Stephen has been writing a column for Russian Rolling Stone magazine for several years… welcome to another part of Webster’s world…

My last column was inspired by explosions and the upcoming B.A.D tour. That reminds me - I must re-size Mick’s old signet ring featuring the band’s original logo - like all other mortals his fingers have got a bit thicker with age.

This week it’s hard to escape another power; that of the sea and the devastation caused by the Tsunami on Japan. Every year or even few months we wake up to graphic images of the trail of death and devastation caused by another natural disaster. The difference between this and most others, even the very recent earthquake in New Zealand, has been watching the evidence of all the trappings and developments of a sophisticated materialistic society being swept away at a pace from which there was no escape. Even the Japanese, creators of the bullet train and some of the fastest cars and motorbikes hold nothing in the arsenal to out drive the speed freak of a tsunami.

Only last week while I was spontaneously MC’ing a small acoustic gig featuring Carl Barat, Danny Goffey, Ed Harcourt, Dominic Greensmith and the beautiful and talented Langley sisters, I had a conversation with Heidi, my film director friend who had just been commissioned to make a film she had written about fanatical Japanese rock fans. The filming is to/was to take place at the Fuji music festival in July. Obviously right now, just 4 days after the world changed for Japan, no one knows if the festival will still go ahead.

Having spent some time in Japan I know exactly how fanatical and obsessive the Japanese can be about being the perfect fans. There is never a detail missed or a relevant date forgotten, such is the attention to detail. This philosophy is applied to all walks of life in Japan. Nothing is entered into until all possible outcomes have been considered, which makes the current terrible and unpredictable catastrophe all the more ironic.

SW