Thoughts from Huntersville

Home Sweet Home

2012-02-14T20:55:00.001-06:00

Well, it has been an exciting year, too darned exciting if you ask me!
Around the world one and a half times, I almost forgot what it was like to wake up in the same bed each morning but I did get to see an aweful lot along the way.
I saw iconic sights like Red Square, I saw poverty in Istanbul, I saw AC fans lining up in the wind and rain to see their hero. I saw old theatres in Europe and the US that held dusty secrets and I had many a breakfast laughing my sox off with my man and the boss.

Now we are at home, we have kicked off the Rock and Roll boots, put our feet up and got back to watching Jeopardy and Lawrence Welk on TV (my UK friends will have no idea who that is, sorry).

We are back creating MUSIC!

I have already started to write new songs and Steve is busy recording a track for me to sing that will surprise a few people I'm sure.
The response to his statement that he will not tour with Alice this year has been humbling and full of encouragement and understanding for his decision. At the same time we launched his new website, it is classy, easy to navigate and interesting and it will get even more interesting when he starts putting up entries for his new 'blind blog'.

He will no doubt have things to say that will raise eyebrows or bring a smile to readers faces. He also wants to put up some short audio clips from our travels and more in the future. They will be 'sound pictures' of some of the people, streets and amazing buildings we visited or will visit, for other sight impaired people to share.

It was Valentines Day today so here is the poem that Steve wrote for me in 2005, my old romantic!

I surely love you like the dew loves a rose
Love fills my heart like the snot in my nose
We are a team, like a horse and a cart
Our love will last like a long silent fart

Here is a link to his new website: www.stevehunter.com

The times they are a changing

2012-02-12T17:54:00.000-06:00

A word from me:

Steve does not make decisions like this lightly as those who know him well will be aware.
When he does something he always does it to the best of his ability; his soul, passion, honesty and spirituality is why he plays guitar like he does.
His integrity as a person and a player is well known in the music industry and amongst many other things including his humor, that is why I love him so much.

He will never be a speed player but if you want your heart torn from it's place with emotion or set free to fly like an eagle then he will deliver. If you want a guitar tone that can make the hair stand up on the back of your neck and sound like chocolate dipped in a deep earthy red sauce, then he is the man.

When I listen to his solo on 'I Am Made Of You' and his work on things like 'Hymns For Guitar', I know where that comes from because I am lucky enough to be with that dedicated spirit every day.

There are things we will miss and things we will not miss but we are thankful and grateful for the journey and both looking forward to the rest of this year and whatever it has in store.

Statement from Steve Hunter Feb 11th 2012

Hello all my peeps and fans. I have an announcement to make. I have spent many weeks mulling this over...losing sleep. For many reasons both personal and professional I have reluctantly decided not to join Alice Cooper onstage this year. None of the reasons has to do with my health which is very good at the moment. Nor do any have anything to do with my poor eyesight, because I was able to find wa...ys around my impairment to enable me to perform and play guitar onstage. Nor is Alice any part of the reasons I have made this decision. He is a brother to me and we share a real history. I think it’s time I move on. I have a solo album to finish among other things. I will miss all the beautiful people I met last year. I will miss glancing over to my right and seeing Alice belting out 18 again. I hope you all understand and aren’t disappointed in me. But I think I have to do this. I hope to see you all out there again one day soon. Thanks for understanding and God bless!

A final word

2011-12-28T16:08:00.009-06:00

I confess that the last three weeks of the AC world tour went by in somewhat of a blur, therefore I am not going to be able to itemise the shows. Instead I will post some of the final photographs I was able to take and tell you as much as I remember.

There were 14 shows over a period of about 3 weeks, we started in the Soaring Eagle Casino, Mt Pleasant MI, then criss crossed our way across the mid west, a bit of Canada and finished in Hollywood, Florida.
I remember quite a few 8 hour overnights on the bus right after the show but the worst overnights were the 4 hour drives to the next city after a show, by the time you got to sleep it was time to get up and walk in a daze to the hotel lobby for the room key. (If uncle Toby had not laid the room key envelopes out on the table in the bus)

Can you see that?

On the opening night at the Soaring Eagle Casino, we met up with some friends including Darin, Don, Ken and Katie Szabo, Katie gave me a fab pair of colorful socks, perfect for spotting in the lost sock dept of my bedroom.

The sky in Ontario

In Cincinati, Ohio we had a visit from our good friends Randy McLaughlin and Robin who brought their rising star Wendell the miniature pig! Wendell was adorable, he had his own transport, a little carriage with a zip up front to stop him leaping out and going off shopping on his own! He simply steals the show wherever he goes.
By all accounts Wendell is more intellegent than the average dog, he is house trained and snuggles up in bed.
Like everybody else who saw his cute face and tail, I wanted to take him home with us.

WENDELL

Steve, Robin and Randy

We had a day off in Cincinati, a good time for our end of tour dinner and some revelry. A few brave souls dared to try their luck on the bucking bull in the restaurant and we played a cool game.
After picking the name of a victim from the band or crew out of a hat, we bought that person something relevant and silly then each named present was opened at the dinner. I got some yummy British biscuits (cookies) from our bus driver Taz, relevant to me because it was a standing joke that I would make an English cuppa for me and Steve as soon as we got on the bus after a show, like the pair of old fuddy duddies that we are!

James the sound desk wizard on the bull

Kyler looking like an expert

Steve got the best present possible for him which made us all roar with laughter, the boss gave him a book called Farts Around The World. Steve has a love of this subject that has never waned since childhood and he uses it to full effect both on and off the stage.

In Atlanta we were joined by David 'Purple' Hayes, his lovely wife Jenny and their nephew Mike. David makes awesome amps for Steve. Jenny is recovering from a stroke so she was in a wheelchair when we got her in to say hello to the boss, he was so kind to her and said "you could Turbo Charge that"!
Steve and I think Jenny is an Angel. Here is a link to David's website for the discerning guitar players out there: http://www.hayesamplification.com/

We also had a welcome visit from our good friend, guitarist Damon Johnson in Atlanta, he brought his gorgeous family with him and joined the band onstage.

Damon and Steve reunited

'In Hollywood, Florida we were joined by one of Steve's closest friends and supporters. Richard Harold helped Steve when he needed eye surgery for a detatched retina. This was before I was on the scene and I will always be grateful to Richard for being there for him during that difficult time'.

Richard and Steve

Backstage antics on the last show, Chuck and Toby

Here we go, last one.....

What!

Thank you and goodnight

So, just to recap, we made it! Seven months and around the world one and a half times.
I was my husbands eyes, a VIP co ordinator, occasional camera director and occasional Clone! I also gained about 10 pounds in weight!
There are hundreds of Youtube clips of how the year unfolded and of course the new album 'Welcome 2 My Nightmare'.
All this to remind us that The Boss and The Deacon worked together again after 36 years!
My man made it with the help of his specially designed custom Gretsch guitars, glow in the dark tape, Brian his tech, the band, the crew and his awesome determination and talent.
I hope this blog has given you an insight to life on the road. There are so many memories, some good, some bad, I laughed and I cried but every moment was worthwhile.

PS: If you click on a photo you get a bigger version

Red Square and Clones

2011-11-29T19:52:00.009-06:00

We are now back in the US about to do the third show on this the final leg of the 'No More Mr Nice Guy' tour with the amazing tour de force that is Alice Cooper.

But, I need to back track to France, Germany and Russia.

We had a hotel right by the town square in Toulouse and as we wandered around we found a busker playing some really good accordion, (Steve had no idea what the word 'busker' meant). For our American friends it means someone playing or doing something for money on the streets, another useful word that never crossed the great divide.

We stopped and listened for about ten minutes and the little chap in his old raincoat was clearly very happy with his audience, beaming from ear to ear he played his socks off! Steve recorded a few minutes of his great playing as he is intending to put a blog up on his new website called 'My Blind Blog' where he will talk and even 'sound off' on any subject that he feels like plus upload sounds of things and places for other sight impaired people to savor.

We went for a coffee across the street from the hotel but that was not so good, they looked at us like we just dropped in from another planet. We got two cups of coffee that we could have used to lay a road, sat for about ten uncomfortable minutes then left.

I don't remember much about Lyon but I do remember Paris! Paris feels like the New York of Europe to me, it's crowded, bustling and irresistible. The man and I went to the Notre Dame which was awesome, I had been there when I was about 14 but a lot of water has gone under my bridge since then so it felt like I was there for the first time.
A rather interesting thing happened inside the Notre Dame. We were sat in the centre stalls silently contemplating when we heard a cracking noise high above then a few seconds later a piece of glass splattered to the ground a few stalls in front of us, narrowly missing another couple also sat contemplating, it shattered like the glass from a car windscreen...... considering that it fell over 100 feet it could have killed someone but it missed everybody!

An old friend of Steve's came to the show in Paris, Henry Padovani was the original guitarist for The Police and he has the sexiest French voice ever! Steve played on a few tracks of Henry's last album.
He was with another friend of ours called Mark St John and it was great to catch up with them again.

Here is a pic of Steve and Henry Padovani taken that night:

Notre Dame in Paris

The next German city I remember was Bremen, it was really beautiful plus that is the city we had our end of tour dinner with all our German crew and the support act for that leg 'The Treatment' who were all so cool and did such a great job warming up the audiences in Europe.

Bremen

Some of the crew and band enjoying some down time in Bremen.

The guys from 'Treatment' and some of catering crew for Germany

In Mulheim the boss had the most amazing cake given to him as a gift by John Loui, a British chef working in Germany, I put a pic in for you but it really doesn't do it justice, it was simply fantastic and yes, it tasted wonderful!!!! Thank you!

I was snap happy at the Berlin show, the light was perfect and I got quite a few good shots from the side of the stage.

Here is a selection

Tommy decided to cover a sleeping Steve in sweets backstage.......

From Berlin we flew to Russia for two shows. Steve was surprised to discover how many fans he had in Russia, there were people waiting to have various albums signed, the new Alice album 'Welcome 2 My Nightmare' the original 'Welcome To My Nightmare, but also other albums like Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, David Lee Roth and even his own album 'The Deacon', all on vinyl which Steve maintains still sounds the best!

We did manage to get to Red Square, how could we have not done that! It was a mile long walk (we needed the exercise) and it was very cool indeed............... actually it was darned well freezing (:
My man hates being cold even more than he hates politics and it took determination for us to get there but it was one of the most historical places on the planet when we were growing up. We recalled how we used to hear about the 'Cold War' when we were kids and being afraid that we would end up in a third world war.
Ironically there is now a huge high end shopping mall down one side, so Chanel and Gucci have replaced Khrushchev, Capitalism has replaced Communism! I still cannot believe I was lucky enough to be there, who would have ever thought it! Not me that's for sure!

Red Square

The red wall in Red Square

Red Square Coats!

My man makes a stupid face in Paris

The other noteworthy event from Moscow was that Steve fell over on stage during Schools Out! He wanted to venture out to the front on a stage extension and had plotted his path during sound check.
All was well initially, the boss and the band were happily surprised to see him out there and he was having a ball being so close to the fans. But, he moved position slightly and when he turned to walk back to his pedal board he walked right into his monitor....wham!!! Over he went, I didn't see it as I was organizing the balloon winner on the far side. He got up and carried on playing and later said it was worth it as he had such a good time the rest of the night. Luckily neither he nor his guitar was damaged.

After Moscow we flew home for four days, more about that next time.

Oh, I nearly forgot! There was a extra short clone onstage for about five shows....... here is a vid. Keep a watch out for Chuck giving 'short clone' a bit of a hard time at the end of the song.....whoever could that confused clone be?

The Jason Becker Story

2011-11-05T05:13:00.002-05:00

This documentary needs to be finished, it will be amazing as you will see from the trailer.
Jason is kind, smart, funny and strong, stronger than anyone we know and he is like a brother to Steve.
Jason and Steve were working together on the David Lee Roth album 'Little Aint Enough' in 1991 when Steve noticed Jason was walking with a limp. The limp turned into ALS.

Created by Indie GoGo (Jesse Vile and his team in London, San Francisco and LA)

You can help get this project through post production and out to the public where it needs to be!

Here are the links for more information:

http://www.indiegogo.com/NOT-DEAD-YET

http://www.JasonBeckerMovie.com/

The Homeland

2011-11-04T14:46:00.005-05:00

I wanted to write about the UK part of the tour as we went through the cities but got too darned tired! So here is a synopsis of our time in my homeland.

We actually went to London from the Netherlands first because the boss was recording some TV shows, this meant that we had time to get to Camden Market and buy some cool hats. I got two and the man got three, add them to the others and we now have a fine collection of hats between us, as the Queen might well say "One can never have enough hats"....oh well maybe she never said that but you know what I mean.

There was a snack bar there with the coolest seating arrangement....see below

Sheffield was the first show, the place was heaving and all went well. I took a couple of silly pics backstage (see below). I was excited at the thought we would be going to Bristol the next day, I would get to see some of my closest friends and my children Holly and Mathew.

