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May 30It's Saturday morning in Los Angeles and who's going to play with me? Well, as Chris Hewlett from Eagle has sent me the new Deep Purple dvd History, Hits and Highlights '68-'76 I got up and 6am and started watching it. I watched it twice it was so good! Ritchie Blackmore was God in the '70s (before he moved to Sherwood Forest) and this proves it. So go and throw your Led Zeppelin dvds in the bin and get this. I'm off to watch Into The Fire, it shows that Tommy Bolin didn't work - far too laid back and American. Got a couple of interesting emails.
Sometimes life can be cruel...
May 29Got up at dawn to fly back to the sanity of Los Angeles - "The Sanity Of Los Angeles"... Mexico is the real world. I suppose LA is the sanitised verison. The airport is chaos but I have to say the airline staff were helpful and super friendly. Even the security are nice - no taking off shoes or getting out laptops, it was almost a pleasure to travel. Until we sit on the tarmac for nearly two hours, then I see people getting up. I ask the cabin crew what's going on 'Airplane quebrado.' On come the ground staff who walk us onto another plane with no fuss. It was civilised, I didn't mind at all. If this had been Heathrow or LA I'd be going 'Shit'... Got into Los Angeles to be stopped at immigration by an officer speaking in heavy Russian-sounding English. He looks at my visa, 'You have the wrong visa.' Me, while he's turning the pages of my passport over and over, 'No, it's the right one.' 'Are you saying I don't know my job?' He looks at me menacingly, 'Well, I've been coming here for the last five years and it's the right visa.' He looks agitated, 'You've been luck!' He then sends me to secondary immigration. They ask why I'm here, look at the visa and stamp me in. If it wasn't for the thought of being deported I'd love to have gone back to him and had a go - you know, a bit of 'Welcome to America' instead of 'You've got the wrong visa'. May 28Spent the day shooting The Mars Volta. Started with Omar and Cedric at lunch time. I had them out in the local streets - quite hard as every car slowed down to see what we were doing. It was so hot and bright we stopped and reconvened at 5pm. Went out to a giant vegetable market and shot around the empty streets. As we were shooting on a street corner an army truck slowed down to check us. It was quite weird, they were fully armed, locked and loaded as they say in America, with a huge mounted machine gun. All the soldiers had scarves over their faces. It was heavy and eerie, they just looked at us and never said a word. Cedric and Omar were funny and amimated although I doubt those photos will be used, but you never know. We finished at 7pm and I finished by shooting the band rehearsing for an hour. May 27Had breakfast with Charlie again, and Paul Newman, soundman and raconteur. We discussed world politics, and the poltics we have to work in... Saw John Paul Jones as well. He was playing The Lemon Song while eating his cereal on a fretless bass. Okay, I'm making that up. Kazuyo and I both had a chat, I hadn't seen him since the GQ Awards last year. Off to Guadalajara today. Flew on Mexicana which was interesting as the cabin crew seemed to be able to speak only the most basic English. I asked for sparkling water, 'You want vodka,' smiled the stewardess. 'Um, no, aqua con gas.' 'I get you vodka.' Read the new issue of Rolling Stone which tells you that Blink 182 are back, a band from the San Diego punk scene. "The San Diego Punk Scene". It must have been a strange punk scene with those middle class punk rockers Blink giving the Clash a run for their money. I shot Blink in the 90s and even they said 'We're a punk rock band.' The same as that other punk rock band Offspring, featuring university punk rockers even older than me. What a load of old shit, if they're a punk rock band I'm African American. But don't listen to me kids, they must be if Rolling Stone says so... I fly across the Gulf of California, clear blue water with desert, it looks dreamlike - it would have been nice to see it at dawn or dusk, it was like the movie Planet Of The Apes where Charlton Heston crashes into the sea. It look timeless as if if could be the future, or a million years ago. I arrive as the hills are covered in evening mist. It looked inviting. At customs the officer asks if Kazuyo is my wife. 'NO, ESTA HOMBRE!' He looks at her closely, 'Hombre?' 'Si!' He calls over the police who speak no English. They spend some time examing her Irish passport while looking at her mumbling 'Hombre???' It made my day. Got picked up by Henry who looks after The Mars Volta. I was quite happy as my Spanish is on the level of schoolboy English and no one here speaks mucho English. We drive out for an hour to Omar's house in the suburbs, I think 60's modern Frank Lloyd Wright, you get the idea. It is like a labyrinth with a film crew, band, road crew, assistants all staying. It is chaos but with charming hosts. May 26Managed to be awake at 3am, after going to bed at 12.30. I can never get past jet lag here, it wipes me out and I don't like taking anything to knock me completely out - feel too slow all day. So I got up at 5am and sort of did nothing, until the day started with humans around. I met Maya Gass and Charlie Hernandez (one of life's true human beings) with his son Charles for breakfast. Saw Gene Simmons at lunch time who was quite pleasant. Herr Simmons told me Paul Stanley was producing the new Kiss record, how good it was, and even the title - which I'm not telling you! Gene did say that Paul had come up with it, and it is good. I saw the Prodigy in the bar, who I didn't know were here. They are always nice, really nice, and very English. They were doing press, I did a quick session with them and they invited me to the show at the Grove in Anaheim. So I went (as I figured it was better than falling asleep at 7pm). Prodigy See more... 
