Raport Rod'a Smallwood'a - ATENY

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Raport Rod'a Smallwood'a - ATENY

Postautor: WICKER MAN » wt mar 27, 2007 12:04 am

Rod in Athens
Published: March 12, 2007

ATHENS,GREECE Sunday MAR 11 3PM (1pm GMT)

So watched both rugby matches last night and the Man Utd cup game and saw 3 very exciting close games. This Slingbox is really handy for the sports. You really have to feel for the Welsh -- played 4, lost 4 but played loads of great attacking rugby along the way and scored some superb tries. Hope they don't take it out on us next week and hope l can get slingbox working in Bangalore as not many Irish pubs there l don't think.

After the games watched Bremner, Bird and Fortune -- always great value, included a superb sketch illustrating the supreme stupidity of spending billions on Trident missiles as an "independent nuclear deterrent" when it is really nothing of the kind. Very clever how they did it -- like the Dragons Den. Catch it if you can. Bruce gave me a very interesting book called "The Bomb" by DeGroot -- am just about to finish it. I highly recommend this to any of you with an interest in the reality, politics, history, mechanics and philosophy of the nuclear bomb, which of course is very much at the forefront of the News right now with Iran and N. Korea.

Read this for a while then fell asleep only to be woken from a deep sleep by some effin local journo at 1am in the morning. And l had already told the operator not to put any more calls to my room as l had had some calls put through earlier with no-one there -- usual nonsense here. The Greek fans are wonderful and intense as no doubt we will see again tonight at the show but a small minority are over the top and can be rude by way of their demands and approach. And when some rock mag journo calls you at one am in the effin morning it really pisses you off. Its very hard to get back to sleep then as you are tired and also now angry. I think l will change my name. There were a number of fans at the airport -- too many to stop and sign autographs for everyone and take the nowadays mandatory pic -- so l politely told them it was neither the time nor place as we wanted to just get to the hotel after a 9 hour journey having got up at 6.30am. A journey made to do a concert for them. Most were totally reasonable but some still had to come up behind the guys as we walked through and grabbing them from behind so their mate in front can take a shot. Its just not very nice to be treated this way. This is certainly not just in Greece and does happen more and more as some fans think they own a piece of you. Difficult as it is now, we do like to accommodate fans as much as we can as you all know but it can get tiresome during journeys on a tough travel week like this is and we really would appreciate reciprocal respect. Its always a tiny minority and by being quite open and friendly we do to some extent invite this but.......

Enough of the bitch -- up about 10 -- great breakfast -- catch up with work and finish diary stuff. Will go down to the gig about 7, we are on at 9. Gold disc presentation before show tonight -- AMOLAD no 1 here for 5 weeks so will thank the label people and Bruce will no doubt thanks the fans. Show has been sold out 10,000 for a while -- sadly a larger hall wasn't available today. I am sure the fans here will make it a belter as usual.

We aren't doing any interviews and media here and Belgrade -- we try to do as little as possible on the road now as we like to concentrate on the shows, unless its somewhere new like Dubai and India. Generally its all big shows nowadays and we have to be on top form so everything is geared to the performance. I think for any major sporting or concert event mental preparation and concentration is important. Press gets in the way and its not fair to do some but not others. Also we have little new to talk about right now and the band have no interest in press (ie. fame in a way) for the sake of press. The important thing is the rock mags to keep fans abreast of what new is happening and what we are trying to do but a lot of this is done via the website now. So we do try to ration it a bit. And if we did everything that was asked of us l think people would get pretty bored seeing us staring out of the pages all the time!

But before going to the gig l am off to a nearby Irish pub to catch England v France. If l was in England l would definitely be there at Twickenham with my rugby mates but not to be. Bad planning -- l love international day with them all and will miss next weeks game v Wales too. They will be in the pub right now probably on their fifth or sixth pint!! As the French say -- C'est La Vie!! Can't really complain, it s my own fault!!!

- Rod

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Re: Raport Rod'a Smallwood'a - ATENY

Postautor: WICKER MAN » wt mar 27, 2007 12:08 am

Rod in Athens II
Published: March 12, 2007

ATHENS MONDAY MAR 12 - 11am (9am GMT)

What a day -- although it started badly when Gaddsy called me to say the Irish Pub was closed so we couldn't watch England v France there. But from there on in it was just a fantastic day.

