TUESDAY 10th AUGUST 2004 – THE BITUMEN AISLE

• Well the morning has arrived, can’t believe they’re landing here in Melbourne soon. Sixx’s first time to Australia since Apr 90. Tracii Guns’ first time since he did that clinic; 91, 92? I dunno… doesn’t matter now….
• Can’t go to the airport… too far, and I’m already taking the next two days off work. That’s what I needed to give me my wings to Sydney. (Thanks Funnel Guy)
• It was a great way to kickstart the tour at Back In The Day last Sat night with a Mötley/Brides theme. 380 rockers through the club’s door, packed house, great reception when I played the Brides three times... pretty smashed by the end. That guy who I chose as winner of the free tickets to the sell-out Melbourne show was stoked! Glad we got a souvlaki instead this time afterwards – can’t stand the mess inside Hungry Jacks at 4.30am.
• Damn it was hard to concentrate on work today. Weird feeling thinking that I’ll finally able to meet up with Nikki after so many years. That voice is so familiar to me… yet it’s only ever been delivered to me through magnetic tape, shiny discs, and all the different sorts of wires… He’d better not be a dick - I’ll spew. Surely not!
• Sixx’s email came through with his mobile number for Australia – cool, he’s at the hotel now. “Nikki, Hey welcome to Australia.” We both had stuff to do, so we arranged to hook up again tomorrow arvo. Also, he said he wasn’t feeling well.
• Get some sleep dammit…. Gonna need it.

WEDNESDAY 11th AUGUST 2004 – FLAMIN’ BULL

• I called Nikki around 2pm. Time to try and firm up numbers so I could let the Restaurant know. Seems he’s feeling worse, damn. Could it be jetlag… some bug he picked up in Japan, hmm, I wonder. Can’t be too bad though since he’s working on some music in his room… maybe that’s soothing?
• OK… restaurant now has their numbers on the reservation, all is set. Pre-ordered a huge-ass bowl of salad for Tracii’s main. Ha!
• Nikki crashed to shake off his whatever, so he could be up for tonight. Said to meet in the lobby at 8, but to call him at 7/7.30 to make sure he’s alive. Couldn’t believe how much better he sounded when I rang and said we’d see him in 20. Cool.
• Drove down the road to St Kilda and scored a parking spot on the strip right across the road from hotel. Walked into the lobby and met fans xxisikkin and Dannisixx from the band’s discussion boards. After introducing themselves they told my wife and I about greeting the band at the airport yesterday, helping ‘Coogs’ keep his laundry clean with their washing machine, and some adventures of their night out at the strip club with Scot.
• First down ready to party was Scot… I see a pattern. We meet Brad, Darren and Jay from their crew, and Damo from the Aussie tour promoter… all seem like cool guys. London didn’t show…. Tracii and Kristen instead decided to spend some time together (hold that salad!). Sixx was last down.
• Thank God he wasn’t a dick. Pretty amazing to finally squeeze those tattooed stars on his knuckles. Smiles all round.
• As we walked out of the hotel fans approached… about 20 perhaps… waiting for a photo and signature. Scot, Brad and Jay jumped in the roadside taxi… Jay was heading elsewhere on the way.
• Nikki and Darren crossed the road with Sara and me. I’d no sooner started driving when Nikki started the conversation flowing with complimentary comments and thanks for Chronological Crue. It was odd looking in my rear view mirror and seeing Nikki talking to me.
• I momentarily interrupted his updates on the latest happenings with Mötley to point out a few bits of my world along the way, including where we live as we drove past, the rock club where I DJ... Federation Square’s architecture caught his eye.
• Mark Wilson from Jet couldn’t join us for dinner at the last minute, and club owner Dean didn’t show up – that was odd… last I spoke with him he’d been waiting 15 minutes for his taxi. At least the others could make it. Numbers felt comfortable anyway so I couldn’t invite any other friends.
• So we arrived at the restaurant - Flamin' Bull. I pointed out to Nikki that we were on the Italian strip and the suburb is called Carlton – perhaps a double tip of the hat to some of his heritage. Yeh cool… the décor of the restaurant is great – rugged Australian outback style to match the bush tucker style menu, but still nice café style… not like that damn Hungry Jacks.
• As much as I thought it would have been nice for Nikki to sample a Victorian wine, I was pleased he sat on Diet Coke. He could do a lot worse than his one vice of menthol smokes.
• The menu was all good but hard for everyone to choose since not many of the items were known by everyone. Scot went to the zoo during the day so he was steering clear of eating anything he had seen earlier - salad for Scot instead.
• Sara and I shared a bush platter for two, while Nikki shared another with Brad. The food made for a great experience, talking over the kangaroo, wallaby, and crocodile fillets. Emu sausage, buffalo sausage, emu liver paté … a great platter indeed. Nikki thought the prawns (shrimps?) were pretty damn spicy too.
• Talk turned to tattoos and I soon asked Nikki if he recognised the style of stars on my arm. After a slight pause he recognised they were the same as on his back (right should blade). I told him how my arm swelled up from hitting glands when I got Mötley Crüe tattooed in katakana inside my upper arm. We were soon comparing how far into the armpit our work went (yes, charming over the dinner table) and saying how much it hurts in there. Nikki’s outlines go further into the pit than mine, but at least mine is finished Sixx!  :-)
• A friendly aboriginal having a drink at the bar in the restaurant brought out his didgeridoo and entertained our table with his story of how they are made and played.
• Great food, great company, a great night to savour indeed. New song Future Ex-Wife kept spinning around in Nikki’s head, further flavouring the night when bits would come out.
• Once they were all in their taxi back to the hotel, Sara and I kicked on with our friends Ron & Leah for some cocktails at the vodka bar of the venue for tomorrow night’s first-ever Australian Brides concert. Here’s to ya! The lack of sleep had begun.

