as we were totally overdressed. We were met by a rep from the promoter, who guided us through the immigration and even more X-ray machines, then as we went through into the arrival lounge we were met by more reps.

We were herded into 2 waiting vans. One for the luggage and equipment, and one for our party. There were 15 people squashed into our van, and we were told this would take 1 hr 30 mins, but it ended up being 3 hrs 40 mins. It was terribly uncomfortable to say the least, and being that tired did not help. We had been traveling 22 hours up to that point, and in total it took 25hrs 40mins to get to the hotel in Valencia from Yekaterinburg.

On arrival we checked in, and although it was late, we had a very nice dinner around the swimming pool, which I must say did help to chill us out a little, though we were all desperately tired.

Our day off soon became a day on, with the schedule we were given, plus I had to do an interview for BBC Radio in my room, with Roger Day. This covers BBC Radio Kent; BBC Radio Solent; BBC Sussex; BBC Surrey; BBC Radio Oxford; BBC Radio Berkshire. Still it will give a nice plug for the UK tour, which we are all looking forward to!

Then I joined the boys for lunch, and after lunch we had to drive 1hr 30mins to Maracay, and the Guillman Festival site, to have a press conference. After that we were going to have a soundcheck, and then dinner with the Governor.

On Sunday the 27th, when we play in Caracas, it is a celebration of the second attempt at a Revolution, which failed in 1992. As we were driving to the press conference, we saw quite a few Russian Sukoy fighter jets, practicing a fly over display for the celebration.The sheer power of them overhead, and the tight turns they were taking was amazing. I cannot quite see why they celebrate a Revolution Failure, but that is what I had been told.

In the van on the radio we heard, “Only Human,” and “Lady in Black,” being played. This was on Radio FM 100.1, which is the only radio station that plays rock music in Venezuela. When we were closer to the festival site, the promoter put Bernie on to his mobile phone, and he did an interview direct with the station, which was cool.

On the side of the road as you drive, you can see people everywhere selling their wares to the passing traffic. I was told that most of it was candy, and ice pops, which were made with water full of bacteria. We were seriously warned not to touch the ice pops, unless we wanted to spend a week on the toilet.

When we jumped out of the van at the festival site, we noticed the tyres, were shot. They were split, and seriously dangerous. We were lucky we did not have an accident to be honest, as they were that bad. We soon let them know that we would not travel in that van again.

I have to say that some of the cars I saw in Maracay, there is not a lot of difference between a car lot, and a scrap yard. How they keep some of those old cars going is just incredible. There is obviously no MOT inspection in place!

Well it was a hurry up and wait day, in every sense of the word. We arrived for the press conference, and a lot of the press where not there yet, so we had to wait. Eventually they arrived, and the press conference took place. This went smoothly, and I have to say there was a healthy press presence, which was good.

After that we had to wait another 2 hours, until we could finally do our soundcheck. The reason we were doing a soundcheck in the first place, was because on the festival day the next day there were eight bands on, and therefore a sound check would have been impossible!
To appease us with the long wait, they took us to a bread shop across the road from the festival site, I kid you not, and they gave us a police car escort to get there, (I kid you not again,) and we could have walked there. We sat in that sweaty bread shop, with no air conditioning, having coffee thick enough you could chew it, but some of the band did indulge in a little cake.

One of the bands on the bill, actually played at a free concert in a Bull Ring, which was a competition to see who would play on the Guillman festival with us! The audience all voted on pieces of paper, and the winners must have been super excited.

Well with our press conference and sound check complete, it was time for dinner. This was at a restaurant 15minutes away from the festival site. Even though we were in a van, we had a motorbike police escort, which whizzed us through the traffic. The restaurant was one of those meat places where they continually arrive at your table with skewers of meat, and they carve it straight on to your plate. Personally I do not find that too pleasant, but some of the boys did get
stuck in. The wine was good though, and there was much merriment!

We were meant to meet the Governor at the restaurant, but he pulled out at the last minute, as he was too busy. He did apologise, and so we partied on down without him. The other bands were with us, so it was a full table. After that it was back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

The next day, we stayed in the hotel most of the time, but Phil, Russell and I, were taken to a shopping mall, as we were looking for presents for our families.

Then I ended up sitting in the reception area of the hotel with Trevor, as that was the only place we could get Wi-Fi on our iPads, and we listened to BBC Radio 5 live. I managed to get the Spurs v West Bromich Albion football game, which I was delighted with, especially as we won 3-1. Trevor was anxiously trying to find the Hull City game, but he could not find it. After that it was back to the room, to start getting ready for the show.

The festival in Maracay when we arrived, was well and truly hopping. There were 10,000 people there, all having a great time. Now one of the guys organising the event, his name was Paul Gillman, and he was also the lead singer in the band that was on before us, who were called, “Gillman,” and the festival was called, “Gillmanfest.”  Now that is quite a bit of self promotion there, and riding heavily on the www.allaboutme.com ticket. 

Apart from us, the festival was all pretty much Heavy Metal. However once we hit the stage, there was an almighty roar, and that was the way it stayed all night. They just love their rock music in Venezuela, and to them it is almost a religion.

We invited some of the audience up for the head banging section, and they were ecstatic! It was a great show, and after a few drinks in the dressing room, we had the long drive back to the hotel in Valencia.

The next day the crew left early to Caracas, and the band  departed at 11am. We were travelling in a van, and the driver needed to get some diesel. On the third garage stop, we eventually found some.

Now he put into the tank 80 litres of diesel, and this cost the paltry some of 1.6 Bolivares Fuerte’s, which is equal to 18 pence UK money. Now how crazy is that? Especially as a small bottle of mineral water would cost you 3 Bolivares Fuerte’s.

About an hour down the road, the driver stopped as he felt there was something wrong with the brakes. Standing on the side of the road, and with no air conditioning, we were seriously sweating buckets. We made him limp to a restaurant stop, which he did easily, and the end result was, that we sat there for an hour, while another bus turned up. There was still no air-conditioning, but at least we were in the shade.

The bus eventually turned up, and we transferred our luggage, and off we went to Caracas. Once in Caracas, we could not find the venue, and we drove around for a bit, very lost. If you have ever been to the maze that is called the Barbican in London, then this 2,500 seater theatre in Caracas, was in a similar concrete complex.

The band, “Bullet for my Valentine,” were playing down the road too. We made it just in time for the sound check, and then it was a rush to the hotel to eat, and get ready for the show, in just 1hr 30minutes.

We were all sitting in the van outside the hotel waiting to go to the venue, and Phil was missing. Scampi could not find his room, as the whole party were under the name Gillman. Eventually by process of elimination, he phoned him, and he had fallen into a deep sleep. He rushed down, and we went to the venue, which was luckily only 10 minutes away.

The show was sold out, and we were told that this was the fastest selling show in Venezuela’s history. Our tickets sold even faster than Pavarotti.

When we walked on to the stage, the atmosphere was electric. There was a tremendous amount of young people there, and they were into every single note we played. Looking out, it was a sea of smiling faces, and a joy to behold.

We had a few people run on to the stage in excitement, and there was one guy who ran up and knelt before me, ready to do a, “I am not worthy,” on his knees, and before I could blink, Adam my guitar tech, had him whisked away, and put safely back into the audience. Another one jumped up and grabbed Bernie, and a similar fate happened there. No harm was done, but it does show you the level of excitement going on.

When I invited people on to the stage for, “Free and Easy,” it was the most people we have had up with us, since we started doing it. The stage was seriously full, and it was a big stage. Phil said he counted 27 people, and then gave up.

It did take a little time to settle, as people wanted pictures with us, hugs, things signing, and guitar picks, but once I kicked off with the riff, they really got into the spirit of it all. It was a tremendous show to finish Venezuela on, and I have to say the people have a wonderful spirit, that is inspirational, and they do love their music.

After the show it was back to the hotel. As we arrived outside the hotel, “Bullet for my Valentine,” were standing there, so it was handshakes all round, and some of our crew had worked with them before, so off they went to the bar.

One thing that became a pain, was that both Russell and I had sent a text to our manager Martin Darvill, in the UK, and his reply, was continually sent to our mobiles, for two days. It was an endless stream of repeat texts, and they would not stop.

Russell also had the same from Martins PA Patzi, so he was getting double. Just to give you an idea of how many in one evening alone, I received 18 texts that were all the same repeats.

Martin and Patzi tried to sort this out from the UK, but no one could understand why. We can only hope they stop when we arrive in London.

I did find out some interesting facts about Venezuela though, which I will share with you now:

*The currency is called Bolivares Fuerte, and the official bank rate is 9 BF’s to $1, and unofficially it is 5 BF’s to $1.

*The average wage per month is $150, and I am told by our interpreter, that there are no Hospital or Health structures in place at all.

*You can fill up your car for $1, which is incredible. I was also told that a Dictator in the 1930′s, who was fleecing the country, even had his own petrol station in his mansion.

*There are Shanty Towns everywhere, much like in Brazil and South Africa, but the difference being that they are all different colours, mostly Salmon Pink, Red, Orange, Yellow and Turquoise Blue.

*The main export next to Oil, are Beauty Queens. They have had 7 Miss Worlds, and 7 Miss Universe.

*There are 11women to 1 man. Now that is quite an incredible statistic.

Another exhausting week passes, and if you have enjoyed the above, maybe I will see you next week, as we embark on our UK tour.

‘Appy days,
Mick

 This tour should now be called, “Sleep when you can, eat when you can.” It was another 5am get up, to catch a flight to our favourite airport Moscow. We were just passing through to Krasnoyarsk, to enter yet another time zone, and yet another little time difference to mess with our sleep pattern.

An interesting fact about Samara, the city we had just left, was that it was a closed off city to Russians, and of course to the rest of the world, because it was where they made Rockets and Nuclear Weapons. It was not opened to the rest of the world until 1991. We were the first band to go there, way back when, and we played in the huge town square to 110,000 people. It is the biggest town square in Russia, and far bigger than Red Square in Moscow.

