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Introduction
The original idea for the Anthology sessions was
suggested last year by Eugene Koltunov at Sony Russia and in December
I visited Petro Studios in Moscow to discuss doing it there with
Russian musicians, etc. By early 2004 the concept had expanded to
include a DVD which will include unseen live footage from when I
played with Heep in the 80's and from my concert with The Presidential
Symphony Orchestra in Moscow last year. Like all good ideas the
details took a long time to sort out but we finally reached agreement
and it was time for me to go.
Actually, the hardest part was over at last on June 16th when I
was finally able to get my Russian visa, on the second attempt.
This is never a simple thing to achieve and the whole thing was
very complicated but, to cut a long story short, the Consulate in
Madrid (which is open for a grand total of 9 hours a week) decided
to close early on the 11th (my originally planned departure date)
for "technical reasons" which really meant that they wanted
to start their Independence Day holidays (Monday the 14th) a little
early. I didn't even make it through the front gate!!
But I did finally get it done and left for Moscow, arriving early
morning on the 17th. Arriving to the hotel after 28 hours without
sleep, I had time for breakfast and a shower before we left for
the studio. This is a really excellent studio. Very well built and
equipped, it lacks little and the team is very enthusiastic so I
was confident we could get the job done. No recording project goes
without glitches and challenges but I hoped my experience would
be useful and I would be proved right as we progressed…
Next
day...
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