LOOKING AT THE WORLD THROUGH A WINDSCREEN

All these shots were taken through the windows of my truck.

More Tour Photographs

I am now sat at home in the living room and have selected a few more shots for you all. As I look out of the window a Teesside blue sky is greeting me (steely grey)I must get on and book this late deal holiday!!!

OFF TO NORTH AMERICA

After a long drive of over 2000 kilometers I arrived at Southampton Docks on Wednesday morning and there I said goodbye to my Genny's. They are now on a ship bound for New York and some other job. After writing this blog for the past couple of months I will now tell you something of myself.
My name is Graham Wright (G.W.) and I have been involved in the music business for over 30 years as a backline roadie, stage carpenter and truck driver. I am also an artist and author, I recently co-authored a book about touring in the seventies titled "How Black was our Sabbath" check it out on Amazon, it's a view from the crew!(If you enjoyed the blog you might enjoy the book)
Thats all for now I am now going down to my local village pub for a pint of beer the first in two months!!!

JERRY & GENNY

Here are a few shots taken before the blog emerged, earlier on the tour.

GOODBYE FROM GENNY WORLD

It's a goodbye from all the crew on Genny World and Jake, We all hope to be back in the future. As I said there will be more posts on this site over the next few weeks. I am heading for England after the show tonight and will be taking my family on holiday!

THE LAST ONE ?

First of all I would like to say what a pleasure it has been to share this weblog with everyone and it's been great fun selecting the photo's to post and writing the brief descriptions of our journeys. So here we are at the last gig of this leg of the Vertigo tour. Sadly Genny World will not be going to North America on the next leg of the tour (they don't use Genny's in Arena's) but may be resurrected on future European outings! This does not mean I will cease posting on this site as I have still got to take my generator to Southampton England and put it on a ship to the USA. I will also be posting some more photo's of the tour in the future so pop back now and then.
Yesterday it reached 43 degree's in gennyworld and it looks like another hot one today! MORE POSTS LATER TODAY!

ESTADIO JOSE ALVALADE LISBON

Yesterday saw us have a rare liesurely drive from Madrid to Lisbon. The trucks drifted into Lisbon from early afternoon onwards. Last night, most of the drivers had a end of tour drink in a local bar. (oooh me head)Today is the production set up for the last gig on this leg of the tour. Whats happening to Genny World, all will be revealed in the next few posts.

ESTADIO VICENTE CALDERON MADRID

We left San Sebastian Donastia in the early hours of yesterday morning and drove up the long hills to Vitoria then to Burgos and down the A1 to Madrid, it was a relatively short drive of 6 hours. To our suprise it was cloudy and cool yesterday, almost stageco cardigan weather! Considering the very tight space allowed for the load in, the cool weather was a real bonus and yet again the production crews and truck drivers did stirling work and everything was ready by 8pm last night. Today the crowds have been building up outside the stadium since early this morning. The stadium is home to Atletico Madrid the other famous Madrid football team.

SAN SEBASTIAN ANOETA STADIUM

The Nou Camp was a huge success and the load out was huge too! Not the easiest of places to load in and out of, but amazingly we were all away by 5am and it was a late show. The drive to San Sebastian was about 7 hours and some very long steep hills to navigate, the stunning views and lush landscape of the Basque region made up for it though. Everything is ready for tomorrows show and it is a warm evening.

HELLO HELLO THE NOU CAMP GETS VERTIGO

Forty minutes to go before the start of the show and the stadium is full to capacity and the crowd are in great spirits.

FC BARCELONA NOU CAMP

The whole of the pitch, which is made of real turf, is covered by a special protective covering that allows it to breath. The stadium is one of the largest football stadiums in the world with an official capacity of 110000 it was opened in 1957. Today's concert sold out in hours of tickets going on sale. Today it is hot and humid.

NOU CAMP BARCELONA CATALUNYA

We left Nice around 1:30 a.m and headed for Spain and the possibility of getting caught up in the holiday weekend rush of traffic to the resorts of the Costa Brava. Luckily, although they closed the Spanish motorway to trucks and we were diverted onto secondary roads we arrived at the Nou Camp Stadium from mid-day onwards. The load in started with earnest and by 8:30pm all is ontrack.
The Nou Camp, what can I say, a shrine to football, the home of Barca, FC BARCELONA, that great Manchester United victory against Bayern Munich in the dying seconds of extra time of the European Cup Final, enough of this footie talk! There is going to be a concert tomorrow!!!!

NICE Côte d'Azur

We left the rain and cold of Munich and drove through the Brenner Pass in Austria into Italy, driving across northern Italy we entered the south of France at Ventimiglia, then along the autoroute with the stunning views of the Cote dAzur to Nice. It's good to be in the Sun again and there is a welcoming breeze blowing from the Mediterranean.

MUNICH MORNING MIST

Here are a few images taken this morning. There is a lot of low cloud and drizzle, it reminds me of Manchester or Ireland in a kind of fond way, y'know bank holiday mondays in Blackpool. Anyway all is ready and I am sure a bit of dampness will not spoil another great show.

MUNCHEN

We started rolling the trucks out of a rain soaked Copenhagen after midnight and headed for the port of Gedser, to catch the 7am ferry to Rostock Germany. The southern Baltic was a bit choppy but the crossing only took 1 hour 45 minutes, so some of us didn’t have really enough time to see if we had sea legs or not. Back onto dry land the land lubbing truckers then drove down through Germany, stopping for a break at an autohof (truck stop) and arrived at the Olympic Stadium Munich in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Munich the capital of The Free State of Bavaria, famous for it’s Oktoberfest, where traditionally dressed frauleins serve gallons of beer to the eager thirsty revellers, while they are entertained by the local lederhosen clad, thigh slapping, oom-pah band. I guess they are taking binge drinking to the limit. This extraordinary Olympic village hosted the 1972 Olympics, sadly remembered for the wrong reasons. The focal point of the site is the stadium itself, the home until recently of Bayern Munich, one of Germany’s most famous Football teams. They have moved to a new arena on the outskirts. It was also here that England beat Germany 5 – 1(sorry I could not resist that) a couple of years ago.

A STROLL IN THE PARKEN

The doors are open and the crowds are rushing in and trying to get as close to the stage as possible. It seems like everyone has come to the stadium by bicycle and even rickshaw too! The sun is shining and its a warm day, just right.
WEATHER UPDATE: Soon after posting this, the sky filled with dark grey clouds and it is now pouring down with rain, oh well the garden needs it!