Now it's my turn to place additions, basically about backstage stuff, experience and impressions I'd like to share. The stuff that was left behind of the Artyom's part. So here's the story from the beginning.

Me and Artyom, as the most stubborn Russian fans, decided to travel so St. Petersburg to see the band. 8 hours of drunken train journey (we got ourselves filled with beer and spend a half of the night running to the toilet and back) — and we arrived to St.P that met us with its disgusting weather.

Mike's backstage pass.

We got to DS Jubileinyi at like 12:00. Ed Ratnikov, the head of T.C.I. (the promoting agency that organized the Russian dates of Motorhead) was already there, and a bunch of Russian dudes who were going to work onstage today was there too. Artyom was assigned to manage those guys because he saw the band several times, knows em personally and speaks fluent English. I joined the Russian technician crew and got my backstage pass.

The gate of the venue was covered with massive amount of snow so a truck wouldn't have been able to get close to the gate. We had to take spades and clean the path, so I was feeling like a fucking ace of spades, ha-ha! We were told that the Motorhead buses will arrive at 13:00, but seemed that were delaying. While aimless hanging around and bullshit chatting with Artyom, he adjusted my pass and grinning broadly, said: "I congratulate you on the joining Motorhead technicians!" Oh yeah, it was a pretty solemn moment, haha! The pass was bouncing on my chest like some honor military award, and I thought: "Hell, I'm finally gonna see the band personally!"

Finally at 14:00, the Motorhead truck and the buses arrived, and the work began. We started to get cooking like cunts — getting the equipment out of the truck and getting it to the stage and to the place that was supposed to be the Motorhead kitchen.

Tony at work.

I was rolling and dragging those containers and thought: "Yep, this is the shadow side of rock'n'roll. Somebody has to play, somebody has to install equipment." It was the very first time I did that sort of work and it's been very interesting to me — assembling the light stacks, etc, etc.

So I was working onstage, Artyom was running to the left and to the right, controlling this and that. A couple of hours passed, and the first musician who appeared inside the venue was Mikkey Dee. The venue itself is a big sport palace having several skating-rinks inside of it, and Mikkey noticed that. As a definite hockey maniac, he decided to use an opportunity to hit the ice and asked a pair of skates of his size.

Mikkey didn't seem to be busy or in a hurry. So I thought it was a good moment to give him my present. I presented Mikkey a Russian army helmet I brought with me from Moscow. The drummer got slightly surprised with such an... unusual present. I dunno if he could find a way to use the helmet with the max efficiency, but Mikkey said he'll play hockey wearing it. Whoa!!! In any case, it was a real heavy metal present, apparently.

Videograb. Mikkey and Mike.

We left our work for some time in order to chat with Mikkey. I saw the band live at once when they performed in Moscow 3 years ago. But now it was the very first time for me to meet them personally. Mikkey Dee turned out to be definitely an excellent guy. The legendary Motorhead drummer is not arrogant at all but very friendly. It was like good friend's conversation. Basically we chatted about hockey, about our preferences a lot, and we got to know that Mikkey is crazy about ice hockey as much as we are crazy about Motorhead! Maybe I should have taken a recorder and recorded the conversation, it could be an extremely interesting interview. But Artyom told me before: "Don't strain yourself with the interview, man. Your memories are the only stuff that matters!" And he was actually right.

Another point why I liked Mikkey so much is that he's the Motorhead member whom I was able to understand best. He's a Swedish man, and English is not his native language, so it was much easier for me to talk to him. Artyom's English is fluent, that bastard has no problems with keeping a conversation, but my English speaking is pretty weak, it's much worse than my writing, and I could hardly talk to Lemmy and Phil who are the real Brits.

Then we had to return to our work. Time was passing, the loaded containers were getting on stage, the empty ones were getting off — and the work was going to its end.

Loud music was turned on (AC/DC), and it got kinda difficult to hear and understand the guys. Despite that thing they were trusting me to do important tasks — I myself attached the cords to Lemmy's and Phil's mics and that made me one head taller than before :-) So I shared the responsibility for Motorhead St. Petersburg performance! I took my small part in the world's rock'n'roll history, oh me! Ha-ha!

