Masters of Music Photography: Part 1 – Steve Gullick
I have been recently drafting a blog for future publication about some of my favourite music photographers. However, I saw that one of the biggest influences on my photography, Steve Gullick, has got an exhibition on at the moment in the Rough Trade East shop in London. As such, there are quite a few recent […]
Spectrum: Somewhere Between Too Much and Not Enough
Quickly following on from last week’s JAMC show, there was another blast of seminal 1980s proper indie noise this week courtesy of ex-Spaceman 3 co-frontman Sonic Boom in his Spectrum guise. Until I moved to Brisbane my most seen live band was Spiritualized (8 times) – the band formed and fronted by Sonic’s ex-Spaceman 3 […]
Death and Taxes – The Occasional Upside
Benjamin Franklin once remarked that “in this world nothing is certain but death and taxesâ€. Whilst there is not much of an upside to death (depending on whether you believe all that mumbo-jumbo about the utopian afterlife…), the unfortunate certainty of paying taxes does provide an occasional upside; the income tax refund. Sure, not paying […]
The Jesus & Mary Chain: Head On
The Jesus and Mary Chain were a band that I never quite got at the time. I got ‘Psychocandy’ and it was OK but didn’t blow me away. I picked up ‘Automatic’ cheaply in Woolworths (I think I might have paid £1.99 for it) and again it was quite good but not enough to make […]
Whitesnake: 1987 And All That
If you’re male, a long-time music fan and somewhere between your mid-30s and early 40s you’ll probably have a large and varied record collection.  But I can almost guarantee that somewhere in that collection, possibly hidden towards the back, is a copy of ‘1987’ by Whitesnake.  I can remember back to my first year at university in 1990 […]
Queens Of The Stone Age: The True Meaning of Era Vulgaris
Wikipedia tells us that the latest Queens Of The Stone Age album, Era Vulgaris refers to the Latin term for Common Era. The entry continues by saying that the title was chosen by Josh Homme because he thought “it sounds like ‘the Vulgar Era’, which I like, because that sounds like something that I would […]
Sinead O’Connor: It’s been 7 hours and 18 years…
No rest for the wicked and straight onto Blog No. 105; Sinead O’Connor, with Damien Demspey supporting. Sinead played at the first Glastonbury I went to back in 1990; she was second on the bill on the Saturday night, playing before The Cure, riding high at that time with ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’. It was […]
Blog is Two
Today is the second anniversary of me starting to do a regular photo blog. Everything that was on my old Myspace blog has now been transferred over to this site and all the links and images that weren’t working (due to websites I have photographed for in the past changing their site layouts and page […]
Hard, Sweet and Sticky with The Bellrays
One night, two choices: The Bellrays at The Zoo or Ozzy Osbourne at the BEC. I put in for both but with The Bellrays as my preferred choice. Reasons why? I photographed The Bellrays last year but could only stay for a couple songs and, as they won a Best International Live Act ‘award’ from […]
Buffalo Tom + Screamfeeder
They say that time flies when you’re having fun. Whether or not this is true, time definitely has flown since the last time that I saw Buffalo Tom, (which from memory was in London at the LA2 in November 1999) let alone the first time that I saw them back in the early 1990s at […]
The Brisbane Sound
A few weeks ago it was Brisbane Sounds; this time around it was The Brisbane Sound, as in the definitive article. As part of the exhibition, there was a series of three concerts; I went to the second one, curated by Robert Forster. Although the exhibition was celebrating the indie and experimental music scenes and […]
Toto @ The Tivoli
Ever since I have started going to gigs one of my main thoughts as I walk up to the venue concerns just how popular the band playing is and how many people will be there; my ultimate nightmare is that they’ll be playing to near empty room of the proverbial three men and a dog […]
CocoRosie
CocoRosie are a band that has perplexed me for a while. Whilst only familiar with their music via their myspace and random snippets available on the web elsewhere, I found the polarisation of views and reviews to be really interesting; you either love them or you hate them; they either get 5 star gushing reviews […]
Don’t Look Back: Died Pretty + Ed Kuepper
The Don’t Look Back series of concerts finally made it across to Australia this month, although in typical and familiar fashion Brisbane got the rough end of the deal with only one concert – the double bill of Died Pretty playing ‘Doughboy Hollow’ and Ed Kuepper playing ‘Honey Steel’s Gold’ – missing out on the […]
Brisbane Sounds
Blair and Vicki from The Zoo put on a showcase night of local bands as a fundraiser to raise money for a promotional CD sampler of Brisbane bands. You can read more about it here. Of all the major cities I’ve lived in/near – Exeter, Newcastle, Birmingham, London, Sydney and Brisbane – Brisbane has by […]
Soundwave 2008: And the Bands Played On….
A much-changed Soundwave line-up rolled into town on Saturday to be met with the hottest day in the city in four years, with temperatures over 40 degrees in the mid-afternoon sun.  With a couple of last minute drop outs (From Autumn to Ashes and Still Remains) it meant that a total of seven bands had […]
Let’s Bitch about Concert Photography Contracts – Part 1
There is an ever growing cancer that is gnawing away at the life of a music photographer; the photography contract. The actual origins of the contact are unclear; some people say Led Zeppelin, some say Rush, some say Blondie, and so on. Just as unclear are the reasons for its birth; was it fighting in […]
The Police: Woke Up This Morning, Don’t Believe What I Saw
One of the earliest musical memories that I can remember is staying at my aunt and uncles place when my parents went on holiday and hearing ‘Outlandos D’Amour’ by The Police and ‘Parallel Lines’ by Blondie. Going by what school I was at at the time I think this would have been early 1979. Fast […]
Enter Shikari: Sorry You’re Not a Winner
Having seen a fair number of fantastic photos from the UK of Enter Shikari from the likes of Danny North and Peter Hill, this was a gig that I was really looking forward to photographing (despite feeling the effects of the Big Day Out the day before). Whilst The Arena can be very hit and […]
The Ongoing Battles of Me vs John Stanier
 Let’s face it; whilst Tyondai Braxton is as close to a front man as you’re going to get with Battles, it’s all about trying to get photos of drummer John Stanier in full flight. This would normally be a fairly easy proposition at many venues but being the Zoo in Brisbane there’s the lack […]
A New Beginning
Whilst I have been writing a regular music photo blog on myspace for much of the last two years – you can check it out here – I thought it was about time that I went out on my own, went a bit more legitimate/professional and set up my own blog. So welcome to ‘This […]
Buck 65 + Warhol = $20
Another day, another gig and so second gig of the year was on 4th January: Buck 65 at GoMA – Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art – as part of their Andy Warhol Up Late season. It’s a great concept;Â $20 for the Warhol exhibition and the gig and get to avoid all the kids who are […]
Mashing it up with Girl Talk
Back to Brisbane after New Year in Sydney and straight back into it with the first gig of the year on the 3rd Januray: Girl Talk at The Zoo. Came from a recomendation from someone I know who is into his dance music. Call me old fashioned but I still don’t really get the whole […]