I have to say that in the 2 weeks I have been here, and the numerous airport X-ray machines we have been through,  there are some people, who bring a whole new meaning to pushing to the front! They have made it an art form!  We quite often stand there and applaud, though sometimes when rudeness comes into the equation, we do allow a little shout up to ensue!

On the bus to the plane we saw the baggage being driven to the aeroplane, and it was on an open back truck, with my acoustic guitars very precariously balanced on top. They were wobbling away, and Adam and I were praying they made it to the plane, without falling off!

Once on the plane, and as I made my way to my seat, there were obviously a few people who were at the show last night in Samara, and they all wanted to shake my hand, which was nice, but I did have my hands full, and the people behind me were none too happy. Doh!

The airline we were on to Moscow was called UTair, and they did the same thing as they did on the S7 flights, and came around while you were in your seat, asking you if you wanted  a sick bag. How on earth can you predict you are going to be sick? The flight was only 1hr and 30 mins long.

It was 7.30am on the plane, and the flight attendants brought around some hot food! I was dreaming of some eggs for breakfast, but it was not to be, because the choice was Fish or Chicken. It seems that no matter what time of day you fly, it is Fish or Chicken, or maybe for a change you can get Chicken or Fish!

Well we had the shortest layover time at Moscow Airport this time before flying to Krasnoyarsk, as it was only 1hr and 30minutes. By the time we went through another passport and boarding pass check, and yet another X-ray machine check, even though we were in transit, we were soon sitting on another UTair flight for another 4 hours and 40 minutes. Did I use the another word enough there?

I did have a laugh though, as I went to the Men’s toilet by the gate, and in there, there was a condom machine, selling condom’s with the very direct name of VIZIT! Why they sold these at the gate where you board the plane is beyond me, but I must admit I did keep an eye on the toilets on the plane, to see if there was any extra activity going on in there, in case anyone wanted to join the mile high club, but sadly there was none!

The plane had a number of what I assumed to be Hockey players, as they were huge guys, with their noses spread all over their faces, and cuts, bruises, and black eyes. They were seriously tough looking, and you would not want to meet them in a dark alley for sure. They are in contrast to our football players who are namby-pamby in comparison, with their hair gel, moisturiser, and designer clothes, and probably cry out loud if they dropped their top of the range mobile phone on the floor!

It was a long uncomfortable flight, and way to hot, but once there, we met the local promoter and we jumped into a waiting van to go to the hotel. This was only 40 minutes away. On the journey I realised that we had now officially joined the “Mushroom Club,” as it was dark when we left Samara, and it was dark when we arrived in Krasnoyarsk, and yes folks we were back in Siberia.

Re the time zone, we were 8 hours in front of the UK. Boy oh boy we are bouncing around time zones, like a bumper car at the fairground.

The Hotel  Krasnoyarsk as it was called was okay, but it was not what you would call luxury, but it had everything we needed.It did however have some unusual services on offer, like the, “Flamingo Lounge,” that you can hire, which is a home theatre, where you can watch movies, sitting in big comfortable chairs. It also had a library on each floor, and even a Doctor and Dentist on the 4th floor, would you believe. It did make me smile to read in their brochure, that they had a Sauna with a contrast water pool, and a billiards table. Now that is a combination eh! If that billiard table is anywhere near the Sauna, I bet the table is warped big time, let alone the moisture from the pool.

We arrived at the hotel at 8pm, and we were all ready for dinner. The promoter had arranged a very nice restaurant next door to the hotel.The food was excellent, though they did bring everything at the wrong time. For instance I was the first to order, and my Salmon arrived after a number of the boys had finished their starter, main course, desert and even their Irish Coffee’s.

There was a plus though, as they had decent wine, and for the very first time on this tour, the white wine was cold, and the red wine was at room temperature. Hip hip hooray, or should I say Hic hic hooray! After dinner everyone hit the sack, as we were burnt out.

I have noticed since being in Krasnoyarsk, all be it for not very long, that they did smile a lot more. The hotel staff were very polite, smiley, and helpful, as were the waitress’s in the restaurant. Generally we get the stoney poker faced routine.

In the morning, Trevor banged on my door to go to breakfast. It was still darkish at 9am, which felt strange. Outside my bedroom window, there was a bridge that crosses over the River Enesey, that had a long stream of cars going across it since before 6am. It did not seem to be let up the whole day. There was snow and ice everywhere, and it was seriously cold, and the river was extremely fast moving.I really do not think I have seen a river flow that fast before.

On this tour I have become the bands Mr Fixit in the computer department. That morning I had to get Trevor’s iPad online, so that he could get his emails, and then I fixed a problem on Bernie’s Samsung Lap Top. I have even helped Phil with his word processor. Trust me though, everything I have learnt on computers is through experience, with a lot of blood, sweat and tears shed, when it all goes wrong!

After lunch, Phil and I did a Radio interview at the station. It was just 10minutes away, and it had the lovely name of, “Silver Rain of Krasnoyarsk 102.2fm.” It was a cool interview,and we had a few laughs with the translations, and phone ins! In their office they had a Radio Toaster, and I had not seen one of these before. What a cool idea, though heaven knows how the radio bit does not overheat.

Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the show. After the soundcheck there was a TV interview, and it felt like the next minute the intro tape was on. We had one of those dressing rooms that when you open the door, you walk up one step, and you are on the stage. The place was packed, and they were well up for it. It was a difficult one for us stage sound-wise, but you just ride over the problems and enjoy the audience, who were ecstatic. The band played well, and we hade a fine array of headbangers up on the stage for, “Free and Easy.”  There were chants of Heep, Heep, before we went back on for the encore. It was a good night, and it was wonderful seeing all of those smiling faces.

After the show we ate dinner in the VIP area of the venue. Once we had finished that, we went back to the hotel, for some much need shuteye.

In the morning I was hit by the time zone difference, and I was up 2 hours before my wake up call. In these circumstances, there is nothing you can do, except get out of bed, and make a cup of tea! Otherwise you just lay there, with your mind racing ten to the dozen, achieving nothing. Your body wants the rest, but your mind comes out to play. Doh!

I made sure my iPad was fully charged, as the journey to Tomsk, was a 7 hour bus ride across Siberia, and thankfully a night off!

The first stop on the bus, was for a coffee, and to charge the drivers mobile phone up, and I kid you not! By the restaurant, there were a few stalls, selling tut! There were shoes, hats, fridge magnets, drinking mugs, and all sorts of stuff made of wood. Well what else are they going to do with all of those trillions of silver birch trees. There were also some boots and clothing attire made out of felt! A gold toothed woman, working on one stall, was completely head to toe in the stuff. I do not think it will catch on, as it did not look very high fashion, but hey it kept her warm, and it was minus 11 degrees! Dan asked if she was warm, and she replied, “Bear.” So we guess she was either very warm, or she was just trying to scare him off!

I bought a coffee that will probably keep me awake until we play Shepherds Bush! Hey maybe I have stumbled on a cure for jet lag and time zone changes!

Adam bought a bottle of fizzy drink, which was the colour of fluorescent green! I used to see this drink when I first came over here, and we nicknamed it, “Chernobyl Juice.” We used to joke that one drink of that, and 30minutes later bits would start falling off of you.

We drove past so many wooden houses on the journey, that no matter how run down they were, and some of them sit at every angle imaginable, they all have decorative traditional blue and white shutters. How they survive the brutality of winter is amazing!

Also on the outskirts of the cities, there are lots of run down tenement apartment blocks, that have these what look like homemade balcony’s. These are there for the smokers, because I am told as a rule, they do not smoke inside their homes. Traditionally the ones without, are the non smoking homes. Most of these look like they are going to drop off the side of the building any minute, they look so rickety, and B & Q would make a killing over here.

The roads out here are unbelievably bumpy, and you feel like you are on one long roller coaster ride. It was impossible to read without feeling sick. I wish I had taken one of those sick bags now, that they were giving out on the aeroplane.

Well the road turned into an icy dirt road, and this gave  a whole new meaning to bumpy! After hours of that, it was like having a back massage, with the masseur using her boney elbows, and knees on you, or even a broomstick, and never stopping, as it was relentless! These really are the roads from hell. It is so remote, that you would not want to break down. Can you imagine if you did break down, and you got in touch with emergency. They would probably say, “Stay where you are,stay with your vehicle, and we will be with you as soon as we can, in approximately 7 hours.” Doh!

We have three drivers with us on this bus ride, and we could not believe it, at one point the driver slowed down to 40mph, and changed drivers while still moving.  Now they did this swiftly, but on those icy roads, my heart was in my mouth, and a few quick prayers were fired off, I can tell you!

We did stop for a bit of lunch at a restaurant, and the thing we have noticed more than anything time and time again, is that the waitress takes your order for starters, main meal desert, and drinks, and then she brings one item at a time, and not in any particular order. She must walk 5 miles more than she has too! You may get your main meal first, then your desert at the same time she brings you your soup, then your drink comes after. This has happened all over, in all classes of restaurant, and it does take a bit of getting used to. It is kind of like organised chaos, especially when there are eleven of us. Someone always misses out, or has to wait an eternity to eat.

After an extremely exhausting day on that bus, we eventually arrived at the hotel in Tomsk. It was a bit of a modern hotel in a late 60′s type vibe, especially the furniture.

Once in my room, I did an interview on the phone with Dave Ling of Classic Rock Magazine in the UK. He was phoning for an update on our Russian tour here in Siberia, amongst other things.

We then went for dinner at an Irish Pub 10minutes away by bus. Well the same food order problem occurred once again, with items being delivered before starters etc and Bernie lucked out this time, and got his last, and he really does not take this well. However it really is pot luck.

An example would be, that Trevor ordered two fried eggs, and french fries. The fried eggs arrived, and then ten minutes later the fires turned up. But in the interim period, she had bought someone else their meal, someone else their starters, and some people received their drink order. Nothing runs in any particular order. Oh yes and we were back to the warm white wine and cold red wine! Doh! Phil and I went on to the draft Guinness that was on offer, and very nice it was too.

If Gordon Ramsey came over here to sort their kitchens out, he would surely bust his boiler,and either end up with a heart attack, or inherit a ticket to the local nut house. Swearing does not cut any ice over here either.

