Flex Mentallo

Harumph! You never can! (I like flowers though)

Take your time. No need to rush. Need is driven by the brevity of life Well spoken! "The majority of mortals complain bitterly of the spitefulness of Nature, because we are born for a brief span of life, because even this space that has been granted to us rushes by so speedily and so swiftly that all save a very few find life at an end just when they are getting ready to live. Nor is it merely the common herd and the unthinking crowd that bemoan what is, as men deem it, an universal ill; the same feeling has called forth complaint also from men who were famous. It was this that made the greatest of physicians exclaim that "life is short, art is long" Lucius Annaeus Seneca On the Shortness of Life

I'll second that! Great books Scott!

Steven, even by the very high standard set on the boards it has to be said you have some transcendental books! Just plain awesome!

‘British normal life didn't work for me anymore. ‘I tried telling people at home what had happened out there but they couldn't understand. They nodded and agreed but they couldn't see it and I could see that they couldn't see it. ‘I would break down in tears at the wrong moments, excuse myself and go to the toilet to sort myself out. It's OK. That's a normal reaction. I'm fine now. Mostly. I was only there for a weekend.’ Next: The "Help" Album.

‘The Serbian officer in command was a woman who had aged badly but was probably in her late twenties. She spoke reasonable English and was dressed exactly like so many rock chicks at London's nightclubs of the time - bleached blonde permed hair, too much make up, tight leggings and thigh high boots. The only difference was the blue/grey camouflage Serbian Army jacket she wore over the top. ‘Following her were two or three soldiers in the same camouflage pattern uniforms but without the leggings and thigh boots. They had Kalashnikovs casually slung over their shoulders. She smiled at us. They didn't. ‘She went up and down the line of us, examining passports, asking general conversational questions and being ever so charming. Her unshaven escorts did not charm us but stayed back, smoking and eyeing us up and down, no doubt with their trigger fingers itching. ‘She eventually bid us a happy journey. We were keen to get out of there and quickly got back in the Land Rovers. ‘Back on our way, the British soldiers told us: "She's one we'll be hunting down after the war. She's had plenty of people shot on the side of the road. She wouldn't touch you guys but we didn't want to mention it before the check in case you got freaked out."

‘The UN had arranged with the Serbian command that we were coming through so nothing should go wrong for us but anytime you have to meet a group of armed and drunken murderers is cause for concern. ‘We were due to pass through four Serbian checkpoints. They were imaginatively known as Sierra One, Two, Three and Four by our UN hosts. ‘At Sierra Four we were stopped and asked to get out and line up on the roadside.

‘At the fire station, Andy and Bob set some of our gear up for a quiet jam. We didn't bring Ampegs and Marshalls down here so one of the locals was going out to pick up a little guitar amp from his friend's house. Sponder went with them out of curiosity. ‘When he got back he told us that at the friend's house, all the family were in one room with a nine-volt battery running a single Christmas tree light bulb taped to a mirror to illuminate the room. They invited him in and offered him food and drink. ‘We felt unable to help these people. Sponder gave this household all the British money he had on him. They cried in gratitude but nothing could help them really. Back home we had lit houses, CD players, nights out and what we took most for granted, relative personal safety. ‘These people had none of that. They all had crippled, missing or dead relatives. They lived in squalor and fear. ‘Yet, you know the odd thing? They were more alive, more happy for the moment and more generous with what little they had than anyone back home. Their human spirit was unbroken. ‘These people smiled. They were probably not far from clinical starvation and yet they offered Sponder food. All the civilians we met out there were like that.

‘Bruce and Alex were going to do an acoustic session at an orphanage. ‘These kids had all lost their parents in the war. Many of them had seen them murdered in front of them. Some were still in shock, just staring straight ahead. They'd been like that for months. Others clung to us and wouldn't let go. Maybe they knew we'd be getting out of here soon. ‘There were two shell holes in the playground. The people running the orphanage told us the Serbs had fired the first shell during playtime. Then they put the second one in when the ambulance crew arrived. It was a cold attack and was calculated to cause the most possible casualties amongst children and non-combatants. I wasn't emotionally prepared for this at all. ‘In the evening we went to a local fire station, where UN firemen and other workers were having a small party for us. I'm not sure what the real address was but our British Army hosts knew it as 'Sniper Alley'. I resisted asking how it got its name. ‘It was a dual carriageway that was largely deserted as dusk approached. There were burnt out cars and rubble across the road and its pavements. ‘The sensible route to take, we were told, was just blasting down it at full pelt while also swerving left and right. I've been in cars before when people drive too fast, sometimes because they're drunk or stupid, often a combination of the two. Somehow it's even scarier when a sensible and sober driver does it deliberately because dangerous driving is infinitely safer than safe driving in this topsy-turvy world

