- Dec 14, 2004
- 89
- 1
- 8
Hey all, some of you may recall I posted a small pic of a Steve Harris tribute bass I made.
There's a full PICTORIAL of it HERE
I made this in high school around 1988, and recented stripped it back down and refinished it professionally. Anyway the final icing on the cake in my mind has always been to have good ol 'arry sign the headstock as the bass's "logo"
something like...
So when I found out they were having a ceremony at the Guitar Center in Hollywood... I thought, this is my one chance...
Linda, I was attmepting to tell you about this before the Guitar Center girl kinda rudely interrupted me... so here's the story with better pics involved...
For those who wanna skip the text, I wanted to get a sig and... Fucking mission accomplished!
For those interested, it's a damn long story... but fuck it, might as well tell it!
Maiden were scheduled to appear for their "induction" into/onto the Rockwalk of Fame in front of the Guitar Center store on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood at 7Pm. My brother and I decided to case the joint around 5PM to see what the situation would be like. Well after talking to some GC employees, it turns out that the majority of the event would be a private affair INSIDE the store to authorized personnel only. Maiden would be bringing many guests of their own, and the rest would predominately be GC employees.... BOLLOCKS!
Not deterred, we began an aggressive grovel campaign to weasle our way into getting my bass signed.... the GC managers were having none of it.... However, as a consolation prize, they DID say perhaps they'd ask and if it was Kosher, they'd "find" me outside, grab my bass, bring it in to 'arry and have him sign it, and then bring it back to me. Jeepers. That sounds dandy. But if that was my only option, I'd take it.
We spent about an hour and a half stating our case to any and all of the GC 19 year-old staff... And made some friends at the same time. One manager was cool and passed me along to the event's PR head. He gave me the same "hand off" option outside... However at this point, we were thick as theives with the GC people, so I decided the best strategy was to "act" like we belonged there. So we assumed the mashing of their hands into cement was going to happen outside were they'd set up these barricades, so we positioned ourselves inside the roped off area next to the sound dude playing Maiden through a small mixer and manning the one lone Mic for any speech making to be had at the event.
Since I'm a devote Maiden nut, I know their whole history, where they eat, you name it... I can also pick their manager, Rod Smallwood, out of a crowd when all of the screaming prepubescent rabid fans missed him. When the time was just write, I walked up to him outside and showed him my tribute P-Bass and quickly explained its history and my mission. He thought it was a good story and said "Well, Steve's inside right now, let's go bring it to him!"
Fucking hell right let's bring it!
My brother was quick on his toes to pull in tow behind me as we bolted indoors past the security dudes... I just innocently pointed at Rod showing "Hey I'm with him!" and they let us in! Rod took the bass up to Steve in the "Green Room" and we waited... 3 minutes later Rod came down with it. And there was Steve's sig... and something else? What the fuck did he write? I thanked Rod and then got the approval from the GC folk that fuck we were in, might as well let us stay at this point...
That's where the fun began.
Now inside, we discovered that the band had already arrived in a back door and were milling around or up in the green room. After a short moment, Nicko walked passed, and soon after Davey and Janick... too cool. Then as they were preparing to do the ol' hand in the mud trick, the band started filing down the stairs. That was when I approached Steve with the signed bass for a little thanks/chat.
Thanks for my nimble fingered bro for snapping these pics under duress...
After finally shaking the hand of the man that "taught" me bass for the last 20-25 years, I felt I had put the icing on the cake of this "project guitar" of mine... Then it was just enjoying the fact that we were in this private event with ALL of the Maiden dudes...
We tried having some dolt take a snap of us and it's always poorly composed, so I usually opt to just do it myself, and they're ALWAYS more interesting because of that. Davey is just awesome, we talked to him for several minutes and he's a genuine nice guy.
Now in the thick of it, I decided to show off my handy work to some of the other blokes... They were all individually impressed with the craftmanship (read GMW paintjob here....).
Now how's THAT for a shit-eating grin!
This was just too fun... we also brought along a few vintage tour programs and I managed to have each member sign my "World Slavery Tour" program on their individual portrait page... I also gave my brother one of my duplicate "Somewhere On Tour" programs and he got all the band's sigs on the cover... that's his favorite Maiden album, so I thought he should have it. 8)
THEN, my brother started getting real wise and pulled down an entire hanging promotional Maiden poster for the Rockwalk signing event... he got everyone to sign that as well... So we really milked the signing aspects...
Adrian is Rob's (my bro's) favorite in the band so we HAD to talk with him for a extended period as well. Rob was quite pleased as you can see...
Oh yea, and the band WAS there for that silly Rockwalk thingy....
Now here's the ONLY hitch to all of these festivities... I asked good ol' 'arry just what the hell he wrote above his name... "All the Best" well thanks man, but it's not entirely my ideal dream headstock logo. IF I were to have it as an ideal, I would perhaps remove the "All the Best" portion of the sig and add in my planned "Smily Eddie" to complete the headstock logo...
