Friday, November 30th 2006
Ooooh La LA! Paris is, without a doubt, the most picturesque place I have ever been to. I have been there a few times now and it never ceases to amaze. Of course, when you are doing these kind of tours, you rarely have time to walk around the city, but on the way back from the show the driver stopped at the Louvre. I was at night so it looked incredible. The photo above is one I snapped when we stopped.
The Paris show was fantastic. The venue was sold out all 15 thousand seats.When a crowd that size roars you feel it in your body it is awesome, and a little scary. I have edited some of the footage I took at the show and I think I will find the time today to put it into a V-Blog for a post in the next couple days.
Another show tomorrow in Barcelona, See you then.
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Monday, November 27th 2006
Just finished the show in Holland. It was a little rough from a technical perspective. Randy's bass went down third song, at the same time Richie broke a string and my kick drum decided to go traveling. All things to sort out at the Paris show. On the upside Lauren was completely unfazed by all of it and she did awesome. The crowd was with us the whole time and could not have been cooler. It was also the first I have seen Trivium and they were fantastic, very good players and the crowd loved them.
Tomorrow we are off to Paris to do the show tomorow night.I hope to have a photo of Gay Paris'for tomorrow's post. So till then.....
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Saturday, November 25th 2006
Day off today in Eindhoven ,Holland.We have a show tomorrow for the fan club before we go to the first show with Maiden and Trivium.
I am proud to say I am now playing Slingerland Drums throughout the entire Europe and UK tours! I met the Slingerland guys,David Bower and Nick Franks, when we played the Download Festival in England over the Summer. I played on the kit they provided for the show backline. They sounded great. So here we are. I look forward to a great working relationship with the Slingerland/Gibson family of products.
We are heading out soon to get some food at a local place here in Einhoven and then it's off to the show in the morning.
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Friday, November 24th 2006
So.... back in the UK. Took the same Virgin Atlantic flight 006 out of MIA international that I have taken just about everytime I have flown over. The only difference is tonight it was right in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner. I did get a nice chicken and noodle combo to eat on the plane. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Funny enough, when Lauren picked me up at the airport she asked me why we celebrate Thanksgiving in the US. Well, it's because...it's because....I am not completely sure. Oh, I know , it has to do with Turkey and cranberry sauce and being thankful. Wait.. that's it ...being thankful. I AM thankful for my wonderful family and friends and the privilege of creating and playing music for a living.
I hope to see you all on this next run with Maiden. We rejoin the tour in Holland. We fly there tomorrow morning. I look forward to posting from the first show. I think I have figured Final Cut out enough to actually post video. I hope.
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Tues, November 21st 2006
It's Official!! Lauren has been added to all the Iron Maiden dates in Europe and the UK, starting with Holland. All of the dates are on Maiden's site
here.
I look forward to giving a blow by blow accounting of all the festivites. In addition to Lauren supporting Maiden you also get Orlando band Trivium. So, I expect to see everyone attend and make sure you come up and say
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Friday, November 17th 2006
Spent the day today at The Hit factory/Criteria studios in Miami. I chaired the committee to nominate the finalists for the Producer Of The Year Grammy award. Each Recording Academy chapter puts together panels to listen to all the winners of the first couple of rounds of voting by the Academy membership.Then it's our job to vote on the final nominees.Included in my panel was Paul Trust and Cool from production team Cool and Dre. We spent many hours listening to all the finalists. It was really great to have Cool on the panel. He was able to hip all us Rock guys to some of the nuance of the music he does, which is more urban than what the rest of us do. I gained a new perspective on what the intricacies are in a Fitty Cent track. The guy knows his stuff!! I just hope we could do the same for him. Some of the most "Rock and Roll" stuff has come out of the Urban world. And we have a lot of it in the MIA.
Thanks to Marta from the Recording academy for organizing the event, operating the CD player, and paying for lunch at PF Changs in Aventura.Thanks also to Trevor for lending us his incredible facility to play records in. And to the guys in Studio E who were doing the engineer panel, I lied.... we were done when I came by to say hi. You guys looked like you had hours ahead of you.Sorry!!
I can't tell how I voted. We will have to wait till the Grammy Show.
I like to thank God and..........
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Wednesday,November 15th 2006
Just received this from Bob Lefsetz today. It was a response from Bob Ezrin to one of Lefsetz' infamous rants. Thought I would pass it on.....
Artist....Lose the word. You are NOT an artist simply because you write, play and/or sing. You are a musician and a performer and you'd better be really good at both if you want people to pay you for it. To qualify as an artist, you need to create something that changes the way people feel, hear and think. Even in times when the people are pious, God may grant us a handful of true artists per age. The rest are entertainers. It is your job to entertain. That means being aware and respectful of your audience. You are there for them - not the other way around. The harder you work to please your audience and yourself, the better you get at what you do. And then, if you are really truly very special, one day you may have a transformative idea and will graduate from entertainer to artist. Until then, your shit stinks. Remember that.
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Monday,November 13th 2006
Here is a photo of the fabulously fun video crew we had with us in Denmark. That's Dave holding up his collection of Lego Star Wars characters he wears around his neck.We had a great time with you geezers and I hope you got some great footage. Of me!!
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Sunday,November 12th 2006
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Well the two Denmark shows are "done and dusted". The European Maiden fans could not have made us feel anymore welcome. Oh they started the chant ....Maiden... Maiden... but it soon turned into.. Lauren...Lauren.The band rocked, Lauren rocked and the crowd rocked. A rocking good time was had by all. I don't mind admitting that I was probably more excited than I have been in a long time. There is nothing more thrilling than having 9000 people responding to what you love to do. It makes all the other stuff worthwhile.
I want to thank all of the Maiden fans who were at the shows and keep an eye out for when Lauren will be back to play some headlining shows in the same cities we are doing with Maiden.
Also, special thanks to our new Copenhagan friends Sara and Liza. Thanks for coming out , even if you missed our part of the show, you still got to see the headliner. We will see you when we come back to town.
The photo is Steve A., Me and the illustrious Randall The Gregg in front of our Hotel in Copenhagan.
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Sunday,November 5th 2006
Here is a photo with Ross Halfin. Ross is one of the best photograghers on the planet!! We had a great time with him in Tokyo.I am a big fan of anyone who is at the top of his game, and Ross certainly is.
Just a few more days in Miami! Have to go back to the UK on Tuesday the 7th.
Be back soon.
Tommy
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__________________________________________________Saturday,November 4th 2006
Here is a pic of Richie Faulkner [one of the best new guitarists in England] about to eat a snack on the Bullet Train between Hiroshsima and Tokyo . He said it tasted great... But after we went to dinner that night it came back for a return visit. I ,of course , can relate to this considering I am usually the guy who is frantically looking for a toilet. He is a real man so he handled it like a pro. As a matter of fact, I think all this talk about using the facilities has made an impact. Gotta go!!
Be back soon.
Tommy