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…Â
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.
Just got a mailbomb from FL: apparently they still haven’t got a shooter for ATP @ the Riverstage. That’s something I find absolutely mind-boggling, considering the pedigree of the acts. The Saints alone counts as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, surely? I threw my name into the ring, so we’ll see. But I might suffer for the lack of a lens that goes longer than 85mm…
I wish I had the money to go to My Buller as well. *sigh*
Stephen
ps: The Queensland Writer’s Centre was the organisation I was trying to recall on Sat night when you asked about writing courses. (http://www.qwc.asn.au/). I can’t attest for the quality or otherwise of their stuff though. Oh, and Darren Hanlon is Sunday 21st, not Sat the 20th.
Will find you there somewhere Justin.
I couldn’t believe the mailbomb either…maybe it’s the weekday bit.
Maybe, although surely they aren’t plenty of uni students still on holiday. Maybe they just see the line-up as music by dinosaurs or they don’t know most of the line-up or Nick Cave is just too weird or something. Youth of today etc.
Even though it’s a bit of a slimmed down bill (compared to the Mt Buller and Sydney shows), Nick Cave + Spiritualized + The Saints + Robert Forster is a pretty good run of 4 bands in a row compared to most festivals I’ve been to recently if you ask me. I’ve got a ticket so I plan on turning up at 4:30pm to see that lot anyway.
I don’t think it is just FL phenomenon though, it’s similar at Rave. But there is an advantage to it in that there’s usually not much interest from other photographers when requesting older and less mainstream acts and being older than most of the other guys I can get a lot of the stuff that I grew up with in the 80s + 90s that they’re not interested in. In a way i do find it a bit sad sometimes because I’m never sure why some photographers do music photography. Is it because of their total love of music, and not just love but also understaning about music, or is it just for the kudos and bragging rights to their mates. I know I have blogged previously (probably in blogs like ones about Robert Forster, Toto, Whitesnake etc) that I prefer photographing older acts and i’d rather do that than some flash-in-the-pan act. Many of the older acts are somewhat less than ‘cool’ and definitely not ‘flavour of the month’ (I mean Toto, Whitesnake, c’mon – unless that month was somewhere in the 1980s, but I’m not sure even of that…) but they have a place is music history and I don’t think a lot of photographers have a deep enough appreciation of music outside what Triple J plays at the moment. And on top of the old stuff you’ve also got the newer alternative/indie stuff that hasn’t (yet) gotten onto high rotation on Triple J – hence why most of the gigs I cover are at The Zoo. So whilst I don’t cover a lot of big name acts playing to sell out crowds at big venues I have my own little niche that gives me more than enough. Sometimes I would like to do a bit more of that though; the glam of a big show makes a nice change from a night out in the Valley…
Ideally you would want something with a bit of a bigger range but The Riverstage is quite a low stage and you’d probably be fine with everything happening towards the front of the stage with an 85 (presumably 125 ish with 1.5x). You could always see about hiring. Or see if anyone will lend you something a bit bigger. Also, as half of the bands are going to be playing in daylight you might not need something as wide as f2.8 if you’ve got a bigger lens but not one that you use for gigs. Hope you get it anyway. It’ll be a memorable start to the year for you if you do!
I wonder about the perceived lack of interest in these older acts as well. And some of the “newer” local acts that show a heap of promise, such as The Gin Club, Texas Tea, Violent Soho and IHH. I know they’re not exactly new, but I guess they sit a little outside the J-cool club and maybe that’s the point.
But I prefer them for shooting: the challenge is usually greater because the lighting is not-so-good and the intimate venues they play generally suit my gear better. (Although when it’s like this I just want to cry.
Being reluctant to review these acts I can understand: you need to be kinda steeped in the pedigree of these acts to do them justice. I am seriously considering a Leonard Cohen review next year, but I just don’t know if i could do it justice. Because I’m not a Cohen aficionado.
Don’t think I got the spot because I haven’t heard back. Kinda disappointing, but ta for the Riverstage advice!
