Tag Archive for "BEC"
Love is like a bomb, baby, c’mon get it on
Livin’ like a lover with a radar phone
Lookin’ like a tramp, like a video vamp
Demolition woman, can I be your man?
Razzle ‘n’ a dazzle ‘n’ a flash a little light
Television lover, baby, go all night
Sometime, anytime, sugar me sweet
Little miss ah innocent sugar me, yeah
I did think about leaving it there for my review of the night, it’s all you really need to know. Sure it ain’t Dylan but then Dylan isn’t as much fun. Although I have Pyromania and Hysteria I was never that big Def Leppard fan back in my obligatory teenage metal years, much preferring Iron Maiden and Van Halen. I would say it’s safe to say that I haven’t listened to them since the 1980s. But despite the 20 year gap between listens, it’s amazing how rock music so unashamedly stupid (all things considered) can suddenly unlock the door to long lost memories and provide flashbacks to the summer of 1987, memories of six weeks in France, drinking cider with school mates and when life was a lot simpler. Memory recall is made somewhat easier by the fact that Def Leppard look pretty much the same as they did in the late 1980s, in scarily good looking shape for a bunch of guys in their late 40s - early 50s. There is obviously some sort of Def Leppard intensive fitness regime going on…
Contracts reared their ugly heads once again, with the Def Leppard contract restricting usage to the named publication (with some conflict between saying portfolio usage was allowed but specifying that the photos couldn’t be anywhere on the internet other than the named publication. Don’t they know that portfolio books are so 20th century…). But at least the Def Leppard contract didn’t plumb the depths of the Cheap Trick contract, which was so bad that it resulted in the promoter not allowing photographers to sign it.
Thanks to the photo contract restrictions, the photos are up on Rave’s website.
And thanks to Stephen for the spare ticket, which was greatly appreciated and meant that I got to see Cheap Trick (although they weren’t that good) and the whole Def Leppard set, instead of being kicked out of the venue after the two songs I was allowed to photograph for.
Heaven and Hell played at the BEC back in mid-August. Had the usual palaver getting to the BEC on the train with the building work at Brunswick Street so made sure I got there really early. Went for a walk around and a drink when I got there to kill time and managed to miss the opportunity to photograph Down, the main support band… and the show was running about 30 minutes late so was the usual hanging around.
But eventually the show started. It was the first time that seen any incarnation of Sabbath so was really looking forward to it. Only got to see the first three songs but was quite humbling to be stood there in front of Tony Iommi. The crowd love him and the way he nodded his head in appreciation in thanks when they were chanting his name or applauding his playing was cool. And his playing was awesome. The lighting was surprisingly poor, which was annoying as really wanted to get a decent photo of his left hand with the attachments on his two missing finger tips.
Dio was great; saw on Wikipedia that he’s 65, which is pretty incredible. He might look scary and dress badly but he sang and performed fantastically. Never been that bothered about seeing the Ozzy-fronted Sabbath line up as would be worried that it would be far to close to pantomime these days. Given how good they sounded at this gig not sure if tonight made me more keen or not. I guess it would mean that I would get the chance to photograph Bill Ward…
A few photos below and more on flickr.
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.
Originally we were told we would get 2 songs from the mixing desk. On the train out to the BEC got a phone call from the Sony rep to say this had now become 60 seconds from the mixing desk - as in the roughly 60 seconds it took Beyonce to walk to the centre of the stage and stand there and take the audience’s acclaim. As soon as the first song started we were to be escorted out. 60 seconds, no songs. Apparently someone wasn’t happy with the photos that had been published from the night before’s gig in Sydney. Because giving us worst conditions to shoot under makes for better photos, obviously…
Rave gave me a ticket so got to see the show (the seat was much closer than where we were photographing from…). And it was a fantastic show. A 13 piece band and 10 dancers would have made for great photos. And the ridiculous thing was that even after 1 3/4 hours of singing/dancing Beyonce look amazing; not a hair out of place and I don’t think she had even broken sweat.
Didn’t have the advantage that the newspaper guys did of being able to pop into the store room and pick up a f2.8 400mm lens… so the photos were just about ok but nothing special.
At least the photo pass was nice. Am guessing that the photo on it might have taken more than 60 seconds to get…