Anyway they had a couple of pool tables, that a few of us with a misspent youth, played a couple of games on, and a few of the boys got stuck into the Irish Coffees, but most of us went back to the hotel for some sleep.

As we were leaving, a band was just starting up, and then from nowhere there were cameras and everyone wanting pictures.

Once back in my room, I did an email interview for Malcolm Dome, then I had a bath to wash away that journey, and fell into bed.

I managed to sleep through, but Trevor was hit with jet lag, and up at 5am, because he couldn’t sleep, consequently he was banging on my door for breakfast earlier than I would have liked. Breakfast was on the 8th floor, (Top floor) of the hotel, and there were panoramic views over the city. Far in the distance, it looked like you could see the sea, but in fact it was the tree line that runs into deep forest wasteland. It was minus 6 degrees outside, which was getting pretty brass monkey’s I can tell you!

I noticed on the side of the hotel, they had run a thick cable from the top to the bottom, which was visible from the breakfast room, and I wondered what it was used for. When it was pointed out to me, I could clearly see they were on nearly every building in the city. These are earth cables, in case of lightning. Now I see them everywhere!

For lunch in the hotel, we did have a laugh at the menu, and it’s English translation. Here are some of the items, literally as they were written. Before you read this though, I must say that the food was good, so we were very happy, and in all honesty they did a good job in translation really, because if we had to write it in Russian, we would not even be able to get in the starting grid.

FOOD:
Stroganina sliced frozen mucksun
Shrimps to beer
Lemon with sucar
Herring under the fur coat
Soup-noodies mushroom with a hen
Ear Royally
Solynka meat national team
Boiled Rise
Coloured Rise
Siberian desert with cjndensed milk
Candies by handicraft

DRINK:
Dissoluble Coffee
Wine: Milk Beloved Woman semi-sweet 8.5% Germany (that would be Liebfraumilch then)
Sunrise Chadonray half dry 11%Chile

This winners for me were: Soup-noodies mushroom with a hen and Herring under the fur coat!

The venue was a walk across the road from the hotel, which was great, and it was called, “The Sport and Leisure Palace.” The  soundcheck went smoothly, and we had to record a video promo for the UK O2 Academy shows, which we are really excited about doing, along with the other venues of course. Doing a UK tour is always exciting for the band, and we would love a UK tour to be part of our yearly curriculum.

Getting back to the show, it was great even though Russell had immense troubles with his bass drum pedal, and a part of the P/A blew up. Well the bass subs and amps were overheating to be exact. The audience loved it though, and they ran down the front, without any encouragement from Bernie. They were into every last note, which was so cool!

There were a few kids down the front, who were my son Romeo’s age, and this did make me feel homesick, but I made sure they all had a guitar pick, and that they were picked up on to the stage for the head banging section, and they just loved it. There were chants of,”Uriah Heep, Uriah Heep,” going on for a long while, before we came back on for the encore.

After the show we went back to the hotel for a bit of dinner, before going to bed, as it was a 6am get up to travel 7hours on the bus to Barnaul, where we had a show that night, in the, “Entertainment and Sports Palace.”

Luckily they had arranged with the hotel for an early breakfast, so we had a little something to eat and drink, before starting the journey in the dark. Along the way we saw a beautiful sunset, rising over the endless acres of white snow, and there were many times on that journey, where we saw people fishing through the ice of various rivers. They even set up tents there on the ice.

There was also that wonderful hum of the band and crew snoring ala Animal Farm. As I said in the beginning of this blog, we get sleep where we can, and it is usually when the body packs up working through exhaustion.

We did hear that England beat Sweden 1-0, which was great, as we have not beaten them for something like 42 years, or  some weird statistic like that. It is nice to have broken that particular jinx.

We arrived at the hotel, and once again it had that 60′s feel to it, with the furniture and decor. The rooms were super small even though they had a double bed, but there was no where to put your suitcase. The colour of my room was shocking pink, but at least it was clean. Even though my room was the colour of shocking pink folks, it did not appeal to my feminine side at all, and I had to wear my sunglasses the whole time I was in there. Joke!

Also when I left the lift on the 8th floor, to find the room when I arrived, there was an incredible Paraffin / Kerosine smell, that nearly knocked me over. Now where did that come from, and why! I am glad I was on the no smoking floor, otherwise I would have probably checked out! Can you imagine, “I will just have a quick cigarette,” and then BOOM!

A few of the band, once in their room, received a call from an obvious call girl, to see if they wanted company. Well blimey after this schedule, we would be too tired to even open the door. Doh!

Well we had all sorts of problems at the venue, and the crew were flat out trying to make it all work. We were holding the doors, to try and get everything fixed, then without any warning, they let the audience in while we were still sound checking. I did not even get to try my acoustics guitars.

When we walked on to the stage, it took us right back to 1987, as they were paranoid about having so many people in one place at a time. They had security holding people back from coming to the front of the stage and enjoying themselves, plus some police type army guys, all looking threatening, and not very nice at all. They were seriously locked in a time warp, which was a real shame, as on this tour, this has been the only city to act like this.

However when Scampi put the lights on the audience, we could see they were having a great time. It was a cold Ice Hockey stadium, and they still had some of the ice uncovered, so it was pretty cold in there, and most of the audience understandably kept their coats on.

A few of the privileged, did get down the front, and they gave Bernie and I hats, and bunches of flowers. My “Box of Flowers,” shop on my Marshall Cabinets, was pretty full at the end, and I opened a sideline business called, “Hat in a Box.”

Because of the security, we could not do the head banging section,which was a shame, because they would have loved it. However they chanted a long while for an encore, and were a good audience.

After we had a little dinner at the venue, we then went back to the Hotel for a quick shower, before going to the railway station, as we were on another overnight train, this time to Omsk.

The train was one of those terrible ones, and we will be on it for 13hours. God forbid!

As I was leaving the hotel, I did FaceTime on my iPad to Sheila, and it was the first time it had worked. My excitement soon turned to horror, as she had just had a phone call from Romeo’s school, saying that he had damaged his leg playing Rugby, and they thought that it might be broken. He was in the ambulance on his way to the hospital. Now that was a shock for the both of us. Sheila went straight to the hospital, and promised to text me on the train with any developments.

Well because of the time change from the UK, I was sitting in a dark not very nice train cabin on my own at 4am Russian time, travelling through deepest Siberia worrying about them both, and to be honest feeling quite helpless about it all, which is a horrible feeling.

I received a text from Sheila saying that his leg was not broken, thank God, but she did send me a picture of him at the hospital. Boy his knee was swollen, and looked terrible. It is times like that when it gets tough on the whole family, as I ache to be there with them, but I am stuck in a train in the middle of Siberia, and Sheila has to do everything, which I must say, she does admirably.

In the morning Trevor, Russ and I found the dining car, and settled down for breakfast. Amazingly the menu was in English, and we had fried eggs, potatoes, mushrooms and a cup of tea. In the restaurant car they keep all of their stock underneath the seats you are sitting on. So once you have asked for something, you have to get up while they find it, then they prepare it for you. This harks back to the days of old, and our very first train ride in the 80′s.

We stopped in the morning at one station, and it was a 30minutes stop, so Trevor, Phil and I went for a walk in the snow, to bet some fresh air. The temperature read out was minus 12 degrees. We could see a beautiful church, with a blue onion type roof sprinkled with gold, and in contrast to the snow, as a backdrop, it looked great.

We walked further along the same road by about 100 yards, and there was a butchers shop with a small open backed truck carrying full open carcasses outside. Around the corner they were weighing them, and cutting them up on the floor. They were doing this in that freezing cold, and it was snowing. They must truly be immune to the cold, and what a contrast to the peaceful Church scene it was.

We then got back on the train for another 45 minutes, and we eventually arrived in Omsk.

Once there we jumped into the waiting van, and off to the hotel, which was a reasonable Ibis hotel, with all amenities. We had a quick lunch there, which was most welcome indeed.

Soon it was down to the venue which was the SCC n.a.Bilnov, for the soundcheck. The crew had immense problems getting this one together, and we had to hold the doors. When they arrive to build everything up, so much of it is either missing or not working! Still they did a sterling job, and the show went on.

There was an amazing amount of security at every point, but this time they were relaxed, and allowed the audience to come down the front of the stage. They did try and control them initially, but Adam my guitar tech told them that it was alright, and they left. I love this as you can see the complete joy and ecstasy on their faces. They just cannot believe they are that close!

Before we went on stage, Alexander (Sasha) wanted to make an announcement, as it was his home town, so we let him do this.

The show was great, and most enjoyable. The head-banging section was a blast, and once again we had a few kids up on to the stage, Romeo’s age. It is really cute, seeing them throw the old devil hand sign, ala my old mate Ronnie James Dio!

After the show it was back to the hotel for some dinner, then off to bed, as we were having to get up at 5am, to travel 7 hours to Tyumen the next day. This was going to be our penultimate show on this Russian tour.

The promoter still met us at that ungodly hour, and he kindly gave me a present of a black and white picture of a Russian Accordion player, who had obviously had his fair share of Russian Tap Dancing water (Vodka.)  If it survives this tour, it will make it’s way up on to my office wall, in London.

Incidentally that Russian dance the Cossacks do, surely they have to be on the old RTD water, to be able to do it. Crouched down like that, and kicking your legs out straight, while bouncing up and down to the music, surely a couple of shots of that must be mandatory before they start.

Anyway the promoter also gave me a T Shirt with a bear chasing a man with the slogan, “Siberian Fast Food,” written on it, and a CD of a Balalaika player, who he thinks is brilliant, so I will enjoy listening to that at some stage.

On the bus there were plenty of animal farm noises, and at times there was almost a Heep snore-harmony thing happening! It was dark when we left, and very cold.

On leaving the city I saw a Cadillac and Hummer car franchise, so there must be some money there, to be selling those high end cars. Omsk was a big city, with any number of designer name shops, selling all brands of merchandise. I did see on leaving the city though a beautiful church, which was lit up, and it looked amazing at that time of day. It really was stunning.

