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Hard Rock Hell Blog It the morning of the Jimmy Lea sessions and The Hard Rock Hell Festival... With not much sleep having been attained I was up at 8 -am and continued to listen to the tracks that I was to play on. There were 13 tracks on the CD and I had no idea which ones we were going to record... Pete my Step-Father drove me to Mad House studios where the recording was to take place. We arrived around 9-45 and made our way to the kitchen for a mug of tea. Mark Stuart had left the previous night on tour with Magnum and Sheena Sears (resident house engineer) was to be handling the session... With tea in had I made my way into the drum room to warm up. I had earlier warmed up on my practice pad at moms place and need to get my session chops on as I still had video chops from the 'Skin on Skin' shoot 24 hours earlier.. Jim arrived on time and decided which tune we would start with... I only new the tracks as numbers and not names.. I think we kicked off with number 5??? Some of the tunes on the CD were Rock and Roll or R&B style whilst others were very much musical style pieces with full string arrangements played by Jimmy. Talk about talent... I have always had a lot of admiration for Jimmy Lea.. he was a classically trained musician like myself.. I start my musical en-devours on the trumpet in the school orchestra and moved on to Cannock Music Centre (whose tie I wear when I play live) and from there on to the County Orchestra and Wind Band..When I was 11 I was introduced to the Sladest album and it all changed from then on.. Jim was playing all instruments on the tunes except drums..He was using a guy name D Machine and wasn't really happy with the way thing were feeling and was prodded by Sheena to use me.. Thanks Sheena.. Needless to say when the click started on the first tune I had butterflies. It was audition pressures on.. And there was easily room for "leave your name in the bin on the way out" if it was not happening.. Within no time at all the time was fast approaching three o clock and I had managed to track 8 tunes,, Basically with each run through of the tune I would play something different and head into the control room where Jim and I would discuss the parts. Once Jim had what he needed he would give me the thumbs up...Thankfully no Nero thumbs.. There was one tune that was incredibly Sladesque and I deliberately did not play it a la Don Powell.. however Jim asked me to give it the vibe of 'Cuz I Luv You' which I wanted to do from the off, it is after all one of my all time favorite tracks; but waited for the Nod :-) It was fast approaching 5-pm and we had to wrap up the session.. Sheena was heading to see Dream Theatre and I had to pack down and load Pete's car (where's the crew when you need-'em) in order for myself, Mom and Pete to head down to Minehead for the show tonight... This was as Rock and Roll as it gets for a musician..Video shoot yesterday, studio date today and a show tonight...Living the dream... And the end of the session I had managed to track 10 of the 13 songs for Jim's new album project 'String Theory' We said our farewells and the session was a wrap.. What a day..It truly is a magical moment when get to meet one of your heros but to work with them as well I felt like the cat who had got the cream.. An incredible day. The stories Jim told about Slade, his life with Slade and as a musician in general between takes where amazing...Truly worth their weight in gold... It was 6-pm when I got back to Mom's place...enough time to change,have another cup of tea and make sure I had everything.. It was a long drive to Minehead and I was still buzzing from the days events.. Mom was asking me about the day and I could hear in her tone that she was a proud parent... It was 9-30 by the time we pulled into the Butlins Holiday Camp.. We quickly loaded in and set about finding the guys and check out who was on...Saxon were on stage when I arrived and this was the second festival I had done with them on the same bill..The first being Diamond Heads only show in the USA in 2002. I hung around for a few minutes before managing to locate Andrew (drum tech).. He go Mom and Pete to their chalet and we headed to checkout Twisted Sister..I'm personally not fond of the band, there's a couple of good tracks; band but they do have one of the best, if not, the best front man on the Rock scene Dee Snider, whom we met at Waken in 2003; another second for myself and the band.. I retired to the chalet were Brian, Ed, Andrew and myself were staying. Abbz had taken his son Sam along to the show while Nick had invited a couple of friends and Anna; they had there own chalets It was turning midnight when I was finally heading into dreamland when I was abruptly awoke by Eddie. He had decided nobody was going to sleep as he couldn't by taking a bath. And using the bathroom reverb to help his tone promptly started singing Aston Villa songs at the top of his lungs.. It was just easier to get up... The Show was starting to run late and we were not going to be on stage by 3-am it was looking more likely to be 4-am By the time we were allowed into our dressing room UFO were on the stage and we decided to watch from the sidelines while Andrew set up the drums..I was hanging with Troy from Tesla and we were discussing the show we did them earlier in the year. Another second for us all.. This show was a magnitude of positive karmic vibes,even Steve Strange was backstage. He had booked us for the Tesla show and this show Tesla were on the stage and we preparing for the show,,, I was pacing like a caged tiger and warming up on the pad as it was time to get my show chops on...Brian and Abbz were ripping through guitar exercises. Nick was doing his vocal warm-ups while Ed was reading a muso mag and doing his exercises with his rubber band. The dressing room was electric...we all looked so tired and felt physically drained and we had to dig deep as individuals.. But as I stated in an earlier blog this band is very much a tight unit and were ready to Rock. With warm-ups over, the hug complete, the intro tape rolled... it was close to 4-am when we hit the stage.. The crowd roared and we were away,, Within no time we were at 'Sucking my Love when the erotically clad totty took the stage. What a view I had.. Being right at the back I saw everything and I mean everything. Talk about a room with a view :-() When we finished I thanked everybody for staying so late for us and all our fans who had travelled great distances to share this day with us. With the show being at Butlins I could not resist shouting "Hi d' Hi" to which everybody graciously shouted back "Ho d' Ho" What away to end this leg of the 'What's in your Head?' tour. A kick ass show at the inaugural Hard Rock Hell Festival and a day in the studio with Jimmy Lea After the show we headed back to Nick's chalet for an after show drink and wind down. We toasted each other and wished each other an early Merry Christmas and Happy New Year as we were not due to see each other again until the New Year.. It was close to 6-am when we said adios. Mom,Pete and I were driving straight back to the Midlands as I had guests coming to see me on the Sunday afternoon before I headed back to the US on Monday morning... We hit Mom's place around 9-am and headed for bed... This day would not have been possible without Mom and Pete.. Thanks What an amazing 72 hours...And it wasn't over YET!!! There was more come.. Stay tuned for ......The Thin Lizzy tour. Peace from DHQ Karl |