2008 was another hectic year, which in photographic terms looked something like this:

1. Girl Talk
2. Buck 65
3. The National
4. Enter Shikari
5. The Police
6. Battles
7. Scul Hazards
8. Brisbane Sounds
9. Died Pretty
10. Soundwave
11. Broken Social Scene
12. Toto
13. Coco Rosie
14. The Brisbane Sound
15. Buffalo Tom
16. The Bellrays
17. Sinead O’Connor
18. Whitesnake
19. QOTSA
20. Jesus & Mary Chain
21. Spectrum
22. Wolfmother
23. Gin Club
24. Mess Hall
25. My Disco
26. Biffy Clyro
27. Rocket Science
28. Kate Miller-Heidke
29. The Audreys
30. Story of The Year
31. Powderfinger
32. Cut Copy
33. 4ZZZ Tater Stomp
34. redsunband
35. Mr Rascal
36. Splendour In The Grass
37. Robert Forster
38. Kim Salmon + The Surrealists
39. X
40. Sixfthick
41. Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side
42. New Pornogarphers
43. We Are Scientists
44. Joan As Policewoman
45. Tim Finn
46. Def Leppard
47. Steve Earle
48. Texas Tea
49. John Mellencamp
50. Jeremy Jay
51. Pivot
52. Global Gathering
53. Saul Williams
54. MGMT
55. The Datsuns
56. MereNoise Xmas Party

At least that’s the bands/singers/festivals I turned up for and tried to photograph; I probably should have removed QOTSA from the list due to walking away from the contract they wanted me to sign and not making it into the venue, and also The National, whose tour manager decided that although I’d been cleared by the promoter, it should have referred it to him to approve, and so he wouldn’t let me photograph them. But even without those two gigs in the list I still managed to meet my target for the year of 52 gigs (i.e. an average of one a week), a not bad return considering the combination of working away and holidays meant that I was out of the city for about 8 weeks.   Interestingly, 21 of those gigs were at The Zoo, which, as last year, remains my venue of choice by a long way (The Tivoli was in 2nd place with 8 gigs).

On top of the gigs I photographed (or tried to) there’s another 14 gigs I went to as a non-photographing punter. Most of those were at Ric’s but also included Sufjan Stevens at the Tivoli, Iron Maiden at the BEC and Big Day Out, which I seem destined to never photograph and so will be there as a punter in 2009.  I guess there’s always 2010, right?

Photographic highlights of the year were (in no particular order):

• Photographing The Police, a band who were one of my earliest musical memories and my first stadium shoot;
• Being let loose on Splendour In The Grass, and the whole buzz of photographing a major 2-day festival (even if the line-up wasn’t that good this year compared to some of the previous years…); and
• Soundwave, which despite the woeful organisation and extreme 40+ degree heat was fun, although possibly more in retrospect…

Gig of the year was probably the non-photographing Iron Maiden gig at the BEC. I only decided very late on that I should go and managed to get a $50 ticket off eBay on the day of the gig. Even though the seat was in the very back row, as far from the stage as you could get it was still amazing. Hopefully I will get to photograph them some day… Other highlights were Def Leppard, Toto and Whitesnake; 2008 was obviously all about 1980s rock.

Musical lows of the year were probably all the mediocre-at-best bands at Splendour playing to full tents whilst all the good stuff went largely unoticed in the GW McLennan stage and the train-wreck that was Spectrum at The Step Inn. Photographic lows? Any gig with rubbish/no lighting, which was probably most of them…

And finally, personal favourite photos from the year include some of these:

It all kicks off again in the new year, with gigs by Stars, Black Keys/Gomez, All Tomorrow’s Parties at Mt Buller, Dead Meadow/Fuck Buttons and Bon Iver already in my diary to photograph in the first half of January.  So, there will be blogs, there will be tweets, and there will be photos.

One of the most obvious signs of the onset of old age in your average music fan appears to be the annual comparison of albums bought versus album included in the music media’s end of year polls.  Whereas through your late-teens and throughout your twenties a ’score’ of ten, twelve or maybe even a fifteen from a typical top 50 albums of the year list can be consistently achieved in any year, terminal decline sets in through your thirties until you are struggling to get more than one or two albums on any publication’s list that you have added to your collection during the year. 

MGMT have been a constant fixture on most of the 2008 end of year album polls I’ve seen, and whilst I haven’t gotten around to buying ‘Oracular Spectacular‘, it feels like I don’t even have to as it’s been an omnipresent soundtrack to the year, inescapable any time you turned on the radio, switched on the TV or went out to the shops.

