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Athens 01/10/1999
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01/10/1999 - Athens,
Greece
Having been the envy of all Maiden fans, by winning probably one the
most amazing prizes the band has ever been associated with, this next
paragraph or two will probably make you gloat.. Picture this, it
is 5am and your on your way to the airport hoping the car doesn't
break down. You arrive on time and think that is the most worrying
part of the journey over - Wrong! We have a connection in Amsterdam an
hour after the flight from Newcastle lands. We sit on the bus waiting
to be transported to the small KLM Fokker 100, to eventually hear
plane has been delayed for an hour - there goes the Amsterdam to
Athens Connection. We finally board the plane for the one hour flight
and are made to endure the foulest plane food known to man, I wouldn't
call it a meal more of a "I either eat it or go hungry", I
choose the former and regret it instantly. We land to find the
Athens flight has been slightly delayed, I decide to think that luck
is starting to be on our side as we rush through the gate and board
the Athens Flight. We find that the plane is almost full and me and my
companion are sitting in adjacent seats. The flight is a little less
stressful as the Crew give out ice cream, and coffee as well as the
not so wonderful meal we have became accustomed to. As we land In
Athens we find our luggage wasn't as quick as we had been to board the
Athens flight and was still half way across Europe. We tried to find
out what was going on, until we managed to get the very uninformative
lost luggage papers. During this time Adrian Smith and Dave Murray
along with the wives and ankle biters have wondered through the
Airport went on to the hotel. We finally arrive at the Divani
Palace hotel tired and very thirsty. We ask at reception for any
member of the Iron Maiden party and are told for the first time in
Athens in a polite manner to look in the bar. As we enter the bar it's
full of people with Maiden shirts on. Just as I look around the room I
spot Rod Smallwood who I introduce myself to. Instantly he shakes my
hand and ask what has happened, and goes out of his way to make us
welcome. As we stand at the bar I notice a short haired chap and
a long haired chap enjoying a beer. Rod says something to them and
they turn around to reveal their faces, I am shocked to find its Bruce
and Nicko within two feet of me. Then Rod makes the mistake of saying
'well at least Newcastle won the other night'. With that I proudly
reveal my Sunderland shirt. As I do that Arry appears, and shows a
mock disgust at my shirt before joining his girlfriend and baby Stan. We
finally check into the hotel under the watching eye of one of the
bands' crew Jim Silvia, who makes sure that we are on the list for the
Iron Maiden party finally 'Nightmare in Athens - Acropolis Now' has
ended and I enter my room to find it dark, spacious and cool, with a
soon to be half empty mini bar. I run a bath to try to wind down a bit
before we go to the gig. When I finally get in to the scalding hot
water, the phone rings, Its Johnny explaining what time we need to be
downstairs for the gig. I again get back into the bath and start wash
my hair (Yes! laugh you may but I wanted to look me best) And the
phone rang again, and by now the floor is pretty wet with all the
splashing around and resembles the hotel patio and swimming pool. This
time its my travelling buddy Craig asking what the situation was I
relayed back to him what Johnny had said and left the phone off the
hook so that I could enjoy ten minutes in the now lukewarm water. When
I made my way down stairs I was met by Johnny and we entered the bar,
had few non-alcoholic beverages before making our way to the gig. The
trip to the Venue - a 15,000 capacity soccer stadium, let us take in
the wonderful scenery of Athens as well as Penshaw monument - I mean
the Acropolis. As we neared the stadium the legions of fans on their
pilgrimage became more and more until we eventually entered the
stadium. As we looked out from behind the stage the view of the
overcrowded stadium was a sight unbelievable to me, the thought of
actually playing there gave such an adrenaline rush. Johnny asked us
to follow him on to the stage where we could talk to the camera and do
a commentary on the stadium. As we walked out on to the stage a
kind of roar went up, I put my arms up as if to say "What was
that for" and that incensed the crowd to throw numerous objects
at us. My pants filled instantly with a chocolate milkshake type
substance. That was frightening very frightening, I will keep behind
the stage from now on. As we enter the hospitality tent one of the
crew gave us each a Ed-Hunter cap, a mug, T-shirt, soccer shirt, and program.
By now the nightmare of this afternoon is a distant memory and I am
truly enjoying this. Janick then takes a hold of me and plies me
with beer from a cooling cabinet ready for the gig. Then Rod gives me
a Bottle of Tequila that would apparently only be wasted. Now with my
box of Swag 'n' Booze I stand trying take in the fact that 6 of most
talented guys in the world are all within a few feet of me. We then
make our way to the mixing and lighting rig, which is well elevated
for a short arse like me to see the stage with ease. We Stood
with Rod and the bands' wives and kids who looked almost excited as
me. As the fans anticipation rose to an almost unbelievable climatic
level the intro started and the crowd began to sing along to
Transylvania weird considering its an instrumental! Then with
introduction from our once great leader Winnie Churchill the band
broke out into a bombastic version of Aces High. During the first few
numbers the fans started to light flares, which hampered my view from
the mixing rig as well as anyone past the first 10 rows, as well as
this making it practically impossible for the band to breathe. This
became so intolerable that Bruce interrupted 2 Minutes to Midnight mid
flight to address the source of the flares. Sorry about this but I
have to make a point here, if your paying top dollars to see a band,
what is the point in this behavior? It is a waste of time and everyone
else is just going to think you mentally unbalanced. As the set
progressed we were treated to classic after to classic in amazing
fashion, although this was only a semi partial version of the show.
