Vol. III, Ch. X – Jeff’s Q&A
dark_harvest__ Asks: What's your favourite memory from this tour? Jeff Answers: Hi - I have so many great memories from this tour. People and bands I have met, places I have been. Everything is a memory, but being back on stage in Berlin was very special, looking out over the sheer enormity of Pol and...
Vol. III, Ch. IX – No More ‘Fs’ To Give!
18th August 2025 I am in the middle of a WhatsApp conversation with Nick as we discuss the very complicated weekend we have just been through. The travelling is hard and I know the band are tired. I jumped on the tour at the start of June but remember the rest of the guys have...
Vol. III, Ch. VIII – The Prince Of Darkness
01st August 2025 And just like that the lights went out. When I heard the news about Ozzy initially I felt no shock, it was really expected, but as the night wore on and the out pouring of true grief flooded the internet I reflected on just how John Osbourne has affected my life and...
Vol. III, Ch. VII – Long Live The King
11th July 2025 Heavy metal is the best music to be in to. The genre and the bands in this genre, and those surrounding the genre, have helped to formulate and mould my life, the direction of my life and the lives of the majority of my friends. Metal is a badge of honour. To...
Vol. III, Ch. VI – My Oasis
6th July 2025 For years people said it would never happen. The chat boards would be full of rumours and theories. Would it ever actually be possible to get them on stage together again? Hopes would be raised before being cruelly crushed and it seemed that the two ships may have sailed off again in...
Vol. III, Ch. IV – Men Only Think About One Thing!
25th June 2025 I am past 50 years old. I am a child of the 1970s and I don't generally care what people think. I am not very PC or woke and my mouth has got me in a lot of trouble over the years. So, I am just going to say it. We had...
Vol. III, Ch. III – Ascension Attention
19th June 2025 I don't listen to a lot of new music. I always have an upcoming project to learn and I take it very seriously. It could be Kill II This, Ard, Plague Of Angels or of course most recently Paradise Lost which takes up my playlist constantly so there isn't much else to...
Vol. III, Ch. II – The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner
16th June 2025 Strange one this. We are so used to tours where you may have five or six show days and then have a day off, but this tour, as a support band, we are playing two shows on and then we have a day off. Basically there is much time to fill. This...
Vol. III, Ch. I – Back in the Saddle
11th June 2025 Steven Tyler from Aerosmith famously informed us that he was back in the saddle again, in fact in that tune released in 1976 he mentioned it more than once. Lo and behold here I am, back in the saddle for the second (could have been the third if it wasn’t for that...
Vol. II, Ch. VII – Ziggy Stardust & The End Of The Road
10th January 2008 So, the final leg. I managed to damage my finger in the dressing room at the Houston show. I compacted it against a wall whilst pushing back some towels and it really hurt. Infact, as I write nearly four weeks later it still hurts. Probably a hairline fracture apparently, but the show...
Vol. II, Ch. VI – The Art Of Kung Fu
17th November 2007 Nick mentioned to me last week that if you get a load of blokes together for a long period of time they will play fight...it is true. Now in week five you can't go down a corridor or into a room without someone throwing a playful air punch or busting out a...
Vol. II, Ch. V – California Über Alles
9th November 2007 In Albuquerque New Mexico today at a Flying J truck stop waiting to head in to the gig. It is about 80 degrees outside and both Aaron and I feel sick after eating pancakes with our breakfast. Surely pancakes on top of eggs and bacon etc is completely unnecessary, but we did...
Vol. II, Ch. IV – Halfway Through
5th November 2007 It is midday on Friday. We are on the I80 heading into San Francisco. As usual I am the only one up so I get to sit in the back lounge of the bus and watch the world pass by. We are half way through, so from now it feels like we...
Vol. II, Ch. III – Sleepless Near Seattle
1st November 2007 It is Tuesday and we are at a truckstop near Seattle. We left Minnesota on Sunday night and travelled literally all day Monday with a double driver to get to the coast, over 1600 miles. More about that later. There was a horrific accident on the way into Detroit from Cleveland. A...
Vol. II, Ch. II Poo In Poughkeepsie
29th October 2007 Poughkeepsie Chance Theater is in a pretty rough part of town. There are crack addicts wandering down the windy streets like extras from a zombie film. The town is named after the legend (several hundred years old) of a serpent that lives in the nearby river. The only thing coming out of...
Vol. II, Ch. I – USA Requiem Tour
26th October 2007 Last night. Stage time. We move across from our upstairs dressing room, across an upstairs bar, through a doorway, down some steps, through another doorway into a downstairs room (which stinks and has lots of pipes passing through it), then through two doors which leads us outside into the freezing cold where...
Vol. I, Ch. IV – In Requiem Tour
24th October 2007 It is midday, we are somewhere between Quebec and Toronto and it is time to bring you upto date with the end of the European tour. I have genuinely been hammered with requests for these blogs. I feel like J K Rowling without the bank balance, the hair and don't worry, no...
Vol. I, Ch. III – In Requiem Tour
3rd October 2007 Welcome to my third blog. It is funny how many people are mentioning the fact that they are reading these blogs and enjoying them, so off we go with some more Moments of Metal Mayhem. General mood, mid tour blues have set in a bit. Everyone is missing their families and can...
Vol. I, Ch. II – In Requiem Tour
24th September 2007 Since the dawn of time man has strived and foraged to find the necessary basics to sustain life and to keep the grip on the slender thread of life as we know it. Shift forward a few million years and we find Paradise Lost's tour bus with neanderthal man desperately trying to...
Vol. I, Ch. I – In Requiem Tour
18th September 2007 Well, here we are nearly one week into the tour. No one has been arrested, sent home or hospitalised but there is time! So, who is on this tour? Aside from the band there is Gary the driver, Little Rob our sound guy and tour manager who is a fellow Mancunian thus...