Belle & Sebastian @ The Tivoli, 07.03.2011
Seeing Belle & Sebastian at All Tomorrow’s Parties in the UK in December was exciting. It wasn’t just that the band were curating the weekend and the main band on the Saturday night or that ATP is the more civilised way to experience a music festival but it the weekend was part of a two […]
Seekae + Ghoul @ Woodland, 15.04.2011
I see that there are time listed for three acts tonight on Woodland’s Facebook page but as I don’t bother to check each of them out I arrive at the venue nice and early for Bardeya, only to find it’s a laptop DJ for the next 45 minutes. The weird thing about tonight is that […]
Splendour In The Grass 2010 – Day 3
Day Three of Splendour and the battery in my mobile lasts long enough for a single tweet: Tent collapse. Slept in car. Need hat. Bad hair. Festival oversold. Florence carnage. Raisin bread and can of mother for breakfast. #sitg. It’s a good summary of Saturday night/Sunday morning. I keep seeing the reformed Pixies and they […]
Splendour In The Grass 2010 – Day 2
To my surprise my alarm wakes me up on Day 2, meaning that (1) my make-shift tent didn’t fall over; and (2) it hasn’t rained during the night. After some more extensive tent repairs (involving snapping off the broken one inch piece of tent pole and putting the tent back together properly, albeit with one pole an […]
Splendour In The Grass 2010 – Day 1
From a personal point of view 2010’s Splendour In The Grass is one disaster after another, everything that could go wrong does go wrong and combines into one big mass of Splendour-related EPIC FAIL, and it all starts way in advance of the festival weekend itself Firstly the dates are announced and clash with a […]
Taasha & Tristan + Timothy Carroll @ The Troubadour 28-05-10
I knew I hadn’t edited the photos from this night but then found that I’d already drafted the post. It’s strange reading thoughts from 11 months ago, especially when no one knew at the time that The Troubadour would be shutting in November. With reference to the first couple of lines, The Troubadour ended up […]
Best Coast @ Woodland 10.03.2011
First published on Collapse Board, 16.03.2011. Sometimes I wonder what it must be like to be in a popular band and play on stage at a sold out show to a front row of people with their iphones held aloft, recording the moment for later playback rather than living than moment. It always ends with […]
Joanna Newsom @ The Tivoli, 04.03.2011
First published on Collapse Board, 13.03.2011 Ironically, after the self-inflicted debacle of photographing Roxy Music earlier in the week, I get a second chance to make amends for a previous photographic misdemeanour, in the form of Joanna Newsom, who’s playing at The Tivoli for the second time in fourteen months. The last time she played at […]
Smashing Pumpkins @ The Tivoli, 17.10.2010
Once upon a time Smashing Pumpkins were one of my favourite bands. I first got into them when they released the 4-track Lull EP (featuring Rhinoceros, Blue, Slunk and Bye June) which was released in the UK before Gish came out. I saw them when they were touring the EP at The Riverside in Newcastle, […]
Robert Forster @ Brisbane Powerhouse, 18.09.2010
I really like Robert Forster and have enjoyed all the times I’ve seen him play live but there was something disappointing about tonight. It was billed as ’15 Songs About Brisbane’ so I expected 15 songs about Brisbane. I didn’t doubt that there would be a fair number of Go Betweens’ songs, the early songs […]
Soundwave 2011 @ RNA Showgrounds, 26.02.2011: Part 4
The evening before Soundwave I’d seen a fantastic set by Gang Of Four, who were playing a sideshow at The Hi-Fi. It was so good that I decided that I really needed to go see them play again at Soundwave. They are playing Stage 3, the stage furthest away from anything else. There should be a […]
Soundwave 2011 @ RNA Showgrounds, 26.02.2011: Part 3
The late starting Bullet For My Valentine means there’s not enough time to head over and photograph The Gaslight Anthem on Stage 3. The size of the festival is even bigger than last year and with the stages all starting within 20 minutes of each other, photographing a band and then moving on to get to another […]
Soundwave 2011 @ RNA Showgrounds, 26.02.2011: Part 2