THURSDAY 12th AUGUST 2004 – THE CEREMONY

• Nikki said to call this afternoon and maybe hook-up for sound check, but it just didn’t happen for us…too much going on.
• Conscious of my mobile phone needing to be on charge as much as possible thanks to a stream of calls and SMS texts from people flying in from all over the country and wanting to catch up for a drink and howdy.
• Met up with Anthony from Tasmania. I catch him in a room at the band’s hotel… with the girls from the lobby last night and some other friends, as the party starts to warm up. I bailed to meet some other friends who had a horror run down from Queensland that morning – 3 minutes late to check in so they had to buy air tickets again for another flight. Damn, Jason.
• I headed home to start getting organised for the show. Got home to a message from Nikki, “SORRY IM NOT MORE UP..I PLAIN JUST FEEL LIKE SHIT.” Let’s hope the show goes well. I tell him “I just finished a nice meal here at home with Sara and the kids before we head down to the show, and then I fly tomorrow. See ya doin your thing - Knock Em Dead Kid.” The man says, “COOL NUFF....SEE YA THERE”. 10,000 miles away, or 2 miles away, gotta love the Internet as a communications device. Nikki also posted a message in his own diary about last night.
• Dean and mullet-man Paul arrive at our place. I asked Dean where the hell he got to the night before… severe dental pain got the better of him and he ended up having a root canal this morning… youch! That’s crazy. After a few warm ups of our drinking elbows we headed down for the show.
• Great crowd – great mix of people, ages, cultures, subcultures. I catch the last couple of songs of Teargas, and then Sebasrockets’ set. The boys didn’t let me down. Last night Nikki asked me what they were like… told him they seem to me a mix of early Crue, some New York Dolls, and a punk rawness. Catchy songs…. Rock n roll overdose!
• Good to see Mark from Jet could make it with his mate Davey Lane from You Am I, after not being able to join us last night. Some fresh air on the balcony and it was time to brace myself for show time.
• Started watching at the back and soaked up the opener Shut The Fuck Up. Awesome start... they were ON! No signs of Nikki feeling ill. Headed closer to the front with Ron. Ended up about 3-4 deep in front of Nikki soon enough. Note to self – leather jacket in a pit is not a good idea… keep up fluid intake.
• Fists pumping, horned salutes, crowd singing along in unison - energy levels were high and everyone was lapping it up. When it was time to Shout At The Devil it all became a little too much. I just stared at Sixx as everything whirred around me… emotions welled up, tears or just sweat in my eyes… didn’t matter. It was all sinking in. I snapped out of it when I saw my mate Mötley Rick looking like he was about to collapse, so I helped him out of the pit for fresh air.
• After the show, people lined up by the side of the stage to head through to the dressing rooms. They were told no photos and no signings. We hung back and caught up with friends before Brad showed us the way through. Nikki was talking with some locals… the others seemed to had left already. London had signed an apple in the fruit basket on the table and it seemed everyone had signed the banana. We yakked for a while before Nikki headed back to the hotel, telling me to call him when I get up to Sydney tomorrow.
• We helped Brad and Darren get the last of the band’s cases and bags of stage clothes out of the room. I couldn’t leave that Jack Daniels bottle behind either. So we swigged down the rest of the Jack as we wandered up the street to a bar to continue the party with friends. We beat the sun home.