Whilst the album has been garnering the rave reviews and end of year accolades, the live experience seems to be a lot more of a mixed bag, with as many, if not more, bad reviews as good reviews, and their Brisbane show at The Tivoli was no exception. Whilst I only got to see the first three songs before I was escorted out (I also disappointingly didn’t get to photograph the support acts - Tame Impala and Luke Steele) it was three songs of extreme soporific tendencies, with all the electro-psychedelic-pop charm of the album sucked out and replaced by a dirge of self-indulgent, bad prog-rock guitar noodling. And for once I know that it’s just not me: the reviews and comments from other shows they have recently played in Sydney and at Meredith, together with the reviews from the Brisbane show, all seem to be somewhat less than flattering, and it’s a rare occasion when me and the Courier Mail agree on something…

A few more photos on flickr.

Footnote: BTW, the only album I’ve bought this year that most publications have included in the upper echelons of their respective best album polls is ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’ by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. Feel free to suggest anything from 2008 that I might like, a thankless task I’m sure… So long as no one recommends Vampire Weekend we’ll probably be ok…  Or at least off to a good start…

Got confirmed yesterday to go and take photos at All Tomorrow’s Parties at Mount Buller, down in Victoria. It’s going to be awesome. Also going as a punter to the show at the Brisbane Riverstage, to get an extra fix of Spiritualized whilst they’re in the country.  And look to replace my two well-worn glow-in-the-dark Spiritualized t-shirts… 

And of course, as well as all the bands, I’m really looking forward to the ‘featuring’ gymnasiums and ski-lifts… Actually, i’ve never been on a ski-lift so that is quite exciting…

Having been accredited I now have got the slighly more tricky task of getting there and finding somewhere to stay. If anyone knows of anyone with a spare bed on the mountain let me know.

Tweets and blogs to come in January.

Is there anything to be said about The Red Paintings that hasn’t already been said? Or are we left to once again muse over same old questions as how they’ve managed to get the high profile supports that they have and somehow managed to persuade people to give them $40,000 (supposedly) to record their album?

But maybe they’re the perfect support act for tonight, as they share common ground with tonight’s headliner in that they both have a seemingly effortless ability polarise an audience.  They are both acts that you either love or hate; there is no middle ground.

If you are a fan of Saul Williams then Sunday night at The Zoo was a superb performance, full of passion, bursting with energy, everything you wanted, everything you expected. If you were there as a casual observer, had been dragged along for a night out or were making the most of a +1 then Sunday night at The Zoo was possibly 90 minutes of living hell and wishing that you had just stayed at home to watch Holby Blue on Channel 7.

So is Saul Williams is a hugely talented, extremely intelligent, engaging, inspirational, flamboyantly-dressed, well-spoken poet-cum-rapper? Or is Saul Williams is a big, scary, sweaty black guy, who’s a bit shouty and angry and has a face covered in glitter?  It seems like it’s one or the other.

As for me, I really enjoyed Sunday night at The Zoo.

Saul Williams

The Red Paintings

Whilst the line-up for Global Gathering 2009 doesn’t have the same weight of performers as Parklife back in October, there is just enough on the bill to make requesting to cover it worthwhile, although in fairness if it isn’t for Kraftwerk playing I wouldn’t have been interested.

The days preceding the festival had an ominous feel to them, with black clouds and heavy storms a-plenty, and forecasts of more to come during the day. A heavy storm passes over the city just as I am about to leave, which delays my departure, but worse is to come with me just missing a train and then managing to miss the next train thanks to not noticing a late change in platform. Spending over an hour waiting for a train at Fortitude Valley train station is not the best way to start the day… The other downside to this was that it also means that I manage to miss two of the five bands that I want to photograph – The Potbelleez and The Orb.

Potbelleez were one of the few advertised ‘live’ bands, although the reviews have said that there was only two of them so I guess I don’t miss much. I haven’t seen The Orb since Glastonbury in 1992 and 1993 and am disappointed to have managed to miss them, although them playing mid-afternoon just seems a bit wrong and probably wouldn’t have been anywhere near the experience of their sunset headline shows at those Glastonburys.

Thanks to the storm and the wet weather in the lead up to the festival, there is the expected mud, but with a familiar déjà vu of this year’s V Festival from the accompanying effluent smell. And much like V Festival the punters aren’t being put off from diving and jumping in the mud, thanks to which I’m splattered in the stuff within minutes of wandering around to the main stage…

After the train debacle, the next problem is the timetable that I’d cut out from one of Brisbane’s street press publications (not the best one obviously…) which is completely wrong. The front gate has run out of timetables so have to memorise the times, not too hard considering there are only three bands left that I want to photo. 6pm rolls around and so it’s time for Gorillaz Sound System, a seemingly cynical money making-scheme trading under the Gorillaz name but seemingly having little to do with the actual band or their albums.

