Four weeks (more or less)in November

[Ashlie]

Hope you have a safe trip, see you in Brussels with your t-shirt!

[Scorpions Truck]

Bon soire Geneve or in other words, I am here.
Now parked up near the Arena to wait until Monsieur Charles Aznavour´s load out is done, heard he did a phantastic show tonite and the audience gave him standing ovations.

Let´s hope You Swiss Scorpions fans can top this and pull the roof off from the Arena tomorrow night

C Ya at the show
Godd night

[Gabi6912]

Hi Ben,

Do you watch the shows?
Do you have time to check the cities where you are?

[Delphine]

Good morning Ben !

I'm happy that you have a safe trip. Unfortunately the weather here is very bad today. Wind-rain-wind-rain... , yesterday was ok.

So, I'm sure that the audience will be better than for Aznavour Aznavour is "un grand monsieur de la chanson française" but like many rich french people, he lives in Swizertland (in the Geneva's canton), so he was at home.

BTW, see you very soon.

[Scorpions Truck]

About one hour before The Scorpions enter the stage here´s a great merci beaucoup to Delphine who pruchased a french UMTS Stick for me which enables me to stay online in France for the next few weeks. This makes sure I will be independent from public wifi hotspots

Thanks a lot Delphine!!!!!!


@Gabi, Normally I watch all shows cuz I am working during the shows. I assist the crew for example when the drum riser is lifted for the intro sequence and when James is playing his drum solo. Beside this I am standby to jump in quick in case there are some problems with the follow-spot-ops, the video camera operator etc

Sometimes when my schedule allows I go downtown the cities we visit and walk around but after all the years in this biz I´ve been to a lot of places. So mostly after the load in in the mroning I go to sleep after breakfast and relax for the next trip. Usually I always leave a city straight after a show to the next venue, I prefer to be better way too early at a gig than too late
Tonite I will go straight to Paris for the next gig we have Tuesday and after this there are some 1700km to Lisbon. This means no time for sight seeing or things like this in Lisbon. Although after Lisbon I just got two days to reach Lyon which will be another 1500km distance to travel. It´s most important to do all the rides according to the lay about driving and rest times, so sonetimes this is realy a game like clock tetris, I´ve to be there in time but keep my times and watch that I´ll have enough brakes in it. Some parts of a tour we have distances to travel which we cannot do with one driver, than there is another driver flying in and we drive with two men to the next place. Best example for this was last year when we played in Chisinau/Moldovia on a thursday evening and the next show was in Amneville at the next sunday, If You consider there was some 2600km to drive plus the border crossing in to the EU community at the Romanian customs and the ridiculous road conditions in Romania that trip was a nonstop ride with two drivers all the way. Same thing we had to do when we had the Odessa show and than straight to Zurich at the end of tese trips we didn´t feel our arses no more
On the other hand its possible I have some four or five days off before the next show just like a few weeks ago when comin from Donezk to Cluj in Romania. Terms like this give me the chance to do sightseeing, relaxing or doing some other stupid things like doing my laundry, surf the web and bother fans with stories from the road

[Gabi6912]

For me your work sounds quite interesting, but extremely tiring.
How long have you been working for Scorpions?

[Kristof]

Thanks Ben for starting this topic!...Very interesting;now we can find out hows life is on the road,...hope you can tell some stories when you(re here in Brussels,...
Maybe a great idea for some other members of the crew to join here,...

[Scorpions Truck]

Hi fans, Geneva is done and we had a great show there. At least for me it wasn´t surprising cuz the 9000 people in the Geneva Arena pushed the band all the time. Also the circumstances for the sCREWpions have been excellent, Catering was delicious, the local security did a brilliant job and the stage hands were working their arses off with a lot of idealism and fun in the work they did. All those people have been booked by the local promoter so here´s a big THANKS to the entire Geneva team,

Scorpions Truck doors were closed around 02:30h this morning and now I am on my way to Paris - can´t wait to reach this desasterous traffic when entering downtown Monday afternoon

@Gabi; I am now continuoulsy trucking for the Scorpions since 5 years and in this time I missed round about 6 or 7 shows in Europe. I do not do trucking on the oversea shows, here the equipment is transported by plane or by sea containers and then locally transported by trucks from the country the band is playing.

