MTV AWARDS IN SYDNEY PART 2

Arriving at 3 o'clock to register for the Red
Carpet the process was simple and done in minutes, I even got a voucher
for a meal, as the red carpet didn't start until 6. As I said before,
the way the media is treated is completely different from over here,
they actually value photographers and treat them with respect! It was
brought home to me a couple of days ago at a function I was covering
down at the Auckland Viaduct. Tim Finn was appearing at the Australian
Long Lunch to perform. It was a great afternoon, very well done.
Anyway, the PR came up to me and said, "Sorry but you can't take photos
of Tim while he is performing". What? I had been taking photos of Glen
Shorrock ex lead singer of The Little River Band with no problems at
all, "We have arranged a set up shot out the back", as if she was doing
me a great favour... Now probably the embargo didn’t come from the PR,
I don’t know, it could have been from the Finn management but as Tim
Finn took the stage the PR came up to me again to remind me and I said
to her, pointing at about 10 punters all happily snapping away on their
digital cameras, "Why don’t you go and tell that lot as well?" Some
were even making movies! If Tim Finn had taken a tumble off stage that
would have been on You Tube quicker than you could sing the chorus of
Six Months in a Leaky Boat. It then dawned on me, there where at least
400 hundred people at the lunch who could all happily take photos,
except for me and I am the professional...

Back to Sydney. When you go to these events they have what you call
rent-a-crowd. Made up of young good-looking sorts to create atmosphere
and scream and shout when the stars come out of the cars to start their
walk up the red carpet. They were not far from where I was waiting for
the show to start. I could see there was a wee bit of niggle going on
between two girls who where probably three meters apart. They had prime
position behind the barrier but obviously the larger girl didn’t think
this other girl, who was smaller and very pretty, should not be there.
They had words but the smaller one didn’t let it bother her too much
and turned her head away. This clearly pissed off the bigger one who
left her position to confront the other girl. She came up to the
smaller girl and began shouting at her, next minute the little one just
let her have it, she was like a Tasmanian Devil, they both went down
scattering all who where around. The big security guy ran over and I
saw him recoil as he looked down to where the little one was laying
into the other, he didn’t look like he wanted a bar of it. It got
broken up and peace was restored, the bigger girl in tears and the
smaller one just shook her hair into place and took up her position as
if nothing had happened. Very cool!

The arrivals soon began and it was a who's who in the music
industry. Charlotte Dawson planted a big smacker on my cheek when she
saw me. It is so good to see Charlotte getting the accolade she
deserves, living in NZ wasn’t beneficial to her well being she is so
much happier across the ditch. The Veronicas are so cute, you feel like
just taking them out for good dinner. They are a cross between
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Amy Winehouse but very cute, Kim and
Khloe Kardashian look like they could be a lot of fun. They certainly
had sex appeal. Leona Lewis is gorgeous and Eve has glam factor. 50
Cent,Wyclef Jean and heaps of others all filed passed giving interview
after interview. The whole red carpet took two hours to complete.

All the photographers where taken back to the huge media room where
we could leave all our equipment and join the party, everything was on
the house. When I got into the main area it was huge there where
thousands of people there. I couldn't find anyone I knew so just
settled down to have a few beers. After a while I struck a conversation
with two very attractive Sydney girls and we where getting on like a
house on fire, laughing and joking and having a real good time. The
girls came in close and one of them said to me, 'Do you want some
Coke', I smiled and said, "Nah, you're ok babe, I'm fine with beer",
"Are you sure?" they said, "Yeah, not unless you have diet" I said
jokingly. They laughed and disappeared into the crowd. If that wasn’t a
surprise enough what happened next was just plain bizarre. I seem to
have a knack of just being able to meet people very easily and get on
with almost everyone I meet. I started chatting to a couple of guys,
one was an Aussie the other had an American accent, I say that because
I wasn’t convinced he was an American he had that rapper speak going
on. He said to me, out of the blue, Brother if you ever need a gun you
come and see me and rolled off all these weapons he could sell to me,
mainly hand guns. I laughed, this time it was me who disappeared into
the crowd!

In the space of 30 minutes I had been offered class A drugs and any
spin off that may have had from two very hot girls and weapons of, if
not mass destruction, from someone who spends too much time playing
Grand Theft Auto, don’t you just love Sydney? I do it's a great city,
warts and all...