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Thursday, February 27, 2014

ROCK IN RIO...PART 2

                When the Seps hit the stage, the crowd bolted the volume to 10! The soccer stadium floor was like an ocean sloshing!  The pit went crazy waiting for the local heroes!  The seats sweeping around the top weren't full when the band started but it didn’t slow down the enthusiasm!  The crowd knew whom the show was for...






Andreas

Andreas

Max walking out


Photogs and Max


Dana taking photos

                There was no time to conceal energy!  Long hair blowing from head banging, jumping and guitar riffing shot like bullets from the stage.  The connection was solid, unbroken, fan to artist.  The time flew by and in an instant, it was over.  Success was infecting us all.









           
                The dressing room began to take the stress that was dripping off everyone.  Laughter replaced silent waiting, moods lightened up.  It was done and it was done great!  Someone came in and reported the band on next had gotten booed off the stage; mercilessly the crowd threw objects and demanded the stage to be returned to Sepultura!










Pedro and Silvio

Pedro and Silvio in a cooler


Pedro, Max and Iggor goofing off
     
                 We got a request to repair the dressing room, which had gotten trashed.  No problem, this was easy.  Next up, the party!  We all went and tried to get into the Rock and Rio Party at a local nightclub.  We waited in the restless queue.  When I turned around, Billy Idol was directly in back of me!  We all decided it would take forever to get into the club, so we made plans to meet Faith No More at a local restaurant for dinner and then rage at their hotel later.  We were a bit naughty to be honest, after the pinga hit, but that secret shall stay hidden for a time more...










Iggor and Mike Patton 
Christina and friend




    Shortly before we boarded our flights home, the Samba School in Rio, that organizes the giant world famous Carnival Parade, contacted Christina and me and asked if we would be the special attractions that year and ride on the float!!  Apparently, our hair was dyed the colors of the Samba School, and they wanted us to shake what we got in the parade.  If only we hadn't boarded that plane to the next tour...
           




Class dismissed...

Friday, February 21, 2014

ROCK IN RIO, 1991.....PART 1 OF A 2 PART SERIES...

When I first visited Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1990, the band and I had a discussion about the upcoming Rock in Rio, which would be held the following year, in January of 1991.  This was huge!!  Something to really look forward to!  Much bigger than the festivals going on in Europe or the US at the time.  We all knew this was going to be a rager in every respect!
Copacabana Beach 

Rio Palace Hotel
Arriving at the Rio Palace Hotel for press was action packed!  Artists, crew, organizers, press and fans everywhere!  My hair was pink and everywhere I went I heard, "It's Dee-Lite!"  Funny, actually..a couple times I had to run from the fans!
Dee-Lite


Press Conference 
The air reeked of party atmosphere, crawling into your bloodstream!  Laughter, cheers, and beers!  Press  people and photographers all clamoring to get that one big story, that one world changer photo!  And the parties....

Roadrunner Records Brazil  was a force to be reckoned with.  Strong and hard working, organized.  We were busy non-stop with photo and interviews.  We even took the gondola ride to the top of Sugar Loaf Mountain to conduct press conferences and photo shoots.  Roadrunner Holland sent many of their key people to Rio for the event, effectively setting up the Sep's next release.  In the 90's when fans strongly supported Metal by buying cds, many promotions were consistently available.  It made a huge difference.  Things like in-stores, Metal TV and radio shows, were all common tools for music sales.



Interview

Max at coconut bar
At night we partied our butts off!  The bars were all stuffed with fans, artists and press.  Caipirinhas were icy cold, a sweet/sour concoction.  The plates of steamy grilled chicken hearts and oil covered green olives kept you real. Pop music blaring completed the mix.  You could even walk on the beach and not get mugged!  The biggest crime was the taxi drivers and their obscene rates!

The big day came and we all prepped in the dressing room.  Wandered around and scoped out Guns 'n Roses dressing room for a bit, and Megadeth's.  All good in our hood. Excitement that built for days was finally able to escape in our breaths!
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And then it was time...the Seps aired on the side of the stage...
Sepultura waiting at side stage




Class dismissed....