When I am not touring with the Scorpions I do tours with different other bands all over Europe. I´ve done nearly all genres of music tours for example I was on tour with Mike Oldfield, Toto, Depeche Mode, George Michael, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Dream Theatre, Barbra Streisand, Whitesnake, Radio Head, Earth Wind & Fire, Bryan Adams, BAP, Cirque du Soleil.... just to name a few of the big tours as well there have been club tours with Ministry, Willie Nelson, Floggin´ Molly, Gregorian, various tours with the Buena Vista Social Club from Cuba and also countless Musical tours with shows like We will Rock You, Grease, Evita, Cats, Beauty and the Beast, West Side Story, Dancing performances like Swanlake on Ice, The Alvyn Ailey American Dance Theatre or even classic concert tours with symphonic orchestras.

At the moment the plan is after the Scorpions Tour is finished for this year end of november I will go to Italy with an Argentinian Tango Show named Tánguera for a couple of gigs and then go home for X-Mas. Hopefully January 2012 will be off for me to have some holidays before back on th road again in February ´til March with Rammstein. April 2012 is again with the Scorpions, no clue which countries and cities will be booked further on. At least I´m quite hopeful there´s gonna be a lot more European shows next year, there are enough places the band didn´t play yet on the current tour.


At least there´s one little thing I´d like to mention: I received countless requests by personal messages on this forum as well through my facebook account about showdates. I am not willing and I am not authorized to take part in discussions or speculations about non confrimed upcoming shows of the Scorpions in future. I don´t officially know anything more than You fans around the world about countries the Scorpions are playing or not. It´s not my job spreading rumours so all requests regarding this are hereby automaticaly answered with:

I do not have a clue.

Reliable answers to this You can find here:

http://www.the-scorpions.com/english/tourdates.asp

As long shows are posted on this website those gigs usually will happen

[katerina]

...Terms like this give me the chance to do sightseeing, relaxing or doing some other stupid things like doing my laundry, surf the web and bother fans with stories from the road

Hello Ben, thanks for bothering us with stories from the road.
So, you won't join us at the meeting in Brussels because there is the show in Rouen. I'm wondering, would you have Bock to come by the doors before the concert to say hi, or will you be working in the venue already?

[Scorpions Truck]

...Terms like this give me the chance to do sightseeing, relaxing or doing some other stupid things like doing my laundry, surf the web and bother fans with stories from the road

Hello Ben, thanks for bothering us with stories from the road.
So, you won't join us at the meeting in Brussels because there is the show in Rouen. I'm wondering, would you have Bock to come by the doors before the concert to say hi, or will you be working in the venue already?

Hi Katerina,

probably no meeting possible before the Brussels show but why not after show to say hello at stage left.. That is what Ya see on Your right hand side when Ya watch the stage....

Confused about that? Hope not...

[Delphine]

]Thanks a lot Delphine!!!!!!

Bitte sehr !!

...bother fans with stories from the road

You bother nobody, it's the reverse ! It's very interesting to know how it's happened inside the tour.

BTW drive safetly and take care of the radars on the french motorway (there are a lot of everywhere )

[cameleon]

Hang on Ben !!! ' november rains' but now it's SCORPIONS sting...on the road.... be carefull or it will be acoustica (also ok !) or only voices (acapella) so i prefer the rocksound

cu soon in Belgium with the famous FOS you never ever forget

yeahhhhhhhh

let's BURN THE SKY FOR ALL THESE Family Of Spiders on the road AND HOME !!!!!!!

[Gabi6912]

Vov!
Thank you for answering my curious questions.
What a great artists on your work-list!
I like many of them, such as:
Mike Oldfild,
Brian Adams,
Genesis,
Ramstein, etc, etc.

Were you in Bratislava, and Budapest with the Scorps in June?
They were so fantastic shows, I was there with friends.