This still managed to amaze me (Having seen some great shows i.e.
Kiss, AC\DC, Raising Hell to name but a few) this one had to come
close topping them all. Even more recent stormers such as Man on the
Edge, The Clansman and Futureal blended in superbly with the likes of
The Trooper, Powerslave and Phantom of the Opera. It just shows the
quality of the bands back catalogue, yes sure there are some not so
fine moments but these are merely specks of dust on a priceless Masterpiece. All
too soon the show came to a pre climax with the obligatory anthem Iron
Maiden We watched the encore for the side of the stage, almost being
blown away by the pyros (I now have a great idea for Guy Fawkes). The
encore consisted of Number of the Beast, Hallowed be Thy Name and
absolutely amazing version of Run To The Hills. We quickly made our
way for the stage to the awaiting mini buses to take us back to the
hotel, we were very lucky in which we shared our journey back to the
hotel with band. The journey was very interesting as it showed the
band obviously still rushing with adrenaline talking about the gig,
the new album (sounds as if we're in for an absolute stormer ladies
and gents), and Nicko giving us a excellent version of 'My old man's a
dust man'. We arrived back at the hotel to find a few fans
awaiting the band. As we entered the foyer I spotted an empty seat and
collapsed into it, trying to take in the last three hours or so,
without much success. We found that our luggage had finally arrived
and packed a few things into a small bag before going for dinner on
the hotels beautiful Roof Garden restaurant. We had wonderful view as
we ate the delicious food that the Barbecued Buffet had to offer. As I
sat the enjoying the fine fare of kebabs, pasta, vegetables and the
most amazing sliced spicy sausage I have ever tasted, I actually
managed to take it all in. After dinner the band started to leave
as they had 4am flights, I got a few photographs and had a few words
with the boys before they signed a few items for me. Myself, Bruce,
Rod, Johnny, Craig, Wally and the soon to Missus Wally, stayed up
talking till the early hours gradually reducing in numbers until
around 2am (Good song title that). The following morning we had
to be up and ready for 9 (This rock n roll lifestyle is really
tiring). We had time for a bit of breakfast, which was supposedly
English cooked, it wasn't bad, but Wally covered his with ketchup to
cover the disgusting taste of his eggs. As we waited for the Smallwood
clan, we chatted about various things such as football, football and
erm football. This morning we are checking out the Acropolis and to me
its nothing really new as we have a nifty replica in Sunderland, the
only difference being its not 2500 years old. The ruins themselves
show the excellent architectural skills of the Ancient Greeks And some
of the views from the sides of the ruins that look over the busy and
very compact city of Athens are quite breathtaking. Following this we
went of to the Olympic Greek stadium, which is quite a sight,
especially to sports fans, after a few of our party had a quick
jog/sprint/walk/crawl round the track before taking in the daunting
prospect of this been full with 75'000 spectators. Quite amazing
really. After this it was of to the temple of Poseidon, where one
of the many Greek myths and legends was supposedly set. Heading back
to the center of Athens we managed to take in the beauty of the
Coastline and it is something special, living on the English coast
myself, I was quite impressed with its beauty. We stopped of en-route
back to the hotel, at a Grecian Tavernia, for a spot of lunch which
was quite satisfying, until we were offered lamb spleen and lamb
testicles at which point I became a hard-core vegetarian. Being the
hard English Northerner I am who goes out in the wind and rain with
his t- shirt on, this made my stomach go a bit on the funny side.
Apparently a lambs naughty bit is quite good for you, but then again
so lying on a bed of nails! We arrived back at the hotel tired,
weary, quite thirsty and desperate for a lie down. We were greeted
outside of the hotel by a few fans asking if any of the band were
still around, and they we were told they had all gone apart from Dave.
I went upstairs and had a bath, as I was getting ready I looked out of
my window to see the amount of fans had doubled. Apparently they were
still there until the early hour of the next morning. As it was
Saturday I was trying to find out the football results. Typical when
you really need someone at home they are never in. I later saw on CNN
my team Sunderland had beat Bradford 4-0 - 'wey hey' the weekend cant
get any better. I had quite a lie in the morning and packed all my
stuff, which seemed to have doubled, and ventured downstairs to the
bar. I ordered a bite to eat and a coke and was joined by Steve Cox
the tour manager for another conversation on football, as well as the
astronomical prices hotels charge for room service and phone calls. We
left for the airport, and upon arrival said farewell to Johnny B who
had been our main man whilst in Athens. Our plane was on time and
after a 3 hour flight to Amsterdam and an hour to Newcastle it was
back home to the what seemed now a haven for rest. After all of the
trouble we had at the beginning of our adventure, it was wiped away
within two hours of being at the hotel, we were made so welcome, and honored,
that it was impossible not to have a great time. The motto of this
story is always enter a competition as you never know - 'It Could Be
You'
Thanks and Funktastic Regards.
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