Legendary rock photographer Ross Halfin has issued the following "Diary" entry, dated July 27th:

"After getting to bed at 2 AM (yep, my fault for 'Living After Midnight'), I get up at 4 AM to catch the first flight to Istanbul for a bit of METALLICA. Ugh... I feel sick and weak - all my own doing. Drive to Heathrow, watching the dawn on empty roads. It sort of reminds me of the film 28 Days Later, everybody gone.

I go through security and it bleeps - I have nothing in my pockets etc. I get a random search at 5:30 AM. I just let them get on with it. When did you buy your ticket etc...? On the plane I don't sleep I pass out, and wake up stiff and still tired landing in Istanbul. Queue up and find out I have to join another queue to buy a visa. Today is becoming loooooong.

Stay at the very nice Four Seasons right on the Bosphorus, watching huge tankers sailing by. The view is looking across the black water into Asia. I sit for a couple of hours just enjoying it.

Go to Ali Sami Yen Stadium at 5 PM driving around twisting curving streets packed with fans all in de rigeur black. Going backstage I run straight into David Sabo aka Dave "The Snake" Sabo from SKID ROW. David is a wonderful human being apart from being the second ugliest human I know (number one has to be Jeff Keith). Dave is looking after DOWN, as in "Getting down" or "Down the toilet". The next person I see is Phil Anselmo who I haven't seen since PANTERA. I love Phil Anselmo, he is one of the realest people I know and he has manners - he always calls me "Sir". Got to tell you it is good to see them. We catch up. Osse Hoppe (German promoter) is promoting - he always tells the story of me being thrown out of a press launch by Mick Mars after I asked him to lift one of his six chins...

Our heroes in Metallica finally arrive. I get Lars (amazingly cooperative) to look at photos, James next, Rob then Kirk to do it while standing on one hand doing yoga.

Go and shoot Down. Phil means it on stage - they are "Heavy" - and he gets all the crowd headbanging along. He stops the show until the crowd join in.

Back to Metallica. Lars is feigning tiredness and weariness at having to look at photos of himself - life can be hard for a drummer. Down come in and Lars wants a photo of them all together. Pepper (Down guitarist) pulls faces as if he is having great difficulty going to the toilet (the last time I shot him was in Paris with James in 1996 and he was doing the same then). Lars leaps in the air (he really does) at seeing Dave "The Snake" Sabo. Never mind Bono/King Fred of Denmark/Sean Penn or Rob Flynn, Dave is in the room. Lars is misty-eyed with joy, he gushes to Dave that after ten bottles of champagne in Milan he made Steve Wiig (Lars' boyfriend and right-hand man) headbang with him to Skid Row on YouTube doing 'Monkey Business'. They stand in the dressing room singing along together ignoring Down and everyone else in the room.

Lars is in such a good mood he invites in a group of children. They stand around as if on a school trip. Lars is smiling, signing autographs, posing for photos. It turns out this is the opening band, SWORD. I didn't realise you could get school kids to open the show, they must have got letters from their parents before this trip. Sword, just like MACHINE HEAD, will not leave. I look at Stevenstein Wiig with a "get rid of them" look. We finally get them out the room by giving them ice cream. I get Lars to kindly look at the rest of my photos - he can be a kind man.

Walk up to the stage with the band, spend the first half of the show there. Good to shoot, in fact I get "Great Photos". But then I would say that wouldn't I (I know I sound like Kevin Shirley going on about his mixes and himself) but it's true, I am The Master. I get good stuff of all of your heroes bending the arrow out of line. Lars spends most of the time spitting water at me. In the old days he would spit it straight up, now it's at me or the video cameraman. Quite enjoyed tonight as I wasn't shooting for anything specific. They come off, get straight in the vans and head to the airport, flying Istanbul/Frankfurt/San Francisco.

I walk to the dressing room and Phil grabs me for a hug while THE SNAKE looks on with jealousy. Phil tells me he's writing a book about his time doing what he does and it'll inculde his time in Pantera. I'm looking forward to reading it. Sit in the production office and find out about the bomb attacks in the city tonight, which is sobering. I get a couple of texts checking I'm okay. The real world can be a bad place..."