FRIDAY 13th AUGUST 2004 – OFF ON THE HONEYMOON

• A few hours sleep and my seedy head and dry mouth told me I really drank too much last night. If I keep this pace up I’m not going to make it through the rest of the tour.
• Daughter off to work, son off to school, kiss my love goodbye and it’s off to the airport with Dean for our lunch time flight to Sydney. Sun is too bright! Waited in line 15 minutes to check in for the domestic flight… only to be told we need to go to the International terminal instead as we were being dropped in Sydney by a flight to Hong Kong – great! Just made it in time. Phew.
• We landed in Sydney and met up with my old buddy Dr Shinbone Starr and his pal JJ Speedball - their flight arrived 10 minutes before ours. Cab into the city and checked in to the Holiday Inn in Kings Cross, just up the road from the band’s hotel. I don’t think they noticed there were four of us instead of two. Living in sin at the Holiday Inn…. This should be fun hangin’ on the cross.
• We bullshited for a while before giving Nikki a call to see what’s happening. He said we should meet in their lobby at 6pm and head down to soundcheck with them. Sounds like a plan. We grabbed a cab from the hotel to follow them out to the Gaelic Club. People were already gathering outside to jockey for best positions up front. Keen.
• Very cool to experience them sound-checking. I spotted Tracii’s girl Kristen standing watching by herself so I wandered over for a chat. Great lady indeed. Didn’t realise they had been a couple for so many years. Good luck with the move Kris.
• We headed to the backstage room once the sound was right. Conversation was interspersed with the band members each taking turns at signing a stack of tour posters for merch sales that night. Timing was right to pull out some pieces from our own collections for signing too.
• Tracii was digging seeing some old LA Guns Hollywood Vampires fan club mail his mum had sent me, one postmarked Valentines Day 1990. We all had a giggle at the cooky border of pixilated bats and music notes, hi-tech stuff for its day indeed, produced on an Atari... right on. Nice silver signature on my 12 inch Rip N Tear.
• I pulled out the new Brides Of Destruction promo single of Life for Scot to sign. He’d never seen it before and was thrilled as he checked it out.
• Nikki couldn’t believe just how mint my copy of the Toast of the Town/ Stick To Your Guns 7” was… never-ever played, and heaps of glitter bits in the white label still of course. I told him the story of how I acquired my test pressing of Theatre of Pain as he painted his name in gold on it. Many more items were signed, each personalised with a message of the moment. Nikki had a pic of us taken on his camera for his own album.
• We helped down some pizzas with them before the band headed back to the hotel to get ready for the show. (Shinbone had a fond moment with a certain pizza box but I won’t go into that!) We also bailed, but not before meeting my mate Adam from Newcastle out the front first... eight years or something since we’d last seen each other in Perth. The line of punters had grown considerably and people were saying hi and introducing themselves, thanking me for providing all the latest on this site over the many years. Great to put some more faces to emails. Chuffed.
• Back to the Cross to get cleaned up and securely store the newly signed items before grabbing a cab back to the venue. Why do taxi drivers never know where to go? And why are they always foreigners?
• The place was packed – great vibe again. Support band Hell City Glamours did a great job. While Shinbone set up his video camera on the sound desk, Dean and I had some drinks with Steve King from Rose Tattoo and Mick Cocks, who was in Heaven (after he left Rose Tattoo) and toured the US supporting Mötley on the Shout at the Devil tour. Leeno Dee from Candy Harlots / Jerk was also set for a big one.
• I decided against engaging in pit warfare tonight, deciding to get a different angle on the show from the balcony. Awesome show once again (I'm sure you can find the usual reviews of these shows elsewhere). Putting aside the Mötley Crüe connection - damn this band is good! Tracii even played a little air guitar for the crowd when he lost sound for a moment during his solo. He also teased with little Mötley riffs in between some songs. Way too much crowd surfing and people getting on stage for my liking but it seems they were diggin’ it. Darren engaged in a bit of rough play with one over-friendly idiot grabbing Nikki in a headlock as he played. I spotted my Metal Sudgette friends Sally and Pete holding firm in the front row.
• Mr Andrew G said howdy, seemingly as drunk as I was last night. Surprised he remembered coming onto my DJ platform to say a few words at the club a few months ago before I played his request of Run To The Hills. Don't be fooled, he’s not really an Australian Idol, just a fellow rock pig.
• After the show, Damo told us to wait to see what’s happening with the band. After a while he came over and said London isn’t feeling well so they have headed off. So we decided to hit the Iguana Bar because our mouths were dry. JJ had found his own adventure elsewhere – cherry!

