Leeds has always had a special place in the circuit for me - the first festival I (very badly and entirely without success) ever attempted to climb the fence at, the first festival I went to as a punter (the year of the riots) and the first festival I worked at. Not to mention being fifteen minutes drive from my flat!
This year’s event was set to be a big one for a host of reasons - from the Libertines reunion to Guns N Roses - and it didnt dissapoint. I was incredibly lucky to have such a great view of proceedings and I hope I did the event justice with my shots.
I was asked to do a short talk on my music photography by the lovely folk at bettakultcha recently, which I agreed to, forgot about and then really enjoyed. Not much to say really, other than apologies for the two swearies and yes I ruffle my hair when nervous.
Surprisingly good fun though, if not slightly terrifying following a guy who did a presentation on ‘how to save safe sex with robots’ !
Anyway, here’s the video and another demonstration of why I prefer print interviews.
Ahhh - back so soon. And this time we got 4 songs you know. Although the lighting was pretty rubbish this time, the spotlight guy seemed half cut as he was missed John by a good foot.
Yes he still swigs brandy from a bottle before spitting it into a bucket, and yes I only took about 2 frames of the other members of the band, but there’s not really many others quite like John Lydon. A true legend.
Then again, it’s equally true to say that given the choice, the thought of paying 30 quid to see PiL scares me. (Especially considering there was no support!)
Where do the days go? Doesnt seem like five minutes since this gig. Not a huge amount to report, both Regina and her support act, Nicole Atkins, were pretty static to photograph, with equally static lighting. A chance to give the 85mm f1.8 a run out as the benefit of people playing the piano is you know where they’ll be sitting, and so can set up accordingly.
Regina’s songs are still as delicate as they are powerful, while Nicole Atkins has a folksy-charm that is difficult to pull off without sounding twee.
But yes - I was still knackered from latitude and so headed home early for the sake of an early night. Special mention should go to Regina’s photo release form which stated we should only use our most “flattering” shots. Sadly they failed to describe from what perspective they were flattering so I’ve no idea if I’m going to get sued or not.
Yes, contrary to many’s belief that they had indeed banished themselves from the airwaves, the Kooks are still going.
From memory, the last time I saw them they were pretty dull to photograph, so I was a little pleased that the singer decided to move around quite alot - unfortunately with barely any light on him it made the photographs pretty pointless. Fair play for trying to liven things up though, the songs aren’t going to do it. Although his shouting ‘come on’ at the crowd did seem a bit, well, crap.
I would say these guys rock, but apparently that’s a massive insult to them as (in the words of Danny North) they’re more metal than metal. So - I’ll leave it at that.
Needeless to say, by the time this gig finally came around - having been rescheduled twice - I was slightly complacent about what to expect. As someone who will happily admit that metal isnt my scene, I’ve never really heard much of Slayer and had no real grasp of the band’s history. That was soon remedied after seeing a good mate Rowan in the pit (at his request I won’t disclose who he was shooting for!) and hearing his tales of seeing the band over the years, complete with musical scene timeline.
Aside from some slightly bizarre lighting - LED mixed with parkans, with random intermittent strobe and white light killed by red wash before you’d got the exposure right - it was a cool gig to shoot, with each member of the band offering very different (but no less *metal*) shots.
Also, special nod to this shot which I’m really pleased with. It’s a bad habit but when I’m shooting a band I’m not personally a fan of, I often tend to drift into trying to take shots that make me smile, rather than perhaps capturing the essence of the performance. So, with Slayer I started trying to get shots of the band smiling rather than screaming, or capture some warmth rather than the sheer agression of the performance. This shot came about trying to create some intimacy around a guy who was very, very in your face on stage, and I hope it works.
I’ve been trying to catch Delphic since I last saw then in 2009 supporting Orbital and finally manged to at Leeds Met. Even better, they were supported by Everything Everything, another cracking band from Manchester that bridge the divide between indie and dance with some really terrific songs.
Even better was being asked by Delphic’s lighting guy to get some shots of the full lightshow from the back, which was far easier than trying to balance the LED strips and smoke from the pit. As songs like ‘Counterpoint’ and ‘Halycon’ morphed into full on tunes, the lights came to life and I was as happy as a photographer with good lights. And that’s very happy.
So, another support band with better lighting than the main band. That I missed because I was in the pub. Ooops.
I can’t really comment much on this gig - for all I enjoyed the first couple of tunes, I didnt get the overwhelming wonderfullness of the band the crowd seemed to be doing, and nothing in the first half hour made me think I’d particularly missed out by not knowing them.
This is without saying that it was the 2nd worst light show this year (second only to Echo & the bunneymen) and that the bassist had such huge hair you never saw his face. Both of which made photography much harder.
They did, however, have the longest setlist i’ve ever seen. Not in terms of songs, but in terms of actual length.
Bit of a tough gig to shoot this - one of those occasions where there was so much light, but it never quite fell right.
Not a bad band, they did sound a bit samey and the vocals didnt really cut through. Having said that, I was half asleep so I can’t claim to be the most objective critic. Then again, not sure I have ever claimed that. The joys of the internet!
Some bands come and go in a buzz of media excitement, others fall into producing records to please their record company execs, and very few can carve their own path through the choppy waters of the music business.
BRMC are, in this photographer’s humble opinion, one of those bands. From the first time I saw them back in 2001/2 (I can’t remember when) I’ve been a huge fan, mainly because they were one of the few bands around who made dirty rock n roll music that didn’t compromise. Then, when things went a bit mad, they ditched their major record label, wrote a country-influenced acoustic record that dealt more with god than drugs, sex or rock’n'roll, and then reappeared weilding Gibson 355’s and screaming ’suicide’s easy what happened to the revolution?!”
They may have lost, then reacquired, then lost founder drummer Nick Drago, toyed with an expanded live line up and struggled to propel their latest effort, Beat the Devil’s Tattoo, into the mainstream, but frankly this selfish fan doesn’t want them to be mainstream.
Not since Nevermind has being bleak been this f**king cool.