My iPad did not charge up overnight, as somehow although it was plugged in to charge, I had managed to switch off the mains, before getting into bed. Doh! This was a disaster, with that long time in the bus. We were told there were mains plugs on the bus, but of course there wasn’t. Well after a catch up sleep, it was out with the old back up Sudoku, book. I cannot sit there looking out of the window, or veg out, as I have to be doing something, so Sudoku it was. After 7 hours, I was numbered out, to say the least!

When we arrived at the hotel, the band went for lunch, minus Trevor, and we went in search of the restaurant. We saw one on the top floor, and it was amazing. As you come out of the elevator, there was a huge stuffed brown bear to greet you. Then this lady dressed in full Cossack costume takes you out on to the hotel roof, full of snow. There to our utter amazement were 5 Tepee’s, and she opened one of the flaps as a door and beckoned us in. Wow these were done out beautifully, with a table in the middle, and tapestry’s all around, and fur carpets. What a surprise, that was, but no more of a surprise than when we received a text saying lunch was on the second floor. Doh!

So down we went to the other floor, which in contrast was normal, but still the food was good. There was a fan in there who we had previously signed a lot of his stuff in reception, and he came over and presented me with a miniature Balalaika. I gave him a guitar pick, and he was super delighted.

Tyumen is one hours difference to Omsk, which is just enough to throw you out of whack, when setting your watches and alarms. Mind you that is nothing to what we have been through of late.

After lunch it was back to our rooms, for a shower, and down to the venue, which was called the “Philharmonic.” Now the crew have had to overcome a lot of problems in this territory, but this show was nothing short of ridiculous. They had not read our contract rider properly, and we were a keyboard short, the P/A and Monitors were incorrectly patched, and they had supplied Trevor with a Bass Combo Amplifier.

After a bit of shouting, they found another useable Bass Amp and Speakers, the missing keyboard, and then Dan & Mole had to set about patching and plugging up the P/A and Monitors correctly. Most of it from what I could understand, was wired back to front, but it was more messed up than that. Unfortunately, that is the sum of my technical expertise, but you get the gist that it was a complete mess.

Anyway the boys did a great job, and the show started, albeit 30 minutes later than scheduled.

It was a very full house, and although it was a completely seated audience, by the time we had finished, they were all standing. They just loved it, and the atmosphere electric. On the head-banging section we had a fine array of people, but one lady that got up, looked like she had just fallen off the front cover of Vogue magazine. So much so, that even the audience gasped at her entrance. Well she got down with the rest of them, and danced and head banged all the way through the song.

It was a fantastic show, with people, clapping, singing and smiling, so it was a good time had by all. I was given so many flowers, that the “Box of Flowers,” shop on my Marshall cab, was well and truly open.

Back in the dressing room, it was a couple of glasses of wine, and then off to a restaurant for dinner. There were the usual mess ups with the orders, and although we were at our table by 10pm, it did not finish until 1.15am. They were once again bringing items one at a time, and not in any particular order. I was lucky as mine came early on, and I caught the early bus back to the hotel, but everyone else waited an eternity. Trevor just decided to miss his, and get back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

One guy outside of the restaurant excitedly put his mink hat on my head as a present, which was nice of him, and boy those things keep your head warm.

A couple of interesting things about the city of Tyumen, that Bernie told me, is that Irving Berlin, was born there. Also Tyumen is the biggest producer of oil, as it has the biggest oil fields in Russia. So much so that it is known as the Edmonton (Canada,) of Russia.

The other interesting fact is that not many bands play there, which might throw some light on why they had not read our contract properly, and supplied the equipment that we require to play the show, that they booked us for. Doh!

Still in true Heep style, we made it through, and everyone was delighted.

I did manage to talk with Sheila and Romeo on the phone, and thank goodness Romeo’s leg is okay, so I am both relieved and happy about that!

Well one more week passes at the speed of light, so tune in for more of the same next week, that’s if you enjoyed the above.

‘Appy days,
Mick

Monday morning in Novosibirsk Siberia, and it was up bright and early to check out the football scores on my iPad. Well it was ‘Appy days and big smiles all round, as Spurs beat Fulham 3-1. Well a big smile in my room anyway!

I did notice in my room, a welcome to the hotel book, and I had a quick look, and there was a page dedicated to “Actions in case of emergency, and terrorism acts of danger.”  They explain to you, what to do if you find explosive devices, or suspicious things. They also help you if you receive a moral terrorism phone call. Wow! that was pretty heavy reading indeed! 

I went down for breakfast, and I noticed that the piped music throughout the restaurant, sounded like the music that used to be on the old Starsky and Hutch TV police shows. This is very recognisable, as Tom Scott the saxophonist, who wrote the music, and it is quite stylised. 

Well one text from Scampi, and there goes our day off! The promoters have booked us up with TV and Radio interviews, as well as a press conference.

After breakfast I went back to my room to do all of my clothes washing, in the bath. Yes folks, life on the road is not all luxury, where you just put your washing in the hotel dry cleaning service, and it is returned the next day. We are hands on leaning over the bath, washing our clothes and hanging them up all over the room, making it look like a Chinese Laundry.

Mind you from experience, when I have used the hotel service, the clothes never came back when promised, and we have had to leave the city, and they have had to post them on later.  Sometimes they have just plain lost them, or put creases in the jeans, or worse starch on the shirts, and all for the cost of a small mortgage.

Looking out of the window this morning, I saw the first glimpse of snow falling! None of it settled, but it was snow nevertheless, and the onset of winter is upon us, and that doesn’t thrill me one bit. Aaaaaaarrgh!

Also from my bedroom window, I can see the river Ob, which is the 2nd longest river in Russia, as well as the continent. It is unbelievable what you learn reading these blogs, don’t you think!

We all met in the hotel reception at 2.30pm (Chinese dentist time-Tooth Hurty,) to go to the TV, Radio and Press Conference. Bernie and Phil went to the TV Station, and Trevor, Russ and I went to the Radio Station. We then all met up later for the press conference.

The Radio Station was called Retro FM, and caters for more classic rock, than other stations. The good news was that they had ITW, and they loved it.

We had an interpreter guy called Sasha with us, who was a nice guy. He did a wonderful job translating. After the interview, we had a trillion photos taken with everyone that worked there down to the cleaning lady, and then we went off to the  press conference.

This was held in a huge 4 floor shopping mall. We sat down at the arranged table, on the ground floor, and so the conference started. Bernie and Phil arrived there earlier, and were eating at a restaurant. I was asked a few questions, and then I took the microphone, and I apologised for what I was about to say, and shouted at the top of my voice,
” Bernie put the fork down.” The next second Bernie and Phil came around the corner, and we had a good laugh. What timing!

There were a number of young fans there, all wearing UH
T. Shirts, that we later found out they had handmade themselves.

On the way back to he hotel, there was a lot of traffic, and Sasha told us this was partly due to the fact that ex President, Prime Minister Putin, was in town.

Sasha told me that on November the 7th, it was declared an official holiday, as this was the day the Socialist Revolution started in St. Petersburg, but this was stopped by Gorbachev, in the coup of 1991.

Also on the journey, we saw a pole dancing club, called the “Vintage Stripper Club,” and perish the thought. Can you imagine strippers like the old granny in Playboy magazine, strutting her stuff! Doh!

Sasha also told me that he was arrested as a student, for having a Pink Floyd record. He is a bit of a guitarist, and he said that when he first heard the Magicians Birthday guitar solo, it sent him into a frenzy. I must say it was nice hearing stories like that.

I read on my iPad, in a newspaper on Monday, that a rotten tooth of John Lennon’s, given to his housekeeper “as a souvenir,” was bought by a dentist for £19,500, at an auction in Stockport, Greater Manchester. A very rich tooth fairy indeed.

We met at 7pm in the hotel bar, as a few of the crew found a good restaurant when they went on a walkabout. Dan the man suggested it to us.The restaurant was called “Goodman Steak House.”

It was a celebration for the restaurant, as it was the third year on the 7th November, that they opened. They had a little jazz band in there, and it was seriously nice food. In celebration they baked a cake that looked like a huge raw steak, that was very life-like, and the size of the average kitchen table.

I had the salmon which was lovely, but everyone else went for the meat option. The whole party were delighted with the food, so much so, that we insisted the chef came out, and we gave him a round of applause.

After the meal, it was in the hotel bar for some of us, and off to bed for others. I went to my room, as you have to make days like these pay off in the sleep department. You will never catch up, but that does not stop me trying!

Tuesday the 8th November:
I have dry washing today, hip hip hooray!
Look at that, early morning poetry!
It was a bit of a lazy start, and I did find it wondrous that on my iPad, I was listening to Total Rock Radio from Scotland, and my old mate Tom Russell was on, and I was in Novosibirsk, Siberia. I was also looking for my other mate DJ Paul Anthony, on Total Rock Radio Manchester, but for some reason, I could not find it! I will search again next time I am online!

I went up to the next floor of the hotel, to do some ironing, as they had a designated ironing room. Now this is quite alien to me, but I managed okay, and just ironed my trousers, and stage shirts that needed it. The last time I attempted this was in 1987, when we were the first western rock band to play in Moscow, and I ironed a brand new silk shirt. I was third in line to use the iron, and I put it onto the shirt, and it melted. End of shirt, end of Iron! Doh!

In the ironing room they had a transistor radio playing Russian music, and then out of the blue they played the Russian cover version of Smokies, “Who the **** is Alice.” it was hilarious! I am surprised I didn’t burn myself laughing.

Well I can report I have a very clean, and partly ironed bunch of clothes, and I am ready for the second half of the tour now. My suitcase looks super packed, and smells fresh as a daisy! Well almost!

We went to the soundcheck, and found out that the venue was a circus. The minute you walked in, it smelt of Elephant pee! They set the stage up in the circle, which gave us immense problems with the P/A being able to service everyone in the surrounding seats, looking over the stage. Also halfway through the soundcheck the monitors caught fire. I kid you not! The electrical burning smell was not very pleasant. Scampi was having problems with the lighting,as this was run off of a lap top, that was not working until 5 minutes before stage time. There was plenty of panic going down, I can tell you!