SATURDAY 14th AUGUST 2004 – 3X DEAD

• We woke to Dean telling us how amazing the seagulls were swooping on the bits dropping out of his 5.30am souvlaki. We headed to a café for bacon and eggs – don’t ever give me chips with my bacon and eggs again please… that’s just wrong!
• Shinbone called Sixx who asked, “Where were you guys after the show last night? We waited backstage and you didn’t come through, so we split.” Doh. He told us to make sure we came back tonight since they were flying out next morning.
• I called Brad to see if any of the guys were up for some new ink at House of Pain, the tattoo studio of Rose Tattoo guitarist Pete Wells and bassist Steve King, since Brad had seemed most keen on it when I mentioned it at dinner the other night. The band were out shopping at Wheels & Doll Baby and said they’d see how they go.
• We hung for a while before meeting up with Sally and Pete in their room at the band’s hotel. Sally wanted to get her Nikki Sixx signature on her lower back tattooed so after a couple of ales we headed out in their car to the studio anyway. Shinbone wanted to have a bit of a look around Sydney so we went for a drive over the Harbour Bridge and through the city before we went back to our hotel to get ready.
• Dean and I headed up the main street of Kings Cross and grabbed some food. My thirteen-year-old son called me on my mobile as I headed back to the hotel. He was ecstatic – he’d just won the gold medal in his 14-17 year-old division at the Victorian Tae Kwon Do Championships. I was so happy for my little State Champ, and I wished I was there with him and had seen him win it. I’d only been away for a day or two but already I was missing some special family moments. I quickly got an appreciation of how hard touring must be for Nikki.
• Show time again. This time we made comments like we were locals from Sydney and our cab fare was cheaper…hmm. Good to see my estranged mate TJ hangin’ in the alleyway before the show. I headed up the stairs to the balcony area again. Josh from Brisbane stopped me at the top and had brought along my old band’s album for me to sign – nice one.
• Another great show. I found myself getting used to it but still managed to experience it from lots of different perspectives. It was a great moment when they played the first part of Ballad of Jayne. Sally and Pete were front of stage again, Nikki’s side tonight, gathering more bruises and great photos.
• Dean and I headed to side of stage with a couple of songs to go, before Darren showed us the way back once they finished. We slid across the edge of the stage and behind a curtain but our path was blocked by London and Brad. Seems London had dropped his Brides belt buckle somewhere so we gave them a hand to try and track it down before heading upstairs to the band room.
• Caught up with Mel Greensmith from Wheels & Doll Baby backstage first… hadn’t seen her since about 1987 when she first had her shop in Perth. Met her man, Mark McEntee from the Divinyls, nice guy.
• Was yakking with Mr Sixx for a while when Brad brought in some young local ladies. He parked beside me and showed me his black eye acquired from a crowd surfer the previous night. Nice shiner indeed! He said it was about his tenth trip to Australia with different bands but he’d been working with Tracii since the Hollywood Rose days – now that’s going way back.
• And so it came time for goodbyes as it neared 2.30am and drinks ran out. Brad was clearing the room with "You don't have to go home but you can't stay here." Thanks were extended all round to the band and crew for the great times enjoyed. Some of them hoped to be back to Australia next year with Mötley Crüe.
• Luckily we found more drinks back in Kings Cross. We then checked out the seagull action before just beating the sun home again. I think Dean was snoring before he even finished getting his shoes off.

SUNDAY 15th AUGUST 2004 – SOUTHBOUND

• Three shows in as many days – that was awesome! The band felt they were just getting warmed up too. So as they headed back to Los Angeles in the morning, Shinbone and JJ Speedball soon got up to head back to Brisbane on a lunch time flight.
• Dean and I got a train into the city for a touch of shopping before our afternoon flight. We got to the departure lounge and saw Damo waiting to catch the same flight back south to Melbourne… so we shared a few more war stories from the tour. From the promoter’s point of view, he was happy with the tour and said the band was also.
• I think whilst many people went along to see Nikki Sixx in action, I felt the majority would have left as new Brides fans. It’s not a side project - this band is real and they are kicking some serious ass. It really looks as though they are enjoying things together as well. Can’t wait for more from them.
• Great to get home and see the family… and the gold medal. Even better to get some sleep before work in the morning. I think I only had about 13 hours since Wed morning.
• Dog tired, fuzzy head, and aching muscles was my reality… but everything just felt surreal. Had all that really just happened? So I checked my photos and signatures – yep!

Rock on,

Paul Miles

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