But in keeping with the day I haven’t got the right wristband to get into the photo pit, so it’s another trip back through the mud to the front gate to get a different coloured wristband. Only this second one isn’t the right one either… Third time lucky, but it’s now way after the first three songs and, as the tent is surprisingly full, I can’t be bothered pushing down to the front to take photos from the crowd. The running tally at this point is bands photographed = 0, bands missed = 3…

7pm comes around and finally I manage to get into a photo pit and photograph a band – Mark Ronson and The Version Players. He’s obviously got some talent as an arranger and producer and can play a bit of guitar, but even with a substantial and impressive band on stage it’s still just a glorified wedding band playing some covers.

With well over an hour to fill before Kraftwerk I have a walk around and take some social pics to pass the time. I’m always amazed at how much people want you to take their photo and also want to know where and when they’re going to be published. Gen Y are a vain lot… I should probably lay off the slow shutter sync set-up a bit and maybe take some normal portraits… It’s a bit of a hit and miss effect as well, but when it works it works well and the randomness of it does keep me entertained.

The evil money making schemes that modern day music festivals have become manifests itself further at the bar, when I find out you need to pre-purchase vouchers.  Despite just wanting a bottle of water (a rip off at $5) the lowest priced ticket is $10. Still, at least I get through my $10 of drinks vouchers during the evening, unlike the girl on the train back to the city at the end of the night who still had $70 worth of vouchers in her purse…

Much to my surprise Kraftwerk aren’t playing the main outdoor stage but are in a fairly small tent instead. What’s even more surprising is that 15 minutes before they are due to start, during Fischerspooner’s DJ set, you could probably squeeze the crowd there to see them into The Zoo.

However, there is an upside to the lack of crowd. I’m told that I can’t photograph from the photo pit and have to do it from the mixing desk at the back of the tent. Of course the laws of festival organisation mean that the mixing desk know nothing about this so I end up shoot from the crowd, with the fairly sparse numbers meaning that moving around is a painless exercise and it’s easy to get a clear view.

This is the second time I’ve seen Kraftwerk so the impact of seeing their show in the flesh isn’t quite as great as the first time. It probably also doesn’t help that the last time I saw them (back in 1998) they were supported by Mezzanine-era Massive Attack. And it was in Rio…

But it was still a really special show, one that will stay in the memeory, and not having to shoot from the pit, combined with the ease of photographing from the crowd, means that I can keep shooting for the whole of their set, a blessing in disguise as it means getting photos of the robots in the ‘The Robots’ and Kraftwerk back on stage in their UV suits for ‘Music Non-Stop’ during the encore. There is still time for one last disappointment from the day though, with Ralf Hütter doing a ‘Brian Wilson at Splendour’ and checking the time on his watch before he leaves his keyboard terminal and walks off the stage at the end of the set.

Although numbers swelled a bit by the time they started their set, by the encores it is back to a crowd size that could fit into The Zoo. It is disappointing to see such an important and seminal electronic music band play to such a small audience but apparently there’s some guy called Sasha playing some records on another stage somewhere and he’s a lot more down with the kids…

Some more photos on flickr.

Kraftwerk

Mark Ronson & The Version Players

Social Pics!!!

I have never been impressed with Bloc Party: they have a good drummer but the best thing about their songs always seems to be the intros - as soon as those awful vocals and the terrible lyrics start I’m over it.  I saw them once, maybe at Glastonbury, and they weren’t very good then either.  So despite the huge demand from photographers to get their gig, I wasn’t interested in the slightest in even throwing my hat into the ring to cover it.  But being a Friday night I needed to go and see something so chose the math rock/post-rock/didn’t-this-just-used-to-be-called-instrumental-music-when-we-were-kids double whammy of Pivot and My Disco at The Zoo. (Sudden thought: Maybe Bloc Party would be better as an instrumental band…)

I photographed My Disco back in April but it was yet another photographic nightmare, with the support bands having much better lighting than the headliners and with me giving up in the end and going to see sixfthick over at Ric’s instead.  This time the lighting was a lot better for them but there is something just unfulfilling about their music.  Using only guitar, bass and drums there is an emptiness in their overall sound that no matter of guitar effects seemed to be able to fill out, not helped by the use of a guitar with an aluminium neck, which gives a very cold, metallic sound.  It also felt like there was a heavy reliance on a very similar rhythm for a number of the songs, causing a lack of variety over their set.

With keyboards and laptops in use, Pivot’s sound was fuller and more varied straight from the off.  But ultimately I find that there’s only so much math rock/post-rock/didn’t-this-just-used-to-be-called-instrumental-music-when-we-were-kids that I can take before my boredom threshold is reached, so I didn’t stay until the end of their set.  I guess I’m just too big a fan of vocal melodies… 

Similar to the My Disco show earlier in the year, the lighting got worse the longer the night went on, compounding a week of photographic misery.