Our old friend Alexander was there with is wife, and it was nice to see him. He kindly gave me a present of a silver tea cup holder, and one of his Russian Heep books, that he had written.

The audience were well up for the show, because as the lights went down, there was a deafening roar of excitement.
The band sounded powerful, but it was a little strange as we could hear so much of the P/A, and we could even communicate with Dan our out front man, and Scampi on the lights, as we were that unusually close

The show was going along brilliantly, but by the time we got to the end solo of “Look at Yourself,” my amp power went out, along with the lights. Evidently we were on the same electrical circuit. The rest of the boys carried on great, and by the time Adam had it fixed, I joined in at the very end. The funny thing is the audience would not really have known, except for it was a little dark at that point, but we still had the spotlights.

For “Free and Easy,” it was easy to get people on to the stage, as all they had to do was step over the red circle surrounding the performing area, or for a slightly different description, the Ring Masters Ring, for want of a better term. Doh! Consequently there were a lot more than normal. I did spy some young fans that were at yesterday’s press conference, who were all wearing their homemade Heep shirts, and they were the first to get up. It was good fun, and the people could not believe it.

As I left the stage, a guy burst through security wanting my autograph, it was a pretty daring move considering the size of the security guards, and he also took off his silver ring, as he badly wanted me to have it! That was really nice of him. These acts of generosity, are very humbling indeed.

After the show, we had a few drinks, signed autographs, and had pictures taken, and then it was back to the same steak house that we went to last night, for dinner. Sasha the interpreter gave me a present of some Russian chocolate, which was nice of him! I had already given him a selection of guitar picks, as he played guitar, and he was over the moon with that!

Sasha was a good friend with my old drummer mate Darrell Sweet of Nazareth before he passed away. We shared some lovely stories about him. Darrell was  a real gent, and one of life’s diamonds, in this mad rock n’ roll world, that we live in!

Wednesday was an early rise, for yet another flight to Moscow, then a drive across town to another Moscow airport, to catch another flight to another country, with another time zone, in the Ukraine. That will be 3 timezones, and 2 countries in one day. The city was called Donetsk! When we left the hotel it was minus 11 degrees, which was quite cold, and to put it mildly, quite astringent.

The first flight was on the colourful lime green S7 airlines. Going through security, for the first time this tour, they took our water away from us. The amazing thing is, they let my milk and cologne go through with no problem, making a farce of the whole liquid rule.

Once on the flight, and I forgot to mention this on the last S7 flight, that before take off when you are seated, they come around with sick bags. I find this strange on two counts, as why do they not keep them in the pocket of everyone’s seat as most airlines do, and secondly how do you know you are going to be sick, unless they know something we do not know! Mind you with the food they serve, they should give them to you with your boarding pass as mandatory.

I was prepared this time, as I did not eat the food. I took from the breakfast room that morning, two boiled eggs and a banana. That held me until Moscow airport. I made the right decision, as the food did look awful, and chicken should never look that colour of brown.

On the whole 4 hour flight, Bernie was sitting next to a girl who had been texting on her mobile phone to her boyfriend, who is on the same flight. He was sitting further up the plane! Unbelievable!

There are three Airports in Moscow, which we have been to so many times on this this tour, that with such long layovers, we know every inch of the terminals, and we have eaten in every restaurant, and have been in every nook and cranny. We probably know it more than most Russians, I would imagine! The three Airports are:Sheremetevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo.

We arrived at 11am Moscow time in Domodedovo Airport, and then we drove across the city to Sheremetevo Airport, to  take a 10.45pm flight to Donetsk, in the Ukraine! That was an11hr and 45mins layover. Unbelievable! Now there is boredom, and there is boredom, and I got to the point whereby I wanted a nice chilled vodka, to cheer me up. Now would you believe it, in 5 restaurants/bars, they did not sell Vodka at all. I seriously could not buy Vodka in the airport in Russia! Well my flabber was ghasted indeed!

Everything is super expensive over here, as I have explained before. The simplest meal will cost you £20, and they are mini portions, that seem like they are served on saucers, and not proper size plates. You get half the size for twice the price! Plus a bottle of very average £5 wine, will cost you between £20-40! I am not talking about eating in a classy restaurant here, but a basic cafe, hamburger joint.

On that endless wait, the promoter then emailed Scampi to ask if TV crews could meet us arriving in the Ukraine. We said yes, but we were all desperately tired, and hungry, and it was half past midnight when we arrived, so it was not a pretty sight. Still at least they can prove we have arrived in the Ukraine, to continue advertising the show.

On arrival at the hotel, the promoter said that he had arranged something to eat at a restaurant close by. Although this was 12.30am, and because the plane food was yuk, a few of us decided to go. Well the band and Scampi to be exact.

The restaurant had a huge Beatle-Liverpool theme. There were huge bronze statutes of the Beatles outside playing their instruments, and inside was just amazing. This place seriously celebrated the Beatles and Liverpool big time. I am not sure why, and I guess I will never find out. The whole place had a Las Vegas type opulence to it.
There were fantastic black and white pictures of the Beatles everywhere, plus there were a dozen huge caverns with union jack flags either side of the entrance, where you go in and have dinner. These are all positioned off of the bar dance floor.

The dance floor, and bar were glitz to the hilt, as were the toilets, and there were old fashioned red pay phone boxes, and chandeliers aplenty. On some other tables, there were old fashioned phones, like you would see in the period TV programme, “Upstairs, Downstairs,” and each table had a number. You can dial that number, and talk or chat up someone you like at another table.

There was a little stage where bands play, complete with a Ludwig drum kit just like Ringo Starr used. The funny thing is the whole time we were there, through the piped music system, all they played was that banal generic disco music, that brings me out in a rash. Not one Beatles song was heard, or in fact no songs were heard from any other Liverpool band for that matter.

Anyway the food was good, but no matter how grand the whole place was, they still managed to serve cold red wine, and warm white wine. This has happened the length and breadth of Russia, and it happened as well in the Ukraine and even Kazakhstan. Plus if you order one bottle of what you like, once that is gone, there is never another bottle of the same type. They always run out! I have to say the wine situation leaves a lot to be desired, and as you can tell from these blogs, our band does like its wine.

On reception on the way out, I noticed a jar full of liquid, with a tap on it, so you can take a drink. Inside the liquid were two snakes, wrapped around a ginseng root. I think I also saw lizard and a frog in there. Now why on earth would you take a drink of that either on the way in, or on the way out, is beyond me, and what has that got to do with the Beatles or even Liverpool. Now if it was a Walrus, immersed in yellow custard dripping from a dead dogs eye, I could maybe understand it.

We arrived back at the hotel by 1.30am, and we were in much need of our bed. On the way we drove past the huge 50,000 people, Donbass Arena, that hosts the Donetsk, Shakhtar football team. The stadium is lit up with thousands of blue lights that you can see from every vantage point. Evidently they are top of the Ukrainian football league.

Well we had all decided to sleep through breakfast, and go straight to lunch. Then the plan fell through for moi. At 2 am I received a call in my room from Scampi, asking me to go to a TV station for a prime time interview in the morning. It was much like those daytime shows all over the world, and it was aired at 12 midday. I reluctantly agreed, and then I quickly phoned Trevor, who I knew would be up, and roped him in too. So no lie in for us, and it was up at 10am, shower, and in the van for a long trek across town.

The interview went really well, and the Radio Station was called The Union. We were met by two gorgeous women, dressed in national costume, with a huge welcoming bread in their hands, with salt on the top, and it was the size of a wedding cake. We had to take a piece each, as part of the custom. The interview was enjoyable, and we were live for 45 minutes. This was all done with an interpreter, and we had a lot of interesting phone-ins.

After this we met the rest of the band back at the hotel, after driving past the Kalbius River, and we picked them up to go for lunch at the Beatles restaurant again.
I did notice on the drive that they had a really antiquated tram system in Donetsk, that even though they looked seriously rickety and rusty, I am sure they will make it through the harsh winter ahead, but I do not know how!

After lunch we had an hour and a half back at the hotel, so I thought I would have a power nap. Well how wrong can I be on all counts, as 30 mins into a deep sleep, the phone rang, and it was our interpreter Harmonica, asking me to do another major TV show. This time it was in another room at the hotel. Once again under sufferance, I did this, and by the the time I had finished, it was sound-check time.

I worked out that during the day, I had spent only 1hr and 45 minutes in my room in total.

At the sound-check at the venue called “Yunost,” we found out that the crew had, had more than a stressful day of it, and things were running late. This was a huge venue, and a really big stage!

When we went on stage, and even as the intro tape played, there was a huge roar, and I knew we were in for a good night. Halfway through the first number, they stormed down the front, though one poor guy took a blow on the chin from a security guard, before Brian our stage manager, bass and keys tech, went down and stopped that happening again. Power to the guy though he did not go down, and stood his ground.

Once again there were a tremendous amount of young people in the audience, who were just loving it. I won out in the flower department again, when a lovely girl gave me some red roses, so we opened up the “Box of Flowers,” shop on top of my Marshall cabinets again.

“Free and Easy,” was a blast, and there was a fine array of female participants, it was mind boggling. My guitar tech Adam was run off his feet, trying to help them all up.
We also had some men, and a few kids, so it was a wonderful compose of head-bangers.

They chanted a long while for an encore, and it was a lovely feeling, after a day of stress and hectic schedules.

As we had to leave at 6.15am the next morning, we blew out the chance to go to a restaurant, and we ordered into the dressing room, MacDonalds for everyone. After scoffing that down, it was back to the hotel, for what became only a few hours sleep.

Well it was Friday the 11th, of the 11th, of 2011 (11/11/2011) Our hectic schedule continues nevertheless, with an early morning flight to Moscow, a 6hour layover, and a 16hour 10minute overnight train to Saratov in Russia.

At Donetsk Airport we had a quick coffee, and luckily I had my milk with me, so we could enjoy it. Usually you get that horrible cream in a small container, or milk in a packet.  I then put the container in my backpack, in the side pocket.

