It was in Athens, Greece... I was traveling from show to show around the globe... There where more people like me, who did that. After a few shows you got to know a few of them and became very close... are you going to... have you been in... that kind of stuff..
After the show in Athens i went back to my hotel... A bloke i saw around at a few shows, got to me and ask me for a drink, or two... three... after a while he said that he had spare tickets for Moscow... just a few days ahead. Of course, i wanted them.. badly... Like a junky a bought my two shots for Moscow.
The Oozo and beer must had got me... i just bought them... no questions asked...
The next day i was on the plain back to the Netherlands where i reside. Shit... these are tickets for Moscow... just a few days... and it's in freaking communist Russia. I need a visa and normally it would take weeks, even months, before you got one...
A few hours later i landed on Schiphol Airport Amsterdam. I didn't take the train back to my hometown, but got straight to the Russian Embassey.
Once there... i had to wait... and wait... but finally it was my turn to procede...
I remember this as it was just yesterday...
I got there...
"I've got to have i visa... "
"Good.. comming to Russia is good... when do you wish to travel.."
"Tomorrow..."
"It's impossible sir... "
"I have to.. i am going to see Pink Floyd over there man... please... "
"No sir.. can't do that.. It have to go through the polit bureau in Moscow.."
"No fucking way man.. i need that visa... hell, i even join the communist party if you give me a visa... "
"Sir..."
"No don't sir me... i need that visa... what can i do to get one... do i have to give Lenin - God have mercy on his soul - a French Kiss or something? I'm going to see the Floyd two times in freaking Russia man... "
It took me two and a half hour of begging before i got my visa... And i went home...
The next day i fly to Moscow.. stepping out of the airplane and get inside the airport was an experience i never forget. Every ten meters there was a heavily armed person.. WOW... i had to walk through some kind of tunnel and got scared... never saw that much firepower in my whole life and i worked at the Dutch Army and never saw it there.. wow...
Finally.. in my hotel... five stars... yeah.. errr... NOT!
I went to the first show and it was great as usual... only thing was that it seemed that on every visitor there was one soldier (or agent) standing guard...
Next day i went to show number two.. and it was funny... a few people pointed towards me... people with big white letters on the back of there shirts saying "Security"... WOW... i'm in trouble i thought... here i am... in freaking Russia, alone...
It was nothing like that... one of the people i recognized from other shows came towards me... I GOT MYSELF A BACKSTAGE TICKET AND A MEETING WITH THE BAND... GREAT!!!!! WOW... o how much i loved Russia that day...
Seeing the show so many times, i never saw it from a backstage kind of view... it was awesome... i can't tell what i saw... it was just.... amazing... best day ever of my life, except the birth of my children...
And it wasn't over.. i was told to meet the band after the show... thinking of it, i thought Dave, Rick and Nick would not be there... but they were really there... shaking my hand... talking to me (never knew what they were saying... i was just dumbstrucked)... it was the most beautiful experience of my life... All people were very kind and interested. Remember Nick asking me which shows i visited and which ones i was going to see..
In one word.. it was great... truly unbelievable, but great... and when ever i have a bad time in my life (and there are plenty) i just remember to that one special day... and the sun shines....
My experience in Moscow...
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