Tommy and Chuck backstage in Sheffield, look at those tatts!

Me and the man, and no I do not have my fingers up his nose! I was trying to stop him making a silly face.

I wanted to get as much time with my kids as possible so the idea was for them to get to Bristol from Torquay around the same time as we got there from Sheffield which was supposed to be 2pm.
In fact we got there at 1pm, giving more time for the boss and Ori to shop and time to get acquainted with the venue and find catering which is always the priority for me and my man.

It goes without saying that the reunion with my children and old mates was the best part of the day for me, we spent some time talking and laughing then going for something to eat whilst Steve got some rest before the show. My small circle of close friends in England are very special to me, they put up with me living in a far off land and I always feel relaxed and at home in their company.

Dan, Holly, Deborah, Steve , Colin, Tim and Mathew:

The band and the boss were fab as always that night and my friends were impressed despite not being huge followers of AC before the show they were firm fans after the show....of course!!!!!

Steve's self adopted nick name is Skoop Doggy Do and Holly has started calling him 'Old step skoop' which is hilarious. Saying goodbye to everybody was horrible but I start working towards being in one place with them again as soon as the last one is over.

Next up Birmingham, it was a bit grey and wet there although the show that night would warm everybody up. We were joined by the New York Dolls or as my mum called them "The New York Dollies", (and were they all girls she wondered). They stayed with us until Glasgow and were brill. Guitarist Earl Slick is an old friend of Steve's and both players decided to make sure they keep in closer touch next year.
My good friend Tony Brinsley drove up from Devon to see us here, Steve and I spent some relaxed time with him before the show. He was another friend who was not sure if he would enjoy the show and ended up loving it.....of course!!!!!

A view of a damp Birmingham from our hotel room.

We saw a great deal of the AC fans from 'SickthingsUK' on all these shows, they never cease to amaze me with their loyalty to Alice and the band and I eagerly looked forward to spotting them in the front rows of every show and meeting up afterwards.
I have gained new friends on this tour through both Sickthings from all over the world and Facebook and now we have left for the rest of Europe I will miss their happy 'Sickthings' company.

London was next, Alexandra Palace is amazing with it's history both grand and eventful.
It was Halloween and we were joined by Arthur Brown who at 70 years of age was simply fantastic. Steve had done a great arrangement of Arthur's big hit 'Fire', a three guitar assault on a great song, Arthur himself jumped and rolled about like a teenager.
Arriving on stage with his hat on fire, he and the boss were clearly having fun along with the band.

Manchester was a great show, they really know how to rock there.
I was back on old stomping ground for a lot of these venues as I had done them as a backing singer with Gary Numan in the 80's. For some reason they seemed a lot smaller, especially Manchester which had been the closing gig of the tour with Gary in 1984.
Fun memories all round for those times and it was good to be back again with my gorgeous man and the AC band.

Last but not least was Glasgow before we left my homeland for Brussels and beyond.
Goodbye England but only for now, I will be back!

Pics from the Glasgow show below.....

There's a chicken on the loose!

Chicken meets the boss!

Oh oh Chicken in trouble!

Steve with the lovely Tanja, our friend and helper on the European leg of the tour. We will all miss you, xx

Tanja with Tommy

Oh no! Has Orianthi gone crazy!

2011-10-20T12:16:00.002-05:00

There are rumor's coming from the AC camp that Orianthi has indeed lost her mind!

After dealing with some difficult decisions over the last few weeks, like which leggings to wear onstage and should she continue to get catering looking for small red apples EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!

She is now convinced she is giving birth to a giant red apple, particularly after a random feathered plant suddenly started growing out of her head! She is praying every night that it's an apple tree!

Needless to say the band are being fully supportive in this matter and her mental health is of the highest priority.

Rome and beyond

2011-10-16T06:36:00.001-05:00

We have had pretty bad jet lag, you don't realize it at first then you start waking up in the middle of the night and feeling tired all the time.
We got to Rome and had a day to rest before my parents arrived from Alicante where they now live.
I had not seen them for over two years, too darned long but at last we had been able to arrange a mutual stop over in Rome,where we had a couple of days off in a row.

I got a call from the front desk that they had arrived and I almost dive bombed the two sets of stairs to get downstairs to the lobby.
I hugged my mum so hard, it was two years worth of hug! We cried so much that when we stopped and looked at the receptionist she was sobbing right along with us.

You have to understand a little background about me and my mum. We spent seven years together on our own after she left my father, she was my whole family and we are extremely close despite the many miles of distance across the years as I traveled to work in Germany and Canada as well as all over the UK and now of course the USA. She married my stepdad when I was ten who became our rock and I adore him. He and Steve are very similar, both having dry and wicked humor so it was wonderful to have them in the same room for a few days and a lot of laughter ensued.

We chose to make the Colosseum our main stop as far as sightseeing, it turned out to be about a four mile walk all told, quite enough for the four of us as we were all still tired from recent long flights and early starts. (plus the fact that none of us is in our prime!)

The Colosseum was amazing! We had an official tour and I learned about what had really gone on there, it was mind boggling. There were lots of things that I was not aware of (I had probably not listened at school) but things like the fact that there was a canvas cover over the top! The Romans were so clever they had designed it so that it was all in small sections so they could open a few or all by a system of rope pulleys.
The range of wild animals that were made to fight and die was enormous, from porcupines to elephants! It was sad to know that so many animals and people had died there for sport and indeed some animals were brought to the point of extinction.

My parents came to the Rome show with us, the band the boss and Sheryl made them feel really welcome. I am not sure who made who laugh more, the band or my mum. It was a perfect venue for their visit, there was a balcony with a row of comfy seats which was cut off to the public so they could watch the show from there without being surrounded by excited fans.
My mum LOVED the show, she was clapping and gasping at the bosses antics with Cold Ethyl, the monster and the guillotine, I am sure dad liked it too but he is far more reserved.

I recon that the three shows in Italy have been amongst the best audiences so far, they knew the words to all the songs and had such fun which of course means the band has more fun.

Tommy has been sick with a cold, the bug has been passing around the band and you know who started it all off ...... no mention of a name but he is pretty nifty with drum sticks (:

We are in Switzerland now, it is grey and foggy. Tonight is the Winterthur show so I will close out by saying that Rome was awesome all way around.

Ok, which way?

The streets of Rome:

Mum and dad holding hands:

The outside wall of the Colosseum:

The inside of the Colosseum, the wooden stage is no longer there so you can see the system of tunnels beneath where it had been.

Padova and Trezzo

Our bus driver, jolly Jonnie:

Tommy is all snotty:

Trezzo show

Istanbul airport lounge

2011-10-08T23:32:00.004-05:00

After a one and half hour flight from Jakarta to Singapore then twelve hours to Istanbul, we are in an airport lounge waiting for the flight to Rome. I have slept for about eight hours but still in a 'happy pill' daze. The lounge is huge, there are mirrors all over the place, the walls and the ceiling.

In my search for the bathroom I walked around a corner and nearly bumping into someone I realized I was talking to a huge wall of mirror and had smiled and apologized to myself!

Now I am listening to Steve and Orianthi play a little short scale acoustic she bought. What a lovely way to relax in an airport. Steve just played 'Solsbury Hill' and then he showed Ori a tuning and some chord voicing's she had not known about, they are having fun playing and sharing music.

He told her he will send his bill later, ha ha!

These moments are precious.

Singapore and Jakarta

2011-10-07T10:29:00.011-05:00

We left Perth on Singapore Airlines and it was awesome!

The hostesses were gorgeous their beautiful Batik outfits and so very polite and sweet.

The hotel at the other end in Singapore was huge, it was a bit like staying in a mix of Disneyland and Butlins (the Brits will know this)!
There were children running about everywhere and a Universal Theme Park.
We were treated very well and even spent a couple of hours checking out the park as their guests.

We started with the really terrifying stuff........ Shrek! Seriously, the only tricky bit really was the fact that it was all in the dark so poor Steve had to hold on tight to me and then couldn't see the screen with the 3D glasses. But he could hear and feel the effects, we even got sprayed each time someone sneezed on the screen.........They had over done that by the fourth time but it was funny.
The seats rocked about and jolted but on the whole it was a tad lame, ok if you were ten though.

Chuck, Tommy and Glen went on a roller coaster before we happened upon another ride that looked interesting although there was not a big line which should have given us a clue..... It was called Treasure Hunt and you sat three in a ride which was a little old beaten up car like Indiana Jones might have owned.
In we get and off we go, probably reaching a grand speed of 1 mile an hour we edged our way to the left then to the right, along a hillside for a few yards then down a small hillock.
Chuck was in the front in the drivers position and the man and I were in the back.

Suddenly we turned a corner and wham!!!! We were back at the start! That was IT!
We laughed till we nearly cried, we were still waiting for it to start and it had ended! Ha ha, it was for 4 year olds!!!!

The show went well and the band were great in Singapore but it was so hot and humid, I felt for them all as they dripped their way to the end of the night.

Next stop was Jakarta and a day off before the show.
The ride to the hotel was exciting to say the least! We had a police escort of two bike riders flashing and weaving about in front of us as we left the airport and with three cars in our convoy I assume there were police at the back as well.
We hit the main road into Jakarta and I have never seen so much traffic chaos in my life, I thought San Paulo was bad! Four lanes of cars with no gaps to be seen and all moving so close somehow without touching each other.
Our police escorts decided to take the hard shoulder, moving stray cars out of the way as we went, I have no idea how we did not hit anybody, particularly the hundreds of scooter riders who seemed hell bent on risking life and limb.

Here is 19 seconds of vid I did on the ride into Jakarta

The hotel at the end of our crazy 45 minute journey from the airport was/is stunning, I took a couple of pics but they will not have done it justice.
Today we start a 23 hour journey on three different flights to Rome.

See you in Italy folks.

Pics from Singapore day off and show day

At soundcheck

View from Singapore hotel window

Jakarta Hotel

For the chocoholics, a fountain of yummyness!

Newspaper gaff

2011-10-02T21:13:00.001-05:00

This was a first!

Yesterday a major Perth newspaper published a review of the AC show before it had actually occurred!

Rumour has it that the reporter for said newspaper had some very interesting questions in an interview before writing his in depth review of a show he could not have seen unless he was a time traveller.

Here is one:

"How long has Alice been playing guitar"?

Mmmmmmmm..... very interesting.

"Played to a packed Challenge Stadium last night"

Goodbye Melbourne hello Perth

2011-10-02T01:48:00.005-05:00

The second night in Melbourne was better I felt, the crowd were even more enthusiastic and my man was really happy with what he played. His custom Gretsch is sounding amazing and he is now getting people commenting on it which pleases him greatly. It has a distinctive woody, vocal tone or in his words like a big black girl singing! Perfect!! Add this great tone to what his fingers do on the frets and you have the unique sound that can only be The Deacon.

We both have heavy colds, thank you to xxxx (no name mentioned here but you know who you are) We love you Glen! Ooops name slipped out (:
I was worried about the flight to Perth but the Lemsip saved the day and all went smoothly, the last time I flew with a cold it was into Switzerland and I got a sinus and ear infection afterwards.

I cannot say that things were totally smooth once we got to the hotel in Perth, Ori got trapped in an elevator! She was in there for over an hour and a bunch of us waited outside the jammed doors trying to make a bad situation bearable by chatting and keeping up her spirits as best as we could. She kept really calm and sat down.
All ended when the hotel finally got the engineer there, an upgrade quite rightly followed.

The new W2MN album is getting great reviews, some people don't get it but of course that is to be expected. The vocal effect on 'I Am Made Of You' seems to be dividing people, the purists think it's over the top or uneccessary but I personally think it fits the track perfectly.

Steve's solo on that song is getting some well deserved attention and for those reviewers who don't seem to have read the credits, Steve played on every basic track apart from 'Last Man On Earth''.

He did solo's on:

'I Am Made Of You'
'The Congregation'
'I'll Bite Your Face Off'
'Something To Remember Me By'
'When Hell Comes Home'
'What Baby Wants' and a large portion of the 'Underture'.

My only other comment on this subject is that I think the song 'When Hell Comes Home' is simply genious! Well done to Michael Bruce, Alice Cooper and Bob Ezrin.

Below is a pic of catering for the band and crew in Melbourne, it does vary from venue to venue and country to country but on the whole it's extremely yummy, as was this!

Steve and Tommy waiting for the screen to drop at the start of the 2nd Melbourne show

Steve and Ori, Melbourne

Hello Perth

Melbourne - 1

2011-09-28T03:07:00.001-05:00

Today is a day off and we have had a spectacular view of a thunder storm from up here in our hotel room on the 42nd floor in Melbourne this afternoon.
We did manage to go out earlier in the day, looked around the shops by the hotel including one shop with men's socks that cost $80.00 a pair! No thanks.

