(Bruce Dickinson) Olly and Noggin’s Tour Diary 1998...

Introduction

Dear Reader, what you are about to read is a “Tour Diary” that was written by Olly as we followed Bruce Dickinson on his UK Tour in 1998.

We weren’t to know it at the time but it would be the last time he was to tour the UK. It was also the now infamous tour were I advised Bruce not to re-join Maiden, he also gave me a massive bottle of Champagne as a gift, which then got involved with a dodgy deal with Paddy (Bruce’s wife) who said, “We’ve got none left in the fridge…” Which surely must be the quote of all quotes from the road… any road…

The story briefly goes like this. As usual we were doing the UK Tour, but Olly decided that it would be a good idea to write a little tour diary review type thing and then show it to Bruce the following night. Bruce loved it. To be honest, we all loved it, it was such a good idea.

Sometime after the tour, what you are about to read appeared on Bruce’s official site. Once Bruce re-joined Maiden it was taken down. Answers on a post card to…

That’s it really. What you are about to read is for me Genesis. It lead to all the “Tour Diaries” and E Mails and now these blogs. So frankly, it’s all Olly’s fault. I blame him and so should you.

It’s my is my intention to get around to typing up my own memories of all those gigs, which at the time of typing stands at 37 Bruce solo gigs.

Finally, to all of the band members, crew, managers, anything you have ever said to me over the phone, via E Mails or texts and or in person, sober or drunk, I consider to have been said in confidence, whatever was said to me stays said to me.

Enjoy.

Olly and Noggin’s Tour Diary (1998)

Chapter 1 – The Hop and Grape, Manchester University, 1^st December.

Promo poster from Manchester University - tape measure for scale

We started off for Manchester at 12 noon, which on reflection was a tad early, as we arrived at the venue at ten minutes to two! After a couple of hours trekking round Manchester city centre trying to find the interesting bits, we decided to head back to the venue to wait for the band to arrive.

Sound check was scheduled for half past five, so we figured Bruce wouldn’t turn up ‘til at least twenty past five and we were about right. Bruce arrived and greeted Noggin with the traditional “Fuckin Hell, it’s you again!” We had a few words and Noggin (the cheeky git!) asked Bruce if we could get on the guest list, “No problem” says Bruce. Half an hour later and the tour manager came over and handed us three laminates for the rest of the tour… “Weyhey” is about all I can say on that subject.

VIP Laminates - my second one signed

We figured we may as well go and drink cheap beer in the student bar downstairs ‘til the gig. (Why did I never go to University? Cheap beer and loads of women! Heaven is a place like this.) So a couple of hours later we were ready to head back upstairs, having accidently missed the whole of the support band (“Kill2This”) set. By this time the small venue was absolutely crammed.

Bruce’s set started dead on time at nine o’clock, hailed by a wail of air-raid sirens and the flash of crowd blinders at the back of the stage. The band walked on stage to a rapturous reception from the (approximately) 400 strong crowd. Bruce bounded out and everyone went mad. The opening chords of “Trumpets of Jericho” were drowned out by the crowd and it carried on like that for the whole twenty minute “Chemical Wedding” section of the set, interrupted only by Bruce’s links between songs, all recitals from the work of William Blake of course.

The rest of the set was classics all the way, “Tears of The Dragon” had the whole room singing, “Laughing in The Hiding Bush” was a mosh-fest, and when Bruce started in on the “Woe to you o’ earth and sea…” intro we all thought we knew what to expect, but no, a twist in the tail, “let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast for it is a human number, it’s number is… Powerslave” Bang! The opening chords of the classic Maiden track hit like a sledgehammer, but surprisingly the reception for the Maiden tracks in the set did not seem as strong as for the “Chemical Wedding” material, a fact by which I was highly impressed. Does this mean that Bruce is finally carving his own niche with this band like he was with Skunkworks?

My memory fades at this point at this point, but I do remember two encores, the first including “Tattooed Millionaire” and “Two Minutes to Midnight” (I think), the second and indeed the night was ended by “Flight of Icarus” a monster of a song, but I personally feel that ending the set with a Maiden track sends people home with the wrong memories of the night.