When we were inside the plane, I found my seat, and threw my bag in the overhead locker. Then the most embarrassing thing happened. The lid on the milk was loose, and the milk spilt all over this guy in his seat! Doh! He did not speak a word of English, but I did try and tell him, it was no use crying over spilt milk, to no avail. Eventually I bought his silence, and a dry cleaning bill, with a signed picture of the band. Thank goodness he was happy with that! It was still ultra embarrassing though.

On collecting our bags in Moscow, we realised there was an Ice Hockey team on the flight with us. They were a Russian team called Sokol, from Krasnoyarsk, and they played a game against Donetsk, in the Ukraine, losing 8-1. I did ask the coach did the goalkeeper have a white stick and a dog, and although he could not speak a word of English, he thought it was hilarious, when I mimed it to him. We signed some autographs for them, and they just loved it.

Once out of the airport, it was on to a bus for a drive across town to the train station, to catch our overnight train to Saratov. Now driving through Moscow is impossible, as everything is always at a standstill. The traffic is horrendous, and seriously slow, due to the volume of traffic, on any given day!

At the Railway Station, we found some porters for the luggage, and they were all good old boys, that look like they have done the job, from boy to man! Well two of them came over to me, and one of them excitedly started singing  “July Morning,” at me, while I was standing there on the platform. It was snowing lightly, and a very surreal experience indeed!
They did not speak any English, but I understood the gist of what they were saying, as they both said they were at the momentous concerts, in Moscow back in 1987. One guy indicated that his wife still has the T Shirt. Unbelievable! They had the biggest gold teeth smiles I had seen in a long time.

Once the baggage was secure, we walked about trying to find a restaurant. We found one close by, that was really busy. It was called, “The Colbasoff.” this is the English translation, given to me by the waiter. It sounds a bit like Gorbachev, but we will not go there!

Now the waiter recognised us, and was shaking with excitement. He said he was a guitarist, and I gave him a plectrum, and he was over the moon. The restaurant started playing JM over the sound system, and people were coming up for photographs, and autographs. Even the staff!

It was soon time to leave, and we went shopping for provisions, for the long 16hr 10 minute journey. We then secured our cabins, and relaxed as we pulled out of the station. A few of us, namely the crew, had in their cabins, alcohol like Vodka, Jack Daniels and Beer. Well the guards put their head in the cabin, and said NO SPIRITS, only beer allowed.  Now these words fell on deaf ears of course,and our crew have extremely professional ways of disguising such bottles, and they will carry on without fuss, mark my Thoras! (Thora Hird – Words.)

In the restaurant they had some basic food, but the beer was very strong at over 8 percent. It was going down very well indeed in some quarters, and they where feeling no pain!

The train stops at various intervals, and there are people out on the platform in the freezing cold snow, selling their wares
That is a pretty tough way to make a living!

The train shunts about from side to side, and it is nothing like a smooth ride. When I was in the restaurant, a guy walked past me and he turned and said, “Thanks for the  music.” which was very nice of him, and that sort of thing is happening, more and more, which is so cool!

Well the first night on a train went without a hitch,though the constant stopping and starting, as well as the odd shunt, did not help in the sleep department. Plus the cabin windows are sealed, so you cannot open them,which is a bit stifling, to say the least.

I must say though, that the trains have improved a whole
bunch since 1988. The linen is clean, the toilets are clean, and generally the train is clean. In 1988 they were anything but clean!

Through the window in the morning, all you can see for miles is desolation, snow, and pine trees. It is seriously cold out there, and memories of our trip across Russia in 1988, have come flooding back. Back then I remember I had some special prescription glasses made, with yellow lenses, like the airline pilots use. I did this, so that no matter how grim and dull the scenery was, it would still look like sunshine, and I would not get depressed, with the lack of bright light.  It worked very well indeed, because in my opinion, with sunshine, comes smiles, and happiness. Well it worked for me, and they were worth every penny!

On arrival we jumped into a van with the crew, and went to the hotel. Well the hotel was very much like the old Soviet hotels, with babushkas on each floor, and the corridors of madness and rooms were all a wonderful shade of brown. In the corridors they have various velvet couches and armchairs, along side nearly dead rubber plants, the kind you would find in some old grannies house. They are worn and frayed! It wasn’t the Ritz, but it had all of the amenities, and we would only be in it for 6 hours. That is because straight after the show in Saratov, we have another overnight train to Samara, that will take 9hrs 20minutes. The schedule continues to annihilate!

We had breakfast in a restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel, which consisted of porridge, two fried eggs and bacon, washed down with a cup of Tea! That was most welcome.

The venue was an old Opera House, called the Theatre of Opera and Ballet, which was really lovely. In front of the stage was an orchestra pit, so this prevented us getting any headbangers up on to the stage, that night. The show was great, and most enjoyable, but it was a shame that the audience were so far away. The band did sound powerful though, and they loved every minute of the show!

The Russian P/A sitter guy came up to me, and thanked me for “Salisbury,” which was nice!

After the concert we went for dinner, at a restaurant called Dvorik, that became a nightmare, as Russell’s food did not turn up, and they tried to amotize a couple of their food order mistakes, over everyone’s bill. Not good! They asked us to sign the wall, which we did, and luckily we did that before the bill came! Doh!

Little did we know that was just the start of the nightmare, because when we arrived at the train station at 12.45am, they had booked us for a 9hr 20minutes, overnight train ride, on the same type of train that we used back in 1988, and not on one of the new ones as promised.

Forget everything I said in the above text re trains, this was the cattle truck from hell. There were no comforts at all! There was nowhere in the cabin to plug our iPad’s or kettles, and worse than that the mattress’s we were expected to sleep on were all stained with god knows what. There were no windows you could open, and they had the heat up so high, you could not breathe. The whole train was grubby, and stuck in a time warp. Everyone to a man had an awful, uncomfortable sleep. The toilets were as they were back in 1988, but I will abstain from going into detail about that. That type of heat, and no fresh air, is no good for the voice, and it just harbours germs. All in all it was as Alice Cooper said, “Welcome to my Nightmare.” I tell you what, had I known it was going to be that hot, I would have bought my green tomatoes with me!

Anyway there were many calls back to London with our management, to try and sort out all of these problems, but nothing could be done, so we had to grin and bear it!

In the morning, looking out of the window, there was an endless stream of snow and trees, and you could see the odd person fishing through the ice of a river. Everyone woke up badly in need of fresh air. Gasping would be the word, and in need of a shower.

We did manage to receive a text from Martin Darvill our manager, cheering us up, telling us that the England football team had beaten Spain 1-0, which was remarkable! Frank Lampard scored for England. It was nice to hear that Spurs, player Kyle Walker did so well.

Well we arrived in Samara and were taken to the hotel. This hotel is a Renaissance, and very nice! We arrived in time for breakfast, and then headed for our rooms, for a shower and bed. The bed was a nice double one, with plenty of fluffy pillows, and a joy to behold, after the nightmarish overnight journey on that train. We will have to re-name this tour, “The Tour of Contrasts.”

The venue in Samara is the Philharmonic, and the crew went down at 1pm to make a start on getting the equipment ready for our soundcheck. When they got there, there was a full puppet show on, so they had to wait until that was finished, before they could start building our equipment. Now this is most annoying on two counts, as they could of had an extra hours much needed sleep at the hotel, and because of this we went on stage 30 minutes later than scheduled. There just seems to be a surprise around very corner.

Anyway the show was excellent, and the audience were super into it. Eventually they were all down the front, and totally immersed in the music. The head banging section was a blast, and most enjoyable. They just could not believe they were on the stage with us, which was brilliant.

After the show we had KFC sent to the dressing room for dinner, because in the morning we had to leave at 5.30am for 2 flights, and another blooming time zone change. We fly from Samara to Moscow, and Moscow to Krasnoyarsk. Wow this does seem never ending, and at the most we will only get 5hours sleep, if we are lucky.

Another week passes, and I hope you enjoyed the read. Hopefully I will see you next week, for more of the same …

‘Appy days,
Mick

 Monday (Halloween,) it was up at 5.45am to leave at 6.20am, to travel to Moscow Airport. If we keep up these schedules, we will not need masks for Halloween, as we will morph into them! We were flying 608 air miles to Arkhangelsk on “Aeroflot-Nord,” which took 1hr and 45mins. At the hotel a van and two taxi’s came to pick us up. Phil, Russell and I went in one cab, that got separated from the others. We did notice on the way that petrol was only 42pence a litre at the garages we drove past. Blimey compare that to UK prices, and see who’s got the better deal!

When we were close to the airport, the driver just pulled over on the hard shoulder of the motorway, and got out and had a cigarette. We had no idea what was going on. He was on his mobile phone, so I phoned Scampi who put the Russian promoter on to talk with the driver. After a couple of calls, he got back in the cab and drove. We can only guess that he wanted money upfront, because as we arrived there was one of the promoter reps there to pay him. Very strange indeed! We thought we were being taken hostage! Doh!

On the flight the stewardess’s recognised us, and she asked the band, if we would go down to the back of the plane in the kitchen area, to have our picture taken with her. It was a bit of a squash, but she was super delighted that we did it.

We landed in Arkhangelsk, and you get a bus off the plane that takes you to an outside gate. Once through there, there is a hut that you have to go into, to collect your baggage. All the passengers cannot fit into the hut,so most of them stand outside, and it was raining. What a crazy system! The door was locked for a good 40 minutes as well, before things started to move. Imagine that when it is 30 degrees below!

On the way from the airport there is an amazing number of chimney’s constantly bellowing a ridiculous amount of smoke. The Russians call them Cloud Bakery’s, as the Chimney’s bake clouds. They seriously polluted the whole area that went on for a few miles, making it greyer than it already was. We were thinking it was time to get the Michael Jackson masks out, as a lung full of that, and you would be in trouble, especially us non-smokers!

Eventually we arrived at the hotel, that looked like it was on the sea front. We found out it was a huge estuary, that is the biggest logging harbour in Russia. In fact we were actually very close to Finland would you believe.

The hotel rooms were basic but fine, and they had Internet, plus the restaurant was open for lunch, so that was cool.

After lunch, we went to pay, and for lunch Trevor had 2 cups of coffee with milk, and a bowl of soup with bread. The waiter charged him extra for the milk times two, plus the bread. He could not believe it. I had to laugh as he was mortified!

