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DAY ONE
Well… perhaps I should do a bit of background
first!! As many of you know I was in Moscow in February working
with the record company (Sony music, Russia) and I had a great time,
working hard and enjoying exploring a major world city for the first
time! Everything about it was excellent… the food, the people,
the sight-seeing… it was all good………… you
know what's coming next don't you????
Well, no, I am not going to complain but I will/must say that the
organisation and planning of these two shows was the hardest thing
i have been involved in… in a very long time!!
And yes, I could go into gory details and name names but I'm not
going to do that. Let me just say that, when it comes to planning
and executing concerts in Russia, everything is "different"!!
It is actually something of a miracle that the shows happened at
all and, at one point today, it didn't look like we would get here
either! and this is where the story begins…
After finally getting our tickets and after finally
getting our visas (and what a story that is/was!) we all showed
up at Heathrow exactly on time (i think it's worth mentioning that
i am so lucky to be working with a band and crew who are responsible
and reliable!) only to be told that because of yet another failure
of the new and super de-luxe, hi-tech air traffic control computers
in england, we would be facing at least a three hour delay!!
Undaunted… we checked in ourselves and our 17 pieces of luggage
(we had to take some additional gear that we were promised but which
we found out didn't exist in russia!) and then the power in terminal
2 failed totally, plunging everyone into total darkness!! (this
is when I began to wonder if there might be a divine message in
all of this!!) But we hung in together, no-one complained and finally
we went to the departure lounge… A. to see if it was
still there and… B. to see when we would be leaving.
We had asked to fly on British Airways but "somehow" ended
up on Aeroflot and it seems they don't have a lot of influence or
authority at Heathrow as we received no information for four hours.
In fact we knew nothing at all until we finally found a table and
our lunch was served… of course! Then it was a mad dash to
the gate so we could sit on the plane for two more hours, still
without any information! (please excuse all the exclamation marks!)
All I knew at this point was that we were going to be very late
and, even though we didn't have a show tonight we did have a major
promotion to attend which had been organised by Sony Music Russia!!
I did what I could to stay in touch with them by mobile phone but
there was really nothing more I could do at this point.
Finally, after an almost 6 hour delay, we landed
in Moscow and were met by the people who were supposed to meet us,
plus Igor, Alexander and Igor and… well I was tired by then!!
But we soldiered on and went straight to the "Sexton"
club where we were met by loads of cameras and tv news people. It
was cool and the people were very nice and we soon sat down with
some drinks and snacks that made us all feel better. (Aeroflot ran
out of wine before we took off I think… or maybe soon after
anyway! The flight attendant actually said to me "we have chicken
or fish but we are out of chicken"! (honest… I am not
making this stuff up!!)
"Tomas", the act that would be opening for us in Moscow
played a short set (apparently they don't know many songs) and then
we were "invited/volunteered" to play. Using the other
band's equipment (no B3 of course), we did "Lady In Black"
and "The Wizard" and everyone loved it and we drank a
little more and left for the Hotel Ukraina which is an incredible
building and a very interesting and historic place, arriving at
around 3 am. It was then that I found out that there was a press
conference the next day at noon! (the pattern was beginning to develop.)
Next day...
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