Tommy, Toby and Cesare took us to an amazing little Italian restaurant at lunchtime where we sat in the kitchen to eat!
On the way back we found a coffee shop named after our tour manager Toby!

Below are some pics of today and a couple of pics that were on Tommy's camera from the Leno show.

Outside the Italian place, they even had a scooter on hand in case Steve ate too much and couldn't walk back to the hotel!

The lady stood by Tommy is the cook and definitely wore the trousers there! In her hand is a huge bowl of meatballs! She was so proud!

Toby's place, he was so proud.

Steve acting up!

Tommy acting up backstage at the Leno show (:

Me and Tommy backstage at the Leno show:

Sydney

2011-09-27T22:15:00.001-05:00

I did not get to see the Sidney opera house ): Maybe next time.
It was raining cats and dogs and my man was coughing so we stayed close to the hotel.

The theatre was interesting here, all nooks and crannies and pretty old plus apparently there was a ghost! Didn't see it or feel it.
I was worried that the balcony looked a little rickety.
The crowd on the other hand were far from rickety, they had a lot of fun and so did the band.

We had 30 VIP's here so I was busy getting the gift bags and envelopes together during sound check.
During the show I was almost underneath the stage on a concrete step sitting with a camera director and his gear as the show was being filmed. I was freezing and couldn't wait to get back to the warm hotel room.

I met some of the guys from the band Anthrax backstage, they were so nice.

Evening view from the hotel room

Backstage, Glen warming up, note the arty tablecloth and table:

Glen still warming up:

Coincidence or what!!!

2011-09-23T05:57:00.004-05:00

In 1981 I had a single signed to a label called 'Cheapskate Records', it was owned by The Animals bass player Chas Chandler who also managed Jimmy Hendrix.
I had written a bunch of quirky pop songs and with the help of a producer called Doug Taylor (who by coincidence was also blind) I had recorded them at Atmosphere Studio's in Soho, Central London. I was familiar with the studio as I had been doing vocal sessions there for TV and radio adverts for a while.

There had been lots of discussion about whether to release a single under my own name or under a made up 'pop' name and in the end I came up with the name 'Yuka' (spoken like Yooka) and that is what we went with.
The song was called 'Who Would Believe The Young Man' and was chosen as record of the week on BBC Radio One fairly soon after it's release, which meant it was getting played about six times a day! Unfortunately, due to technical changes made by the label, the single got lost in a re shuffle of distribution company and that was the end of that.

So, fast forward nearly 30 years and here I am in Brisbane, Australia, on a world tour with my gorgeous man. We had decided to go out for something to eat and found a Japanese restaurant close to the hotel.
It was very authentic with waitresses dressed in traditional Japanese Kimono and the food was delicious.

The young lady that looked after us was so delightful and personable. She made sure we ordered a good selection and even persuaded me to try green tea ice cream which turned out to be yummy! She brought us our check at the end of the meal and there at the bottom was her name.........Yuka!!!!
I told her about using the same name all those years ago, well before she was even born and she was so excited and bowing profusely she said "It is lovely to meet you".

How cool was that!!!!

'Yuka' 1981

And here is the bill with the waitresses name at the bottom:

Auckland - September 22nd 2011

2011-09-23T02:16:00.004-05:00

It was a long day with a run through and sound check starting at 1pm for a few hours then the show at 9pm.
The building was so darned cold we were dressed like Eskimo's but the crowd warmed us all up for the show. It was not packed but it was a big arena and the main area was full of lively, encouraging fans.

It was the bands first gig with Orianthi and it went well, James got a great sound out front and I enjoyed watching the show from his desk.
Glen did a fantastic job last night despite have a rotten cold and his drum solo was still amazing. We are wondering who will be next to get sick but of course the show must go on.

Not a lot more to say other than Auckland was friendly but chilly! And still no jet lag!!!!!

Soundcheck:

Tommy and Steve backstage during the day, it's all rock and roll!

View from the hotel window:

Next stop Brisbane, Australia.

Across the sea to Auckland

2011-09-20T00:59:00.002-05:00

We had a really easy flight to Auckland, at LAX the Air New Zealand staff were great and despite there being so many of us it all went very smoothly.
The plane was huge, a Triple 7 Steve informed me. I am normally very nervous during take off but as this huge house sized airplane lumbered down the runway and lifted off I hardly felt it leave the ground.

I watched a few episodes of the Alan Partridge TV show, the one where he is a local radio presenter, the lady across from me was smiling as I laughed out loud with my headphones on. It must be an English humor thing cos Steve just does not find Steve Coogan funny at all although I think he would if he would listen for more than a minute!
Then I watched the new movie with Kate Hudson called 'Something Borrowed' which was very entertaining.
The plane, the crew and the food was excellent plus I managed to sleep for about 7 hours, had a bit of help from my 'happy' pill but never the less it was one of the easiest long haul flights I have ever been on.

Auckland is COLD! We went shopping and bought ourselves a scarf each, the wool is part Marino and part Opossum!! They are taking over the country apparently so people found a good use for the wool. I have to say it is one of the softest scarves I have ever owned and I had better not lose it on this tour! The only people who wont be cold will be all the rugby players running around hugging a weird shaped ball, as we are here at the same time as the Rugby World Cup.
Auckland is a bustling, clean city and we will look around a bit more tomorrow. There seems to be a preoccupation with bungy jumping going on here and in case you are wondering, NO, I will not be leaping off a building on the end of a bit of elastic!!

We lost Monday! But seem to be feeling ok although I am waiting for jet lag to kick in at any moment.

LA Rehearsals and more

2011-09-16T11:34:00.004-05:00

Its been a crazy time with rehearsals, the Jay Leno show, more rehearsals and The Whisky A Go Go.

Screen shot from The Tonight Show

There has been intense preparation to get Orianthi up to speed with the set. She is a sweet and talented young lady who is in great demand so learning the AC set list on top of that would be a challenge for anybody.
We spent the week at a rehearsal room in Los Angeles. All the band have worked hard and it was great to see Damon again. There are still a few hours back there before we leave for New Zealand on Sunday.

The Jay Leno show was amazing, how cool that I got to see that famous set. The band were fantastic and we were all happy with the night. Steve couldn't find his leather biker hat in the suitcase so went hatless for the performance, luckily he found it tucked away in the lid of the case so don't worry folks all will be well for New Zealand!

Robby Krieger came by rehearsals to go over the couple of songs he would do at The Whisky, he and Steve have known each other for many years after touring together in the 80's so it was a joy to see them on the same stage again. We were all mesmerized by him and I could have listened to those wonderful Doors songs all day. It took me back to my hippy youth, those carefree days when my biggest decision of the day was what time to get up in the morning!

We arrived at The Whisky A Go Go yesterday afternoon, it was such an unassuming little building from the outside but I knew how much history was there including the fact that the boss was coming back after about 42 years!!!
Steve has played there a few times in the past, once with The Chambers Brothers.
It was so small inside, not as small as The 100 Club in London but still I could not imagine how all the musicians were going to fit on that little stage. My man was to the far right as usual but was dangerously close to a set of steps so I was grateful for the huge wads of bright green tape on the floor marking the edge.

What a night! There was Rob Zombi, Ke$ha and many more luminaries. The band were like a train at top speed, the set was tight and powerful and the boss looked relaxed as he performed without his Alice persona.
Everybody had a great night although Steve battled a bit with the low club lighting and smoke machine on stage but as always he was fantastic and played his *** off!

I am not too comfortable with Hollywood Hoopla, Steve is always my rock in such situations and takes it all in his stride so I think we did ok last night. Although one woman nearly got a slap from me after she had been rather condescending towards me all day then said 'goodbye girlie' as she passed by me on the stairs at the end of the night. I am very placid but don't push your luck!

Not long to go now and we will be on our way to New Zealand and Australia, new adventures are on the horizon.

The new Welcome 2 My Nightmare album is out!!!!!!

My gorgeous man has a credit on the cover, yay!!! He played on most of the basic tracks plus
performed some truly wonderful solo's on this record and I am hugely proud of him as always.
My favorite solo is on 'I Am Made Of You' with 'Something To Remember Me By' a close second.
I saw the fan pack this week and I must say it has been done really well, I think the album, the artwork and the photography is brilliant.

Steve and Orianthi during rehearsals:

Steve and Robby Krieger at rehearsal

Before the Jay Leno Show

Here we are backstage at The Whisky with Robby and Carl Caprioglio of Oglio Records

The Whisky A Go Go show from my vantage point

With Ke$ha

Damon Johnson

2011-08-31T11:15:00.002-05:00

There is a bond that happens between musicians occasionally that transends age, sex, history and religion. And that is what Steve will always have with Damon Johnson.

It could have been awkward, would the veteran come back in to upset the apple cart?

But instead there came a magic and I will miss watching that magic on the shows between Steve and Damon, two good people, two great players, mutual respect on both sides.

How can I feel happy and sad at the same time? Well, happy because Damon is moving on to join his dream and sad because he will be so greatly missed.

We all love you Damon, you are an awesome guy and an awesome player.

Time to move on and look forward to what lies ahead with eager anticipation, watch this space.

Pic taken by me in Clakson, Michigan on the last show with Damon.

pic by Casey Page (Billings Gazette)

And the earth moved!

2011-08-25T10:33:00.006-05:00

Lots to catch up on, but I have to tell you about last Tuesday!

Firstly I should explain how Steve came to have a contact lens on the end of his finger the day the earth shook.

With the help of Dr Randy McLaughlin, who is a Professor of Ophthalmology at Ohio State University, Steve has been able to wear contact lenses onstage.

This means he can see the neck of the guitar and the tape fret markers a little better although beyond that is still difficult.

With a new prescription for glasses to combine with the lenses we hope he will have slightly better vision for distance and reading.

This is not a miracle cure as he still lives with damaged optic nerves from the Pigmentary Glaucoma; there are still many blind spots, as well as cloudy or blurred areas.

But it does help and we are eternally grateful to Randy for his expertise, faith and friendship and to the boss for bringing Randy into our lives.

The lenses are difficult for Steve to put in and take out, as he cannot see his fingers, the mirror or the lens on the end of his finger. But, each day he works at getting them in and out with as little fuss as possible.

So, there we were in Scranton, Pennsylvania for a couple of days including a day off. It was the night of the show, Tuesday August 23^rd 2011, Steve had a shower and before he got dressed we began the process of putting in the first lens. He had it on the end of his finger and I was helping guide his finger to his eye when suddenly the walls in the bathroom began to rock! After the first few seconds Steve said, “I think we are having an earthquake”, I thought, “no, no, no, there must be a very fat person upstairs doing the conga”. We are not in California, how can there be an earthquake?

The walls kept rocking backwards and forwards as my completely naked man and I stood in the bathroom of the hotel, six floors up. The contact lens on the end of his finger waiting to find a home on his eye!

I thought it lasted at least 2 minutes but Steve assures me that it only lasted about 25 seconds. He is an old hand at earthquakes having lived in LA for 30 years but I on the other hand found the whole thing very disconcerting to say the least! How dare a whole building, probably built in the 40’s, rock backwards and forwards like a house of cards!

Just a little reminder that us mortals are borrowing this time from Mother Earth and she occasionally shows us that she is in charge.

I thank her and God that it was not worse, we were able to get that lens in and continue with our day.

I was pretty freaked out but my lovely husband was neither shaken or stirred.

Photo by Cari Paige

Back on the road

2011-08-15T13:59:00.001-05:00

We spent a couple of weeks back in Nashville; time to get a ton of washing done and slip back into our normal daily routine.
We lead an extremely quiet life at home. Steve cooks a big breakfast every morning then after checking his email he will work on music on and off the rest of the day.
We did manage to fit in some of our walks to the store, the trail near us runs almost parallel to the main road but it winds along the edge of a golf course and you quickly feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. Time to reflect on the last twelve weeks of the tour, some of it seemed like a dream already.

The US leg was only going to be three weeks away so the packing could be downsized, we really went mad and actually got things down to two small carry on sized main cases.
Now, I am out here on the road and running out of things to wear, ha ha so much for that plan!

First show was Billings Montana, not a large venue but important for everybody; band and crew all needing to get back into gear. The audience was great and a good night was had by all.

This leg was going to be all bus travel, we would be criss crossing the East Coast and Mid West.
I already knew I would have some trouble sleeping on the bus from the last time so this time I was ready with various strategies to deal with it.
I eventually decided that Melatonin was a good way to go although I have a stronger alternative if things get out of hand. Being overtired is not good on a busy show day, we all depend on each other to be on the case and so far this leg things are way better (:

On the subject of depending on each other I want to give a little mention about Steve's guitar tech Brian. He has worked hard to find ways to help my man deal with the various problems that crop up with being partially sighted in a live situation . It takes ingenuity to find strategies for a problem that is out of the norm for any tech and he is doing a fantastic job, I thank him for that.