We had a few hours in the room before going down to the venue, which was a lovely seated theatre called “The Drama Theatre.”  They were a slow audience to start with, but once they relaxed, and the security eased off, they had a great time. A lot of them came down to the front of the stage, and soon most people were on their feet.

When we invited people on to the stage to head bang, they had the best time ever, and this alone was given an ovation, as it truly must have been a first for them to see that! It was a really good gig, and in the end they were all chanting Heep, Heep, Heep!

After the show there was little to do, so we went back to the hotel for dinner, and then bed! Before bed I thought I would have a relaxing bath, as you do get a bit achey to say the least with all of this constant travelling, time zones, odd meal times, odd food, different hotel beds, and concerts. Anyway I ran the bath, and when I was ready to relax in it, I went to turn off the taps, and I saw that the water was the colour of my favourite tea (NOT,) Earl Grey minus the milk. Actually it was riding heavily on the Darjeeling ticket too! Doh! This didn’t quite work out as nicely as I had planned!

An interesting story was told to us by one of the guys on the Russian promoter team. He said that back before 1987, and before Russia was on the cusp of change, if you were found buying an album on the black market, you were imprisoned in Siberia. The other thing was that if you even just witnessed someone buying on the black market, you were sent to prison. This guy said his Father did just that, and witnessed someone buying, and he was indeed sent to Siberia. How terrible is that! We are so lucky to have been born in England, when you hear heart wrenching stories like that. It is not the first time we have heard it either. Words fail me with stories like that!

In the morning, we had a two hour wait at the airport to fly back to Moscow on a Nordavia aeroplane. Since I have been here, and the many flights and X-ray machines I have been through, I have never once had to take my lap top out of my bag, and I have had with me one bottle of water, and one bottle of milk at all times. There are signs re liquid, but they are obviously not adhered to, which to be honest is a bit of a worry. Some of the other boys have carried water and drinks through too! Scampi even went through with a bottle of Jack Daniels in his carry on bag! How lax is that!

On arrival in Moscow we went and had a little lunch. We had an 8 hour layover, before we flew to Almaty Kazakstan. The band were booked into a hotel, which was the same one as before called the Capsular. I called it the Capsule Hotel in my last blog, but hey I was pretty close, as well as being dog tired.This is the smallest hotel in the world, but at least we could have a nap and a shower before boarding the plane to Almaty. Unfortunately the crew were not catered for, and had to sit around waiting,which was a real pain for them.

I went back to Starbucks with Trevor, and this time it was my turn to pay, and once again it was £5 a cup! Overall we have found Russia to be very expensive in all food and drink departments thus far! Even outdoing London most times, and that is saying something!

In Moscow Airport beside the X-ray machine, there was a big chapel called the St Nicholas Chapel. For being beside an X-ray machine, it was a pretty grand affair.

We eventually caught an Air Astana flight to Almaty Kazakhstan, which was jammed packed with people that looked like they had all come from the same gene pool. Getting checked in wasn’t without it’s problems though, as they refused to take Trevor’s Bass Amplifier on the flight, even though it had been on every flight since London thus far. We had to leave it behind, and it will re-join us in St Petersburg. Hopefully we will be able to hire one out there.

I went to duty free, as we were leaving one country for another, as I was running out of cologne, and I quickly found what I wanted, and went to go and pay. It was all going terribly well, until I gave them my boarding pass, that said I was going to Kazakhstan! Then I received a whopping big Nyet (NO!) and was waved away. I could’t find out why, but something is obviously adrift between the two countries, in the Duty Free department.

The food on the plane was fish or chicken! I had the fish and the meal consisted of fish, rice and vegetables, that were all cold. It was seriously horrible, and evidently everybody else’s was cold too! The red wine was the lowest grade there is, and you wouldn’t even cook with it, so all in all, it was not very good! After a day like that, we were all pretty tired, and we arrived in Kazakhstan at 5.50am Kazakhstan time, which was 3.50am Moscow time. We were actually closer to Delhi India, than we were to Moscow, which is amazing!

On arrival we had to fill out immigration forms that read on the bottom “Foreigners who broke the period of staying will be punished according to the law.” Perish the thought!

We were met by a promoter representative, who took our
passports and forms, along with our passport photos that we brought from London, so that she could get our visa’s sorted. It was a question of wait, wait, wait, and at that time of the morning it was getting quite painful, and it was a very long tiring day!

I have always thought that the Russians have big hats on  their immigration officers, but in Kazakhstan, they take the biscuit! You could land a helicopter on them! They are huge!

The journey to the hotel was only 40 minutes, but the overwhelming impression was one of pollution and fumes, that are killer. You can taste the metal in your mouth, and your eyes sting, and this is inside a vehicle. This was not good, as I am still suffering somewhat from the chest cough I acquired in Europe on the last tour. You cannot open the window in our hotel for fresh air, as there wasn’t any. There was air, but it sure wasn’t fresh! I have not seen pollution that bad, since we were in Belo Horizonte in Brazil on a walkabout! I really do not know how they stand it!

The rotten thing about days like that, apart from the lack of sleep, is that we arrived in the morning when it was dark, and we went to the concert when it was dark, so we lose the whole day and the whole days daylight, and we can never get that back.

Geographically we are only 200km from China, and from our hotel room, you could see the Himalayas, which was very cool!

On the way to the venue, there was a huge Uriah Heep banner across the road, and we could only hope they had posted the town well, as we could not see it, as it was too dark, and the venue wasn’t far from the hotel.

The venue was called The Palace of Students, and after a daytime sleep where we woke up at 5pm, and went on stage at 8pm, it felt like we were going on stage right after breakfast. However just before stage time, we had to squeeze in a press conference, and we also had some pictures taken.

I have been having a little problem with my guitar lately, as it would intermittently hum, and it always happened at crucial points in the show. So Adam my guitar tech, took the pickup out, and had a look. He isolated the problem, and went about fixing it. This consisted of  bending a coke can to fit inside a kettle, and filling the can with wax, then putting the can in the kettle, and boiling it until the wax melted. He then took the can out of the kettle, and put the pickup in the can of wax. He then scrapped of any residual wax. This did the trick, and we are now hum free! Brilliant! We truly have not found a problem that Adam can’t fix yet.

This venue was seated, but they hardly needed any encouragement from Bernie, before they all came down to the front, and the atmosphere was great. It was a really good concert, and they just loved it. When we did the head banging section, it was a good laugh, and the audience seemed to especially like that bit!

After the show we did not have time to go to a restaurant for dinner, so they took everyone’s order beforehand, and when we came off stage, they had the food delivered and waiting for us in a room, with waitresses and everything.

They had printed up a menu for us to order from, which was a special Uriah Heep menu. Now how cool is that! All of the food items had Heep album titles, and it read like this:

Magicians Birthday: Pikeperch stewed with cheese,
Demons and Wizards: Salmon with caviar sauce,
Salisbury: Trout,
Innocent Victim: Salvelinus in Polish sauce,
Sonic Origami: Steak Ossobuco,
High and Mighty: Steak T-Bone,
Conquest: Beef Languette,
Very ‘Eavy, Very Umble: Mutton Leg,
Look At Yourself: Pork Neck fried with onions,
Wonderworld: Chicken Curry,
Firefly: Hungarian Chicken,
Return to Fantasy: Chicken Rolls,
Sweet Freedom:Chicken Wings,
Fallen Angel: Chicken Kiev,
Sea of Light: French Fries,
Into The Wild: Vegetable Ragout,
Celebration: Rice with Vegetables,
Raging Silence: Green Beans.

The chef was a serious Heep fan, and he even gave us all a printed menu each! If my memory serves me well, he did this the last time we were in Almaty! If you are interested, I had the Demons and Wizards, with Sea of Light! They also bought a plate of their National dish, which was Horse in some sort of vegetables. I have always wondered what happened to Shergold! After dinner it was back to the hotel for a mad travelling day the next day.

The currency in Kazakhstan was called Tenge, and the exchange rate is approximately 200 to £1. They do take Roubles as well as credit cards, so that wasn’t too bad. Anyway there was no need to change up money, as we were there for so little time.

On the money front, the rate of exchange for the Rouble is approximately 50 Roubles to £1.

We had four hours sleep, before getting up at 5am to drive to the airport to catch a plane to Moscow on Air Astana. I went to Duty Free, which I was amazed was open that time of the morning, as I was still hoping to buy some cologne, which I could not buy on the way out. Well I tried again, and was refused, so I enquired why, and then I spotted a sign which gave me an explanation. It read like this, and this is an exact copy of it:

“There is a New Custom Unit from the 1st July 2010. Due to this and new Custom Code it is STRICTLY PROHIBITED, to sell goods in Duty Free Almaty shop for the passengers who is flying to Russian Federation.”

Who is! I love it! That has a real Borat ring to it eh!

This  6.30am flight was 4 1/2 hours, and we were cramped, hot, sticky, and tired. The food they served was dreadful, and you could only really pick at it. In four and a half hours they came around only twice with drinks, and one of those times was with the food. We were gagging for some water or tea and coffee. On top of that we had a 6 hour layover in Moscow Airport, before flying to St Petersburg. This schedule has been really tough thus far, as we have thus far been on 9 flights in 12 days, gone through 5 time zone changes.

While we were waiting in the airport cafe, called “Hippopotamus,” which I guess is Russia’s answer to London’s “Giraffe,” I noticed a guy with his lady sitting at a table nearby. They stared at us, and eventually he came over and said, “I know your Mick, and your Trevor, can I have a picture taken with you.” Of course we obliged, and then he told us that he had come over especially to the airport, as a friend of his had called him on his mobile, telling him we were sitting there. He was a big Heep fan!

I read in the Moscow Newspaper that the Bolshoi Theatre, had been renovated, following a six year renovation project. Now I saw the Bolshoi Theatre back in 1987, when we saw the Bolshoi Ballet performing, and although it was very beautiful inside, it was extremely shabby, so the face lift is good news. The pictures look brilliant, and there is a real London’s Albert Hall look about it, though the major difference would be that it has a floor of an underground hall, that can be lowered 60 meters.

