DIARY 09/02/08
- Written by Steve Harley
- Read: 4019 Times
New photo shoot with Mike Callow in the north-west. Think maybe we got something quite special this time. We have decided to print the collected on-line diaries in paperback form for the Spring UK dates, to sell as merchandise.
Maybe one of those pix is the front cover. Got a couple of Mick Rock's from New York to consider, too. What to call the book?
160 pages going back to 2000, right up to date (well, up to end March, say, when the printer needs final copy).Two concerts in, Southampton and Liverpool, and back to the airport. Out of John Lennon to Nice, for the Monaco Grand Prix. Partied Saturday night on a cool Sunseeker in the harbour, even sang a few songs with Eddie Jordan on kit. Stayed in San Remo, near the France/Italy border, driven back and forth several times by Sebastian, who scared three kinds of mulch out of me, roaring up the backside of any vehicle ahead, squeezing through gaps that looked impossible. He was too fast for the public highway, and showed no interest in the comfort of his passengers, so you'd have to mark him down as a poor driver, wouldn't you. Monday morning, dropped off at airport, I asked him what he did for a full-time job, as the chauffeuring could only have been for the Grand Prix weekend. "I'm a test driver for Lamborghini". I'd told him on Sunday that we'd come to watch a motor race, not take part in one. Leaving him, I was a bit lost for words.
Been writing songs and recording demos. Something is happening, but I have no idea whether it's magic or mere mediocrity as yet. Time and my own nervous judgment will tell.
To Las Vegas Sunday to start the MAG trek across Death Valley on the California/Nevada borders. It's a comfortable 24-29C at the moment, but could get hotter at peak times. All precautions taken, and all and any happenstance considered, but still you never know. It is an adventure all right. And I am a betting man. There will be lessons learnt and experiences that will eventually find their way into songs and stories. I have been apprehensive and distant over this, but now am feeling that tinge of excitement, the one you feel a day or three before the holiday starts, before Christmas, before the big day. It's something like nervousness, but in a melange of so many emotions it's never going to be pinned down. The adrenalin is starting to pump, I guess. It's not performing, but it's something like that.