Raport Rod'a Smallwood'a - INDIE

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Raport Rod'a Smallwood'a - INDIE

Postautor: WICKER MAN » wt mar 27, 2007 12:13 am

Rod in India
Published: March 22, 2007

LONDON MARCH 22nd

Flight to Bangalore on Thursday 15th took about nine and a half hours. Usually l just read and cat nap on a long flight, usually newspapers and Private Eye, but this time l thought l would check out a movie and watched the "History Boys", which is based on a play by that brilliant Yorkshire born writer and playwright Alan Bennett. It's clever in parts with some good lines as one would expect from Bennett but l found it rather disappointing and dated. Even though it's a recent movie it hadn't been at all updated and l think stuck rigidly to the script. Good but not his best work to me.

On the plane met up with Ed from the Observer and Val Potter who is doing a piece for Metal Hammer and some other rock press. Ed is actually a war correspondent but as a change in pace he is doing a 5 page piece for the Observer Music Monthly magazine. He and Bruce had a long chat and a fair few drinks on the plane, but l bet they weren't talking Maiden or India or music, they were talking war and flying stories! Anyway Ed turned out to be a smart and very interesting guy who, like us, likes a beer or three and everyone got on very well with him. Such a good change from the usual daily press cynics very occasionally run into. Of course Val has done lots with us over the years and is always fun to have around. John Mc is supplying pics for everyone

Arrived about 4.30 in the morning, got through immigration etc reasonably painlessly and got to hotel about 6. Time for a couple of hours kip before meeting Dave P and John Mc to go check out some locations for a photo shoot later that day. Although as l have said before its tough getting the band to do any photos on the road, in a new and interesting place like here (and Dubai) they can be persuaded and as there is a lot on international media interest in this trip we do need some photos and they have to be good. So to make things as painless as possible we go off and check locations suggested by the promoter so as to save time and effort later.

Obrazek

But first we called in at the venue. This was really well set up and Dickie told me that production wise all was good. We were supposed to be playing in front of the Palace this making a very imposing background to the stage. On asking where it had got to as there was no palace in sight we were told that the Maharajah of Bangalore had returned to the palace a couple of weeks before and told them to move it to another part of the grounds. Now that's one of the best excuses l have heard for a gig not being what you thought it was!! We had some lunch in the backstage catering -- curry of course and bloody good it was too. Make a mental note to eat there again at the show

Then off to check locations first to a shrine about 20 min from hotel -- we try to keep them as close as possible to hotel so we don't waste time stuck in traffic, which can be pretty bad in Bangalore like most major cities nowadays. The hotel room was in fact a bit like in Athens with all the traffic noise. To get to the shrine we had to go through a department store!! The shrine just wasn't suitable for what we needed so we went off to check out the suggested government buildings and courts. These were magnificent structures but as you couldn't go into the grounds there was no good vantage point to take good band shots. And they would have been a bit like a postcard. So again drew a blank. Another suggestion was the Bull Temple which is quite old but an hour from hotel, perhaps more with traffic. Trouble was it is closed 12 -- 4 and it was already 12 so we couldn't go check it out. I didn't really want to drag the band an hour plus to somewhere we didn't know but there was not really much alternative. John said he had checked this temple out on the web and thought it could work well so we decided to go for it. Nothing more to do so back to hotel, something to eat then met up with band, John and promoters assistant Sabrina to go to the shoot. We got lucky -- firstly traffic not bad at all and secondly the location was ideal. We parked the vans and it was about a 2 min walk up to the Temple. The whole thing was in quite a small area but had a number of good angles for different shots -- which is ideal if you want a quick but varied session. I won't describe the place as you can see the pics but it was very interesting with a massive black bull carved out of one piece of black granite. The priest (??) was very welcoming and took us round and even gave each of the band a red "third eye" which you will prob see on the shots and he even joined us for a couple of pics.

Obrazek

When John felt he had it covered we went back down to the roadside and John hailed a couple of the yellow tuc tucs for some shots including one with Bruce holding the sign 'Donington or bust' sat in the tuc tuc. In one to those bust would definitely be the case!

Back to hotel and had a couple of drinks in the bar with Ed and Dave P then met in the lobby to go to hotel next door for press conference. Again a load of major media, Indian rock mags and six TV News cameras. The questions were generally quite detailed about the music and the concert, nothing to really get your teeth into but it was fine. Extremely polite as is the general way here, very courteous and civilised.

After that our promoter Venkat of DNA, India's major concert promoters, took us out to a wonderful Indian restaurant. Everyone went along with Ian, Gaddsy, Dave too. We all love our curries and these were terrific.

In India everything closes by 11 latest so we managed a drink in the bar then took a couple of rooms and put in the booze and had a laugh and a few beers. Not too late though, but with time lag we weren't that tired and could have a good lie in in the morning.

I have to do some work now so will have to catch up with the gig day later but hopefully soon.