Had a chat with Bruce in the dressing room after the show, he seemed well happy with the performance, and the reaction of the audience, and was looking forward to the rest of the tour. The band headed off to the bus, and we headed off to the kebab shop, then home to the Midlands to catch up on sleep before Norwich on Thursday.

Chapter 2 – Norwich Waterfront, 3^rd December.

Promo poster from Norwich Waterfront, blagged from a shop near the venue - A4 size

Norwich. Not a nice place to drive to and not a great place once you get there. We set off from Walsall at twenty past one in the afternoon for the longest trip of the tour. It turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant journey and, one hundred and seventy six miles later, we were sitting outside the venue on the stroke of five o’clock.

We popped into the venue to have a look around and to see if anyone interesting was about. The sound check was just about to start, but no sign of Bruce, he was supposed to give a talk on William Blake to English Students at Norwich University earlier in the afternoon, but after phoning to say he would be late he had failed to show up. No one had seen him since and nobody, including the tour manager (who was asking if we’d seen him) had the faintest idea where he was. Rock Stars eh! You can never find one when you want one.

We went off to have a look around the town and get some food (have a beer) before the gig. Every pub in Norwich appears to have a dress code, as we got thrown out of five for various jeans/trainers/leather jacket related reasons, however after walking over a mile to the nearest chip shop we struck gold on the way back. A rock pub called the “Festival Hall” or something like that, if you ever find yourself in Norwich unable to get into any pubs, that’s the one to go for, good music, beer, food and a pool table, what more do you need?

Back at the venue a queue had formed. We walked straight to the front, showed our passes and were let in (it’s an ego thing I guess!). Bruce had turned up by this time and the doors were about to open. The Waterfront club is a fairly small venue, low roofed and rectangular in shape with the stage on one of the longer sides. Not the best building for a brilliant sound in my opinion.

By the time the support band “Kill2This” went on stage at eight o’clock the place was like an oven. I guess there were about four to five hundred people inside, the capacity is eight hundred I think. “Kill2This” are fairly typical of modern metal bands (in my opinion) and whilst they are proficient enough musicians they lack confidence and presence on stage. Also their style of music (HEAVY) is not necessarily ideally suited to a support slot on the Bruce tour.

Five past nine and the wail of air raid sirens hails the arrival of Bruce. “Walls of Jericho”, “King in Crimson”, “The Chemical Wedding”, “Killing Floor” and “The Book of Thel” rock like a rocky thing on a windy day, but sound (as I suspected) is not as strong as it could be. This is a shame as it takes a lot away from the power of the new material, Adrian Smith’s guitar appears to be far clearer than that of his partner “The Guru”, particularly evident during the twin guitar harmonies.

The later part of the set was fraught with technical problems, first the bass guitar disappeared from the mix, a problem with the bass amp. Then after the intro to “The Tower” is over then only one guitar can be heard, “The Guru” is still retuning his! Apparently there are so many different tuning in the set that he does not have enough guitars to keep up, whereas Adrian seems to have a different one for each song. Eddie Casillas filled the void with a thunderous bass solo worked around the bass-orientated intro to “The Tower” and Bruce keeps the crowd entertained with the traditional singing contest (Scream for me left hand side…).

The Maiden numbers are the big crowd pleasers of the night here. A shame really because with the right sound the “Chemical Wedding” material is easily as good.

Stayed behind after the show to have a yack to the band and then off into the fog at around midnight for the journey home. At least it’s only Wolverhampton tomorrow, nine miles from home.

Chapter 3 – Wolverhampton, Wulfrun Hall, 4^th December.

Show Times Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall

Wolverhampton is the closest gig to home for us, so no exciting tales from the journey today! Except that my car decided to ask for a new set of brake disks after the Norwich trip, so I’m now broke.

We arrived early at the Wulfrun in order to see tonight’s special guests “Sack Trick” who went on stage at quarter past seven! “Sack Trick” are a very strange band. For a start you can never tell from one gig to the next who will be in the band. Tonight’s line up is Chris Dale (formerly of Skunkworks) on bass, Jeff Streatfield (Wildhearts) on guitar, and Robin Guy (Rachel Stamp, I think) on drums.

