Music Video Mischief: Ozzy to Britney, Oasis to Gn'R, McCartney to Cher: a lifetime of rock and chaos - Softcover

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Nigel Dick, a co-founder of Propaganda Films, has directed over 450 music videos and more than 35 documentaries and feature films. He has won three MTV awards, two Billboard Awards, three MVPA awards and one Brit award. His videos have been nominated for a further 21 MTV awards, 26 Much Music Awards and a Grammy. He has been responsible for some of the best known music videos in history: "Sweet Child o' Mine," "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Paradise City" by Guns n’ Roses; "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova" by Oasis, "Believe" by Cher and "Baby One More Time" and "Oops! I Did It Again" by Britney Spears. He is also a lecturer. Nigel Dick lives in Golden, CO; this is his first book.

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Giants Stadium was sunny and bright. I was freshly bathed and had a full stomach. We were rolling film during soundcheck, and Slash was perched on the edge of the stage with his guitar wailing, wearing only shorts and boots.

The transition between jobs had been a mess but all was going well now. Alan Niven sauntered over and told me that Axl would not be available to talk before they went onstage, so was there anything I needed to know before show time?

Me: When will the band be playing “Paradise City”?

Alan: When do you want them to play it?

Me: Third song in would be perfect.

Alan: Why third?

Me: We only have four cameras. The magazines on the cameras should last through the first two songs, so if we change mags before the start of the third song we can make sure that all cameras are fully loaded when they do “Paradise City.”

Alan: I’ll go and check with Axl.

Alan returned five minutes later, chuckling.

Alan: Axl said he doesn’t know where “Paradise City” will be in the set. All he knows at this point is that it definitely won’t be third!

Me: Seriously?

Alan: Seriously.

I rolled my eyes and went to the office at the back of the stadium, where my four monitors had been set up, and tested the talk-back system. At a live show you give each camera operator a headset and a transmitter / receiver so you can give them instructions on what you want them to shoot. Everything was working perfectly, and I paced to and fro nervously waiting for showtime.

The cameras started rolling the minute the band appeared behind the massive stage, ready to go on. On my monitors, I saw Axl for the first time that day. He’d gone full Hollywood rock and roll in a white leather jacket and pants. Slash was wearing a Hard Rock T-shirt with a difference — instead of L.A. or New York or London, the location printed on the shirt read “Hell.” I chuckled to myself and wished the crew good luck as the band raced onstage. Down in the guts of the arena I could hear the crowd roar and the first dull thuds as Steven tested his kick drum. I heard the count-off for the first tune, the band launched into their set …

… and all the monitors in front of me promptly turned to snow and static! We’d tested the video transmitters after soundcheck and everything had worked perfectly but, when that massive PA system started belting G n’ R out to a packed stadium, the soundwaves were so powerful that the transmitters couldn’t cope. Occasional images drifted in and out of the static as if the band members were in a hurricane on Mars. I tried my best to direct the cameras to shoot useful angles. I didn’t dare look around, but I sensed Alan over my shoulder boring holes in my back. I still had no idea when “Paradise City” would appear in the set. This $200,000 job was turning into a white-knuckle ride in a snowstorm; I now knew what must have been going through the Big Bopper’s mind as he and Buddy Holly took off on their final fateful flight.

And “Paradise City”? They played it third!