Finally, about 16:30 - 17:00 (didn't trace the time clearly), a man looking like Lemmy entered the gate of DS Jubileinyi. Accidentally I was near the entrance at this moment. I could not believe my fucking eyes. I rubbed em and looked again, and yes — it wasn't optical illusion but real Lemmy Kilmister with his signature features: moustache, white boots and cowboy hat!!!

The living rock'n'roll legend was heading directly to the stage. I overtook him and said "Hello Lemmy, it's a fucking big pleasure to meet you!" "Thank you", Lemmy answered, we shook hands and the veteran of rock'n'roll continued to walk to the stage.

Mikkey at work.

After some time, everything was ready for the soundcheck. Mikkey started to pound on his kit first — drum thunder was all over the venue. The drummer probably was in a good energetic mood, he was pounding so fucking hard — crazy doublebass beating, cascades of sound shots — Mikkey was doing an endless solo.

I've seen many metal gigs, and none of the drummers I saw had such a fast, heavy, powerful, fierce drumming style as Mikkey has! A real bloody monster! He was continuing to kick the drumkit and ass, making us think that he's like a machine and that he'll fucking crash the kit! Yeah, Mikkey took out all the questions — about the best drummer Motorhead ever had and about being the world's best drummer. We clearly felt why Lemmy's proud to have him in the band. Lem is not exaggerating, not at all, when labelling Mikkey as the best drummer in the world.

Lemmy and Mikkey.

Artyom was filming the soundcheck from the place that was pretty far away from the stage, and I was onstage standing just like 3 metres away from Lemmy, near the light stack. Rock'n'roll gods were delivering their music — Shoot You In The Back, Overnight Sensation and No Class. And I thought that dreams turn into reality sometimes... I just wanted these moments to last forever.

Pretty soon I nearly started to starve whereas I didn't know when T.C.I. will feed up the Russian staff. So I headed to the Motorhead kitchen and asked the cook Mat, who is an excellent friendly guy, always smiling, to get me some food. He told me to ask Hobbs for the permission, and I did, and Hobbs said OK. So Mat gave me a plate of some stuff, kind of spaghetti, and I sat down with a couple of Motorhead roadies, Mat and Leo. Those several hours we spent onstage working together made us real friends.

Lemmy and Mat.

By that moment the doors of the venue were already opened and the lobby was getting filled with headbangers who came to see a real rock'n'roll performance.

Later on, Phil appeared in the kitchen to eat something before the show started. I was pretty happy :-) That was a full Motorhead backstage experience! Being a crazy Motorhead fan, it actually was my dream to meet the band personally and shake their hands! And I was thinking, damn, my dream turned into reality just perfectly! Yeah, that's me sitting in the Motorkitchen with Motorroadies eating Motorfood and drinking Motorcoke! Not many of you had the same situation. It was so cool to realize that you're inside that big family called Motorhead. And it was an extremely pleasant feeling to taste a part of their regular day-to-day tour life that does not appear on TV screens and magazine pages.

We were allowed to film 3 first songs of the gig, and of course we just could not leave this opportunity unused. So I grabbed a videocamera and sat down next to Tony behind the mixing desk. That was an excellent position for filming — the podium was placed in the middle of the pit, so it was feeling like being on an island in the sea of public.

After some time, the trio appeared on the stage, and the show started with the new hymn We Are Motorhead. Sound (usual thing at Motorhead gigs) was killing. It was as loud as engines of a 747 on take off.

The incredible loudness started to cause vibration — the wooden podium where the desk was located and the bench where Tony and me were sitting got shaky. Tony didn't give a damn, but the camera started shaking, too, and that was fucking up filming. So I had to rise from the bench, legs absorbed the vibration, and I continued to film normally.

When Lemmy and Co finished to play No Class, I switched off the camera, locked it up inside the dressing room and decided to get a bit closer to the rock'n'roll gods. They were playing I'm So Bad... at that moment.