Their album “(Music from) The Mystery Rabbits” is a strangely catchy mix of Zappa and Primus with the obvious sense of humour and no desire to be taken too seriously. The “Sack Trick” set is not without problems tonight, the vocals are barely audible, there’s hardly more than fifty people in the venue, and nobody quite seems to get the jokes. Still, I like “Sack Trick” and I can’t wait to see them again at London on Tuesday, hopefully with a better sound and a bigger crowd.

Towards the end their set someone shouts, “Oy, where’s Bruce?” the answer is that he’s been standing (slightly disguised, but quite obvious) quietly in the shadows by the door to the bar for the whole of the half hour performance. Cool!

Didn’t see “Kill2This” tonight, not really my thing so I went to the bar, but they seemed to go down okay.

By the time Bruce goes on at nine o’clock the place is crammed with 1000 sweaty metal fans, and they were certainly loud. Bruce is obviously getting off on the combination of bigger stage/bigger crowd tonight as he’s on top form bounding around the stage and throwing in a good few “Scream for me Wolverhampton’s”. The only fault I can find with tonight’s gig is that it is just not loud enough. Manchester was deafening, Norwich was less loud, Wolverhampton is just not loud. You can hold a conversation with the person next to you in the middle of the room, and even at the barrier it just doesn’t have that “Punch-in-the-chest” that a metal gig should have. Shame.

The set remains unchanged from the previous nights, but at low volume the “Chemical Wedding” material lacks power, leaving the Maiden tracks to take the spot light again, I saw Maiden next door in the Civic Hall a few weeks ago, and I thought they were crap, Maiden just aren’t Maiden anymore and Bruce and Adrian are basically more Maiden than Maiden are, and everyone else seemed to agree, I heard comments along the lines of “Why can’t Maiden be as good as that anymore?” and “Maiden are bollocks these days, but that rocked!” from people on the way out at the end.

All in all if you have put the sound from Manchester with the crowd from tonight you’d have a damn fine gig. As it was it was a damn fine, quiet gig with a mental crowd determined to have a good time. Excellent.

Saw the band after the show and manages to get invited back to the hotel for a beer and a yack. Noggin and Bruce spent about two hours talking about planes, trains and the merits of ground-to-air missiles as garden ornaments.

Bruce had his plane at Halfpenny Green airfield, which is only a couple of miles from my house, and he was flying to Nottingham the next day, so jokingly I said, “Cool, you can give me a lift then”, to which Bruce said, “Sure, no problem” but I had to turn the offer down as I would have been a bit stranded in Nottingham without my car! Shit!

Got home at four in the morning, which is only half an hour earlier than from Norwich, and I only live nine miles from Wolverhampton! This rock ‘n roll stuff must be bad for the system ;o/

Chapter 4 – Nottingham Rock City, 5^th December.

Promo poster Nottingham Rock City - for anyone that knows or doesn't know, Rock city used to hang massive posters in their window, hand painted and complete one off's. I can't tell you how I got my hands on this, well I could, but then I'd have to kill you... I also have the other posters from Bruce's shows at Rock City

Rock City is cool. In fact the whole of Nottingham is cool. The reason for this is that the ratio of women to men in the eighteen to twenty five age group is apparently about three to one!

We got to Rock City about quarter to seven and went in to have a look around before the doors opened. Bumped into “The Guru” having an argument with the cigarette machine, I guess it must be tricky when you’re in a different country from week to week trying to remember which coin is worth what and where. Went for a wonder round Nottingham to try to find a shop selling Lottery Tickets, without success and by now it was about minus ten degrees outside so we headed for the pub round the corner from the venue to wait for show time.

There we were in the pub, quite a respectable pub, when some psycho decides to pick a fight with about six guys who were having a few games of pool quite happily on the other side of the room. So that was the first bit of entertainment for the evening!

About eight thirty we went back to the venue to find that Bruce’s set had already started because of the early (ten fifteen!) curfew that Rock City impose in order to open as a nightclub after the gig finishes. Fortunately we only missed the first two tracks. I headed for the front and found a nice spot just back from the barrier on the right of the stage.

It was surprisingly cool inside the venue, I guess the air conditioning was on turbo or something and the band looked decidedly chilly, but they didn’t let it put them off. It was loud tonight! Floor shakingly, gut wrenchingly loud. Excellent. Guitar solos soared over the mix, bass pounded and the drums were like thunder. “Accident of Birth” was a particular high spot as it’s one of the heavier songs in the set and the crowd loved it. “Powerslave” set the mosh off big time and it continues through “Tattooed Millionaire”, “Two Minutes to Midnight”, “The Road to Hell” and right to the final chords of “Flight of Icarus”.

