Archive for September 2007
Photographing big name acts at big venues just isn’t all that…
BEC is out of town so via the train and thanks to the redevelopment work at Brunswick Street Station it takes me about an hour to get there door-to-door. You’re given a time to be there which is always ages from when they take you to the photo pit, so there’s always a lot of hanging around (and at the BEC it’s the admin centre, no where near the bar…). And when they do take you out to the photo pit it’s usually at least another 20 minutes wait before the band comes on. Despite usually having huge lighting systems there’s still no guarantee that they’ll actually make much use of them in the 3 songs you get to photograph. The stage is huge and with the monitors at the front of the stage it’s well over 6ft high. And then there’s the terms and conditions that you have to adhere to…
Although no 60 seconds from the mixing desk (which is a fair way at a big venue like the BEC) Beyonce-type crap and no dodgy rights grabbing contract this time around, you’re not allowed to photograph Robert Smith from in front of him (apparently he doesn’t like how bad it makes his chins look…) so you can only photograph from the sides. There were six photographers there and so it was three on each side with no swapping of sides, meaning that the photographs were all taken from generally the same position and from a position where you couldn’t get decent photos of half the band.
If I have to choose a side I’ll stand on the left hand side of the stage looking at it for a right handed guitarist on stage. Trouble is when Robert Smith steps away from his mic he tends to turn slightly to his left/anti-clockwise so from where I was standing you got to see a lot of his back…
3 songs and chucked out then venue, then wait for the next train and another hour to get back home. So in the end it takes 3 - 4 hours to photograph for about 15 minutes…
And that’s why photographing big name acts at big venues just isn’t all that…
Some photos below and a few more on my flickr site.
Day after Editors was Long Blondes + Belles Will Ring at The Zoo. I kinda only put in for this ‘cos my gf likes them and wanted to see them, but was quite a fun night… even if they are somewhere between a poor man’s Sleeper and a poor man’s Pulp. Not sure about Kate Jakson though… Far too much make up on and she can open her mouth scarily wide when singing…. Cute bassist though…
Belles Will Ring supported. Good but probably need to explore a bit more outside their 60s jangly-Byrds-Psychedelic sound, as first few songs sounded great but then nothing much seemed to change. Enjoyed photographing them though. Female tambourine players are always a winner…
Some photos below are more on my flickr site.
Belles Will Ring
Long Blondes
First up in August was Editors at The Tivoli. Expatriate supported but (a) played in the dark for the 3 songs was photographing them for, and (b) just aren’t very good. Saw them support Presets at The Hopetoun in December 2004 and they were ok if nothing special but don’t seem to have really gone anywhere… I think they took too long getting an album out and have missed out on the whole 80s revisit that’s been going on in music over the last few years. Having said that I thought Editors were good and made Expatriate just seem very thin and weedy sounding.
The Tivoli is about the best venue in Brisbane but I wish they’d put a photo pit in sometimes. Despite being something like a 1,500 capacity (although it was probably only about half full tonight) it’s only had a barrier once when been there and that was for Noel Gallagher’s acoustic gig. You can get to the front but generally at the side of the stage. Hence why the photos are very side-on. Which is a shame as Tom Smith is an interesting performer and would have been great to shoot from more in front.
Some photos below and more on flickr.
