Saturday, January 05, 2008

More from the Led Zeppelin Gig at O2

I saw a piece on Fox News in the USA referring to the backstage incident with Naomi Campbell. After the Zeppelin show I was backstage with Jeff Beck, Vic Reeves and the wonderful Fox News Entertainment Chief, Roger Friedman. Naomi was banging on about being robbed.. It was only funny when Vic Reeves turned to me and said " Who the fuck is she anyway" referring to Naomi who was whinging on about her two phones that had been lifted. So, here is a piece from Fox News..

Naomi Campbell’s "mugging" — her announcement directly to me, photographer Danny Clifford and Jeff Beck (if he was listening) — that she’d had her handbag and "two bloody phones" lifted — got a lot of pick up Tuesday. I thought it was hilarious that TMZ.com said they called Scotland Yard to see if Campbell reported the incident. Next they’re going to ring the FBI about Britney Spears’ missing underwear! Roger Friedman - copyright 2007 Fox News

Friday, January 04, 2008

Pentangle Photo shoot

Today I did a shoot with the legendary Pentangle. They were big in the 60's and 70's then seemed to break up. Anyway, they have reformed and they will be playing at the Royal Festival Hall in the summer 2008. This is quite a big deal as they haven't performed together for quite some time. I also believe that their gig in the summer is to commemorate their 40th anniversary.. So, I met them all at the Royal Festival Hall this morning and then we said our hello's etc then went for a coffee to discuss this shoot.. It wasn't long before we started. Today was a pretty foggy day in London so, we started inside and did a few studio (location) type of shots.. Then as they all became more relaxed we moved on outside. I must say, even though I am was born and bred in London, I still love seeing all of those major landmarks and sights.. So, when we went outside onto the balcony with the band it was great to see Big Ben and the big Millennium Wheel right there next to us. So, they made for quite nice back drops.. During the photo shoot, my old mate Paul Crockford arrived. He is jointly managing Pentangle with Bert Jansch's wife Loren. Paul, Loren and the band were so nice to work with. They were all really, nice people. So, when we were outside we went down onto the beach on the side of the River Thames.. This is great fun in itself. We got some great shots down by the Thames.. The light started to fade pretty quickly, so we wrapped it up and called it a day. All in all a very enjoyable day for me.

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Reliving the Past - 1978 to be precise !!

I have been going through some of my old diaries and started to put some of the entries on this, my online diary. So, if you get bored and fancy finding out what my life was like when I was starting off in the music industry then have a 'butchers hook', which is 'have a look' for those who don't speak Cockney Rhyming Slang.. They are listed as 1978 at the moment...

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

New Years Day 2008

I went out for lunch with some of the family today which was nice. On the way back we saw Police helicopters flying around above the area. Then we saw about 8 police cars all stopped in one place. There was obviously something going on. Well, how exciting eh.. I then stopped at the local garage where there is a Marks and Spencer food store in it to get some food for the house. As I walked in I Saw someone staring at me. I did recognise him, but for a few seconds didn't know who it was. It was Adrian Smith the legendary Iron Maiden guitarist. Adrian had been fishing locally as we live pretty close to each other. Everywhere Adrian goes when he is on tour, he fishes. Mostly for Chub. He does love fishing. I remember Adrian telling me once before when I was out with him and the band somewhere, that when he is on tour he will fish anywhere for anything.. That is dedication isn't it. Iron Maiden are out on the road in about 3 weeks and off to India, Japan and Australia amongst other places. So, from the sublime to the.... we later went to a dinner party tonight at friends of ours Mick & Donna Flinn of The New Seekers. Other good friends of ours there were Paul Carrack and his wife Kathy, also record producer Andy Wright with his wife Wendy along with Pete Lennon and his wife. What a nice evening it was, food was fab and the company wonderful. I must say its been a long time since we have been to such a nice dinner party.

About a month ago I directed a music video for the Zimmers. The last video they did was the Who's "My Generation", but this one that I did is a remake of The Prodigy's " Firestarter" Its fantastic even if I do say so myself. The record label X-Phonics have just put a taster on U-Tube.. So, paste this into your browser to see a small snippet of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6cN3nR-_CU