Steve with Brian

Next up Buffalo Chip and a whole bunch of Harley Motorbikes and leather!

When I woke up in my bunk the next day I had no idea what a change of scenery would unfold in front of me outside. We were in Sturgis, South Dakota and it was simply stunning.
Miles of trees and huge jutting rocks, it reminded me of the grandness of Sedona in AZ, a place we would move to if we ever won the lottery!

We were also surrounded by motorbikes of every color and size you can imagine. All lovingly cared for by their owners and admired by their fellow owners. There were leather clad peeps everywhere! Again, all shapes, sizes, colors and functions.

Steve and I were hungry for some breakfast so we walked across the grass from the hotel lodge to the restaurant. As we passed by the bikes and owners we almost wanted to hop on one and ride off into the distance. That's what they could do, just take off and glide their way through the beautiful open landscape.

Exactly at the same time that we walked in through the front door, another couple were doing the same thing and that morning we were lucky enough to make two new friends.

Dave and Sue each have their own Harley motorbikes, Dave has that weathered biker look, almost like he was carved from the surrounding scenery, very tanned with sparkling eyes and an easy smile. Sue is warm, open and easy to talk to.

After having breakfast together we went to look at their Harley's; they were magnificent, with a glittered finish on the paint work, they were more like moving works of art.
Dave offered to take Steve for a ride down through the ravine, this was a thrill for someone who has always dreamed of owning and riding a Harley but who has had to come to terms with the fact that this would be impossible with such poor sight.

However, Steve does intend to own one someday and says he will park it in the living room, yay!

When they came back 15 minutes later it was my turn. Oh my goodness what an experience! The power of that bike was awesome. Dave wound his way down through the rocks alongside a small river, it was a thrill as he did a couple of bursts of high speed. The wind seemed to press my face flat, the engine roared and I envied the freedom the two of them must feel when they go traveling.

Ironic that Steve and I were in awe of them as they rode around the country on these amazing machines and in turn they were in awe of us as we travelled around in our own sort of machine, albeit a rock band!

They came to the show that night, we were very happy to return the favor of giving them an experience they did not expect, but for us, that day was unforgettable.

Dave, Steve and Sue

After the show

La La Land and Seymour Duncan

2011-08-13T11:41:00.000-05:00

Steve and I stopped off in Los Angeles before going home to Nashville at the end of the last leg of the AC tour.
We had a couple of important things to do, one was to meet up with a record label and the other was to go see Seymour Duncan the legendary guitar pick up guru.
We deliberately planned the record label meeting at the Village Coffee Shop at the top of Beachwood Drive in Hollywood right underneath the Hollywood sign.
We used to live on that road and wanted to walk past our old apartment. It holds many memories for us including the recording of Steve's wonderful album 'Hymns For Guitar' which was done right there in the living room.

The next trip was Santa Barbara on a train to Seymour Duncan's factory, I love American trains, they are double deckers and we sat upstairs as we wound our way up the beautiful coastline, relaxed after the grueling ten weeks on the road.

Seymour and his staff made us so welcome, Steve was in his element, catching up on the progress of his beloved custom Gretsch guitars which were having new pick ups placed so they could be back on the tour for the next leg.

Seymour and Steve

Boots and more

2011-07-26T12:53:00.008-05:00

At last I am able to sit and do a bit of catch up.

The Stockholm show was set inside an amusement park.

It was a bit weird to see all the attractions surrounding us when we got there.

Rides full of screaming people whizzing by, up and down, in and around.

The band decided not to have a full sound check as there were quite a lot of people in front of the stage already so a quick line check was made to make sure the gear was working.
There were so many people flooding into the park for the show that eventually they closed it!

Steve doing his line check (double click on any pic for full size view)

The show was fantastic, the crowd very responsive and Stockholm did us proud.
Our lovely friend Marlon came to the show, I think I am getting wider but shorter!

After the show we had a 7 hour bus trip to Oslo overnight, hello little rolling bunk but would it be goodbye sleep?

Mmmmm, not much sleep; One of us who will not be named was snooring!

The man and I were in a zombie state by the time we offloaded at the Olso hotel, I didn’t look left or right but headed right for the front doors then up in the lift to our room.

Once we caught up with rest and had a look around the city centre we realized that Oslo was a very cool city indeed, we stayed right in the middle of the city and of course since the recent tragic events there with the madman killing so many innocent people it was scary and sad to imagine the sound of a bomb going off with so much pain and saddness which we would have heard very clearly from where we were.

It was a big show in Oslo with Iron Maiden headlining, I was pretty busy with my job and didn’t get much chance to take any pics. To be perfectly honest the main thing I remember from that few days was how tired I was.

After the show there was another 8 hour overnight drive to Gavle, Sweden.

These last few shows were all pretty big plus an extra show had been added in Norway after Helsinki so the ‘homeward bound’ goal post had been moved a couple of days but the band and the boss pulled out spectacular performances.

The last 48 hours was long, felt more like 148 hours. We left Gavle, Sweden a few hours after the show, a two hour bus drive to an airport hotel back in Stockholm, arriving at about 4am. Slept till 7am then off to board a charter plane to Helsinki.

The plane was pretty cool, bigger than I expected with two pilots, two crew, and one other person who turned out to be a Brit engineer for the plane itself. The sky was so blue as we boarded the little prop but my head was off on planet Zonk by this time.

Got to stadium at midday then worked and hung about till show time at 7pm. Catering was good with lots of activity as Iron Maiden were headlining again so there were all their crew as well as ours. I am starting to see them as familiar faces and hear their familiar London accents as we have done a few shows with them now.

There were so many people at the Helsinki show; I think maybe 35,000. I was doing the jumbo screens so didn’t see it directly from the front. I was in a van with the video crew at the back of the stage, the band was fantastic as usual, the heat was brutal for them and the audience.

After the show finished we had another four hour wait at the venue until the bus to the airport and here we are as I write this blog. It is 1.40am, the airport is quiet; no shops open and nothing to do but write.

Some of the crew initially found a few things to occupy themselves with, messing about making Chewbacca noises with some bar stools, using the check in intercom to make fictitious flight calls (with the permission of the staff) ‘ding dong’ will Toby please wake up’.

But that didn’t last, were are all exhausted; it is quiet now as we sit around in sleepy silence waiting for 3am when we leave on the charter again.

An interesting thing; I needed to go to the bathroom which was up a floor in the empty airport and as I entered I heard the sweet sound of what I imagined was a Lesser Spotted Tree Warbler! There was the sound of birdsong in the ladies toilet! Novel idea and rather comforting, I nearly moved in there for a while but needed to get back to the man.

On to Norway in our little charter plane and a whole bunch of rain and mud! I had decided to wear my old black suede boots for the last time and the show in Norway took them out in grand style.

The camera booth area was in the middle of the grounds, under an awning along with the lighting and sound desks, but to get to them I had to cross about 100 feet of thick gooey mud. There was something quite liberating about squishing my beloved old boots across that mud, they seemed to know it was their last journey and indeed it was.

The camera crew for the jumbo screens on this last show in Norway was the best of the entire tour; they completely got what I wanted and were helpful and professional, thanking me for helping them make it a good show for them.

They even handed me a yummy plate of hot waffles with maple syrup half way through!

After Norway we were all homeward bound for the USA! Steve and I had meetings in our old hometown of Hollywood, LA but more of that later.

Goodbye Europe!

Oslo:

The venue starts to fill up in Helsinki

The sky says it all in Norway on the last show

The mud

My view of the Norway show

What I see to do the screens; top left is what the crowd are seeing on the screens, top right is the preview screen for us and the smaller screens below are the eight camera's.

From the stage

Our Stockholm break

2011-07-03T11:34:00.000-05:00

I really always wanted to be Maid Marian!

Golden brown hair flowing in a nonchalant way down to my ass, looking delectable with no make up (apart from a blob of carefully placed rouge for that fresh rugged outdoor look).

Riding bareback on a stallion (probably sideways) and managing to remain pleasantly feminine as I hacked the head off a metal clad attacker who threatened my castle and my one and only love Robin Hood.

This realization came from the fact that the man and I have been able to watch a few movies in the hotel room whilst we relaxed in Stockholm, thanks to Robin of Loxley (and Cate Blanchett) I have been able to establish my missing link, Maid Marian is indeed my alter ego. This revelation could also account for my love of brown linen frocks.

We watched a pretty cool Will Smith movie whereby he got all tangled up between the mob and the FBI, just another days survival for the skinny guy who even cried quite convincingly in a moving death scene.

Finally but far from least was a movie called ‘Drag Me To Hell’ no idea who the actors were, they were pretty young and pretty funny. This was a horror movie with its tongue firmly in its cheek, hilarious stuff and a perfect end to our hang- in- bed Saturday.

Stockholm is beautiful, although we have our friend Marlon to thank for the fact that we saw anything beyond the hotel lobby.

Stockholm is also full of beautiful men and women, most of whom are blonde of course but also most of the women seemed to be pregnant! I have never seen so many women in one place with a bun in the oven! And, they still manage to look gorgeous!!!

After finding out that during the winter the sun goes down at 3.30pm we deducted that nine months ago it was November and what do you do if the sun goes down at 3.30pm……..well, you know what!

Marlon is a cousin to my old friend and record producer TB in the UK. By sheer chance during a Skype call, Steve asked TB if he knew anyone at Propellerhead. Propellerhead are the music software company that makes ‘Reason’ and Reason is the Rolls Royce of music sequencing software.

TB said no, but I know a man who does and Marlon is his name!

Marlon is about 6ft 3, a blonde Scandinavian Adonis who is as fit as a butcher’s dog (do Americans know that expression I wonder?). More importantly he is a sweet, smart and generous young man, he not only arranged a meeting at the Propellerhead headquarters here in Stockholm but he also took us to the old town, the cool shops and sorted a couple of superb meals.

Marlon is very industrious in life, he teaches (defensive) fighting as a sport; manages an up and coming actor and also runs a successful business developing company profiles and marketing.

Steve thought it was his birthday at Propellerhead, you have to understand what going there means to someone who records in their own home studio. We not only met the hospitable CEO Ernst (who happens to be a huge fan of Steve’s work) but also their main developer Kristoffer, they showed him some of their newer products and answered some of his questions on current products.

Stockholm is a very clean and prosperous city, the people are fit and there are hundreds of bicycles everywhere, ridden by young and old alike.

It is expensive, more expensive than London!

Show is tomorrow night

Steve with Kristoffer Wallman (left) and CEO Ernst Nathorst Boos at Propellerhead:

Steve plays some guitar at Propellerhead:

The 100 Club London

2011-07-01T15:01:00.000-05:00

The 100 Club in central London was a late addition to the tour dates; we flew in from Switzerland and stayed at the same hotel that we had spent the day in before. This was very near a huge shopping mall with a Marks and Spencers so the man and I had a good browse in there whilst we had the opportunity.

On the day of the show we all went down to the club in the late afternoon so the guys could do a sound check, the 100 Club was tiny!

They were also adding some cover songs to the set and needed to run through them.

We knew there was to be a special guest and the rumors where flying that it was to be Johnny Depp, by the time we arrived at the club we knew for sure that he would be joining us that afternoon to go over one of the songs, he ended up playing on two.

The only people in the building were the band, the crew, Alice’s manager and a few others. I was over on the far left nearest to Steve, watching them sound check.

I was aware that a small group of people had come in over on the other side, it was dark and I could only just make out two very small figures, a very tall man and one more figure in a hat.

The two smallest figures where Johnny’s children, Lily-Rose who is beautiful and young Jack who is so like his dad it’s silly. Both children are bright, engaging and polite.

The tall figure was a 'minder' who looked pretty serious; then there was Johnny, dressed in a dark striped T-shirt with braces that were hanging loose down by his side, baggy pants, tinted glasses and a cool ‘news boy’ cap that fell over to one side in the coolest way possible. Around his neck was a long scarf tied loosely.

I honestly did not think I would get to meet him, I would certainly not have just gone over to say hello and continued to watch the band go over the songs.

As they finished a song, Alice jumped off the stage and beckoned to me, “do you want to meet Johnny”? Then he called to Steve and took us both over with him.

Johnny and Steve shook hands, Johnny said; “This is an honor man, I am a huge fan of your playing” Steve was clearly taken aback, how cool was that!

He introduced me and I managed to say “hello, lovely to meet you”. I remember meeting Annie Lennox in London in 08 when Steve was touring with Lou Reed and more recently Bette Midler in NY, I was so star struck on both occasions and could hardly say “hello” at all so I was trying hard not to mutter this time.

Johnny Depp is a quiet man with bright eyes and an easy smile, he chatted with Steve for a few minutes then afterwards as some of the band were getting their photographs taken with him, Steve asked him if I could have my pic taken with him. Luckily Glen was right there with his phone camera, otherwise the moment would have been lost!