Those four numbers were preceded by Bruce coming back on the stage to find the security guy in the pit in the pit below smoking, not something with which Bruce is greatly impressed. Having seen him drench people in the crowd at other gigs for smoking in his face, I guessed what was coming next. “There’s no smoking down there mate” said Bruce, the bloke thought he was joking, so Bruce proved he wasn’t by putting the cigarette out for him… with a litre of mineral water! Well he was warned ;o) The result or all of this was that all four security guards walked out and stood at the side of the stage smoking instead. How very professional. Not.

I popped out to the car after the gig to grab the print outs of the last couple of gig reviews to give to Bruce. I showed my pass to get back in, unfortunately I showed it to the same guy that Bruce had just drenched. Ooops! He grabbed hold of me and told me to “Tell your mate Bruce Dickinson that if I see him afterwards I’m going to smack his fuckin’ head in ‘cos he was well out of order chucking water on me. He’s not my fucking gaffer and if I want to smoke then I fucking well will okay!” Aaah, diddums, nasty water make you all wet did it? What a prat. I passed the message on to Bruce who seemed to share my opinion that the guy was a prat.

All in all a pretty eventful day, I wonder what Cambridge will have to offer….

Chapter 5 – Cambridge Junction, 7^th December.

Set List from Cambridge Junction - the set was the same on every night

We wanted to get to Cambridge fairly early to avoid pissing about trying to find the venue in the dark during rush hour, so we left Walsall at one thirty. The M6 slowed us down a bit, as usual, but nothing too bad and once we reached the A14 we were flying.

We reached the outskirts of Cambridge (after a brief detour cos I got lost) at about three thirty. Not knowing where the venue was presented a minor hurdle, we had been told it was Clifton Street, which was not on our map, so we assumed that the street name we had been given was wrong and headed for Grafton Street. Ooops. Grafton Street was a tiny dead end of terraced houses, so we figured that was probably not the right place. Went for a wander and asked a postman if he knew where the venue was, fortunately he did, and it was only a few hundred yards down the road.

Cambridge Junction is a very nice, modern venue. Opened in 1990 it sports a huge, free car park, air conditioning, and it’s ideally placed for the station, pub and chip shop. So really it has everything. Went inside for a look around and found “The Guru” doing his sound check. Had a quick chat with the Tour Manager and bumped into a guy we know from Huddersfield who had done Manchester, Wolverhampton and Nottingham. Went to the chip shop, excellent chips, if you’re ever in Cambridge check out Jacks chips shop in Cherry Hinton Road. Called in at the pub on the way back for a pint or two and arrived back at the venue just in time for “Kill2This” set.

Bruce Input List from Cambridge Junction

By the time Bruce came on at nine o’clock there were about four to five hundred people inside, not quite a sell out, but it’s not a huge venue anyhow so it seemed quite full. Found a great spot to stand, right in front of the PA stack, stage right, but earplugs were a necessity because it was bloody loud! Tonight’s gig really rocked, the band were on great form, Bruce meating out snappy put downs to hecklers and front row smokers (the usual bottle of mineral water on the head!).

The sound tonight was also good, both guitars evenly matched, solos rising over the mix, bass tumbling darkly, drums shaking the floor as they should. The “Chemical Wedding” material is excellent as usual, the Maiden numbers send the crowd wild and the classic from “Balls to Picasso” and “Accident of Birth” are also well received. At the end of the night everyone seems to wish it could go on all night.

Had a chat to Bruce and the band after the show, they all seem to be looking forward to London tomorrow, in contrast to the crew who had all said that they are definitely not looking forward to it. Apparently London is always a pain because everything has to be that extra bit right to please the media/record company/management people. Should make for a good gig with a bit of luck.

Left Cambridge just after midnight for a long a foggy trip back home. We gave the guy from Huddersfield a lift to Birmingham to get a train to London as he had missed his train out of Cambridge by staying back to meet Bruce. I finally got back home at four thirty in the morning and we were due to leave for London at midday. Oh dear!

Yawn.

