In 30 years in this business and after attending hundreds of gigs l have never seen anything anywhere near as disgusting and unprofessional as what went on that night. I was standing on our sound desk out front as usual but ran to the stage as soon as the hail of missiles began and from then on watched from the front of the stage right next to Bruce's walkway. The scale, viciousness and concentration of the throwing made it obvious that this was a premeditated and co-ordinated attack. Assaulting musicians while performing by throwing bottle tops, lighters and eggs at them from just a few yards away is vile, dangerous, criminal and cowardly. It is incredible that Ozzfest security apparently did nothing about it - aren't they there to protect the bands too? Especially when the band is concentrating on a performance in front of 45,000 people and the missiles are coming out of the glare of the spotlights. And to spit at a band on stage is unforgivable.
We know who authorised the making of the 'ozzy - ozzy' chant tape the day before and how it was played secretly through the PA at the very beginning and end of our set.
We also know who continually turned off the power interrupting our set at crucial moments.
I have to say l was immensely proud of Maiden who stood up to it all and showed great courage and just got better and better through the adversity. Their heads never dropped, instead they went on the offensive. It was a truly memorable moment when Bruce went to the very front of the stage during Trooper - something which he never normally does as he is usually on the ramps - waving the flag whilst avoiding the hail of missiles and yelling 'This is a fucking British flag, and these colours don't fucking run!'. The imperturbable attitude and ability of the band shone through and in the end made this a truly remarkable rock and roll event, even if for all the wrong reasons.