"Scream for me Sarajevo!" called Bruce, and they screamed for him. They screamed in a hysterical Beatles style all the way through. It was a release for them. It didn't matter what we did, they just screamed. ‘After the show we had a quick few drinks with the locals and some UN soldiers. I got chatting with another British squaddie. He had a lot of respect for us. "We never thought you lot would come out here in the first place then after this afternoon, we thought you'd be straight out!" he was laughing to himself, over what seemed to be a very private joke. "Why, what happened this afternoon?" I asked, my innocence getting me further into trouble each time I opened my mouth. "You know, when they shelled this place earlier?" he said, amused. ‘He told me that the Serbs had fired two mortar rounds at the front of the venue this afternoon. They didn't want to kill us, as that wouldn't look good on them (not just the bad international press but they probably had a fair few Maiden fans in their own army too). They just wanted to scare us off. They simply didn't want the people of Sarajevo to have a night of rock.

‘Andy and Bob got our guitars, drums and amps in one APC and we mostly squeezed in the back of the other for the journey into Sarajevo itself. This was quite exciting. Bruce was right. We were going in a tank after all! ‘Sponder had borrowed a Kevlar helmet and was looking out of the open top of the APC. I had a peek too but a soldier inside called me to sit down. "I wouldn't poke my head out there without a helmet if I were you" he said earnestly. "They (the Serbs) sometimes snipe around here. They're watching us all the time. Never forget that." ‘Then we did our gig. ‘We were the only foreign rock band to play in Sarajevo during the siege. Joan Baez was the only other foreign artist to perform there in the four years.

‘We drove on through the night and just as day was breaking and I'd nodded off a little for the first time, we pulled up on the side of Mount Igman and saw Sarajevo lying in the valley below us. ‘Daylight revealed that many of the buildings we'd passed had been riddled with shell and bullet holes. We were now among a small grouping of partially demolished houses at a Bosnian Army checkpoint. Soldiers and civilians shuffled around in the mud looking exhausted. There had been fighting here last night. ‘An NBC television crew turned up to record our arrival but caused instant offence to the Bosnian army by filming at the checkpoint. ‘We were told that taking photographs in a war zone was not a good idea, especially if any of the subjects could be identifiable military targets.

"What are the stars for?" I asked innocently. "Yes, I thought someone might ask that. As I said until recently we were getting a bit quieter. The stars are firefights we've had reported today. There's been a quite a few as you can see..." He looked at the very starry map. So did we. ‘Now it was dark we could hear occasional small arms fire in the distance. This was the best time to set off they reckoned. We'd be less visible, that's what they said. ‘I don't think it was only me among us now that was doubting the wisdom of their bright yellow colour scheme. Our truck had Road Runner painted on it too. ‘Perhaps the beers we'd consumed made us temporarily think this was all going to be fine still, so we got in the ex-military truck. The night was freezing cold. "Do you speak any Serbo-Croat?" Dave asked me. "Da, ja govorim malo srpsko-hrvatski," I said slowly, pleased with my homework. "When we stop at the local army checkpoints later, don't speak any Serbo-Croat to them. Ever. No eye contact. You don't want to get into conversation with them, you don't need to make friends. Most of them are constantly drunk too, on Slivovic. We just keep quiet and speak when we're spoken to."

‘They painted all their trucks in bright yellow with cartoon characters on the sides at a time when every other vehicle on the road was in dark green camouflage. They were doing such a saintly task but worryingly for me, they were all quite clearly insane. They'd take us through, they said. After dinner we had a briefing from Squadron Leader Dave Tisdale, an RAF officer. He took us to a lecture room on camp with a big map of Bosnia on the wall. It had brightly coloured star stickers all over parts of it. ‘He gave us a background as to the war, showed us the route we'd be taking and told us that until recently they'd contained most of the small in-fighting. Did we have any questions? ‘I had quite a few actually.