Chapter 6 – London LA2, 8^th December.

I found this (before it was lost) on the dressing room door - WHAT!?

Tired is a word that goes some way to explaining how I feel setting of for the drive to London. Exhausted is better word. The plan for today is to park in Chiswick and get the tube into the city then the night bus out of Trafalgar later on, thus saving a fortune in parking charges and the hassle of driving into the city. This was a very good plan as it saved us about ten pounds and a good hour of slow motion driving.

We arrived at the venue at about five thirty, said hi to Bruce in the dressing room, blagged a couple of beers and went for a much needed hour of sleep in the bar.

“Sack Trick” were once again opening the night and they were still getting a brief sound check done when the doors opened at seven. They went on stage at seven fifteen and although their sound was much better than at Wolverhampton they were heckled something rotten, undeservedly in my opinion as they excellent, the sound they had tonight favoured them much better, the vocals were clearly distinguishable and the addition of a keyboard player added a new dimension to the songs. “Sack Trick” are a band who could produce great things, Chris Dale just needs to work on his role as a frontman as he seems to lack confidence, although that said he dealt well with the hecklers.

“Kill2This” impressed me tonight. Whilst I do not like the style of music that they play, I can’t find much to fault them as musicians, and even less so as performers. Tonight they seem to have found new reserves of confidence and presence, and it doesn’t go un-noticed. Certain areas of the crowd were going mad, a full on mosh pit. The question I have to ask is why “Kill2This” can pull such a great performance out of the bag for London and not every night, must be something to do with the large contingent of the audience who were here for business purposes.

Bruce is very late going on stage tonight. Showtime is supposed to be nine, at twenty-five to ten the air-raid sirens finally herald the start of the show. Apparently the entire lighting rig had broken down so it’s lucky the gig happened at all really. From the moment the first chords of “Walls of Jericho” blast forth, to the moment Bruce leaves the stage at the end of the show the crowd are going mad. The gig has sold out for over a week and over four hundred people have been turned away outside tonight, the temperature inside the venue in unbelievable as Bruce has insisted that the air-conditioning be switched off as it dries his throat when he’s on stage.

Before the end of the second song (“King in Crimson”) the whole band are dripping in sweat and “The Guru” still manages to wear a knee length leather coat throughout. No wonder he was feeling ill when I spoke to him later on, I believe they call that heat exhaustion!

Everything is perfect tonight, and I suppose it had to be. London is always a strange gig and it can work either way, either inspiring the band to greater things as is the case for all three bands tonight, or else crushing the performance under a blanket of music business crap as I’ve seen before with so many other bands.

The after show/end of tour party is full of people from the various management, promotion and record companies involved in tonight’s gig, as well as the usual sprinkling of family members (Bruce’s wife of course), jammy fans (like us!), slappers (no names mentioned, they’ll know who I mean when they read it!), and general blaggers.

Pass guide for security

Bruce gets steadily more drunk as the night progresses until his wife eventually manages to drag him away at the end of the night. “The Guru” looks like he’s feeling decidedly under the weather, Adrian is stuck in the corner surrounded by horded of people, Eddy (or is it Eddie? Can’t remember and I can’t be bothered to look!) is around somewhere, and Dave is hiding out in the corner with the drummer from “Kill2This”.

Sometime later we decide to head off to get the bus, so having grabbed a couple of cans of pop from the dressing room for the journey we say our goodbyes, thank Bruce again for the laminates that have made the tour so much more comfortable and headed for the door (whilst Bruce’s wife still tries to get him headed the same way). On the way out Eddy grabs us for a chat on hair curling techniques (believe it or not) and bids us a farewell with a bone shattering hand shake (he’s bloody big bloke!). Various members of “Kill2This” thank us for our support during the tour, very generous considering I only saw their set one and half times in total over six nights.

Finally got back to the car at three in the morning, not feeling at all like driving one hundred and fifty miles home. In fact I made it as far as Toddington services on the M1 where I gave up and slept in the car until eight o’clock (oops, longer than I intended) giving myself the pleasure of driving through Birmingham on the M6 at about nine thirty at ten miles an hour! I could have got home faster if I’d have driven in my sleep. Eventually got home at eleven o’clock. I could have sleep for a week, but I’m back at work tomorrow. Shit, really bites!

The End.