I wanted to stand where I was during the soundcheck but I didn't know that Tim Butcher occupies this position during the show itself. When I approached, he pointed me to disappear. So I stepped backward and was kindly invited by Mat and Leo to stand with em behind the desk.

A shot from the desk.

It's a great feeling — being privileged to see the gig of the world's best band from the backstage! And it differs from being in the pit, differs a lot. First of all, that's not so loud, when the show was ended, my ears weren't ringing. Then, time's running much faster. Hour-and-a-half seemed just like 10 mins for me, the time passed fast as a shark!

As for the concert itself, Artyom described it quite well in the previous part, so I have nothing to add. Just wanna say I got wonderful memories. (When I saw Motorhead 3 years ago in Moscow, I got so drunk, all I remembered is that the gig was excellent and loud as hell. I also almost fell down into the pit from the balcony where I was during the Orgasmatron song, because of crazy headbanging. My buddy caught the collar of my leather and saved my ass.)

The period after the gig was a bit hectic for me. The thing was, I had my train to Moscow leaving in 1 hour! That was the only thing that sucked this brilliant, unforgettable evening. Artyom didn't have to care about it — he already had an agreement to return to Moscow in the Motorhead bus. Probably, it would have been possible for me, too, but there was no free space in the bus. That kind of concerned me, but I already had enough of the stuff I was only dreaming about! And more stuff like travelling in the Motorbus would have probably made me feel like I'm in heaven and and I would have ended by losing my mind :-)

When I headed to the dressing room, I was immediately attacked by several chicks asking to help them to take pictures with Lemmy. But I could not help them with that and had no time for them (shit, shit, shit!!!) so I referred the chicks to Artyom to solve all the questions with him.

Lemmy — smoking&drinking never gonna stop!

So I had to move my butt really fast. I took my presents I brought from Moscow and got inside of the dressing room. Lem was smoking & drinking, the things next to him were a couple of bottles of Jack Daniels and a groupie. I presented Lemmy an admiral hat, and it seemed that he was very pleased to get it. I was very glad — it was the right choice of present for Lemmy.

Then I turned to Phil Campbell and gave him a present that was prepared for him. It was a cool model of gun shell — slick piece of metal heavy enough to crush some skull. Phil thanked me and said that he'll give it to his wife as a X-mas present, because the thin shell can be used as a dildo. That gave us some good laugh. But after a couple of moments, he and the manager started to examine the shell fixedly. Probably they got afraid I presented em a real shell. I started to explain that it's just a model used for teaching soldiers and it's absolutely safe. Dunno if they understood me, because as I said, my English is not ideal at all.

Mikkey was talking to a Russian girl who sat on the floor next to him. And the thing was, she didn't speak English at all! So I had to work as an interpreter a bit, but I wasn't able to stay longer in the dressing room due to extreme time shortage.

Damn, I wanted to hang out with the guys a bit more, but shit, life's a bitch, train to Moscow could not wait. (It was one of my faults, I should have bought a ticket for a train leaving only next day). It was so tragic moment, I almost got a heart attack, but got myself together said good bye to the band and that I'm gonna see em in Moscow again the day after tomorrow. They asked me if I was in the guestlist, I said I wasn't, and they added me immediately. Afterwards I left the dressing room, grabbed my bag and ran out of the building. I was afraid it'll be late for the train.

After a moment later, I realized that I forgot my camera in the band dressing room and my cap was left in the room of the Russian staff that was working for Motorhead this evening. So I had to meet the band once again, mumbled my excuses and picked up the damned camera. It was hectic as shit. A logical outcome of the situation was that I had to leave the dressing room just "one more fucking time", and that gave me another doze of concern.

After a sleepy train journey, I returned to Moscow tired and happy. It felt like I was out for a couple of months whereas it was just one day!!!

At this time, the Motorhead buses were on their road to Moscow. Russian capital was going to meet Motorhead the second time. The first one was 3 years ago, in 1997.

Read the next part for the Moscow stuff and other excellent photos and videograbs.