 
 Had a quick civilized dinner with Charlie and Charles, then drove out to Anaheim which seemed to take forever. Had a good time with The Prodigy, they are very London and I mean that in a good way. Got there and saw Morat shooting, spoke to him and his extremely beautiful wife after the show. Morat thanked me for not ridiculing him when he started photography with a single body and lens - that's how I started, with a Pentax Spotmatic in those years before digital was there to ridicule. I left him with his wife and his servant Josh, who looked in dire need of a shave. May 25A boring bank holiday, but when aren't they? The weather's always bad though strangely this time it was nice and hot - but still generally boring. I saw Jimmy Page Saturday night, he came over to my house to have a black mass and worship the devil.... Okay he really came over to go through photos for a project we are working on. I showed him my record collection in my new record room - the spare bedroom upstairs. We looked at various LP sleeves with joy. Yes, we are that sad, but if you grew up in the 60s or 70s you would understand. We ended up in the Kings Road having a pizza. Jimmy told me he thought Steve Gorman had good swing to his drumming (we'd been talking about the Black Crowes). Nathan Followill of the Kings Of Leon has a unique style as well. Sunday I watched the four DVD set of Woodstock remastered. Disc three has the extra footage with the Grateful Dead - truly fucking awful with some fat bearded hippy playing bad guitar. Canned Heat were good but the BEST was the Who. It has We're Not Gonna Take It, Sparks, My Generation, with the footage from different camera angles and you see in shadow Bob Pridden lean into the crowd to get back Pete Townshend's guitar after he threw it in at the end of the show... I rearranged all my posters today as only an obsessive can. I was panicking at midday as I was leaving for the airport to fly to Los Angeles and I hadn't finished hanging them - a bit odd perhaps but it bothered me a great deal. I'm in LA for a couple of days then off to Guadalajara to shoot The Mars Volta, then back to LA for love making then back to Mexico to shoot Metallica who are playing three nights in the football stadium. Flying on Air New Zealand which is full, strange, I mean, who wants to go down there in winter? Kazuyo is sitting next to me in the front of the plane, the steward asks if my partner and I would like to dine together? 'Partner?' I tell him she is my SLAVE. 'That's not very nice,' he says. 'Life isn't and not only is she my slave she is ugly.' He looks mortified as only a homosexual flight attendant can. 'How can you say that?' 'I'm a photographer, I use my eyes.' I was going to shoot Greenland but the whole country was covered in cloud. Read a week's papers then slept for half the flight. Woke up over the Little Big Horn. I'd love to go there - must do it one day. Still cloudy near Las Vegas. I shot the clouds at 7pm. Landing in Los Angeles was a photographers dream, misty like the land time forgot. It made the flight for me. The view from New Zealand flight NZ1 - London to Los Angeles 
 
 Found these in an old box. I was playing Rock City on my ipod yesterday. They never quite made it which was a bit sad and Mark Reale ended up wearing a hairpiece which just looked old. He should have gone bald like his hero Ronnie Montrose. Guy Speranza left because his girlfriend wouldn't let him go on tour. He ended up a pest controller. Lars told me when he lived in New York he had to get a rat catcher in and realised it was Guy. Lars was impressed meeting him. I asked Dave Grohl if he liked them - he'd never heard of them. Great band in their day, the early 80's. The photos are from Donington, San Antonio and New York. Riot 
 
May 22
And the new issue of Classic Rock with my cover of James Hetfield plus Jeff Beck in Los Angeles and Chickenfoot from San Francisco.       