After that long wait at the airport, our flight was called, and we went through the X-ray machine. There was a young lady there, who whispered to me, “Are you music group,” and when I told her it was UH, she nearly cacked herself with excitement. Luckily for her, Bernie had a few signed pictures with him, so I gave her one, and she was super delighted, repeating Spasibo (Thank You,) a thousand times.

We were soon on another flight to St Petersburg. Thank goodness we were not playing that night, as we were all to a man, desperately shattered, and in need of sleep! The journey from the airport to the hotel was quite a long one, but we arrived in time to have a quick shower to wash that journey away, and get ready for dinner.

On the way to the hotel we did pass the Hermitage, which I have been to a few times, and it is amazing. You could almost spend a week there, and not see everything. Over 250 years ago the State Hermitage Museum amassed one of the largest collections in the world, which now numbers about three million art works, and cultural treasures, dating from the Stone Age, to the late 20th century. It is a truly a wondrous place to visit.

I have to say St Petersburg is a beautiful city, and always one that I enjoy immensely, each time I go there

We ate at the hotel, as we all wanted an early night. Well the food was excellent, and washed down with a beer or a glass of wine, we did just that, and had an early night. The Chef came to the table, and we gave him a round of  applause, as the food was that good.

Incidentally the hotel is a Marriott and the rooms terrific. I had to laugh though, as on the envelope that my room key was given to me in, the bands name was spelt “Uray Heep.”

The band had suites, but Bernie changed his as it stunk of smoke, and he was given one with 8 separate rooms inside it, so he really lucked out. His room was so big I  wouldn’t be the least surprised if his room had different postcodes, it was that big.

Whilst having dinner we could see through the hotel restaurant window in the street driving by, a colourful cement mixer.This was painted like a Matr’eshka. Now that is one of those Russian dolls, that have all the smaller ones inside. It really was the Mother of all cement mixers, and it looked fantastic!

Well I said previously that our promoter tour rep Veronica was re-named Harmonica, by the Southern Mafia, well the Northern Mafia put a spin on that, and they now call her “Our Monica.”

In the hotel there was Internet on a wire in the room, but only wireless downstairs in the bar, which was a bit of a bother. I hate sitting down in the bar, as firstly you announce you have a lap top with you by doing that, and I find it so hard to concentrate, as they generally have a Plasma TV blaring out, or some banal disco type music, which brings me out in a rash!

We had a discussion which I do not know how it came about, but it was probably something to do with Phil’s recent purchase of a mandolin. I have had a Czech Republic, Furch Mandolin for a few years now, and I can play the song we are talking about on it, and I know this is a long time coming in this paragraph, but the song in discussion is “Maggie May,” by Rod Stewart. Well the trivial pursuit question was, “Who played Mandolin on this song.” well it was Ray Jackson of Lindisfarne. Boom Boom!

The morning was a bit slow, with everyone still knocked about with time zones, and general tiredness. Some of us went out for a walk after breakfast, and there was a celebration of Independence day happening with thousands of students. They formed a huge horseshoe between the two main bridges, and there was a firework display, and a releasing of balloons into the air. It looked like the Vodka was flowing too!

It was soon time to go to the venue, which was called the Ice Palace. Before we left the hotel, there were a number of fans who found out where we were staying, and they wanted pictures and autographs. I am always amazed at that, as to how they know where we are staying? I guess in a lot of cases promoters all use the same hotels, for most of their bands. Anyway their were more fans outside the venue, when we went for the sound check. This was all cool, and the sound check went very well. This was a huge stadium, and unlike the big Theatre venue, we usually play here.

When we walked on to the stage to thunderous applause, we could see that it was a good size crowd, who were ready for a good night of Heep type Rock n’ Roll! The audience were incredibly young, and they knew all of the classic, and the new ITW songs, in equal measure. It was a great show, and the head banging section was unbelievable, as there were so many on stage, it was wonderful. Adam my guitar tech, was plucking them out of the audience, and putting them on the stage, as I pointed them out to him. Free and Easy really rocked, and the headbangers did us proud. I was given four bunches of roses, which were lovely, and a good time was had by all. I started my own flower shop on top of my Marshall Cabinets. “Box of Flowers,” has a nice ring to it for the name of my shop, don ‘t you think!

Back in the dressing room, we met some old friends, and we signed lots of autographs, and had many pictures taken. Heep fan Nadia came with her friend Stacy from Krasnodar, and kindly gave me a bottle of brandy, and she proudly showed me her tattoo of moi on her arm. Wow! On the other arm, she has Uriah Heep in the Roger Dean logo.
Masha who was a friend of one of our crew way back, kindly gave me a bottle of Vodka, as she came with her brother, and oh yes, Stacy kindly gave me a bottle of wine. So all in all on the flowers and drink stakes, I did really well indeed. Spasibo!

After all of this, we went back to the hotel to eat, and “boom,” the hotel restaurant was closed. We were told it would be open until midnight, but we were getting very used to porky pies being told to us, since we have been here. Anyway it was a quick recovery, and we found an Italian open in walking distance. Some went to eat, some went to bed, and some went to the hotel bar. After eating an average meal, and one beer, I went back to the hotel, and popped my head in the bar, and it was hopping. I gave this an almighty swerve, and went to bed. ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It was Saturday morning, and Phil received a text from his lady Possum back in the UK, that can truly be labeled as a Spinal Tap moment. Steven Tyler the singer with Aerosmith, had diarrhoea, and fell off the toilet seat and broke his 2 front teeth.

On Saturday, Trevor and I had breakfast, and then we went to the bar, as that was the only place with WiFi to download our emails, and UK newspapers. That is the great thing about these iPads, and they are a saviour on the road. We can Skype and FaceTime home, talk with our families, have endless music, books, films, videos, emails and newspapers. On top of that we can search the web for all sorts of stuff, like football, and then there are the Apps.I love it, and I will never leave home without it!

I was mortified to read that the Spurs manager Harry  Redknapp had open heart surgery, and equally so when I found out we had lost the first game against Rubin Kazan in the Europa League 1-0. Doh! We wish him well, and hope he will soon be in the driving seat at Tottenham.

One of our tour reps Amir, apart from all the other names he has acquired from us, is now being called Harry Potter by the crew. Well he does have the glasses and the fringe. The poor guy does not know which way to turn, when he hears these names calling him. The tone of voice usually gets through to him though, as there is usually something gone wrong or urgent required from him in most cases.

Today is a thankfully slow day, as we do not check out of the hotel until 4pm. We all met in reception, and there were a bunch of fans there, so we had a mammoth autograph and photograph session, and then we paid our bill, and went to the airport. At the airport we checked in, and went through all of the passport and X-ray machine procedures, and found a Costa Coffee. We sat there until our Aeroflot flight was called, and then we boarded the plane, and guess where we were going! Well done-Moscow! We were only in transit though, as we were flying on to Novosibirsk.

While we were in Moscow with a 3 hour layover, we went to an Indian restaurant in the terminal called Paprika. We have been there before, and although the food is good, it is a bit pricey, and costs 2 arms and one leg! Still it is a different cuisine to what we have had of late, so it was worth it.

After that we took an overnight flight to Novosibirsk, with yet another time zone to contend with, and the flight arrived at 6.50am.The airline was called S7, and the aircraft was painted lime green. The  personnel wore grey suits with mauve striped shirts/blouses, and a multicoloured tie of mauve, lime green, and blue, and this was topped off with a lime green sleeveless sweater, much like the style Frank Spencer wore in “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.”  I do not wish to sound rude, but whoever designed that outfit, and the colour of  the plane, had a good sense of humour, and to top it off, the staff were super miserable, and just would not crack a smile. Once again the food was inedible, so I was happy we had the curry at Moscow Airport!

Now Novosibirsk means New Siberia, so we are firmly entrenched in Siberia, and you could tell, as it was extra cold, with sleet in the air. The landing was to say the least iffy, and there was much nervous applause when we touched the ground.

When we arrived at the hotel at 9am, most of us went for breakfast. I was sitting with Phil, and we did laugh that in reality at 10pm last night we were eating a curry, and if we were on the same time zone as last night, we we’re eating breakfast at 4am. We did comment on how bizarre that felt. Another thought that dropped into our tired heads, was that all of the people we entertained in St Petersburg last night, were probably safely tucked up in bed, and here we were still traveling. It is amazing really, and hard to rationalise.

After breakfast it was off to bed, and thank goodness it was a day off! Boy oh boy a day off in Siberia, the mind boggles!

Well we met in the bar to decide where to have dinner, and some went for a Japanese meal option, which meant a van drive, and  a few of us decided on the quiet option of eating in the hotel restaurant. I stayed in and had a quiet night after all of that travelling, what with a nice new time zone to contend with!

At the hotel restaurant, which had dimmed Chandeliers lighting-wise to create an atmosphere, and they had video pictures on the walls, that kept constantly changing. One minute it was a Rembrandt, and 5 minutes later a landscape! They served the food at the table, on what can only be described as, hospital food trollies. You know that half metal, half plastic, noisy wheeled type. There was opulence aplenty, which was sitting side by side with plenty of tacky. I must say after a glass of wine on top of the tiredness, this all became rather surreal!

However the food was good, though terribly expensive. You could not buy a bottle of wine for less than Roubles 2,000, which is £40. I am talking about the same wine in England you can buy for a fiver, in your local supermarket.

Russ wanted to take a glass of Merlot up to his room with him, but he was told he had to go to the bar to be able to do this. He did just that, and was mortified to find the barman pour his wine from a carton and not a bottle. The same type of carton that you have for orange and apple juice. At that price, that is a bit cheeky!

Anyway I went back to my room, and looked in the mini-bar for some mineral water, and apart from the usual drinks, Pringles, and chocolate bars, there sitting at the front was a packet of three classic Contex condoms. They obviously cater for everything here! Doh!

Before going to sleep, I anxiously searched the Internet for the Spurs v Fulham result, but because of the time change, the game had not started, so I had look first thing Monday morning.

That is another week in the life of moi, and hopefully I will see you next week for more of the same.

‘Appy days!
Mick