PETER HARDY

The journalist Peter Hardy reports the tour with singer James Blunt, with whom he spent two years working on a book

If someone was going to write a book I would be James, as he is a family friend and I have a background of ancient rock.
My favorite city on earth is San Francisco where I became a hippie in 1966, have a brief but passionate love with Janis Joplin.
She gave me a job the lights at the Fillmore Auditorium, which was the center of the movement pyschedelic West Coast.
Thanks to the book, I found myself back some 40 years later, standing with the type of lighting and working even if those lights was a wonderful experience.
But one of my most memorable moments during my time to follow James on tour in South America where we were traveling with Elton John.
In Rio we were overwhelmed with the size of the public and to the extent that Latin Americans appreciate your music.
Taken together the two artists and an audience of 60,000 crazy all at once was overwhelming.
Normally, James goes down to the audience, but here there were times when everyone feared for their safety...

(Different countries, same State: On The Road With James Blunt, by Peter Hardy is being published by Headline in October 2010.)