I love photographing those bands you listed. From a photographic point of view Soho and IHH are up there with the best photo ops and photographers should be falling over themselves to photograph those bands, which makes you think that maybe it’s not about the photography but about the band. I remember walking out a of a 3-song-and-escorted-off-the-premises gig and saying to another photographer that I was off to Ric’s to see sixfthick. And they’d never seen them! I was stunned. I think I still am…
So many people in Brisbane seem to be be largely ignorant of the local scene, it’s pretty depressing. I remember a particularly depressing night walking back through the Valley after work (it was a Wednesday or Thursday) and it was a night when Triple J were putting on a free gig at The Zoo, headlined by The Cops. The queue went from the doors of the Zoo to New York Pizza on Brunswick Street. And it wasn’t like it was single file line. This is for The Cops. People will go see a mediocre Sydney band if it’s free (they’d played about 9 months earlier at The Columbian in front of about 50 people and it was $10) but they won’t go out and pay $10 to see a few superior local bands. It’s like with John Steel Singers, who are great and I’ve always enjoyed seeing them and have photographed them a couple times but they’ve been going maybe a couple of years and it’s only since getting some Triple J radio play that people in their own city have started to pay attention. It’s like they need validation from a radio station and they need to hear a song on heavy rotation before they are allowed to like it and want to go and see them.
I know somewhere like FL does the whole ‘you have to cover some local bands before we let you do the big stuff’ and whilst there is a good side to that, in that the local scene gets coverage, it also subconsciously pushes an agenda of ‘local = crap, big = good’ so covering the local scene turns into a something akin to a chore that no one wants to do because thay all want the latest Triple J darlings or [insert name of international act] and as soon as they’ve moved onto the ‘glamour’ stuff that’s largely the end of their interest in the local scene.
Good call on all above. I think I can top you both with my passion for Australian ‘heritage’ acts…Dragon comes to mind. I put in for Toto and Whitesnake too so someone must have wanted to shoot them. I may need to resort to sexual favours to get ‘The Who’.
Sorry Stephen…I ended up with that FL slot for ATP.
Don’t you mean ‘Australian’ ‘hertitage’ seeing as they’re from NZ…
I really, really, really want The Who. But I think they’re probably far too high on the radar to get. Will put in for it and see where I get anyway and plan on buying a ticket in the New Year as I want to see them
Did forget those quotation marks…that said we’re quite happy to claim anyone from over the ditch other than Dave Dobbyn. I bought some Who tickets the other day and got bottom stand, left of the desk. Happy with that.
A very belated reply as I have been enjoying my extended holiday and doing as much of absolutely nothing as humanly possible…
Adam: Ah well, but it all worked out in the end, as Stuart Blythe from LifeMusicMedia asked me if I would like to review. Which is awesome, but now I’m trying to get my head around a bunch of bands that I hardly know (Spiritaluzed, James Ulmer, the Necks). I’ve long been a Kuepper fan, but never consciously listened to The Saints in an extended run and my knowledge of Robert Forster is only casual as well. Talk about an opening challenge for 2009.
Justin: Now I get why you have that Spiritualized t-shirt. Ladies & Gentleman is sonically quite extraordinary, and A&E isn’t far behind. Very much looking forward to hearing them live and wondering how it will all be recreated …
What else should I get?
I found A&E a bit disappointing. Where it’s good it’s awesome but quite a lot of filler and those annoying 30 second Harmony tracks. As time goes on I’m more drawn to their first album, Laser Guided Melodies as it’s an easy, blissed out listen and listen loads to Complete Works Volume 1, which is a collection of stuff from the first two albums, singles, b-sides, out takes, different versions etc. Strangely they work really well at festivals, esp if they play as the sun sets. Not sure what band he’s got with him but when I saw him at Glastonbury in 2002ish he had a 22 piece band, half of which was a gospel choir. Think he might be down to a smaller band of half a dozen and don’t think he’d bring that many over here anyway. He’s only got about an hour though so there’s not going to be much time for many songs but hopefully it won’t be all new album stuff.