Had to watch the game on the slingbox again in my room but picture pretty good -- and what a game it was. And we won 26-18 and 2 great tries to zip. The "new" boys Rees, Strettle, Flood, Gerraghty did us proud. All very exciting and maybe we are back on track, will see in Wales next week. I was exchanging texts with my rugby mates there and the atmosphere was awesome -- must have been nearly as good as at the gig.

I know l had a tired moan about the behaviour of some of our fans yesterday being over the mark, but l have to tell you the massive majority of fans here really are the best, right up with Milan, Barcelona, South America and Quebec -- maybe even better if that's possible. We didn't have a Db meter but must have hit 115 if Milan was 113!!

I got to the hall straight after the rugby finished at about 7 and the hall was already packed to the rafters and you could feel the tangible excitement of the 10,000 SO crowd. The hall was built for the Olympics a few years back. It worked really well as the audience was right on top of the stage and very close. I don't know how they got so many people in there. Usually we have the music through the PA fairly low prior to showtime but as everyone was already in an hour before l had our guys make it louder to give everyone something to enjoy before Lauren. And when she and her band went on it was as good as a headline reaction in many places. I have to say she is going down really well at all the shows and there was even a Lauren Harris banner in the front!

When "Doctor Doctor" fired up the place went nuts jumping up and down and clapping, then into the intro all hell let loose. As l said before the album was No 1 here for 5 weeks and everyone seemed to know all the words to EVERY song in the set. I have also said before the better, noisier and more reactive an audience is the better the band as they really feed off the vibe and the energy. So from the word go the band was blistering. The nature of the building meant the sound was not technically perfect but it was great heavy metal sound -- loud and with drums and vocals very clear. I wont go into it in more detail but you just imagine how loud the singing was on FoD and the Greater Good was majestic. This is the new Hallowed -- l can't imagine a future set without it. Breeg was also huge right up there with the Trooper. Beast shook the foundations. What a night. A few things l noted:

There was a big banner on the first circle saying MAIDEN ATHENS then in smaller letter Philadelphia -- so hello to you guys from Athens USA style.

Bruce, who was in a great mood throughout, teased the audience by getting them to sing the first few lines of Alexander the Great which of course is a major favourite here and we get many requests to include it in our set. Maybe one day!!!

Its Steve's birthday today (12th) and Bruce had everyone sing happy birthday at the end -- there were a few banners out there wishing him happy birthday too. We wont mention ages of course!

Bruce announced Jan as the 6 million dollar man as he has his right knee strapped up with braces which inhibits his momvement. This was caused on the last tour by a fan pulling hard at his leg when he was sitting on the side legs dangling down. Its still not better. Smart move by some mindless moron.

When Bruce announced all the band members before the encores all got a great hand but when it came to Nicko almost everyone in the hall raised there arms and started jiggling their fingers and going "WHOOO". Now we have no idea what this signifies (if anyone knows perhaps they could tell us) but it was a lot of fun to see. Maybe they were just warding off evil -- or more likely the fumes of red wine!!

Obrazek

A guy had his back to us at the mixing desk with shirt back "I am really an albatross salesman from Huddersfield" This reminded me of the very first American tours when people would come up to us and ask "are you an English rock band?" to which we would say "Yes". They would then of course ask which one (in case its Led Zep no doubt) and we would say Iron Maiden and they would give us a blank look and walk away. So l had shirts done with on the front NO WE ARE NOT AN ENGLISH ROCK BAND and on the back something stupid like WE ARE DENTAL FLOSS SALESMEN FROM MONTANA (ref the wonderful Zappa and "Moving to Montana soon.....gonna be a dental floss tycoon" -- check it out) . This albatross one did of course refer to the Powerslave tour and Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner -- and of course Huddersfield is in Yorkshire, Gods own country!!!

So thanks Athens -- you were truly magnificent!!!!! A memorable gig. We will return!!!!

After show runner to get back to hotel. Went to bar and it was a flashy one with disco music -- cant handle that. Tried downstairs bar til it closed, some of the guys went off to a pub. Didn't fancy that and sure as hell couldn't deal with the disco bar so went to bed and to read for a bit. New book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera which was recommended by a friend. Tough going -- first page and a half referring to Nietzche took me half an hour to understand -- and still not sure if l do!

Have to say this was a very strange way to end a day of a massive England Rugby Union win and top notch Maiden show!!! Usually have to be poured into bed on a day like that.

Anyway no more now til after Belgrade on Wed. Take care.

- Rod


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