And that is how I came to have my arms around my gorgeous husband on one side and the equally gorgeous Johnny Depp on the other side (:

There was a heatwave in London and the 100 Club was so hot that night! It was packed to the gills with about 350 Alice fans and what a treat they got. No make up, no guillotine or other props (only the snake) but a rock gig to remember.

Alice was relaxed and chatted in between songs which is unheard of normally but this show was different, the band and the boss were in an informal setting, they loved the close proximity to the audience and each other, this was a one off for sure.

When the boss called Johnny up he introduced him as Johnny D and the audience had no idea who was up there! Gradually they all realized who it was and the place went crazy.

Johnny Depp can play guitar! And he looked like he was having so much fun up there, rocking with Damon, Alice and Chuck and looking every bit the rock star. They did ‘Eighteen’ first, I love hearing Steve solo on that song, it is a bit slower than a lot of the set and that allows him to really play the blues. He took the first solo and Johnny took the second solo, ‘Schools Out’ was the other song.

The band were dripping wet when they finished the set, we were all boiling hot but what a night it was, thank you London, thank you Alice and the band and thank you Johnny Depp.

Istanbul and more

2011-07-01T02:02:00.001-05:00

I was a little disappointed with Istanbul; in its defense I only saw a small part…..the road leading to the hotel, the hotel and the venue! I guess I expected one big colorful bazaar with tents full of exotic fabrics and I am sure that is there.

The open-air festival felt like it was set in a large hole in the ground, the surface was terribly uneven wherever we went; the dressing room/tent was up a steep, winding narrow stone staircase, that day was particularly taxing for the man and I had to stay with him most of the time.

But, the sun was out; the show went well, the people were delightful and always keen to help.

That night was made very special for another reason; Shep treated some of us to a meal at a famous restaurant called The Topaz. This is set high up overlooking the river and near a mosque with two tall towers.

The scenery was simply stunning; way in the distance we could see Asia! The sun was going down then at 9pm we heard the most amazing and haunting sound I have ever heard. It was an evening prayer being sung in Turkish. The singer glided between quarter tones, his voice floated across the water to our ears and I will never forget it.

Then came fireworks lighting up the sky in various locations along the river, which were accompanied by Iron Maiden starting their set over at the festival.

I will always remember Istanbul for that evening prayer.

On to Switzerland; as we landed in Basel my ears were not liking the pressure change at all, I felt like crud and this only got worse.

Eventually Steve took me to a doctor, (as I have already reported on here)

We did not get to see very much of Basel, apart from the hotel room and one brief trip into town. The hotel staff were so sweet and kind during my sickly stay.

It’s very clean in Basel and very very expensive!

The road into Istanbul

Basel:

The man wearing one of Tommy's cool T-shirt designs and having a Starbucks:

Bucharest, birthday and more

2011-06-30T15:13:00.000-05:00

I think it’s time to recap on the countries we have covered in the last eight weeks:

USA

Canada

USA

Chile

Argentina

Brazil

Ireland

France

England

Romania

Germany

Turkey

Switzerland

England

Sweden

The outdoor venue for Bucharest was like a roman amphitheatre, the weather was lovely and things were relatively relaxed, as there were no other bands on with us that night. So much so that Glen took a little nap on the gear piled up backstage after the sound check.

When there are no other bands involved it is easier for the crew, they can check all the equipment at a decent pace, they don’t have to worry about another bands gear coming off or another bands gear coming straight on at the end of the show.

It was the mans birthday, he and the boss were now the same age and he reflected back on the fact that he has been doing shows on his birthday on and off for the last 40 years, the last time was with Lou Reed in London in 2008.

Toby had organized a cake; we did not do any candles, maybe not a good idea with Steve as he could have set himself on fire!

We all gathered in the dressing room including the boss and sang happy birthday, the cake was extremely gooey and extremely yummy.

There were two other things that I remember about that show; it had been decided after an incident at Download that I would be the one to lead my man off stage. It is very difficult for well meaning friends and colleagues to lead Steve in the dark; I am very used to doing this, as we are together 24/7. I know to watch for obstacles that are likely to hit his head or face even though he is 6ft and I am 5’3”. I know how to talk him through an uneven surface and up or down steps or ramps, as he needs to know if they are narrow or deep, wide or steep. In the dark he is a completely blind man and there are hazards all over the place.

That was also the day that I started to feel under the weather.

Next stop Bamberg, Germany and what a lovely town it was. We had a couple of days off before the show, which was actually in a small town called Weismain about 40 minutes away.

Steve and I walked into Bamberg town centre and did a bit of shopping; he found a couple of really cool hats, which he has been wearing ever since.

The Weismain festival was LOUD! When we got there we found the production and dressing room tent was really close to the stage area, which had non-stop music from many rock bands including Motorhead.

It was raining and I could not hear myself think from the minute we got there. Nobody could hear anybody else, which also made our radio’s useless and that made the atmosphere just a tad tetchy. We couldn’t find a VIP and I found myself in the rain, waving a VIP laminate in the air at the crowd in the hope that the lost person would come forward. I had no other choice other than waving the laminate as my voice had all but gone by this time.

The AC band was fantastic that night, whatever is going on before or after the show, the band always performs at 110 percent, I am so impressed by this.

Next up Istanbul

Sleepy Glen

Damon relaxes

Steve doing the solo in 'Fire'

Bamberg:

Lines and Download

2011-06-24T08:27:00.001-05:00

My blogs went into standby mode as I coughed my way across a number of countries with flu.

There are usually about 19 of us when we start rolling from one country or city to another. We are a daunting vision for any unsuspecting hotel clerk or baggage checker! On many occasions the airports open a separate checking in line for us.

On the subject of lines: These are a repetitive occurrence, that and ‘waiting’: Waiting for bags to be picked up from the hotel room, lines to pay incidentals at the hotel, lines for checking in at the airport, waiting for the gate number, lines for passport check, customs lines, baggage lines, lines for boarding the flights. All this up to three times a week for six weeks and you get the picture.

Now add the cough of all coughs to the last few airport waiting rooms and a head that wants to implode as an ear infection and sinus infection are forming a joint plan of attack.

There were people getting up and changing seat’s, as they feared my lurgy would attach to them and carry them off to a dark grisly pit of insanity.

Anyway, the pills are working now and I can put pen to paper (so to speak)

On to the Download Festival, Donington, UK

I was pretty taken aback by the size of the site for the Download Festival in Donington, UK. In order to get from the backstage and production area to the stage on which our band were performing I had to use a little electric buggy thingy which I would have loved to have had a go at driving.

My first job was to meet the stage camera director and his camera crew; as I would be directing the jumbo screens for the show.

There were four stages and I was told about 100,000 eager rock fans were waiting to watch the huge selection of rock bands.

My man was pleased to meet up with his old friend Tom Peterson from Cheap Trick who we’re also on the bill that day. Tom is usually up for some ‘blind’ jokes with Steve, which is always taken with the good humor and affection that was intended; they have been great buddies for a long time.

We watched the Cheap Trick set from the side of the stage and they were amazing.

As with all the other festivals and no doubt all the ones to come, the color of the day was ‘black’. Black clothes, black hair, black eye make up but thanks goodness due to the good-natured crowd no black eyes!

The camera crew for the screens were excellent; There were at least 6 camera operators and they all listened intently as I described the details of the set list that we wanted the audience to see in close up.

There was a village atmosphere backstage, many tents and small modules all with different band names on their doors. The AC band was ready for action and action is what they gave the crowd that day. There were band members from other bands gathered at each side of the stage during their set, the band love that and it adds to the excitement of the show. It also shows the huge respect that the boss generates within the industry and I suspect that will only grow once the new album is released. It will be awesome!

At the end of the show we all hightailed it back to the dressing room in a van and even before the band had changed out of their wet clothes the boss came around to say what a great show they had done.

Bucharest was next and my man had a birthday

Ireland and other subjects

2011-06-13T09:57:00.005-05:00

I love Imodium!

Not that it is at the top of my gastronomic delights list but it has (excuse the pun) saved my ass on a number of occasions now.
Some of this tour is done by bus only, that means there are times when we leave a show, drive overnight for ten hours to the next city or country and have a few hours in a hotel room at the other end before a show that eve.

Before your imagination runs wild, there is a toilet on the bus! But there are restrictions
(if you know what I mean) (: And that is as far as I will go in explaining why I love Imodium the rest you can work out yourselves.

It took months to arrange and seemingly endless outlay but on June 6th my children Holly and Mathew arrived from London to Belfast in Northern Ireland.
I had not seen them for 18 months, although the internet keeps us in touch pretty well of course.
Holly had warned me that she had pink and blonde dreads which came in handy for spotting her at Belfast airport. Not that it would have been difficult really, the airport is just a little larger than our apartment in Nashville. (I'm kidding!)

We had dinner together in the hotel, where I found myself staring at both of them trying to remember every moment, watching them laugh and chat with their step dad and wishing this visit would last longer than just the two days.
The next day they came to soundcheck with us in the bus, it was pretty chaotic at the venue, three bands and their gear: Thin Lizzy, us and Def Leppard. They got to watch all the activity although the music was not quite up their street as they are both into Techno.... Trance? Dub Step? Drum N Bass? I'm not sure which but feel quite pleased with myself that I named even some of it!

The Belfast crowd were fantastic, the boss and the band were on fire and Holly and Mathew got to throw balloons out to the audience during Schools Out which I stupidly managed to not photograph.
Backstage there was a lot of band interaction, there were members of our band that had hero's in the other bands and visa versa. Old friends both musicians and crew meeting up on the road and sharing stories, great stuff!
I enjoyed the multi bill show but missed the songs we had to cut due to time restrictions.

The band, the crew and the boss made my kids feel welcome including taking pics with them, more ways for me to remember their visit but also a reminder of how much they miss their own families when on the road.

We left Holz and Mat behind to catch their flight back the next morning, as we drove off in our huge glossy green double decker I took a bit of quiet time to myself upstairs to watch the miles pass by through the front window and to start forming a plan for our next reunion.

Dublin was next, once again it was the three band lineup and the crowd were awesome but the exceptional thing about this show for me was that the boss had asked me to sing back up vocals on 'Poison' which I did with great glee despite not being able to rehearse with the guys ahead of time.

My main purpose on this tour is to help my gorgeous man get around due to his poor eyesight but I also have a job as a production assistant which involves co ordinating the VIP meet and greets and being a camera director when there are jumbo screens, I love doing all that but singing will always be my favorite occupation.

So, goodbye Ireland, hello Download.........

Rio de Janeiro

2011-06-09T15:41:00.004-05:00

Oh my goodness!!!!!! Rio!

The drive to the hotel was a sharp reminder that alongside the affluence is a good deal of poverty. Lots and lots of ramshackle little dwellings and children selling peanuts and other things with no shoes on, in amongst the traffic.
As we drove further towards the coast, the scene changed dramatically, turning into the most glorious vision of blue, green and yellow.
We went past Copacabana and Ipanema, how cool is that!

The hotel offered the most amazing scenery, a swimming pool sitting alongside a stretch of sandy beach.
We all scattered when we got our room numbers, the man and I were on floor eleven so had a great view of the area.
Later on we gradually gathered into little pockets of 'tour peeps', the hardworking crew and band enjoying this time together, some in the bistro and some by the pool.
There is always lots of laughter at such times.

Whilst a bunch of the guys went up to see the 'Christ The Redeemer' statue way up overlooking the city, Steve and I went to sit on the beach where I actually felt the sand in between my toes and paddled my feet in the water, not that I would have gone in, it was too darned cold for me!

Having said that, I was born by the sea and miss it loads!

Toby and Cesare our tour and stage manager's came strolling by, it was good to see them having a bit of relaxation time, they make this tour happen and that is not always an easy job! Despite some of the glamorous places that get visited, this much traveling and organizing is exhausting for everybody.

We had a meal which my man shared with a pretty little stray cat that has found refuge of sorts at the resort, being allowed to be fed by whoever cares enough to bother.

Enough of all that! On to the show.

What a fantastic crowd turned up, they were so loud and happy to see the boss and his amazing band. They had a great gig and there were some fab Youtube clips to follow, including one of the Hendrix song 'Fire' where my old man now has the black wig planted firmly on his head for his awesome solo.

That's what I love about this tour, there are so many bonuses: the wonderful King of Darkness, an extraordinary line up of musicians behind him, the guillotine, the monster plus the fun. Humor and excellence in one fantastic show.

And that was Rio:

Catching up

2011-06-06T02:00:00.010-05:00

I have finally been able to load a few pics on here!
First up is a great pic of the band taken backstage:

We are now in Belfast but I need to catch up on a couple of countries/cities/shows.

As I have the worst short and long term memory in history I may well get a few things out of order but here goes.

Porto Alegre, Brazil is such a pretty place, Steve says it is like Portugal so now I need to go there!

We strolled around a little during the day, the shops were very tempting but expensive, although he did buy me a wedding anniversary present that day.

