In May of 1989 in Tacoma (Washington), the lever of the vibrato of my guitar pierced my hand. Ended in shock. As they took me away on a stretcher, Karen, my wife, asked me in tears: "Now will you finish it off with all these craps, I hope".
In August, in the backstage before a celebration concert, Elton John didn't show up to the sound check and sent a note on which was saying that he was sick and couldn’t not take part as the Pinball Wizard, but at the last moment he showed up he snorted a line or two of coke and played an inceredible gig . Our other guests were Steve Winwood, Patty LaBelle, Phil Collins, and Billy Idol. It was a charity event.
“My great friend Susan Da Costa, who was the late Humphrey Lyttelton's partner and manager knows Pete very well. Hump was a big friend of his, and after his death they communicated a great deal by e-mail. During their conversations my name came up, and he said he
was a really big fan. Susan told me that has a big fan, so I told her to ask him to write me a song. He said to her that he was going to write me an Opera, so I said to Susan that I don't need him to write me a bloody Opera, just get him to write me a song. Which he did, and it's fantastic. " Elkie Brooks
On May19,2005,on my birthday, Jerry Hall gave me a Yorkshire Terrier Toyas a present. I called Wistle, inspired by John Entwistle and his dog Scruffy. Two months later during the Who's show with Pink Floyd and Paul McCartney in Hyde Park for Live8, I found that the Who's contribution was explosive, better than the live Aid one, and I was happy to see Bob Geldof smiling satisfied on the side.
The press focused mostly on competitiveness between the Who and the Pink Floyd, but behind the scenes the atmosphere was friendly.
It was good to see the impressive Roger Waters returning to work with David Gilmour and it was the last time I saw Rick Wright, who bought my huge Bosendorfer piano when I shut down the studio years before. We all wondered if Pink Floyd would ever come back for a tour.
I found their performance perfect, but Roger and David never completely reconciled. The thing that mattered was that they were forged for the last time and I had the privilege of being with them.