Although the day had ended triumphantly with Iron Maiden’s headline set, the beginning of the day gets off to a much more inauspicious start. I get to the front of the queue at the Guest Tickets booth to pick up my photo pass only to find it’s just a green paper wristband with “Photo” written […]
Soundwave 2011 @ RNA Showgrounds, 26.02.2011: Part 1
I’m now at a point where I’ve photographed hundreds of gigs and think I must be closing fast on having photographed 1,000 bands. But out of all those hundreds of gigs and bands, I don’t think any of those times has been as thrilling as being in the pit for Iron Maiden tonight. When it […]
Throughout The Universe, In Perpetuity: Why I Don’t Sign Copyright Grabbing Photo Contracts
I was recently interviewed by Andrew McMillen for a story that was published on The Vine about the photo release forms that photographers have to sign, mainly at the festivals and the larger stadium/arena gigs but increasingly at much smaller shows: “I didn’t sign either contract,” says Brisbane-based photographer Justin Edwards, who was covering the festival […]
Brisbane Laneway 2011 @ Alexandria Street, 04.02.2011 – Part 4
If Two Door Cinema Club are the type of band that makes you question whether you’re just too old to like popular music, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti are the type of band that makes you question whether you’re still in tune with the more leftfield side of music, the music that’s been critically acclaimed and […]
Brisbane Laneway 2011 @ Alexandria Street, 04.02.2011 – Part 3
These days I find it almost impossible to keep up with all the new music released in the year and so tend to catch up on things I’ve missed when the music industry does its ‘Best Of’ lists at the end of each year. The last Beach House album was one of those albums and […]
Brisbane Laneway 2011 @ Alexandria Street, 04.02.2011 – Part 2
“Les Savy Fav played. Some other bands were also present” This is where I try and remember anything about any of the other bands that played… I guess the writing was on the wall for Laneway’s status as a boutique festival this time last year, when some canny booking meant a bill that boasted Florence […]
This Is Not A Photo Opportunity Has Wood
Seems like only yesterday…. Yep, we made it through another year and scarily have made it all the way to five years of blogging, our Wooden Anniversary. When you start out you never think about the future or that in five years time you might still be writing about poor lighting at Brisbane venues, shows that […]
Brisbane Laneway 2011 @ Alexandria Street, 04.02.2011 – Part 1: Les Savy Fav
They might not have been the headliners or even playing on either of the festivals two main stages, but whoever tweeted “Les Savy Fav played. Some other bands were also present” perfectly summed up this year’s Laneway. The original plan was to photograph the first three songs and then go and photograph Deerhunter but seconds […]
Good Vibrations @ Gold Coast Parklands, 19.02.2011 – Part 2
As the day goes by, the numbers at Parklands increase to a respectable number, and there’s a decent number at each of the stages. I’ve never seen some many shirt-off bogans and chest tattoos in all my life though. Highlight of the second half of the day is Kelis, who, as with Erykah Badu, has […]
Good Vibrations @ Gold Coast Parklands, 19.02.2011 – Part 1
It’s Saturday morning and if there’s one place I don’t want to be today it’s Good Vibrations. I mean I did, once, when I said I’d head down to the Gold Coast for the day and photograph it, but that was when the two main drawcards (for me at least) – Janelle Monae and Cee […]
The Hold Steady @ The Zoo, 09.03.2011
When it comes to flicking through the shelves of CDs at my place to decide what to put on the stereo, more often than not the conversation starts with the following opening: Girlfriend – “Every time I think there can’t be any more Bruce Springsteen albums, I manage to find another one”. What can I say? I […]
Powderfinger + Jet + You Am I @ The Riverstage, 13.11.2010
In a way I’ve already summarised Powderfinger’s last ever show in the post about the Vegas Kings’ last show, which took place later that same night. On one side of Brisbane, down by the river, Powderfinger are playing the final show of their illustrious 20 year career. Surprisingly, given the demand, that is the fourth show […]