May 20Been digging out my records and putting them in alphabetical order. Addict behaviour I know, but I was getting frustrated because I couldn't decide if compilation LPs should go under sampler, or under title. It bothered me all day like it was a life important issue. The gratification I had was that all my LPs are mint as in looking new - something my old mate Pete from Vicious Sloth down under taught me, "Mint is brand new not Ex +", and I looked at the records with true love. The insane part is I don't have a turntable anymore. Dug out some Sounds from 1974-76 where Peter Makowski as a young teenager is in his heyday. Peter has an exclusive interview with David Coverdale about a new LP called Stormbringer, plus he interviews some whitey who thinks he's a negro, called Johnny Winter. In the same issue is an ad for a Hustler and Queen tour which I saw at the Rainbow Theatre 19th November '74. I remember thinking Queen were awful and will never make it. In an earlier issue is Paul Thompson of Roxy Music telling Peter that 'The drum world is due for a change.' He reviews Jeff Beck's Blow By Blow and goes to Belgrade with the new Deep Purple (March 29 '75 Issue ), a big deal then - it was behind the iron curtain. Pete seemed to go everywhere, now he just moans if he's not going to the Kingdom to find a Thai bride. I even found a review of the Heavy Metal Kids in a tiny theatre in the Kings Road by Pete's then very young boyfriend, Geoff Barton. Geoff has long ringlets like Shirley Temple. With glasses he looks about nine. And Geoff told me 'In a moment of insanity' that he threw all his LPs in the local dump a couple of years ago - he must have still been mad at being jilited by Pete. I finished reading Peter going to see The Who's new studio in Battersea (August 3 '74), and Jon Lord by Pete in the Talk In (the big Sounds interview) where Jon tells the fascinating news that his first love is Deep Purple. I'm off to sharpen some knives, I'm becoming psycho... Some magazines I found, boxes and boxes of them in my attic and garage. I'm going to scan the ones I like before they head to the bin. Korn before Head found Jesus, Bon Jovi when he and I were "Blood On Blood", Mike Tramp because he's a friend of mine and I always had a good time shooting him, and the Mars Volta because I like the Mars Volta and since I did this every fucker has copied me when they shoot them. 
 Also got the book 50th Years of Island Records from a hungover Ted Cummins who's a kind man - it has my Amy Winehouse photo on the cover May 18
May 17The Black Crowes in sunny Brixton.  
  
 They jammed out the show a bit which is not my thing. At the end they played a lot of the first album which was good. Chris was wearing what looked like an old rug - the kind of thing your granny had - and the light show was awful, all backlit. Normally they have good lights. Went and hung out with them, it was fun seeing them. I'd had dinner with Steve Gorman at Nobu on Saturday night. We saw Noel Gallagher (just back from Brazil). As I leave the show Rich saids 'Thanks for inviting me to dinner - you have my number,' all hurt. 'You could ring me up, you have mine.' Nothing changes. May 15A tale from the world of film. When I was last in New York I visited film director and diplomat's son, Sasha Gervasi, in his opulent suite in Soho. I asked where was Lips and the rest of Anvil, 'They don't need a hotel, they're sleeping in a van in New Jersey.' 'But aren't they one of the tribe?' 'Yeeeeees, buuuuuuut why spoil them?' replied Sasha, rubbing his hands while doing his best look of Fagin-like sincerity. Sasha's suite took up the whole top floor of the hotel. Sasha invited me to Cannes to the film festival. 'You'll be well looked after, never mind Motley Crue, it'll be girls, girls, girls - you'll be taken care of every night.' He then asked about our "Mates" deal as he likes to call it, as in I don't charge him much for the Anvil cd/dvd/t-shirt rights, while he continues to fill up his pot of gold, of course... He rang me last week about how the "Mates" deal is coming along, or how cheap I'll let him have the photos. 'How's my room with the whores (sorry, ladies) doing Sasha?' 'I'm sharing a room with a convict!' he spluttered. What Sashastein means is he's sharing a two bedroom suite on The Croisette with Rebecca, his producer (who's HOT - according to Sasha) from down under. Sasha would have liked me to envisage him in a bed and breakfast with his Sheila but the reality like the film world is far different. And Anvil - they are in a caravan a two-hour drive from the beach. And you know I still haven't done my "Mates" deal. Sasha may be Fagin but I'm definitely not Oliver Twist... More of the Crowes at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam. See more... 
