Back in Sydney after almost four years and it's still amazing

The stunning view of the famous Sydney Opera House.
Me with ACDC bassist Cliff Williams. The wind was really strong, I look like I've been dragged through a tornado!



I arrived back in Australia two days ago and loving it. Last time I was here was July 2006, but luckily nothing has changed. I was so tired yesterday, but it didn't put me off wanting to go out and explore, so I did and spent the later afternoon relaxing by the hotel swimming pool.

Today was totally crazy and random, gearing me into the mood for plenty of rock 'n' roll tomorrow at Sydney Soundwave. I walked past a hotel down the road and spotted Australian rockers Wolfmother, who were in Sydney to support ACDC at their massive sell out stadium concert at the ANZ Stadium at Olympic Park. I'm not a fan of Wolfmother and I don't really think they're that bad, either, but Mike Patton from Faith No More openly had a rant about them on an Australian TV interview backstage at a festival and it made me laugh, as Faith No More are the main band I'm excited about seeing here. Maybe I should've had the guts to approach lead singer Andrew Stockdale and asked him whether they were going to stick around town for their day off tomorrow and catch Faith No More at Soundwave! I'd love to have seen the look on his face if that had happened.

Later on, after relaxing out by the hotel swimming pool, I walked all around the area of Sydney Harbour and The Rocks district, overlooking the water. The best scenery in Sydney and the main tourist area. I got some good photos of the sights. At a luxury hotel right on the waterfront, several wedding receptions had obviously been taking place and tourists were watching different brides get photographed with the amazing views. Then I noticed some ACDC fans hanging around and I asked them why they weren't at the concert venue already and they tipped me off that ACDC were in fact staying at that hotel. What a strike of luck that the band were due to leave soon, so I waited around, but not for long as drummer Phil Rudd came outside to smoke, and lead singer Brian Johnson, guitarist Malcolm Young and bassist Cliff Williams followed. There wasn't much time to chat to the band members, as they were waiting for a police escort to follow their car driving to ANZ Stadium and I only managed a quick photo with bass player Cliff, but the others were all rushed into their car by their tour manager as we were going to get photos, so I was disappointed, but at least I got to meet them with such lucky and very by chance timing. Lead guitarist Angus Young still resides in Sydney, so there was no need to stay with the rest of the band in the hotel.

My feet are sore from all the walking around seeing the scenes today, but I hope they hold out for all the rushing around I'm going to be doing here before I return to the UK! Lots to see and do. Photos and reviews will be uploaded onto the following websites:

www.rockmidgets.com

www.virtualfestivals.com

Excitement for going to Australia, but boredom in Britain

In the mood and excited to be seeing Faith No More again, I had some creative fun...


This was a joke poking some fun at the apparent ridiculous demands on Faith No More's 2009 European tour rider, which was supposed to be a joke (well, it was ten pages long and you should've seen some of the items listed!. They asked for "towels that must be soft, like a baby bunny on a Summer's day".

Didn't get much work this week, which sucked, considering I really needed to earn as much as I could to pay off bills and for my trip to Australia, but that always seems to be the bad luck I get. Typical sod's law! The fustration and general boredom lead me to being creative again, making more jewellery designs to sell online in my stores and just having fun with my Sharpie permanent markers.
Faith No More, one of my favourite bands who I'm excited to be seeing again in Australia, unveiled the tour posters for the Australia and New Zealand shows last week. They've always had great designs on their posters, past and present and a lot of them are collectables now. Of course, I've often had people ask me whether I've designed posters for bands and album cover art and it's often crossed my mind that it is something I would have dabbled in, but never got around to it. I drew one fun poster, my own version of a poster advertising Faith No More's forthcoming San Francisco dates. The idea was for fun, but I think it would look great if it was re-drawn in a more edgy way with the same idea. The Golden Gate had to be in there, though, as Faith No More are from San Francisco anyway.

The Saint logo was something I though up last night randomly and the skull with wings pendant was originally one of my tattoo art necklace designs, just with the band name added in the scroll.

The Saint and The Sinner. Halo fallen onto Faith No More logo
Sketched with Sharpies and you can still see the pen marks all over the place, but what the hell!