‘When we landed at Split airport we were met by Colonel Stuart Green, a British Army officer who was very friendly, full of smiles and lots of hand shaking. "Thank you so much for coming out here, really so jolly good of you," he gushed. "But you've had a wasted journey, I'm very sorry to say. The show's off, it's all gone a bit hairy out there. We can't guarantee you safe passage into Sarajevo anymore so I'll get you on the next flight back. But really thank you so much for coming this far". ‘Bruce had met some folk from a charity group called The Serious Road Trip. They did amazing work. They were mostly foreigners (Brits, Aussies and Kiwis) and they drove truckloads of supplies into worn torn areas then performed circus routines for the local children.

‘Back when I was in Bruce Dickinson's band, I woke up way too early one day with the phone ringing. It was Bruce. "Morning!" he said chirpily. I looked through the curtains. He was right. "Yeah, morning!" I agreed. "We've got another gig come in," he said. "Great news," I replied. I love doing gigs. "It's Sarajevo," he said. This was back in 1994 and even in my blurred mind alarms bells started ringing. "Aren't they having a war?" I asked. "Yeah, sort of... but it's all good. We're under UN protection and we might get a go in a tank!" he enthused. "Are you up for it?" "Errr.... OK then," I tailed off. It was like interrogation under sleep depravation. I'd have said anything to go back to bed right then and besides, I had always wanted a go in a tank. ‘When I woke up properly a bit later I thought about the strange conversation. Apparently it wasn't a dream. We were going to do a gig in war-torn Bosnia. ‘But it hadn't been in the news for a while and surely Bruce wouldn't be going anywhere properly dangerous. He's far from stupid. Most likely the war must have quietened down since the UN peacekeeping force had arrived... or so I thought. ‘So a couple of weeks after the initial call, we're getting ready to fly to Sarajevo. There were no direct flights (that should have rung more alarm bells), so we were flying to Split in Croatia from Birmingham International. Regular flight from a regular airport, it's all fine so far... ‘Just when we got on the plane it occurred to us, perhaps for the first time, that this might not really be all right. The plane was full of British soldiers, there were no holiday makers there. We were the only longhaired civilians on board. Everyone else on this plane was going to a war.

Osborne and Leeson then smuggled Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden into Sarajevo for a wartime concert called Rock Under Siege that Dickinson said years later, "was one of the most important of my life". Here is Dickinson’s bassist Chris Dale’s account of that epic journey.

Heavy Metal In the event, War Child never did open a trauma centre in Sarajevo. The focus of the war had shifted to Mostar, where they established a bakery. As Nigel put it "We thought, OK, we're baking bread. We're also distributing medicine. So what next? Why, music of course!" "I got hooked," says Leeson. "I don't know why. I used to come back and try to talk about concentration camps and mass rape and women and kids getting shelled an hour away by plane, and no one gave a monkey's. It drove me nuts. But while there in Sarajevo, among the first things I noticed was that whenever the electricity came on, you heard music, everywhere. Of course, it's obvious." Nigel is quoted as saying "Rock'n'roll is inherently democratic, whatever is done in its name. Against third-rate politics, in Bosnia and across Europe, we pitched first-rate music. If the local fascist politicians were going to have their speaker system in the John Major government and at the UN, then we were going to have our speaker system too." Here he is with Brian Eno in Mostar

O shut up.

Wow. Wanna sell it? He wont unless you can find a better Spokane for his pedigree type set! that def AINT gonna happen! PS get back to work on Serendip!! Can I get some sleep first? Being in the UK I often miss the late night conversations when the rest of you have obviously had one or two beers too many! I know because you start to slur your typing. Just catching up now...I certainly agree that this thread has taken off just recently! And if we can post books long held I still get to play! I'll be back to Serendip directly. Work first; play later.

Wow. Wanna sell it? He wont unless you can find a better Spokane for his pedigree type set!

Hybrid titles are interesting...