Greetings folks - Superbowl Sunday, and I'm excited and prepared to be exhausted tomorrow as the game kicks off here in London at 11.30pm, and as I rise at 6.30 am, means I'll have about three hours sleep!

Spent the last couple of days in the studio with Iron Maiden going over everything, making sure we were in a great place with the new album tracks, and cut some killer solos with all three guitarists - on the two epics cut thus far. Dave dug a gorgeous, creamy sound out of a tobacco Gibson Les Paul, Adrian used an old white Gibson Flying V for that crisp tone that highlight his fluent and precise technical skills, while Janick used his trusty black Strat - plugged it into a Boogie amp for a change, and pulled out a melodic solo with some amazing off-the-wall stuff thrown in! We should have all the basic tracks wrapped up this week, and that'll see Nicko joining his family in Florida for a little sun before their next band engagement.

We're all thrilled so many of you like the diary, especially those of you who've worked with Maiden for years but are always locked out of this part of the equation; but I must respectfully repeat that I will not pass on ANY messages to the band at all. They would not appreciate it and my job is full-on enough as it is. This diary is written in my free time, and is not an official Maiden requirement, so thanks for the support, and I don't mean to piss you off!

Caveman

For more about Kevin Shirley, check out www.cavemanproductions.com