The show was great but marred a bit by the fact that one of the bands leather stage 'biker' vests got stolen from the stage after soundcheck, so keep your eyes peeled out there, there were only 5 made.

I took a few pics during soundcheck that day and thought I might have caught the robber red handed in one of them but it was not to be ):

I will be attempting to post some pics yet again at the end of this blog post but the 'interweb' may have different idea's.

Next up was Sao Paulo, the city with 30 million people! The gig was fantastic, the crowd were noisy and enthusiastic plus I had another chance to do camera directing for the jumbo screens which I love. I managed to highlight my man with the black wig on for the Jimi Hendrix song 'Fire' which is hilarious and which has also now been immortalized on a Youtube vid.

BUT WAIT! I have to tell you about the hotel which was quite ....... interesting........ modern...... darned weird!

From the outside it looked like Noah's Ark but made out of stone and all the hotel windows were round like portholes!

The first thing that struck us was how dark it was inside, I recon they had joined a new 'Let's Save Electricity' society cos when you got in an elevator and the doors closed you were thrown into almost pitch black apart from a bluish strip light across the top! This is not good for a man with very poor eyesight and I meant to point that out to them but forgot in the end.

The hallways to the rooms were so dim we were both feeling our way around the walls! (Well, almost)

When we walked into our hotel room, it was also pitch black so after trying a light switch to no avail, I went towards the 'porthole' window to draw the blind but it was also on a switch and nothing would work at all, not the blind or the lights. Ah ha! I said to myself, more savings! You had to put your room card into a slot by the door then the electricity flowed like wine, but, having walked in, closed the door and crossed the room I then had to feel my way back across to find the slot, telling Steve to stay where he was or he might walk into something.

There were two big coconuts waiting there like large green pods with a straw sticking out of the side of each one and a neat little 'Welcome' sign set in front. I was fooled at first and thought they were sculptures but I have to say I ended up enjoying them both as the man was not keen at all.

The frosted glass 'wall' that separated the bedroom area from the bathroom actually split into two halves then folded up towards the ceiling which was so thoughtful, you could have a bath (or something) as your loved one snoozed on the bed, presumably so that you didn't feel lonely

On the small table on my side of the bed was a small black box and it was then that I realized that despite having us walk around in darkness they were showing just how much they really cared at this hotel, they had supplied us with two condoms (:

Next time, Rio de Janeiro

Porto Alegre, Brazil

The 'Boat' Hotel in Sao Paulo

From the roof, can you spot the 3 million people?

The coconuts

The condoms!

What was I thinking!

2011-06-02T11:03:00.000-05:00

There are two things in my suitcase on this tour that should have post it notes on them saying "What were you thinking"!

The first is a newly hand made velvet Kofi hat for Steve that I prepared for beading, along with a few thousand tiny beads and a sewing kit............. ???? I barely have time to unpack my hair shampoo talk about bead a hat!!! The time we do have sitting around I try to catch up on life out there in the real world or I sleep.

The second item that is completely redundant thus far is a pair of evening shoes, ha ha ha, what was I thinking!!!!

Our Anniversary

2011-05-31T09:33:00.006-05:00

On April 7th 2007 I flew from sleepy Devon, UK to Hollywood, USA to join Steve. We had known each other since 2004 after guitarist Pete Haycock had introduced us to each other.

I had been trying to sell my house for nearly a year, three times the sale had fallen through and three times I had fallen into despair wishing I could be with the man I loved.
The house finally sold on April 3rd and I flew out to LA on the 7th!
My mum was overjoyed that I could finally go and on her birthday to boot! (she was living in Spain by then). My children were excited for us, I could not have done it without their blessing.

On May 31st that year Steve and I got married in Beverly Hills County Court, just me, him and Karo our trusty regular car driver plus the Registrar of course.
I remember we had gone in a few weeks earlier to register the paperwork, the lady taking our details looked at Steve and said "Are you the Steve Hunter from Alice Cooper" !!!!! She ended up bringing an album in for him to sign on our wedding day!

Poor Steve could not wait to get out of the place on the day, he looked like a deer in the headlights as the photos show. Formal situations are not our thing and Steve even more than me.
We drove to our favorite cafe afterwards for a big fry up then off to LA Zoo for a few hours.
I am living proof that dreams can come true, I finally met a man who would really love me, make me laugh and put up with me! I was 54, he was 59.

Today is our 4th Anniversary and I am still as happy as a bee in a bunch of roses.

Buenos Aires

2011-05-30T07:15:00.000-05:00

The show in Buenos Aires was fantastic, the band were obviously happy to be back onstage and the boss was back to his amazing self after his sickness.

The audience was also energetic, singing loudly ‘as one’ during any brief breaks between songs, and they have great singing voices in Argentina!!

‘Hey Stoopid’ was added to the set that night, a particular favorite in that part of the world, the crowd roared when that started.

I did not get to see any of the city other than during the (long) drive to the show, they are pretty crazy drivers there and that made it an interesting ride to say the least. I saw some pretty cool buildings but other than that I cannot say more.

We were not the only large group staying at the hotel as it turns out. The National football team was also staying there; and were checking out as we waited in the lobby.

They must have all been gathered on a lower floor prior to leaving because they started to appear one by one up a set of steps to my left.

I could not help but notice that they all looked darned hot! As in ‘hot’ not ‘very warm’ hot. All dressed in yellow and blue sports gear, young, tanned, fit, good looking, and feeling very important indeed (:

So, that was Argentina, on to Brazil.

Santiago, Chile

2011-05-28T07:51:00.004-05:00

We were all concerned about the boss as we left the hotel for the venue last night, he was in his room resting and drinking liquids, the plan being that he would join us later.

Sheryl and Kyler were there to look after him.

At the venue the normal wheels went into motion, the hustle and bustle, the guest list, the VIP packages and the soundcheck which is when the band gear up for a show mentally.
It was a big surprise when we got news that he would not make it, we knew our friend had to be really poorly, canceling a show is unheard of for the Lord of Nightmares!

The ride back to the hotel was pretty subdued, not normal for our band of jolly fellows ):
We were passing fans as we left the area and felt bad for them as well. The fact is that there are times when illness takes over and that was one of them.

The man and I had had a pretty good few days prior that, the hotel was fab! We did walk around the city centre a bit, the weather was bright but a little chilly in Chile...... sorry about that.
We went up to the rooftop pool a couple of times and I took a few pics.

The first time we went up there it was early evening, the pool was under the dark sky and bathed in very dim lights and although that is always tricky for Steve we negotiated our way to the poolside.
There was no one there apart from one lady quietly doing some serious breaststroke in the fairly shallow pool. She offered up a small smile but ignored us mostly, that wouldn't last.

My man does not swim so on the odd occasion when we do find ourselves in a swimming pool it is always pretty funny. First of all it has to be warm for him to dip even a toe in! Then, it has to only be up to his chest or he will scramble out again.
So I start swimming about and look behind me to find him walking with a particularly odd stance and a very silly face, I start to laugh, he loves that and acts up even more to the point where the lady trying to get some serious exercise must have thought we were both on drugs!

In England we used to have a TV comedy duo called Morecombe and Wise, long gone now but Eric Morecombe is who springs to mind when my lovely husband decides to be daft. I keep swimming back to him as he strides about the pool (as though that is the only way it should be done).
I say, ok! race you to the other end and swim off, the next minute I realize he is gaining on me and then he overtakes me! He had changed up to fast walking pace, puffed out his chest, elbows out at right angles and looked hilarious! As he passes me he shouts, "I have a new name!" 'Olympic Pool Walker', this was to add to his other 'self appointed' nick names which by the way are 'Blind Lemon Pledge' and 'Scoop Doggie Do'.

So, that was Santiago, on to Argentina.

The Band

2011-05-25T14:33:00.008-05:00

I want to tell you a little bit about the guys in the AC band;

Chuck the bass player is a longstanding member of the touring band; he has a lightening fast wit that has me in stitches most of the time. He looks a tad mean with his tattoo's and rough diamond image onstage but don't let that fool you, he is a great guy and a fantastic bass player and singer. Driving the bottom end of this 'top drawer' band could be a daunting feat for some but Chuck eats it up!

http://www.chuckgarric.com/

Damon is a tall 'dashing' guitarist who has been touring with Alice for a number of years, he not only plays awesome guitar but he is a great singer and is a gentle, generous and funny man. He loves that Steve is in the band and bounds over to his side of the stage a number of times during the show. He and the man spend time talking about gear and tales of the road, I love that.

http://www.damonjohnson.com/

Tommy is Tommy, you know where you stand from the word go, he does not mince his New York words. He is generous, outspoken, funny and astute. To say he is multi talented is an understatement. Firstly, he is a great songwriter; he is a producer, a singer and an arranger plus on top of that he plays the most solid rhythm guitar I have ever heard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Henriksen

Glen is like a drum powerhouse; he is so darned skillful and adds that element of showmanship that is so great to watch. Spinning his drum sticks in the middle of the most complicated of passages, waving his arms about like windmills yet still playing stuff that most drummers can only dream of playing. He procrastinates a bit, particularly on deciding what to order for the after show meal (: he is a quiet and thoughtful bloke offstage and I like him loads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-8fMtC7SKs

The man: You know a bit about him already of course but I just want to say how proud I am of him. His life is music and I am blessed to be part of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r48B3cfdPKk

The Boss: Is the reason we are doing this tour, he is hugely talented, hardworking, energetic, kind and funny.

The trailer tale

2011-05-23T12:18:00.002-05:00

I have another post waiting in the wings but something happened the other night that I have to tell you about.

We left the Casino Rama after the gig and all fell into our bunks on the bus, we knew it might be a short lived sleep because we had a border crossing to do to get back into the US.
As I snuggled up and snoozed I was aware of a bit of unfamiliar movement by the bus but thought nothing of it and drifted off to sleep again. Then I was aware that we had stopped (the bus not moving tends to wake me up) and I sleepily thought, oh must be at a pit stop or maybe the border already.

I lay there drifting and all seemed very quiet, just a couple of voices talking quietly at the front. After a while I thought I should get up to see what was going on, particularly as I had needed to show my Residents card going into Canada so they might be about to ask for it as I go back into the US. (I am a Brit)

Out I go and there was Toby out tour manager, Bo our driver was outside and I realize that I can see the tour car parked in front of the bus???? It should be on a trailer on the back!
Turns out a trailer wheel had literally busted apart, the bearing shattered, Bo had seen sparks flying behind us and would have had to have taken steps to stop the bus going awal as well.

As Toby filled me in, the boss appeared after also being aware of no motion. We had been on the side of the road not that far from the Casino for 3 hours!
The boss decided he had had enough sleep to drive and would follow the bus to the place that was replacing the trailer. Bo had joined us by now and we all agreed that I should go in the car to keep the boss company.

So, we drove for about 2 hours chatting about life and although I am not sure we solved all the worlds problems, we gave it a good shot!
Apparently my gorgeous husband amazed Toby when he got up, there in the dark and despite being nearly blind he knew instantly that I was not in my bunk and the bus was moving!!! Where is Karen!

We got a new trailer and on we went to Sylvania, Toledo, getting in 4 hours later than expected but still with enough time to poke our heads into a hotel room, get some things done in the US before leaving for South America and before leaving for the soundcheck.
Despite the light rain, the open air show and the audience that night was brilliant, the band were tight and powerful and the boss was as ever fantastic.

A journey I will never forget.

The Canadian Shows

2011-05-19T21:48:00.002-05:00

The tour bus and I have come to an understanding, the bus whispered "the bunk is your friend" "the bunk is your friend" and low, on the seventh day I SLEPT!!!!!! The Melatonin helped (:

It has been rainy and cold in Canada for most of the time but the shows have had a very warm reception. I am starting to prefer the theaters rather than the sports stadiums, the sound bounces about a bit in those huge concrete boxes.

That may have been partly why Hamilton, Ontario, was such a great show. It was a lovely theatre with good acoustics. In my opinion that was one of the bands best shows. They are working so well together, listening, watching and responding. Keeping in mind that they have only just begun to settle in with each other as players. Mr Nice Guy is consistently awesome on every show and I look forward to his antics with Ethyl, the band members and the audience every single show night.

Chuck had a birthday and a cake which I forgot to get a piece of, we sang happy birthday to him, everybody joined in, including the crew. It will be Steve's birthday in Bucharest, I had bought him a surprise which is no longer that. It is a really cool leather phone pouch which he is now using to hold his slide on the show, I am well happy that it found it's place though, as he also bought a Blackberry which will not fit in it.

There have been some experiments with Steve's back line and Hamilton was definitely a good combination, the SG in particular sounded rich but vibrant just as he likes it and when he hears that great sound bouncing back at him from the front of house he lights up like an excited torch.

The guys in the band are adjusting well to having a partially sighted player with them. Damon, Tommy and Chuck plus the boss all join the man on his side of the stage at various times during the show. This is a group of dedicated musicians who are not only at the top of their game they are top men to boot!