A few more photos on flickr.

Pivot

My Disco

All the way back in August 2007 I had the great privilege to spend an evening with Brisbane’s very own Johnny and June, Texas Tea, during the recording of their second album, ’The Junkship Recordings‘, up at Jamie Trevaskis‘ home studio up at The Gap.  It was an amazing experience to sit and watch them rehearse and record and to listen back to the early playbacks of the album.  A bit strangely I don’t seemed to have written a blog about it, which is a bit of a surprise as I was photographing for Mess+Noise.  The photos are on flickr though.

With the album sounding so good back in August 2007, the long 14 month wait for them to finish it off and get it released so that everyone could listen to it has been painful.  They say that good things come to those that wait but Ben and Kate have taken it to a bit of an extreme…

It was another awesome performance from the band, with them playing in full-band mode for some songs.  Although the rarity of a full band adds something to the occasion and allowed them to replicate the more layered songs that they had written and recorded for the second album, I still think that there’s something so much more captivating and mesmerising when it’s just the two of them on stage.

Support for the night was from Timothy Carroll, James McCann and Jacob S Harris (whose set, in true street press style, I managed to miss apart from the last song).  I was very impressed with Timothy Carroll, a singer that had never seen before and who reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly who.  Maybe a bit Damien Rice, but I don’t think that was who I was thinking of on the night.  I’m sure it’ll come to be randomly at some point when I least expect it…

Some more photos on flickr.

Texas Tea

James McCann

Timothy Carroll

A few months ago Triple J put out the following call for submissions:

Are you obsessed with finding the latest music online? Do you know about every good Australian band worth anything at the moment? Have you got your own music blog? Do you annoy your friends with constant music facts and the latest bands they should know about? triple j want you on the triple j team for 2009. We’re after expressions of interest from Australian music lovers of all types. If you’re up for the challenge, send us your details.

The application process was not what I was expecting, as despite including a call for bloggers you had to submit either a video or audio file of yourself, giving the impression that they were more after presenters than anything else. But I decided that it would be a good way of making an initial contact, as I would be interested in photographing Brisbane gigs for their galleries and think I’m one of the few photographers not to have gotten a photo in JMag, so put together a little slideshow of the best of my Splendour In The Grass photos to accompany my submission and sent it off to them.

Got my reply today, which back in the days of graduate job applications we used to refer to as a “PFO”…

Hello

Thanks for your submission to triple j’s Wanted campaign. We put the call out far and wide and we were overwhelmed by the talent out there.

We’ve made a final shortlist and I’m sorry to tell you that you haven’t made the cut this time. The level of entries was pretty amazing, so don’t be disheartened. We will be calling out for submissions like this every year, so keep at it and keep in touch.

Cheers

triple j

Oh well.  Maybe they just took offence at me describing them as a ‘Sydney-centric celebratory circle jerk’. Be interesting to see if anyone gets anything out of this, as it was just an expression of interest rather than for any properly defined roles. And whether or not they live in Sydney…

Waking up in the morning and logging-on to find a email from a reputable publication asking if you want to photograph doesn’t happen every day but when it does it’s somewhat exciting. Daunting, but really exciting and pretty thrilling.

So, when I got an email from Plan B on Wednesday morning asking if I was interested in photographing Jeremy Jay at The Troubadour that night, the day has instantly got off to a pretty good start.  As well as photographing for the magazine it had the added bonus (hopefully…) of a byline something along the lines of ’Words by Everett True, Photos by Justin Edwards’, something that I never would have imagined when I started reading Melody Maker back in my teens.  And of course ET set up ‘Careless Talk Costs Lives‘ with one of my favourite photographers, Steve Gullick, so it’s an awesome feeling to be asked to be involved with CTCL’s successor and take some photos.

As any Brisbane photographer will tell you, whilst news like this is all very exciting, just about the last place you’d want to photograph for a magazine for the first time would be The Troubadour.  On a good day you can get something usable, sometimes something quite good, but it’s still nowhere near being a photographer-friendly venue.   At it’s worst it’s a place that makes you want to set your camera on fire and throw it at a wall.

And of course despite the support acts (The Bell Divers and Guy Blackman) having good Troubadour lighting, Wednesday night became another ‘ISO1600, f.17 50mm lens, 1/25 second’-type of nights.  At least it would have had I brought my f1.7 50mm lens.  So instead most of the photos I took were in the region of ISO1600, f2.8, 1/13.  The main reason for the change in lighting between the supports and the headline act was that the two small spotlights were turned upwards,  so instead of pointing at the stage they pointed at the black ceiling a couple of inches above their position.  This meant that most of the light was coming from the single red light above the drummer and the two table lamps at the back of the stage.  It was pretty heartbreaking really.