May 13The Black Crowes at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam 
 
 Got up to a rainy miserable day. Off to Amsterdam for the Black Crowes. Got to Gatwick (not my usual airport) and it was as if it was the last day on earth and everyone was leaving at 7am. Hundreds of people - old, young, children, foreigners, you name it. The worst part being the BAA who do the security. At Gatwick they now have clear plastic bags half the size of the ones at Heathrow and the security seem to think they are empowered with the force of the Waffen SS and are as pleasant as the Gestapo. A bunch of total cunts. Sorry, I mean CUNTS. Sending people back through security and being as unpleasant as possible. Travel used to be fun and exciting. This lot act like a bunch of fascist bus conductors. Fuck me, they don't even care whether you might be a terrorist or not, they are enforcing the Rules of the Clear Plastic Bag. Anyway, got to Holland and the sun is shining and it's warm, and it's a vast improvement on fucking Gatwick Airport... I had lunch with Steve Gorman then had a wander around Amsterdam. I found two good book shops (as good as Book Soup in LA), The American Book Centre and Athenaeum Boekhandel. I got a book I've been after for a while, From Abba To Zappa. It's the photos of the Dutch photographer Gysbert Hanekroot, and has a lot of pictures I've never seen. I could have spent hours in both shops. Met up with the Black Crowes and drove to the Heineken Music Hall. Most of the journey was Chris Robinson trying to convince me that the crap he likes, The Grateful Dead, still means something - I TRULY hate that band with a passion. Shot soundcheck with Chris playing me Trucking, a rubbish Dead song. The venue is okay to shoot backstage but hard otherwise as the stage is about eight feet tall - if you stand in the front you can just about see the tops of people's heads. I shot about half the show then gave up. Still, they played some good songs for a first show - Wiser Time, Shapes Of Things, and even Thick And Thin... More Metallica, now blitzkrieging their way across Europe. See more... 
More Jeff Beck, shot in the Sunset Marquis Hotel Los Angeles. 
 May 12Here's what I've been listening to at the moment
Metallica from the 02 a while ago. 
 And never mind those boring rock bands here's something far more interesting.... my future wife Koyuki. 
May 11
The magazine is printed on heavy, old style glossy paper and is very expensive looking. The next issue has a work of art by me on the cover, instead of a picture of a boring chef - issue two out in August. Go and get the Premier Issue, you won't be disappointed. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, shot in Los Angeles 
The Sunset Marquis Hotel where I always stay in Los Angeles - shot by me. The Billy Gibbons photo was taken in 2007.     May 7Watched The Legend Of 1900 (which I've had forever), it was rubbish. Then the Swedish film Let The Right One In - that was great. Then One Wonderful Sunday (Akira Kurosawa). On Sky I'd taped Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood at Madison Square Garden. It was dreadful - limp, overplayed blues with lots of backslapping, honestly I wanted to like it but it was dull. I went and played the Jeff Beck Group at the Boston Tea Party 1969 and that showed how to do it properly. Played Sa Dingding, she looks good but is just average. Just like the blues you have to like it but the problem is it's boring, a real "I know more then you, I'm a purist keeping (and stealing) black music" when the reality is you can't write any songs and the best stuff you play is by someone else. I got the three 80s UFO cds, No Place To Run, The Wild Willing and Mechanix . All have my photos, in fact a lot of my photos, but no credit etc. All lifted from the tour books of the time on EMI Records. Something I'm going to deal with - it's called "Copyright".
Jeff Beck in the new issue of Mojo.
And here's Anvil in the latest edition of This Is Rock 
 May 5Jeff Beck in Los Angeles...  
  Green Day from San Francisco. 