I have watched five shows now, I'm enjoying this opportunity as I will be on video screen duty in Europe and will be in a van watching from remote cameras.
Alas, I have not seen much of Canada, that's just the way it is on a tour. We often leave the venue after the show, bus to the next city, getting into a hotel room at 4am, grabbing a few more hours sleep in a bed then off to soundcheck at around 3pm ish.

I want to talk to you about the band next time.

First show of tour

2011-05-14T13:13:00.005-05:00

Oh blimy did I have a busy day!
I prepared the baggage tags and passes for the band, the crew, me and the man. Sorted out the laminate masters for all the different guests and VIP's.
I got the VIP gift bags together and made sure their names and tickets were at the box office.

When the show started I sat on the lighting riser taking notes as I will be directing the video shots when there are screens for the audience. My job is to try to capture the good shots for those people who are a long way back, making sure they see the boss and the band really well at pertinent moments.

The first show was fantastic! The whole band really pulled out all the stops like the great players they are, the boss was fabtastic.
My fav bits were;
The opening song 'Black Widow' so powerful it gave me goose bumps. The monster is amazing and so effective. The new song 'I'll Bite Your Face Off' was awesome and had the crowd with it from the first chorus, Steve's slide solo in that song was brill and just like the album.
All eight minutes of 'Halo Of Flies' is fantastic.
The lights in 'Another Brick In The Wall are gorgeous, but my favorite bit was when Damon and Steve did their blues licks in 'I Love The Dead'.
What a genius idea to put this line up of great players on one stage, everybody is HOT!!!!!!

Ok, it is not easy sleeping on the tour bus although some people apparently find the motion sends them to sleep, not me!
I don't feel sick but I just cant drift off and get a good nights zzzzzz's.
I had better get used to it, this is only the start.
Our bus driver is so darned good, easy on the brakes, smooth, reliable and a really nice bloke.

On to Canada............ Tonight's gig Quebec City

Horseshoe Casino Indiana

2011-05-10T10:43:00.001-05:00

Well, here we are in the middle of nowhere for rehearsals!

The casino complex is huge and right next to the Ohio river which flooded a few days ago so they are still cleaning up the lobby etc.
It is a bit like an airport with moving sidewalks to get to the different parts of the building.
The first thing that hit us here was the smell of cigarette smoke in the air, smoking is allowed pretty much everywhere and it's pretty grim.

The staff are lovely and all very helpful, making sure we all get fed in between run thru's, one of my jobs is to find out what the band wants to eat and get the meals ordered ahead of time.
I am dressing a bit warmer for run thru's now, they keep the building air conditioned and it's cold!
The man is of course working his socks off (scuse the pun) under stage lights so he is taking things off whilst I am putting on more.
They did some adjustments on his guitar sound yesterday and now I can hear every fab note he is playing. (he says, "what! you are hearing every bad note!" Noooooo, fab note silly)
Thursday is the first gig, cant wait to see an audience here, will let you know how that goes.

No More Mr Nice Guy Tour and more

2011-05-08T08:23:00.001-05:00

I have been so crazy busy that this is my first chance to do a bit of writing.

I am sitting in a huge warehouse sized rehearsal room next to the lighting desk in front of the band going over songs for the tour. I have ear defenders on or would be pretty deaf by now.

This is their second day and they are still working out who will play what parts, the boss will be here day after tomorrow.

There is such camaraderie between these players in only two days, it’s been a joy to watch them bond and they sound amazing!

I will talk more about the band in my next blog.

The man and I had a great trip to LA a few weeks ago; once again the flight was smooth which continues to be a relief to me. I wish I could get used to the idea that a huge chunk of metal and plastic can take you off the ground and keep you up there!

We had not been back to LA for three years; we wanted to go look at our old neighborhood but didn’t get time, maybe just as well.

The first gig was at the Nokia Theatre, the crowd was loud and enthusiastic which really brought out the best in the original AC band, they rocked the place.

I met the snake that night; had a chance to touch this massive python in the changing room before the gig. It was not in the least bit slimy, it felt more like a humongous muscle filled sausage……. steady ladies! or maybe one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s arms.

I have to say it did seem rather frisky, waving about above Alice’s head as though trying to find the branch of an invisible tree. I did consider the possibility that this thing could easily strangle him and then I found out that this was his first gig! (the snake not Alice) He may well have got stage fright and squeezed the breathe out of the dark lord of rock!

After the gig we all went to what is regarded as one of the best restaurants in the US where I was treated to lobster for the first time in ten years, it was so yummy.

The next day we were up early to get to the film studio in Hollywood for the filming of the 4D holographic performance. The band had to have missed having an audience after the encouraging crowd from the night before but after a few run thru’s they were all fired up and the director was very happy.

The red suit was fun to do, I took off the extra buttons on Steve's old double breasted suit and added some fabric and things, it turned out pretty well.

There will be 800 people in the UK who get to see the showing of the hologram; I will be interested to see what they think of a virtual show.

That’s about it at the moment, I must away to do our final packing and check my ‘to do’ list before we leave for Indiana and the warm up gig before Canada’s dates.

I have no idea what this experience will be like, I toured for just three weeks with Gary Numan in 84 and 85 doing BV's but that will not even touch all the dates and countries I will be going to in the next few months.

Steve, Satch and Jason

2011-03-30T15:50:00.002-05:00

The benefit concert was held at a club called Slims in downtown San Francisco, not a big place and I think they had to turn a few people away in the end as the line stretched around the block.
There were about 650 people in the room, downstairs were dressing rooms for all the different musicians who were there to lend their support to Jason.

I was not sure what to expect, Steve and I are not metal guitar/shredder aficionados so all I knew was that there would be loud music and maybe lots of leather!
What I found were a whole bunch of musicians who showed such affection for their friend, long hair abounded and so did the love. They were all so good at what they do, fast playing, dexterity and excitement.

Most of the night was taken up with full bands apart from Marty Friedman who had flown in from Japan for the gig, so he used a backing track but played so well and with such intensity and feeling that you forgot there was not a band up there with him. A gentle and generous man with a mane of black curly hair who had travelled such a huge distance to support his old recording mate Jason.

When we were introduced I said "Hello, can I have your hair" he laughed and said "Hello, can I have your accent".

I knew Jason wanted Steve to play but we were not sure how or when that might happen. Steve would need a band behind him and he had told Dave Lopez the organizer that the best way to go was to do a blues, but who with?

The night started around 9pm, the line up of music just got better and better, I was looking forward to the last couple of guys, Richie Kotzen and the great Joe Satriani. Steve and I normally go to bed at 9pm, so you can imagine us sitting in a crowd for three hours past bed time. Enjoying the night but gradually falling asleep in the dark.

I was beginning to think Steve would not get to play, if that was so I was sorry for Jason more than anything, Steve was his normal pragmatic self, saying he was just happy to be there and to have spent time with his old buddy.
He had sat clutching one of Jason's guitars in a case all night but maybe it was doomed to stay in there.

Around midnight, Terry, one of Jason’s loyal and lovely friends who had been so helpful to us on our visit appeared at my side. He shouted in my ear " Joe Satriani has asked Steve to play a blues with him, do you think Steve will be up for that?" My prayers had been answered; Steve might get to play after all! I turned to Steve "Do you know Satriani?" "No" says Steve, "Well he has asked you to join him onstage for a number".

As it turned out Joe was sat quietly in the dark watching from the side, just a few feet from us, an unassuming, small man who hid his huge onstage persona perfectly in the crowd.
Terry guided Steve over to speak to Joe and it was decided they would do a Jeff Beck song called 'Going Down', Steve had played it before, thirty years ago!!

It was my job then to find out how Steve would get onstage and plug in, a job normally sorted out by tour crew given his blindness.
I found Joe on the stairs leading down to the dressing rooms and introduced myself. I explained that Steve was nearly blind, he had no idea, few people do but he was grateful to know the situation.

Terry helped me locate the stage manager and then in turn Joe's guitar tech who was amazing and took control of the situation.
We found ourselves onstage at the back where we waited for the three songs before Steve went on to join Joe and his extraordinary bass player and drummer.

It was like a wall of sound! Steve says he felt a musical kick in the ass and realized he had to just hold on tight till the train stopped. What a tight band! Joe was so generous and respectful, he beamed from ear to ear as he and Steve traded licks.

Steve does not realize just how many people including Joe Satriani have followed his career and admire his work.

They brought the house down, the crowd went mad and Steve looked so happy to be there.
It was a truly amazing experience, everything; San Francisco, Haight Ashbury, Jason and his wonderful family and friends and finally a night of music not to be forgotten for a man not to be forgotten.

The film crew captured the whole thing so I will look forward to that!

Here is my view of the stage:

Middle pic by Kris Claerhout

The Jason Becker film interview

2011-03-30T11:16:00.002-05:00

The young team from London who have been filming the new documentary about Jason were without a doubt the coolest group of young people I have ever met. All in their late 20's or early 30's they have taken on this massive responsibility with great thought.
They work so well together, keeping humour there but the business of the movie is at the forefront.

I am hopeless with names but I think there was Jesse, Freny, Carl and Dario . They were all very respectful with Steve and made him feel relaxed, an essential part of doing interviews for film.

Jesse asked some good questions but kept them sparce and loose, allowing Steve to get into his flow and recall the days he and Jason spent in Vancuver recording. Two young rock guitarists out on the town, gathering cute girls around them whenever they could and having a ball between sessions for the album.

Steve as ever was eloquent and articulate, as he described the times when he would be walking along kidding with Jason only to look around to find Jason was not there. Then find him collapsed on the sidewalk as his legs started to deteriorate at an astonishgly quick rate.
I was moved to tears as he described how his young talented friend was facing such a devastating illness.

The trailer for this movie is an indication of how good this production is going to be and I applaud the film team for getting out Jason's story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGFDWTC8B8g

San Francisco

2011-03-30T10:54:00.000-05:00

This is a big year of 'firsts' for me! And going to San Francisco was another one.

The home of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hippy Movement................my art college roots came with lashings of hippie stuff: No shoes all summer, some dubious methods of relaxation and not forgetting my (off) white raggedy sheepskin coat.

We were there for a very important purpose but Jason's mom and dad, Pat and Gary were determined to get us out to do a bit of sightseeing despite their being run off their feet with all the arrangements on top of normal daily duties.

They took us for a drive to the GG Bridge and through the park near it, the bridge is awesome! Then we drove slowly through Haight Ashbury, this is where the hippie movement started and I could feel my youthful carefree days flooding back to me here in the home of freedom of thought.
The houses are so beautifully painted, I found a cool pic to show you.
Steve and I decided we would love to live there but of course that would involve risking the earth quakes so I will reserve judgment on that move for now.

It was pretty cloudy that day so my pic of the Golden Gate Bridge has added vibe (:

Not Dead Yet!

2011-03-30T09:58:00.000-05:00

Jason Becker ~ 'Not Dead Yet' ALS Benefit

Of all the events in our calendar this was one we did not want to miss!
Steve has known Jason Becker for 22 years, they first met when they were both recording on a David Lee Roth album in 1989.

Jason was a 20 year old guitarist who had already started to light up the world with his astonishing playing, he was destined to become an all time great. But one day during the recording of the album Steve noticed that Jason was walking with a limp, he asked him about it and suggested he get it checked by a doctor.

That was the start of many visits to doctors for Jason, eventualy he was diagnosed with
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a disease of the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. (ALS is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease)

Despite all the negative odds, Jason is still with us and still composing music.
He communicates with his eyes via a method developed by his dad Gary.
Jason is funny, smart, spiritual and loving. In fact all the things that we all love about Steve are right there in Jason and that is why they are like brothers.

We flew to San Francisco where Jason and his family live and from the moment we were picked up to the moment we were dropped off to the airport to fly home again we were enveloped in the blanket of love that surrounds Jason Becker.
His condition demands constant care, but there is a network of carer's that include his mom and dad who take on this work without complaint. The network extends to the wider family and friends and Jason has a lot of them!

We were there to do two things other than hang with everybody, Steve wanted to add his part to the new documentary being filmed by a group of young talented film makers from the UK and he wanted to be at the music event that had been organised.

More about those things on the next blog:

Hall of Fame the finale

2011-03-20T20:51:00.002-05:00

Due to our standard cable package being so ****! I am not able to watch the show go out tonight so here is the last blog on the Hall of Fame night:

The finale was spectacular! Alice, Dennis, Michael and Neal, Darlene Love, Dr John, the choir, everybody singing and having fun; Bette Midler is awesome, where does that voice come from?

I think Glen Buxton was looking down and smiling for his friends, I know they were thinking of him.

We were sitting down and catching our breath when I hear our names being called. The co ordinator Vanessa is galloping along the balcony, her walky talky clonking up and down and hitting her in the hip; “Steve! Karen! Bette wants to see you; she won’t leave till you get there”.