[Scorpions Truck]

Yes I was in Bratislava and Budapest. both shows have been cool, just the cops in Slovakia did anything NOT be get any kind of good wishes from me. I´ve been stopped early show day morning near Trencin coming from Ostrava where we played th day before. First the started a big discussion in Slovakian and I didn´t understand any word they´ve said. When asking them to speak english or german they explained that we are in Slovakia and if I travel this country I have to speak their language..... Really nice and polite.....
At the end they charged me the ridiculously expensive ammount of 1850 Euros cuz I did not have a slovakian toll box in the truck. All the shops and service stations providing such a box have been closed that night so I could´nt get one and right before I´ve reached an open fuel station providing it the cops pulled me out. These "gentlemen" exactly knew about the opening times of the stations and where waiting for the truck drivers to fine them just a few km before the first reachable open station. After they charged me the extra fee of about 400 Euro for the road tax they gave me a money transfer sheet to pay another 1450 Euros within 15 days to the slovakian government. As a deposit the kept my driver licence and gave me a document which allowed me to drive only IN Slovakia until the 1450,- Euro fine is paied, then go to the Trencin police office and get my original driver licence back. Of course Murphy´s Law striked me cuz it was a saturday and the Budapest show was the next monday so no chance to do it through a bank. So my off day at sunday after the Bratislava show I spent in the car of a Bratislavian runner driving a 125 km to Trencin, pay a 1450 Euro fine and drive back to Bratislava to get the truck and drive to Budapest to load in Monday morning

Until today I might mention this hot summer weekend in slovakia was the "best" I had this year.
Without the help of the Bratislava promoter team I should have to go by cab or train to Trencin so here´s a big THANKS to Marek an Milan from Bratislava bringing me to Trencin and translating for me at the Police office to get rid of my money and my driver licence back. Finally I invited the cops from the police station to the next Scorpions show in Slovakia whenever it will be in future just to show them what I understand of hospitalitiy and kindness to stangers

[katerina]

Oh my God Talking about good luck when just arriving in foreign countries...

Hi Katerina,

probably no meeting possible before the Brussels show but why not after show to say hello at stage left.. That is what Ya see on Your right hand side when Ya watch the stage....

Confused about that? Hope not...

Sorry for my late reply, but I had to think a lot first, this "right" and "left" thing is so confusing for women. Next time you can use "Rudolf side" and "Matthias side", that's really easier. ( )
Ok, we'll be there! (If they don't empty the venue immediately after the show, like sometimes in Germany)

[Scorpions Truck]

O my God!!! left right center back what is it?????
I think I will try to do something really special. I´ll label the stage side with tape and write "truck driver meet and greet" on it, but to get access to this You will need to buy super special tickets for some 777 Euros and all You get for this is the view to a man looking like a grizzly bear mother when getting too close to the bear kid

NO!!!!! NOT TRUE!!!!

Anybody taking this serious is wrong!!!!
just kidding cuz I had a clown for breakfast this morning

Just come and see me, I am not the smallest guy in the building

[Guest]

I really hope those of you who go to the shows in central Europe can spot our Scorpion Truck Driver to give him a big hug and wish him strength and motivation for his valuable work !! Keep the wheels rolling !

[Scorpions Truck]

Already arrived in Paris, ready for an off day tomorrow which gives me time to visit some very old friends of the life before beeing a truck driver. There will be phantastic food like "le boudin avec choucroutte" accompanied with one or more bottles of Kronenbourg and after this singin songs from the old days, straight to our motto:
peu important ou, peu important quand....

[skorpsfan1]

Hi Ben, I live in the US so I'll probably never get to meet you, but I wanted to tell you that I'm enjoying your topic. It's interesting to see the tour from your point of view and read your anecdotes of life on the road.

[Gabi6912]

I really hope those of you who go to the shows in central Europe can spot our Scorpion Truck Driver to give him a big hug and wish him strength and motivation for his valuable work !! Keep the wheels rolling !

Be assured Lenita, I will do my best for Ben in the deal as I can.
I am always ready for friendly hugs, and handshakes.

Unfortunately, cops perfectly can follow "the big politic" in our area.
It's a shame, but a fact that a similar story might have happened to Ben in Hungary, too.
I am glad that it didn't happen, allthough I know, transport is a disaster on our roads.