Best week ever! (pics)

[dreaming_neon_black]

Cutting right to the chase, I've had a blast of a week. Evo experience on Wednesday and today I had the pleasure of going to the JP clinic. Pics are small cos Yahoo doesn't let me upload the normal sized ones (my digicam is 7.2MP hehe)

This is me, took this yesterday after I got back from my weekend job (hence the sexy uniform :-\ )..don't let your mirrors get cracked lol.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c4...obs/164937.jpg

Now that we're aquinted hehe, before this week I'd already had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Satriani a coupe of years back:



He's on a step lol, we're not midgets!

[damo7v]

can't get those pics working

[dreaming_neon_black]

Also I'd managed to meet Zakk Wylde at Ozzfest 2001, although I had no camera, and only a page of Kerrang magazine handy:


The 2 I REALLY wanted however eluded me...until this week!!! (This is long, you were warned!)

Wednesday = Steve Vai. I'd got up super early to book my Evo ticket months earlier and was eerily calm that day, like I couldn't believe I was actually going to meet Steve Vai! So I got to the venue and saw this little sign:


I get a goody bag (more on that later) and in we go. We sit about for a bit and then He enters lol. I really enjoyed this part, it was very relaxed and informal:

[Koss]

Yeah, I wouldn't expect much of a reply when it came to lefty models if I was talking to JP either. I doubt he has much control over his guitars other then specs that suit him. Vai on the other hand could probably make every jem guitar come with its own live chicken if he wanted to. If I ever get to meet either one of them i'll be harder on them with the left handed questions

[dreaming_neon_black]

Along the way I get to touch a few guitars....(slightly annoyed my left handed-ness meant I couldn't really play them properly, but hey, I touched them!!!)

[dreaming_neon_black]

Then of course after the Q&A...


Steve's a really cool guy, I didn't really chat a lot (I was too in awe haha) but I managed some small talk and stuff.

As well as the picture I got my P&W tab book signed, as well as my framed picture. Here's the goody-bag too (Thomas Nordegg even gave me a bit of string end!!!)

[dreaming_neon_black]

As well as the picture I got my P&W tab book signed, as well as my framed picture. Here's the goody-bag too (Thomas Nordegg even gave me a bit of string end!!!)





After that we went down and watched the soundcheck, where everything was going wrong haha (the lights blew right before doors opened), Dave was furiously practicing part of his solo piece and Steve was giving super detailed instrucions on the db. levels of every single thing, quite the auteur he is. All the Evo people got good seats...

[dreaming_neon_black]

A couple of the show pics I took:

[dreaming_neon_black]

Apart from getting there and back it was a fantastic evening, the show itself didn't quite have the same vibe as the Astoria show a few years back because of the seating thing (Astoria was standing) and the lights being f*cked but the actual show was just as entertaining. The solo spots were all very cool (Jeremy's was ace). After recovering from the excitement we fast forward to Sunday (today!!!). I get up late and therefore have to rush up to London using our nation's great public transport system, not to mention the fact sundays are really bad days for trains as they do all the work on the lines today.

The 'clinic' was a blast, JP is a funny guy and it was very enjoyable apart from the fact it was a standing thing and everyone seemed to tower about me, thus my view wasn't perfect. Still, I managed to see everything (just) couple of piccies here for ya:



A few tracks; Glasgow Kiss (a headbutt apparently haha), Curve, Lost Without You and Damage Control were played and he told us a little about the songs. Mostly though it was Q&A, although it was cool as there weren't too many n00b questions like 'H0w d0es JP d0 t3h sWEEPz0RS at t3h w1n speed!!?' As usual there was some frighteningly fast picking and JP busted out some SICK sweeps at silly speeds. Also mentioned that the new JPM will only have some very minor modifications to the existing model.

[dreaming_neon_black]

Of course the highlight for me was afterwards during the signing. Soundcontrol didn't really make a queue or line, so it ended up being a huge bottleneck with about 8 people at a time getting moved by the stairs where JP was parked. He only had 45mins to do 200 people, so I was a little nervous about not getting to meet the man, the myth, the legend. Naturally I did though haha. I got someone (thanks dude) to take a pic of myself and JP and he signed my framed JP pic:



I asked him about EB/MM doing a few lefty JPM's to which he just laughed and said 'yeah..we'll see' (that's a no then grrrrr) and I shook his hand and thanked him for doing this when he could have been with the rest of the band in Germany taking a day off between shows. After that, back home I went and proudly noted that all my framed pics are now signed, hurrah!!!

Anyway, that's my week and if you managed to get through all this without getting bored or running away in horror from my use of paragraphs then thanks! Hope you enjoyed my little show.

Adios!

EDIT - SHOULD WORK NOW!

[megadeth]

sexcellent !!!
I feel really happy for you man !! I have not yet met steve, but yeah JP is an awesome guy to speak to..

I asked him about EB/MM doing a few lefty JPM's to which he just laughed and said 'yeah..we'll see' (that's a no then grrrrr)

I would have actually told him...well that's ok..you can say NO as well..

[fettouhi]

Very cool pics .

Regards

André

[ibanez.shredder]

Awesome pics man! ive wanted to meet JP for ages lol

[shredfreak]

That is really great! And cool pics! Would be nice to meet those guys but atleast I met Mike Portnoy few weeks ago and he was nice dude.

[mi2tom]

Wow man that's great yeah.....