Def Leppard – Hammersmith Odeon London 2003
My friend Curtis was Phil Collen’s guitar tech for a few years and gave me a few passes to stand next to him at the side of the stage at this show. As soon as we got there, he took me over to the guitar rack and pointed to a guitar which I immediately recognized belonging to Queen’s Brian May. About 6 months earlier, I spotted May sitting across the room at an LA Thai restaurant I was in. Celeb spot! Anyway, he was apparently going to show up for the encore (at the time he did this a lot with bands. He was the Encore Whore, who’s mantle has now been taken by Dave Grohl). The band gave us a cooler full of Boddingtons which were quickly consumed and half way through the show, Brian came through the door and headed straight for me. He gave me a big hug and said, “Hey, it’s really good to see you! Where was the last time man?”. Having never met him before, I was a bit taken aback, but being a bit cheeky, I replied “Brian, it’s great to see you too. Wasn’t it Chan Dara restaurant in LA?”. “Yeah that was it! What a great night!” he said and gave me an extra big hug. Hahaha.