We follow her back down the stairs, although she actually left us behind; through the kitchen and out the other side into the VIP area and there waiting in a hallway with her husband is Bette Midler.

She flung herself at Steve, they have not seen each other since the movie ‘The Rose’ in the 80’s but as ever the man had made an impact, his humor, his honesty and of course his talent is infectious and those lucky enough to be around him when he is relaxed and comfortable never forget.

Vanessa had the insight to take out her camera; Bette grabbed me saying “get in the picture”. So we have a pic to come of the three of us. After she had gone people were stopping us saying “Did Bette find you?” She had been shouting “Where is Steve Hunter!!” The man’s kudos took a bit of a leap that night.

He was made up, he loves Bette Midler like a sister and I think that made his year!

What a time we had.

Hall of Fame (part three)

2011-03-20T19:31:00.003-05:00

We were all gathered in the kitchen waiting for the band to go on; Bette Midler had just gone past like a dose of salts! She was very small, shorter than me!

Alice’s stage manager took over from me, guiding Steve into the ballroom and up the stairs to the stage along with Neal; I went and found a spot to watch from. There was one song I was particularly concerned about; the man had an intro that involved a seven fret jump.

The atmosphere was amazing, this was a very overdue accolade in many people’s minds and tonight was their night to shine, which they did. Rob Zombie joined them and gave a very funny introduction what a cool guy he is and he has a wife too stunning for words.

At this point, time stood still or did it just whizz by? Whichever it was, before I knew it, the band were heading for the podium and Steve was on his way back off the stage. He had done the troublesome intro with no problem and that is all I can remember of the three songs.

We got back upstairs to our table by which time Alice had a yellow snake around his neck which seemed to be trying to slither on to Neal, it may have decided to take a short tour of entire Alice Cooper Group.

The speeches done by the band, we could sit back and watch…… more speeches.

Ok, it is a well known fact by any of my friends that I am hopeless at remembering the order of things so for anybody reading this that was at the show I apologize, my brain will be spitting out things in the order that they get remembered.

Elton John was part of my youth, I loved all his earlier albums but never took to him as a personality but I now offer up great respect. He was so eloquent and I was riveted by his introduction of the video of Leon Russell, ahead of giving him his award. He described how Leon had been forgotten despite writing so many wonderful songs, that he had decided to record an album with him and set forth on a mission to see him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He called for Leon to come on stage and a portly man appeared long white hair and dark glasses. I had goose bumps as he made his way up the few steps to the podium; he had a cane and was frail.

When he got to the top he paused, took a breath then said just a couple of sentences, but I was already in tears before he finished. He said something along the lines of “I was on the side of the road and Elton John picked me up” it was unbearably touching, and then he was gone.

I remember Darlene Love; she was shining so brightly you could see a glow around her and when she sang it was perfect, soulful and full of joy.

At some stage early on I couldn’t believe my eyes when Judy Collins got up to sing ‘Both Sides Now’ I was awestruck! Judy Collins!!!! She was small, with lots of long grey hair and her voice filled the room, crystal clear and pure like an angel.

Tom Waits was introduced by Neil Young who is one of my all time hero’s. Tom Waites could have been a successful standup comic if it were not for his amazing songwriting talent. I was crying again by the end of his speech but it was from laughing this time.

There were performances by combinations of musicians that would rarely be seen, John Mayer, Elton, Tom Waites and Leon Russell, Neil Young, Dr John and even Bruce Springsteen; it was so musical and so honest. None of that overdone rubbish like on the Grammy’s this was real music!

Tom Waites did a set on his own, with a small group around him, barely feet apart from each other on the big stage. It was incredible; he made the ballroom so small and intimate with his performance, we could have all been at the local pub.

Paul Simon introduced Neil Diamond; he was dry and funny and obviously has great affection for Neil. When Neil came striding up the steps to the podium he had a little camera in his hand and immediately started taking snaps of the audience which was so funny and somehow made everybody relax. Steve had told me what a great performer he was and I was not disappointed, he was amazing and had most of the room up and swaying their arms. People like Catharine Zeta Jones and all those rich luminaries were all having a ball and I was right there, stood up swaying and singing at the top of my voice, “Sweet Caroline” la la la, next to the over excitable lady from the UK who I swear nearly fell off the balcony!

One more blog to go; we get a call from Bette!

Hall of Fame (part two)

2011-03-18T20:26:00.001-05:00

The day of the show the man had a run thru in the afternoon (pic below) so I took off and had my hair washed and ironed, just like his black shirt!

When I got back into the ballroom all the lights and cameras had found a home and the cables were miraculously tidy.
We had a couple of hours to relax and change into the show gear, there was a cocktail 'do' before the show and a cocktail 'do' after the show, they certainly made sure that the people got their money's worth ($3,000 a seat for the floor and $2,000 a seat for the balcony).

As we entered the room for the first cocktail session we passed by Dr John, Steve did an album with him years ago and as we were so close I tapped on his shoulder. Dr John looked amazing; purple suit, feathers and things in his hat, a walking stick with things carved all over it.

I couldn’t understand a word he said: Apparently he said "The Deacon!" and nudged somebody saying "this man plays great guitar, he did an album of mine" or something like that. The man was made up that Dr John remembered him and will treasure that moment.

We don’t drink so we did a tour of the room, winding our way thru all the frocks and bow ties then headed upstairs to our allocated table.
The man and I were on the balcony for the dinner....which was great cos I could look down and do star spotting. On our table were two guys from Wall Street, a lady from ASCAP who was quite important I think. There was a couple from the UK who were huge Neil Diamond fans and before long they and the two Wall Streeter's were 'Neil' spotting from on high. The couple were from Durham and very nice although she was quite excitable. Neil actually knows them as they follow him everywhere which was pretty cool during his performance as he sang up to them when he recognized their shouts of adulation.

We managed to have most of the meal before the runner came up to get us, they wanted Steve downstairs . We joined Alice in his parlor.......a small area partitioned off by screens with a couple of chairs, a table and a mirror, the rest of the band were milling in and out in their glitter clad finery, we took some pics and jokes flew round like confetti.
It was nearly time for them to go on, so we all wound our way out into the crowd. Steve needs careful guidance in dark rooms so we took our time to get to the holding area.

The kitchen was the holding area: Waiters were banging through the swing doors as we ended up waiting for about 20 minutes, some got really brave and asked to have their photo taken with the band.
This was a musically historic occasion and the staff of The Warldorf knew that.

Just as she was about to be announced, Bette Midler was hustled through the back of the kitchen to the swing doors, she was inducting Darlene Love ahead of the bands three songs. She stood right by Steve who had worked closely with her on the movie 'The Rose' in the 80's, he said "Bette it's Steve" but woosh she was gone through the doors and on to the stage.

More of the man and Bette Midler at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in the next part.

Reviews of 'Empty Spaces'

2011-03-18T19:18:00.001-05:00

5.0 out of 5 stars What a lovely voice, February 9, 2011

J. Richardson "jrlvsblues" (Rio Rancho NM)

I have been a fan of Steve Hunter for years. When I heard that he was producing a
CD with his wife, I couldn't wait to hear it. Karen Ann, has a beauitful voice. She has
wonderful range, and you can just sit back,read a book and listening to her. The production
is first class, with the musical accompaniment backing. Steve's guitar work is as usual
outstanding. I look forward to listening to this often. Great effort, and highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUSICAL COLLABORATION MADE IN HEAVEN, March 18, 2011

David Lowe (England)

This review is from: Empty Spaces (MP3 Download)

COMBINING Karen Ann Hunter's expressive vocals and accomplished songwriting skills with Steve "The Deacon" Hunter's extraordinary musicianship was a stroke of genius. The two of them were born to make music together, and what wonderful music they've given us with their debut "Empty Spaces" album. There's not a so-so track on it: they're all eminently listenable, whether you're relaxing at home, whiling away a long flight, or on the road behind the wheel. Indeed, several of the titles on "Empty Spaces" have that special quality of leaving the opening or hook-lines rolling around in your head until you've simply got to play the whole track again. If I was to be asked to sum-up "Empty Spaces" in just one word, that word would the "ethereal". Yes, the whole collection resonates with an other worldly quality; embroidered with some very clever lyric writing, plus Steve's masterful guitar playing - including those exquisite harmonics - and, of course, Karen's crystal clear, true voice. Take it from me, there are no "Empty Spaces" here: they are all filled with genuine world-class music making.

Thoroughly recommended!

DAVID LOWE (Producer~Presenter: B.B.C. Regional Radio & The LoweDown music column, the Herald Express provincial newspaper South West England)

This is one of the most beautiful collections of music ever recorded. This cd is up there with Celine but was written by Karen and all of the musical accompaniment is performed by and produced by her husband Steve "the Deacon" Hunter. Just take a listen to the sample clips presented here and you will be compelled to purchase the CD or MP3 download available here at the link. It is a beauty only exceeded by it's writer.

Steve Harris: March 19th 2011

The Hall of Fame Experience (part one)

2011-03-16T15:08:00.001-05:00

Not sure where to start with this, my brain is on overload in the awesome experience dept;

First of all, I must thank the pilot of the 'far too small' airplane that got us into NY, that was the bumpiest hour and half I have ever had but he got us to the other end in one piece!

We were staying with Cindy and Dennis who despite being in the middle of their own overload made us feel welcome and took great care of us. Dennis loves my album and played it three times during our stay, how cool is that!

The rehearsals in NY had gone well, each day the band got better and once Alice and the management team arrived things really took shape, the band were tight and there was a lot of laughter.
We checked into The Waldorf on the Saturday after the remote rehearsals were done, to start a couple of days run through's in the main ballroom where the induction would take place. The Waldorf is very spectacular but the cost of doing anything apart from sneeze is even more spectacular!

Me and the man were pretty tired the first night and decided to drag our asses down to the restaurant, we had a lovely meal that cost more than two nights at the Holiday Inn!

But, the funniest thing was going down to have a light snack in the main foyer; we had popped in to check it out the day before. This time there was a huge buffet spread filling the whole front entrance hall. We were guided to our table and ordered two apple juices then waited.....and waited.

Eventually I asked the waiter for the menu, he said there was only the buffet today and it cost $95 per person. Ha ha, we laughed! I tried to pay for the apple juice but the waiter looked at me with head on one side in pity and said, "Don’t worry about that madam" and we left.

The ballroom on that first day was a cacophony of lights, camera's and huge cables, people dashing all over the place like ants, they all had ear monitors and mics and were talking to the air.
We were assigned a couple of sweet ladies whose job it would be to get us where we needed to be on the night.
My job was to make sure Steve got where he needed to be without tripping over equipment or cables plus I had to iron his black shirt for the big night....... me and the man are not big on ironing generally.

Driving myself crazy

2011-03-06T11:33:00.000-06:00

I took my theory test for driving here in the USA! The place was packed but people were polite, a young man next to me started up a conversation after he sussed I was foreign. Oddly, he seemed very proud that he was back taking his learners permit for the third time because he had not done any homework on the rules of the road here.........how weird is that?

We had to go to the dentist last week, neither of us like the dentist and avoid it at all costs unless as in the man's case, there is an abscess shouting....you gotta go, you gotta go!!

I rashly said yes to going to a dance type exercise class yesterday, 45 minutes of shaking things that risked causing a bodily tsunami. I may have to invest in a pair of depends if she make me jump up and down for too long next time! Apparently they do come in various colors these days so the TV tells me.

Today I had to add Ibuprophen to my breakfast! Of course the man thinks that is hillarious!

We are getting ready for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame gig now, the new Gretsch custom guitars arrived and look fab. I will do a blog about our adventures in NY City.

Bring it on!

2011-02-12T10:57:00.000-06:00

Oh yes 2011, bring it ON!!!!! You are shaping up to be one heck of a year!

The fact is that we have had a particularly difficult last couple of years, the man had to have an emergency heart stent to save his life, he also got Atrial Fibrilation, then we found out his Glaucoma had deteriorated to the point of being legally blind. Not that we didnt notice the changes of course, the lack of independence, all the little things that crop up on a daily basis.

All through that time we had humour and love to keep us going, we managed to write and record an album called 'Empty Spaces' then took the huge step of moving to Nashville. I live with a very private but funny man, that is how he survives not being able to see and he lives with a woman who adores him and who also has a keen sense of humour, albeit British!

So, here we are in 2011 and our year is about to take off, we took a trip to Phoenix to join the King of Nightmares onstage for his charity show in December and now we look forward to a trip to New York for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
I have no idea what I am going to wear to The Waldorf Astoria but I will deffinately be wearing the black Spanx I bought in Hallmark's the other week. (re: earlier blog)

I cannot wait to share some road stories with you as the year unfolds.
I will endevour to make it a 'warts and all' experience....... do Americans know that expression I wonder? Well, in this instance it means I will be as honest as I can be without fear of legal action!!!

2011 here we come! K (: