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The Endgame Tour - Europe

July 14, 2010 - Moscow, Russia - by Rikki Cameron [Production Assistant / Band Assistant]

Here we are at the end of our European Summer Tour of 2010. Show day #2 from Moscow, Russia. 2 more shows and we'll happily be back on American soil. I have come down to the venue early today to enjoy the peace and quiet and get some work done before the band and crew arrive. I spent several years working for the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio, quite often being the first one in and the last one out. I can't describe the calming effect it has on me, being here so early and watching a building slowly come to life. It starts slow, by mid day, things are going at a fairly fast pace, then it's show time and everything's going at full power. The building is filled with sweaty, excited people and the energy is amazing. Then you frantically hurry to get your job finished so that the night is over and you sit back and review the day. The place smells disgusting, lots of sweat, beer, etc and you'd never want to walk around without boots on, through all of the mess. But the building starts to take that calm again. It gets quiet, but remnants of that energy remains for hours. While just another day to me, to some people in that room, that was the greatest night of their life. Or something that will stay in their memory for a long time. Contributing even in the smallest way, is something that has always made me happy and many years ago, I decided that I never wanted to do anything else. I'm truly blessed to be one of the few who knows what they want out of life and has the opportunity to actually do it. I'm even more blessed to be doing with such a wonderful group of people. Now if I could be fortunate enough to have a blackberry that works all the time, I'd be the luckiest girl on the planet. ;)

Looking back at this year, it's really hard to try to put it all into prospective for everyone. From March 1st till July 17th (when we get home), with Megadeth, we will have done 65 shows in 37 different countries on 3 continents in 139 days. I wish I had a figure for the number of fans we've played to, but that number has to be so large that it makes my head hurt. In a good way, of course. We have played some of the best shows I've ever done, and also some of the worst, and at the end of the day, it's just another show. The fans went home happy, so it's all good. We've done lots of headliner shows, did a fantastic run in the US with Testament and Exodus. Played some amazing festivals here in Europe- Download, Sonisphere (8 of them actually), Tuska (Helsinki REALLY knows how to put on a metal fest! That was brilliant!) Getaway Rock Festival, and I'm sure there are others that my tired brain is not remembering. We've made history. It's still hard to digest this. We got on the stage, 7 times, with 3 of the biggest, most bad ass metal bands in the world, Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax. And in Bulgaria, we got to share that with the world. We had our fair share of nightmare moments (Istanbul as a fly date was a rough one. Didn't have half of our gear, got in super late, talk about the ultimate pressure under the gun. We did it though!), but I know I'm not alone in saying, I can seriously chalk those up as some of my best times ever. Everyone wants to know what it was like for Megadeth to play with Metallica. It was outstanding. Everyone from both camps was so excited that life brought these two giants together like this and it was far beyond any of our expectations. Metallica was wonderfully gracious to all of us and even the band themselves were very down to earth. You didn't feel like they were metal giants, you felt like they were the buddies you went to school with. And Anthrax and Slayer, what can I say there. I cannot wait till the second leg of American Carnage to be reunited with them again. All around fantastic guys, super fun to be doing shows with (and days off.....). The first leg is going to be so good to see our friends with Testament again. We ran into them at the Helsinki airport (literally. They were waiting to board the plane that we were getting off of. How's that for coincidence!), so while we missed their set, at least it was really nice to get to see them. Lots of new friends too (for me at least). The Deftones, Alice in Chains, Cannibal Corpse- Shawn tells me they're really brutal, so I'm going to go with that. I know they have very large necks and are nice guys.

When everything is running at top speed, you go through a lot of "don't think, just do". I haven't really had the time to sit down and make sense of all of this yet. I'm tired. We're all tired. I'm tired of McDonalds and I've actually developed somewhat of an appreciation for Starbucks (David Ellefson and Chris Broderick are proud, I'm sure). I've lost a few pounds, a little bit of sanity, and a small amount of hair coloring. Grey hairs happen to the best of us (not naming names, but you know who you are. lol). I've gained a lot of stamps in my passport, seen some historic sites across the globe, a vast amount of new friends, lots of video and camera footage (which I hope to be releasing soon),and gained even more respect and appreciation for my cohorts out here, if that's even possible. The year is halfway over and we have so much more in store. I'm looking forward to at least being able to use my phone again and not having outrageous phone bills. Thank goodness at least for my temperamental blackberry (sorry Iphone. I tried you. Couldn't do it.) In 3 days time, I'm going to go home for a total of 48 hours and then I'm going to head to Canada and get the ball rolling for Canadian Carnage. So, I'm saying Farewell, Europe. You've been good, you've been bad, you've been long, but you've been fun. And thanks to all of you for being part of it.

-Rikki

And PS- if you haven't seen the video "A Whole Lotta Willie!!" yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. It's posted on the front page of Megadeth.com. We have laughed so incredibly hard over that video (and Willie's consequent embarrassment) and thank you to Scott Ian for the lovely editing. I filmed part of that also, and while I'm a terrible camera girl, it's even funnier due to my angle. Willie be forewarned, I'm releasing it soon!! :) Enjoy the camaraderie, there's more to come, and we all look forward to seeing you on Carnage!!

PPS- I'm leaving you with an awesome photo taken from our angle on the stage, photo credit due to my awesome little buddy, Miss Electra Mustaine, from the Sonisphere in Athens, Greece. And a photo I took of Megadeth's stage bow in Prague, Czech Republic from beside Shawn's drum kit, so you can see how it all looks to us. Thank you, Megadeth fans, for all the love from around the world!

Photo - Athens

Photo - Prague

The Endgame Tour - Europe

June 14, 2010 - Cork, Ireland - by Rikki Cameron [Production Assistant / Band Assistant]

Hey everybody!

Checking in from a big top tent in Cork, Ireland. We're kicking off their "Live at the Marquee" summer concert series here tonight. We apologize for having to make the show time a little earlier than normal, but it's a situation that if we don't play earlier, we won't be able to get our gear to Warsaw in time for the Sonisphere. Can't have that! So a little earlier it has to be.

What a crazy weekend this has turned out to be. Kicked it off in Copenhagen with the Deftones (one of MY favorite bands ever) for Copenhell, then headed to Download. We finished that show, packing gear and whatnot, shortly after 1 am, had to repack ourselves to fly, then headed to the airport at 4 am. The lucky ones got about 2 hours of sleep before we had to get on the plane and fly to Download. It was a long drive for our gear to get there and it arrived very very shortly before we arrived on stage. To say that we were sweating it would be an understatement! But we got it, we made it happen, on little to no sleep. The show was amazing! I can't even describe what it felt like to look out at that massive crowd and see all the support. The photo taken of the band during the bow sums it up fairly well. It was so great to see so many friends and work with a great festival staff.

That brings us back to Cork. Finally got a little rest, arrived in Cork around 5 pm yesterday. On a last minute whim, myself, several of the crew, Dave Mustaine, David Ellefson, Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick went to a local pub to see some Megadeth tribute bands. Not something we normally do, but we thought it might be a fun thing to check it out. The room was so tiny, we barely fit in there. It only held maybe 35-40 people and was very very sweaty! We had a blast! Thank you so much to the locals for their hospitality and respect. Pardon me for not knowing the names of the bands (I don't even think I knew the name of the pub), I spent more than half the night escorting everyone to and from the hotel. But we really enjoyed ourselves, so thank you Cork! Megadeth showing some love back to the locals. :)

On another note, I'd like to point out that I do lurk the message boards, both the general Megadeth board and the MFC board, so thank you to those who have been so supportive. I like reading all the love these guys get from their fans. Megadeth really does have the best fans. We also will be doing a lot of behind the scenes filming coming up, and will be posting short videos in the MFC. Not everyone is fortunate enough to see the other side of the band like I do. All of them have a fantastic sense of humor and we're quite a goofy bunch out here.

For now, it's back to work. We're going to keep on rolling out here and extra special huge thank you to our families, friends, and loved ones at home, who hold down the fort and support us being able to do all of this. The band and the crew couldn't do what we do without all of you. Thank you! We love you and miss you!

-Rikki

The Endgame Tour - Europe

May 31, 2010 - Madrid, Spain - by Rikki Cameron [Production Assistant / Band Assistant]

Hey everyone!

Checking in from absolutely beautiful Madrid, Spain today. We have a day off here before we head to Barcelona in a few hours. It was really nice to catch up on some sleep and lose a bit of this jetlag (as David said, thank you Starbucks!). Spent a really nice day just walk around outdoors, walked through some mini parks, looked at some statues and architecture, had some great tapas. I've been to Europe before, but haven't been to Spain, so this was a great way to spend a day off. Really looking forward to Barcelona tomorrow.

Yesterday, we played the Rock in Rio festival, which I'm sure many of you have seen the YouTube videos by now. For not being a metal festival, the 35,000+ people that came out last night seemed to love it! Myself and another member of our crew apparently hit the lottery and did the one thing that everyone at this festival has been dying to do and that was meet Miley Cyrus in our hotel lobby. Haha. While not a fan, I have to say, she was very nice as were her dancers and band. Cool as that was, it was so much better to run into lots of old friends at the festival: The always fantastic Soulfly (tribe!), the Motorhead camp, our friend Paul Bostaph, and a pleasant surprise, James Lomenzo (yep! THAT James Lomenzo!) with Hail!. What a great way to start a tour, friendly faces, lots of hugs, and a killer festival in front of an amazing crowd. And it only gets bigger and better from here on out.

Thank you to all of you for the kind responses to my joining the site and doing these blogs. It's made me look forward to updates and perhaps in the future, I'll be able to set something up to take questions or comments from the fans. I know the main question that I've gotten so far is: what exactly do you do? It would probably be easier to tell you what I don't do. :) I take care of a lot of the behind the scenes details, to help with the production of the show and the assistance of the band. Starting with hospitality, for buses and dressing rooms, the dressing rooms themselves, everything with the wardrobe, handle the guest lists, mediate the runners so they can run errands for us, I work with Shane and Dave McRobb on coordination for the fan club meet and greets (I've met a few of you there. Always feel free to say hi!), and the list goes on and on and on. I'm working from the time we get to the venue til the bus is rolling at night, but I love my job and couldn't ask for a better group of people to work for.

Okay, time to get back to work and returns tons of emails before our bus pulls out tonight. Really looking forward to tomorrow being a Megadeth headliner show, as it's OUR show and man, I really hate pyro. (no offense to Rammstein.) There's been some tweeks to the set list and we're still be tweaking it some more, so don't expect the same old show. These guys never stop doing everything they can to bring you the best show possible. It's 2010 and Megadeth is in your face more than ever. Right where they should be. :)

And on to Barcelona!

-Rikki

Vic's Garage - California

May 18, 2010 - And on to the next..... - by Rikki Cameron [Production Assistant / Band Assistant]

Greetings Megadeth fans,

Taking a few minutes out of my insanely busy schedule to check in with everyone and fill you in on what's currently going on with your Megadeth crew. I'm sitting here at Vic's garage going on hour 14 for today, getting the rest of the gear finalized for shipping to Europe. It's just myself and the infamous Willie Gee left, as everyone else has done their work and gone home to their families.

We finished up South and Central America and flew back to the US this past Sunday. It was definitely a challenging run for us, but all paid off in the end. A lot of people don't understand some of the obstacles we face when we go to certain parts of the world and how far we go to make sure we put on the best possible show for the fans. Often times there are language barriers, power issues, gear availability, and all around general inexperience of some of the places that we go to that don't put on large metal shows every day. In El Salvador, we faced so many challenges that there were many times we all looked at each other with the same expression. Nobody wanted to say what everyone was thinking: Is this show going to be able to happen? Never say die. There was no way that we were going to end the tour on a down note. Everyone put in an additional 200% and the show happened and it was amazing. The crowd was so loud! Singing along to absolutely everything, mosh pit going nuts. It didn't matter that we were hours late and it was raining outside. All that mattered was that 90 minutes on that stage. Everything was worth it. I wouldn't have it any other way.

In relation to this, I'd also like to issue a very sincere apology to Megadeth Fan Club member Manuel Araujo who was supposed to have taken part in the meet and greet that night. Due to all of the technical issues of the day, we were unable to do the meet and greet and all of us in the Megadeth camp want to apologize to you for not being able to make that happen.

So now we're back in the US. The band is getting to spend some quality time with their loved ones (and Shawn Drover has become quite the doting grandfather. Don't let him tell you otherwise! :) ) and we're all mentally preparing ourselves to tear up Europe. Lots of Megadeth headliner shows, killer festivals and The Big Four shows are rapidly approaching by the minute. I hope the fans are also mentally preparing themselves for this, it's going to be mind blowing!

So in closing, I'd like to send out my own personal thank yous to Dave Mustaine, David Ellefson, Shawn Drover, and Chris Broderick. Thank you for being amazing musicians, constant professionals, and all around great human beings. You make my job not only a great job to have, but I'm honored to work for such a great group of people. And to my crew- Tony, Doug, Scott, Mark, Nick, Willie (Weeeelleee!! Weeeelllleeee!! For me, Weeellleee!!) Gee, Fred, Maryjo, and KT- thank you all for being amazing at your jobs and taking pride in your work. It makes me enjoy my work knowing that I can count on all of you and that we're all a team. I hope everyone enjoys their time at home and I look forward to this upcoming tour with you!

For now, I have to go. So much work to do still and the clock is ticking. I'm ready for Europe. We're ready for Europe. Let's do this!

Signing out from Vic's Garage,
-Rikki

Endgame Tour 2010 - Latin America

May 9, 2010 - Costa Rica - by Rikki Cameron [Production Assistant / Band Assistant]

Hey boys and girls!

Greetings from beautiful Costa Rica! MegaDave has asked me to start keeping a blog to update all the fans on the behind the scenes out here on tour with Megadeth. I'm Rikki, I'm the production assistant/band assistant for Megadeth and you'll be hearing from me from time to time, right here.

Today is show day in San Jose, Costa Rica. Definitely a warm one! Everyone here has been extremely friendly and enthusiastic (sometimes a little too so! ha!) and we're really looking forward to this being a great show tonight. We've all been following in the press about the fans who have been camped out for 18 days before the show, which is crazy! The three fans that had been camping out met up with us after the press conference on Friday and Dave Mustaine was very happy to say thanks for their dedication, and chat with them for a moment. Everyone out here is very appreciative to all the support we've gotten. Without all of you, we wouldn't be here, so thank you!

I hope everyone gets a chance to say thanks to their mothers today on Mothers Day also. I know I'm very appreciative that my mom is so supportive of her daughter traveling the world with a heavy metal band. :)

We're fortunate enough to have a few days here, so myself and a few of the crew took a sightseeing tour yesterday to the volcanos and hot springs. It's stunning and I highly recommend coming here to visit if you ever get the chance. Of course my camera died 15 minutes into the trip, so I don't have pictures to share (my mom is going to be mad at me for that one).

Well, back to work here in the backstage area. So much to do before the band arrives at the venue today and the fans were lined up by the hundreds when we got here early this morning. I imagine this show will be crazy. Bring it on, Costa Rica! Megadeth is ready for you!!

Cheers!
-Rikki
Production Assistant / Band Assistant
Megadeth

Rust In Peace 20th Anniversary Tour

March 31, 2010 - Atlanta, Georgia Part I - by Shane McConnell [System Lord / MegaFanClub Staff]

Fellow Droogies and She Wolves!

I know it has been a long time since I have submitted one of these, things have been so busy for me at “All Things Mega” but Dave McRobb, my partner in crime at the MegaFanClub, our beloved Webmaster, basically said “Write me a damn journal or else, people want to hear these stories" :-)

So here goes!

I have stepped up some of my duties and responsibilities with Megadeth. The most significant is for those of you in the MegaFanClub, you may have noticed all packages are shipping from the Chicago area now. We have expanded out the Fan Club operation and that includes myself managing a team of people I have selected to help with these tasks. Now granted, I’m not stuffing packages (maybe one here or there), but I am cracking the whip and going for an all time record on service to our MFC members. I am also coming up with new ideas almost every week and whether they suck or not, I am submitting them to Dave McRobb and Dave Mustaine for review of practicality. The most significant thing I can tell you is I have been filming, filming and filming and taking photos at every chance I get. I have a nice library of footage stored and I can promise you some very special clips and maybe even some type of exclusive FanClub Hi_h Def_n_t_on video / disc at some point…all depends on what the Daves let me do :-P

My most recent adventure involved heading down to the RIP 20th Anniversary tour show in Atlanta, GA. I started off here in Chicagoland on an early Saturday morning loading up my buddy Cory’s Xterra to the brim with all of my audio, video and photo equipment. Cory hit the road southbound towards Georgia, but I actually had to fly (due to some fan club shipment operations I had to oversee). Later that day I headed to my second home- O’Hare Airport, and jumped on a flight down to Atlanta. I had to chuckle at the fact Cory left 5 hours before I did and I beat him down there by 2 hours. Anyways, once I worked my way from the airport gate to the curb, I jumped into a cab and headed to the hotel where the band and crew had been shacked up for a nice relaxing day off. I arrived to the hotel and got myself checked in and unpacked. First order of business was to head over to Dave Mustaine’s (DSM) room and catch up on a few things. I had seen him 3 weeks earlier in California when I helped get him underway for the Tour so we didn’t have that much business to cover. The most important issue at hand was some food and what we were going to do that night to entertain ourselves!

Cory arrived to the hotel about two hours later- he and I unpacked his truck and carted everything up into the room. I brought Cory over to DSM’s room and we decided on catching “Repo Men” or whatever the hell it was called. I’ll call it “Confusing movie where normally docile and dramatic Forest Whitaker is very much a Bad Ass”. I really liked how well he handled himself and portrayed a violent ass-kicking super agent. His black belt in martial arts definitely shined through. That was my favorite part of the movie. After, we headed back to the hotel to catch some zzzzzz’s before the show the following day.

DSM and I went to church Sunday morning with David Ellefson and this very cool dude, Jesse Reeves. This was the first time I had met David and we hit it off right away. After church and getting back to the hotel room DSM and I decided it was time for some killer sandwiches from Jimmy Johns. I talked to DSM’s personal assistant, Katie the cutie and we decided it would be best to have the sandwiches delivered since everyone was getting themselves ready to leave for the venue. Now the Jimmy Johns was THREE blocks away, and I was told on the phone by the order taker that our sandwiches would be there “very soon.” Ya. SURE. I don’t know about you guys, but I become irate as F@ck when I get hungry. Cory too. I was in the lobby with Katie Cutie and Cory pacing back and forth. I called the store about half a dozen times until our food showed up. Just in time too…the tour bus was arriving in no less than 20 min to take the group over to the venue.

Cory had loaded the Xtera back up with my gear and we followed the bus over to the venue. Once on location Dave and the boys sound checked and got settled in. I talked to my main man Willie Gee, DSM’s guitar tech for a few and then headed to check out the dressing room.  I liked this particular dressing room — it had a decent amount of space and a pool table. I decided it would be best to get my audio gear set up in a nice quiet place and out of the way — which is always the tour bus. Audio gear for what you ask?? The Official Megadeth Podcast of course! Perfect time to start up a batch of new episodes with David E. being back, right? Cory was helping me set up audio gear, which included my mics and a little Pro Tools rig when he said “WTF is up with the power on your laptop?” I quickly panicked because Cory never joked around and this was my “not cheap” Alienware laptop he was talking about.  Sure enough there was something wrong.  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” I yelled on the bus…followed by a variety of cus words I will not repeat.  Well of course my buddy Shawn Drover had been on the bus already and immediately began to heckle me. You see, my full time job involves something to do with computers, the government and extracting forensic evidence from computers as well as training new comers to the field- so bottom line I know my way around a computer fairly well. I often take pride in the fact that I hardly panic when it comes to other peoples emergencies and am often the resident saving grace whenever there is a problem with someone’s computer (plus I manage the network and servers at Vic’s Garage). Also, just so you get the full brunt of the story, Shawn and I spent a lot of time together during the Endgame recordings and have the same type of super sarcastic humor. We say some pretty outlandish jokes to each other that when others catch a glimpse of what we are saying, look with concern.  Shawn is a super funny guy and a barrel of laughs in the right situation. This was not one of those “right situations” ..for me at least. For him it was the best thing ever that my computer had fizzled out right before his eyes. An onslaught of one liners, slammery and mockery filled the tour bus. He loved it- and so did everyone else that had been on the bus at that particular moment. Shane “the computer guy’s” super laptop had blown up and there was nothing he could do. Ha fucking ha. I had this one chance to record this podcast and no computer to run Pro Tools on. NOW WHAT!

Stay tuned for part two..