All Bad Things Must Come To An End. Mötley Crüe: The Final Tour

VIVA Ems | 4th November 2015

Mötley Crüe at Manchester Arena by Stephen Farrell

Mötley Crüe at Manchester Arena by Stephen Farrell

About eleven years ago, in the world of MySpace, Tommy Lee personally put me on his guest list with a photo pass for Mötley Crüe’s gig at the Manchester Apollo.

Although not one hundred percent sure that this was for real I decided to take a chance and travelled up North from Bournemouth to Manchester to see if I could get in! Lo and behold there was my name, ‘Emma Wilkinson,’ on the Mötley Crüe guest list with a photo pass.

This was the first big gig I had photographed and the pictures I took that night got me a great deal of photography work with newspapers and magazines down south which led to me running my own magazine up here in Manchester.

February 2012 and I find out Mötley Crüe are back playing in Manchester. I literally had to get an interview with Tommy and thank him for sorting me out that photo pass. So, after a lot of phone calls with different people and then stalking his manager, I managed to arrange an interview with Tommy backstage at the Manchester Arena on the night of the gig.

Before the interview started I told Tommy my cheesy little story about how he had sorted me out a photo pass all those years ago and where those photos had got me today! He actually remembered speaking to me on MySpace and was overwhelmed and humbled by my story! The interview was a huge success and Tommy then went on to agree to be on the front cover of VIVA Magazine’s 2012 Spring issue.

VIVA Ems interviewing Tommy Lee & Tommy on the front cover of VIVA Magazine

VIVA Ems interviewing Tommy Lee & Tommy on the front cover of VIVA Magazine

Last night I found myself back at the Manchester Arena rocking out with Tommy Lee and his band, The Mötley Crüe, for one last time on their sold-out Final Tour with special guest Alice Cooper – in what will, no doubt, go down as one of the most momentous events in rock history.

The Mötley Crüe are the ultimate rock and roll bad boys! From the very beginning they grabbed hold of the traditional ideal of the rock and roll lifestyle and amplified it tenfold. Everything they did they did hard, fast and full on, The Dirt has to be one of my all time favourite rock and roll story-books, and last night’s gig was no exception!

Featuring hit after hit and a spectacular, one-of-a-kind production, Manchester was not disappointed. Mötley Crüe have brought their best production ever to Europe and unleashed “The Crüecifly” for the first and last time. “The Crüecifly” is one hundred and fifty-five feet of roller-coaster track above the crowd, which transports Tommy Lee and his drum kit forward, backwards and even flips him upside down to the other side of the arena.

Bassist, Nikki Sixx, wielded a “flamethrower bass” weighing in at one hundred pounds. The bass was attached to a fuel source that allowed Sixx to shoot flames thirty feet into the air!

After thirty-four years performing together, the 2015 leg of Final Tour has included shows all across the globe. Mötley Crüe first announced plans for their two-year Final Tour by signing a ‘Cessation Of Touring Agreement’ at a press conference in Los Angeles, California in January 2014, signifying the end of their distinguished touring career on December 31, 2015.

Nikki Sixx took to the stage on one knee with a heart-warming speech about the band and where he had come from, ending it with: “You’ll be in the car one day and Mötley Crüe will come on the radio and you can say, “I was at their last f**king gig.” 

Just as you thought it was all over, after Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx took to the skies flying above our heads across the Manchester Arena on cranes. The Crüe surprised us with one final tune on the small middle stage of the arena. Tommy took to the piano and the Crüe finished with the tear-jerking tune “Home Sweet Home.”

The Crüe’s final show will take place in the band’s hometown of Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve, bringing the curtain down on the touring career of the World’s most notorious rock band!

All bad things must come to an end RIP Mötley Crüe!

All gallery pictures by Stephen Farrell:

Album 1

Motley Crue 1 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 2 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 3 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 4 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 5 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 6 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 7 by Stephen FarrellMötley Crüe at Manchester Arena by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 9 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 10 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 11 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 12 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 13 by Stephen FarrellMotley Crue 14 by Stephen FarrellAlice Cooper 1 by Stephen FarrellAlice Cooper 2 by Stephen FarrellAlice Cooper 3 by Stephen FarrellAlice Cooper 4 by Stephen Farrell

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