Till studied his watch, then looked up, his face like thunder. "God, where are they? Our flight will be departing in forty-five minutes!"

"Relax, Till", said Richard, "I'm sure they'll get here any minute now."

Till scowled. "Stupid American ass-fairies. Should never have agreed to tour with them. Should have know they would be like this, no respect for anyone..." Christoph turned to Paul, who was sipping his third Rum and Coke. "Look at him complain. You wouldn't have guessed it was all his idea. 'It will bring good publicity,' he said, 'America and Germany not fighting', he said. Stupid idiot."

Paul placed his glass on the space-age table next to him. "Ach, don't be so harsh. You know Till gets like this when he's woken up early. He'll forget all about it tomorrow. Unless they don't turn up, that is."

At that exact moment, Joe Hahn of Linkin Park burst through the departure lounge door, looking very wet and very excited. He ran over to Till and raised his right arm in a "Heil-Hitler" fashion. "Guten Tag, my German friend. Sorry we were late, Mr Froggie was nowhere to be found and I just have to have him with me all the time." Till was not pleased. The look of shock and disgust on his face was priceless. He was just about to retort back to this strange little Korean man when the rest of Linkin Park came through the door, also looking very wet. It was a miserable German day - it had rained continually and showed no signs of relenting.

A Chinese-looking guy stepped forward and shock hands with their co-tourers. "Hi I'm Mike. I apologise for our lateness. Joe couldn't find his stuffed toy. It's quite important to him and he becomes a little... crazy without it."

Everyone stared at Joe. The 25-year old man was jumping up and down, shouting "Bye bye British Airways!" at the departing planes.

"We noticed," said a cold, industrial-strengthened voice with a coarse German accent. Mike looked at Till, who continued. "I hope you'd appreciate our generosity. We don't usually headline tours with-" Till looked them all up and down "bands like yourselves-"

"But why get stuck in a rut?" Richard interrupted, knowing that if he wasn't stopped, Till would give out his worst ear-bashing ever and truly scare the impressionable young men. You did not want to get on the wrong side of Till Lindemann. An uneasy silence followed, which was only broken by Christoph muttering, "I think our flight is being called. Come on, let's go."