Something like that, for example...
Okay, how good is it to be me right now.
There's a full PICTORIAL of it HERE
I made this in high school around 1988, and recented stripped it back down and refinished it professionally. Anyway the final icing on the cake in my mind has always been to have good ol 'arry sign the headstock as the bass's "logo"
something like...
So when I found out they were having a ceremony at the Guitar Center in Hollywood... I thought, this is my one chance...
Linda, I was attmepting to tell you about this before the Guitar Center girl kinda rudely interrupted me... so here's the story with better pics involved...
For those who wanna skip the text, I wanted to get a sig and... Fucking mission accomplished!
For those interested, it's a damn long story... but fuck it, might as well tell it!
Maiden were scheduled to appear for their "induction" into/onto the Rockwalk of Fame in front of the Guitar Center store on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood at 7Pm. My brother and I decided to case the joint around 5PM to see what the situation would be like. Well after talking to some GC employees, it turns out that the majority of the event would be a private affair INSIDE the store to authorized personnel only. Maiden would be bringing many guests of their own, and the rest would predominately be GC employees.... BOLLOCKS!
Not deterred, we began an aggressive grovel campaign to weasle our way into getting my bass signed.... the GC managers were having none of it.... However, as a consolation prize, they DID say perhaps they'd ask and if it was Kosher, they'd "find" me outside, grab my bass, bring it in to 'arry and have him sign it, and then bring it back to me. Jeepers. That sounds dandy. But if that was my only option, I'd take it.
We spent about an hour and a half stating our case to any and all of the GC 19 year-old staff... And made some friends at the same time. One manager was cool and passed me along to the event's PR head. He gave me the same "hand off" option outside... However at this point, we were thick as theives with the GC people, so I decided the best strategy was to "act" like we belonged there. So we assumed the mashing of their hands into cement was going to happen outside were they'd set up these barricades, so we positioned ourselves inside the roped off area next to the sound dude playing Maiden through a small mixer and manning the one lone Mic for any speech making to be had at the event.
Since I'm a devote Maiden nut, I know their whole history, where they eat, you name it... I can also pick their manager, Rod Smallwood, out of a crowd when all of the screaming prepubescent rabid fans missed him. When the time was just write, I walked up to him outside and showed him my tribute P-Bass and quickly explained its history and my mission. He thought it was a good story and said "Well, Steve's inside right now, let's go bring it to him!"
Fucking hell right let's bring it!
My brother was quick on his toes to pull in tow behind me as we bolted indoors past the security dudes... I just innocently pointed at Rod showing "Hey I'm with him!" and they let us in! Rod took the bass up to Steve in the "Green Room" and we waited... 3 minutes later Rod came down with it. And there was Steve's sig... and something else? What the fuck did he write? I thanked Rod and then got the approval from the GC folk that fuck we were in, might as well let us stay at this point...
That's where the fun began.
Now inside, we discovered that the band had already arrived in a back door and were milling around or up in the green room. After a short moment, Nicko walked passed, and soon after Davey and Janick... too cool. Then as they were preparing to do the ol' hand in the mud trick, the band started filing down the stairs. That was when I approached Steve with the signed bass for a little thanks/chat.
Thanks for my nimble fingered bro for snapping these pics under duress...
After finally shaking the hand of the man that "taught" me bass for the last 20-25 years, I felt I had put the icing on the cake of this "project guitar" of mine... Then it was just enjoying the fact that we were in this private event with ALL of the Maiden dudes...
We tried having some dolt take a snap of us and it's always poorly composed, so I usually opt to just do it myself, and they're ALWAYS more interesting because of that. Davey is just awesome, we talked to him for several minutes and he's a genuine nice guy.
Now in the thick of it, I decided to show off my handy work to some of the other blokes... They were all individually impressed with the craftmanship (read GMW paintjob here....).
Now how's THAT for a shit-eating grin!
This was just too fun... we also brought along a few vintage tour programs and I managed to have each member sign my "World Slavery Tour" program on their individual portrait page... I also gave my brother one of my duplicate "Somewhere On Tour" programs and he got all the band's sigs on the cover... that's his favorite Maiden album, so I thought he should have it. 8)
THEN, my brother started getting real wise and pulled down an entire hanging promotional Maiden poster for the Rockwalk signing event... he got everyone to sign that as well... So we really milked the signing aspects...
Adrian is Rob's (my bro's) favorite in the band so we HAD to talk with him for a extended period as well. Rob was quite pleased as you can see...
Oh yea, and the band WAS there for that silly Rockwalk thingy....
Now here's the ONLY hitch to all of these festivities... I asked good ol' 'arry just what the hell he wrote above his name... "All the Best" well thanks man, but it's not entirely my ideal dream headstock logo. IF I were to have it as an ideal, I would perhaps remove the "All the Best" portion of the sig and add in my planned "Smily Eddie" to complete the headstock logo...
Something like that, for example...
Okay, how good is it to be me right now.