- Rod

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Re: Raport Rod'a Smallwood'a - INDIE

Postautor: WICKER MAN » ndz maja 06, 2007 7:58 pm

Rod in Bangalore
Published: May 4, 2007


Pathetic isn't it -- over a month to finish this off. I have just finished a very good book by Toby Young called "The Sound of No Hands Clapping", a follow up to the also very good "how to lose friends and not influence people". In it he talks about how writers will always try to find something they really, really have to do before starting to write -- anything -- do the hoovering, feed the dog, go to the shop to buy that all important item you really cant live without -- anything to delay the fateful moment of picking up the pen, or more likely turning on the laptop.

As you are all very aware by now I am in no way a scribe and yet after religiously getting down to these diaries on tour once it finishes you can always find some excuse not to finish it off. In my defence there was a lot to catch up with when l got home and then family holidays (" yes l will finish off before l go to the beach" was the idea every day) and then more to catch up then over here in the USA on Maiden business......as I said you will go any ends to delay the fateful moment when you have to remember, think and write. It's not so bad when you get going; it's just the getting going that's the problem. I am sure you have all experienced this and of course it is a pretty lame excuse for laziness!

Anyway here I am in LA with some time to spare and the bar doesn't open til 7 so let's try to wind the brain back to India and day of show.

Got up late, moped around a bit then met up with the guys about 4 in the lobby to head off to the venue. We were earlier than usual as we wanted to get some fun shots with an elephant we had arranged backstage. What a laugh and thankfully the elephant was well behaved with 2 minders to look after it -- I should hire them to keep an eye on the band

All the production logistics were spot on and the place was rammed -- apparently the biggest rock audience ever in India and many more than even the Stones did in the same venue. People had come from Delhi by air, on the 24 hour train journey from Mumbai and even on a 100 hour round trip from Kathmandu. Many of the fans were wearing Maiden shirts and it was obvious that this was a day none of them dreamed would ever happen. Maiden seem to hold a special place in the hearts and minds of Indian youth but l wont go into this more as you will hopefully have read the Observer Monthly Music Mag 6 page piece that Ed did and which is on this site so l don't want or need to cover the same ground and it comes better from an objective source than yours truly!

The show started on time with FTM but l was especially taken by the proficiency of the second, Parikrama. They were really good and went down tremendously well with the crammed audience. They are apparently very popular and play a lot in India. They started off with a very AC/DC feel and then went into some sixties style stuff which was really good too -- and very well played -- good musicians. I went back to thank them after and, as its always good to lend a helping hand to those without the opportunities we have, told them if they could make it to Download l would arrange for them to open the main stage for us on the Sunday. They got back to us a week later saying they would find a way to be there so as you may have seen they are opening on the main stage on the Sunday for us. I hope you will give them some support. It s the first time ever that an Indian band has had the opportunity to tour out of India on something like this and Dave P is helping them out with press and some other shows. I do hope it goes well for them otherwise l will feel very bad about this!!!! It's a very major commitment for them so l hope it is worthwhile and that they enjoy it. I could not spend that much time with them at the show but they seemed to be very nice people, as indeed by far the majority of people we met there were. So please give them some generous support.

Lauren was next and did pretty well under the circumstances following a popular Indian band and with the anticipation of Maiden soaring in the minds of the fans. And so to Maiden and total mayhem. I didn't get out front as it was too packed to get into any decent viewing position let alone the sound desk, so split my time between watching the fans from the stage -- you cant see much of the band from on stage due to the walls that surrounds them -- and watching the back of the screens. It really was very special and l am so glad we made the effort. As we do we took the whole show with us including the tank. Cost a fortune to freight it but we always figure that our fans everywhere deserve to get the full on Maiden experience! It always feels great getting to new places and playing to people who have never seen us and we really could feel how much it meant to so many people us just going there to play. Hopefully more bands will now follow in our footsteps and go play there.

We went straight off stage into the waiting vans to have any chance of getting back to the hotel bar in decent time and it still took an age as there were literally thousands of people outside who either couldn't get or couldn't afford a ticket and just wanted to hear the show. The band played really well so they would hopefully have enjoyed it even if they couldn't see Eddie!

Back to our room with a bar. We were leaving for the airport at 4.30 am so l tried to stay awake and socialise but at 3.30 l was defeated and grabbed an hours kip. Bruce of course made it through!!! Had no trouble sleeping on the plane though.

Although short the memories of those 10 days will stay with us for a long time. Dubai, Athens, Belgrade and Bangalore in 8 days, some 20,000 miles flown and people from all over the world turning up to see us, most of whom never had before. Also experiencing new countries like UAE and India and a city we hadn't been to in over 20 years -- Belgrade. There really was a sense of achievement in the camp. Hopefully we will return to all of them again in the next couple of years.


And so it ends ......until the next time .....Not long at that......Ljubljana and the rest can't wait!!!!! Until then take care of yourselves

- Rod


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