Friday, February 14, 2014

1990...MY FIRST SEPULTURA TOUR AS MANAGER-TO-BE

Christina and I were in the UK with Sacred Reich, in the summer of '90.  We had gotten throughly searched at Heathrow because we were so excited to be there, that we smiled and said hi to the Custom's Agents.  They promptly pulled us over and detained us for an hour and a half.
Sacred Reich
The Sacred show at the Marquee Club in London was an insane success!  The line of Metalheads outside was the biggest queue ever, and the promoter said it even surpassed Jimi Hendrix's line! After the show Christina and I took the ferry and then trains to catch up to Sepultura, who were on the road in Holland.  We looked pretty silly arriving with our mondo, super large suitcases and carry-ons, though.  Sepultura was in a van with all their luggage and gear!  We were always traveling by bus and had no idea the Seps only had a van!  Somehow, they squeezed our trunks in with the rest and we all breezed through the shows!

I remember on the first drive, packed in and laughing our butts off, Iggor had to go to the bathroom and the driver wouldn't stop.  Iggor, at the verge of exploding, let it all loose on the van floor!   When we went up the hills, it slid back...when we went down, it sloshed the other way.  It was quite a ride!

Every day was a party after the show. The shows were ballistic missiles..what more can I say?  The parties later were the same!  Someone usually ended up fighting with a bar patron so we did a lot of bar-hopping.

In Eindhoven, we stayed at the home of a friend of the band.  We didn't realize how in touch we were about to experience Holland!  Christina and I shared an upstairs room with 2 little beds.  The house was very quaint with a beautiful garden.
Father of the house
In the evening the Father of the house came to chat about something-who knows what, after all these years-and Christina and I about had heart attacks when he entered in Speedo Tidy Whiteys and wooden shoes...and nothing else!  These Europeans are truly free, I guess..
Sepultura on ferry

Iggor
Next stop, UK and merry London.  We all crossed the English Channel by ferry.  This was no ordinary ferry ride of course, with this krew and I am quite sure I smelled some Mary Jane on the way. Who put that in my piggy??
kids in line


Crazed fans

Iggor signing autographs
The Marquee was again our playground and the queue was in full force.  Not quite as long as Sacred's but the only people measuring were the club!  We didn't care!  We all promptly found a pub and piled in for some "before the show pints!"  I also took Sepultura to do interviews and photo shoots in a small park near the venue.
Pub time

Sepultura Photoshoot


Soundcheck
Soundcheck was storming and the show was a bazooka powered explosion of sickness!!  It was the last time I stage dived in a little black dress....my spleen still hurts...



Class dismissed...

Friday, February 7, 2014

SCOUTING A PHOTO SHOOT LOCATION 101... MONUMENT VALLEY

In 2004, Max was working on the Prophecy album and came across some images of Monument Valley.  He immediately got the idea to do a photo shoot and possibly later, a video shoot there.  The panorama is so intense and it fit the mystic vision Max was shooting for.

We packed up Zyon, Igor and our new pup, Spanky and headed north.  This was going to be an all day excursion and we were very excited!

We drove through Tuba City on the way and stopped for lunch and to visit some Indian huts and attractions on the side of the road.  The landscape was getting barren from trees, painted with years of different layers of prehistoric stone and reflective.  It was a beautiful drive, as if we were being absorbed by nature.

Monument Valley is one of Mother Nature's castles.  An amusement park for nature lovers??  God's personal fingerprint??  We could only breathe deep and allow the sights to pulse through our very bloodstreams!
Zyon, Igor, Spanky, and Photog Max
Max and I got out and began to take photos of different angles and backgrounds.  We found a white towel in our van and draped it on Max to envision different poses.  Besides getting work done, we also had a shizzle-ton of fun!!  The boys learned a lot of interesting facts and by the time we went back home, we were all fully pooped out and satisfied that we were on the right track. We knew we would return.



When the time was right, we flew our close friend and badass photographer, Nick Steever, out and made another trip to Monument Valley.  This time we knew where to go and what type of images we wanted to capture.  It is one of my favorite shoots Max ever did.
Me, Max and Spanky
We returned later to fulfill another of Max's dreams..to make a video on location, in the heart of the monuments.  My good friend, Fred Davis, helped obtain permission for us to video and....wait!  That is another story...


Class dismissed....RIP Spanky