 May 2Peter Makowski has come to visit. We watched a film called the North Face about those young Nazis trying to climb the Eiger (or the Ogre, as it was known) in the 30s with prehistoric equipment - it was realistic and gave me nightmares. Peter gave me Tokyo Gore Police starring my future wife, Eihi Shiina. I can watch it over and over just to fantasize about nights of passion. Last week's Guardian had a Digested Read with a funny review of Under Their Thumb by Bill German. "It wasn't easy dealing with the band's egos. Mick would either ignore me or ignore me". "Mick said.'Here's the deal. You pay all your own costs and continue not to rock the boat of Rolling Stones PLC and we'll treat you like shit'" And young Bill let them. Peter brought me Woodstock, the remastered 4 dvd set, which I will force my girlfriend to watch. You can laugh but when I saw this at fourteen and The Who followed that dirty hippy Joan Baez I discovered music. Still a beautiful sunny day... in (as THE CAVEMAN says) dreary old England. I must check out Malibu for it's culture. Shot at Joe Perry's home in Boston for Guitar Aficionado Magazine 
 May 1Summer's here and it's a warm sunny day. I was thinking of going wandering around London with a camera and they've closed the underground for train works. London sometimes lives in the dark ages. Kevin THE CAVEMAN Shirley is moaning on about dreary old London. Cavie I'll take it over the 'Bu any day, or Indiana, your other love,Trains or no trains. I saw Curved Air last week at the Boom Boom club in Sutton. Now before you snigger I quite liked them, never saw them in the day. My other half said she'd come along. The best way I can describe it is to say it was like watching your older art teachers playing at a school fete. Darryl Way was good and Florian Pilkington-Miksa on drums was excellent, Sonja Kristina reminded me of a hippy auntie dancing in a trance while you cringe in embarrassment. During Young Mother Sonja said 'This is a song we freak out to...' I liked it, my girlfriend looked on in horror. The real horrifying part was the audience - I felt young. This area is full of old asylums, or Loonie Bins as as they are called and the crowd looked as if they'd been let out for the night. Singing and talking to themselves, doing weird jigs in circles while drinking pints of bitter. All overweight with receding hairlines and huge beer bellies, including the women. It was kind of like an old 60s Hammer film or an episode of Doctor Who and we'd been sent there in the Tardis. My other half looked at me and said 'we're leaving!' I was disappointed as they hadn't played Back Street Luv, but I could see where she was coming from - the loonies have left the loonie bin. Been reading the honest and funny Noel Gallagher interview in the new issue of Q. The new trendy Q photographer has made Noel look about two hundred years old with very poor lighting. Noel looks like a freshly excavated Egyptian mummy, and that's me being kind. Still, the interview's good and the issue has some wonderful photos of The Prodigy from Amsterdam by... me. I played Curved Air's Second Album this morning, it is a cd for Loonies - Noel Gallagher would love it. New export issue of Metal Hammer with James, shot at the 02... 
Some recent Magazines 
  
The Prodigy, See more... 
 
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A letter from the new issue of Mojo- I can't work out if it's a compliment or not.
And Guitar World with my cover of Hole fom January 1999. I remember Courtney was ten hours late for the shoot and Eric, the other guitarist, was such a pussy he moaned all day then was all smiles to Courtney's face. I also had Courtney draw circles on my photos around her arms then say, straight-faced, 'Make me muscular.' Amazing what bollocks you put up with.
The new cd by Boh Runga it's very good and just come out recorded in Los Angeles.
I found this in my garage. Proximity was a Led Zeppelin fanzine in the 80's-90's I always liked. The cover is a pastiche of the Melody Maker at the time of the Earl's Court shows in May 1975. The photo of Robert Plant is mine from the Unledded show.
A Jimmy Page shot for the cover of the number two issue of GUITAR AFICIONADO, out in July - and I'm not putting more of the session up so you sad people who run fan sites can steal it...
The new issue of GUITAR AFICIONADO which has a intro photo of me, and all my photos of the Sunset Marquis, including a gallery of my photos at the hotel, plus Joe Perry at home with his black horse - called Steven...
Did a trade for a nice Led Zeppelin III reel to reel. And found in my attic an Iron Maiden poster from the Rainbow Theatre with Praying Mantis and DJ Neal Kay. I think this was the first time Maiden headlined and I remember shooting it for Sounds (if anyone knows the year please let me know), whose motto was "Music Is The Message". Which bands have now changed to "Money Is The Message"...
