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September 22nd 2003
Ukraine is a developing country which has been independent
of Russia for about 12 years and, while it doesn’t have the
resources or economic clout that Russia has, it just seems to be
developing more rapidly. There’s more yet for us to see but
that’s my early impression.
At our last hotel there was a “convention” of foreign
men meeting prospective Ukrainian wives and, whilst I find that
a little strange, I have to say that I don’t blame them! As
in Russia (or some parts of it at least) some of the women are breathtakingly
beautiful and I suppose they relish the prospect of an early look
at what is most commonly referred to as Western life, rather than
wait until their country catches up. As a visitor I hope they never
catch up!!
The images of this part of the world that we in “the west”
are fed are generally quite wide of the mark and, apart from their
inexperience and frequent inability to differentiate fact and fiction,
I enjoy being here.
But I digress… it’s time to go. A quick but very civilised
breakfast and we began the short (3 hours) drive to Dnepropetrovsk.
It is here that we will encounter our first major problem!
The in-store autograph session was amazing… hundreds of people
lined up outside the shop and lots of copies of The Last Dance
to sign. I was told the show was completely sold out and suddenly
I didn’t feel so tired. But when we got to the building there
was a poster that had the name Uriah Heep in HUGE letters and my
name in very small ones and I had to confront the local promoter
about this and the fact that the tickets didn’t mention my
name at all! My contract with the main promoter is clear and we
had authorised a specific poster but the local promoters seem to
ignore that and go their own way sometimes and now I was faced with
a really difficult choice. After speaking to my management I chose
to go ahead with the show after faxing a photo of the poster in
question (there was only one of them) and the ticket to Moscow.
We issued a statement offering people the facts and the opportunity
to get their money back but in the end it was one of our best performances
and, though I am sure there were some disappointed people in the
audience, there weren’t many by the end of the evening!
It is really unfair that the local promoters choose to cheat like
this and it is especially unfair on us, on Mick’s band and
on the kids who are affected by what is nothing more than “bait
and switch” but there isn’t much I can do… it’s
now in the hands of the main promoter in Moscow… and they have
been warned!
Anyway, we returned to the Rok Café for a quick dinner and
a few pictures and autographs before going to the hotel to snatch
a few hours sleep. Tomorrow (Odessa) is our last show in Ukraine
but we have a long drive and the roads are terrible so we have to
make an early (7:30am) start!!
Next
day...
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