Tag Archive for "The Arena"
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 me understand why they were so acclaimed and why they were such a written about group in the music press during the 1980s. A few years down the track I bought the ‘I Hate Rock ‘N’ Roll’ and ‘Sometimes Always’ singles on 10” vinyl as I really liked the songs. But the overall impression was OK, but not that good.
I retrospect one of my biggest musical regrets is that I didn’t go with my housemate and see the Rollercoaster Tour when it hit the exotic heights of the Whitley Bay Ice Rink back in March 1992. The tour was a four band affair; Blur, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr and headlined by the JAMC. Essentially I didn’t go because it was too expensive at a whole £12.50 to go see four bands that I just wasn’t that into. This was at a similar time to when I was paying £6 to see Nirvana, £3.50 to see the Smashing Pumpkins and £4 to see Pearl Jam. So £12.50 WAS a pretty big deal. But you live, you learn. Having seen Blur plenty of times, I finally got to see and photograph Dinosaur Jr last year and made up for lost time by seeing the JAMC twice in three days… So now I’m just waiting on MBV to complete the set….
The V fest set on the Sunday was good, although not enough volume, not enough reverb and not enough feedback. Ultimately, I don’t think JAMC are a festival band, and especially not a late-afternoon festival band at the most corporate festival around. After having gone to both the Sydney and V Festivals last year, this year was a real disappointment. I was glad to have bought half price tickets on eBay. And glad I wore boots so I could point and laugh at the people in flip-flops walking around (and even rolling around) in sewage…
The Tuesday night show at The Arena was a lot more like I had expected, with near ear bleeding volume. One disappointment was that the set was very similar to the one played at V and they didn’t play for much longer at their own sideshow; about 65 minutes.
Photographing them was a challenge; none of the front lights were on, with only strong back and some side-lighting being used. I knew that most of what I would end up with would be very silhouetted so I tried to work with that, shooting into the light for much of the three songs I was allowed to photograph for. Ultimately I was trying for a strong shot of both brothers and I think, considering the conditions, that I got a couple of half decent photos and a few good ones of William. Whereas William was stood near to some lights, photographing Jim, who was facing front with no light on his face, was much more problematic.
More on flickr.
So, you miss out on U2 and next up is Yngwie Malmsteen…
Thought I’d get there a bit early, get into the pit before it kicked off and do some still life shots of the guitar, the scalloped fretboard, the wall of Marshall amps etc. Get there at 8:50pm and find out that the door know nothing and haven’t been given any pit passes.
One of the box office girls goes off to find the tour manager and at about 8:55pm I’m still waiting in the foyer and he starts playing… about 1½ songs go by before I get into the photo pit.
So, it’s a pretty rushed job, although I don’t think anyone was paying that much attention as I think I also got the fourth song as well. Either that or the guitar solos went on for ever…
I stayed and watched the rest of the show for about 70 minutes before I decided that there’s only so many minor harmonic scales I can take in a single evening…
Was fun though, and glad that some 18 years after my guitar teacher gave me copies of his first two albums, that I got to see him play. The hair and leather trousers might be the same but some pies have been eaten since the 1980s. Hoping for Steve Vai and Joe Satriani in a couple weeks. Then I’ll just need the (possibly) reformed Van Halen to tour over here…
Some photos below and more here.
I photographed Hard-Fi and Vanlustbader at The Arena last night. Thanks to the joys of promoter contracts I can’t show you the photos but they’re here.
I was only allowed to photograph in the first 3 songs. I was walking out the pit at the start of Vanlustbader’s 4th song when whoever was running the lights decided to start putting on a light show. And it was even worse for Hard-Fi, who played the best part of the first 1 ½ songs in the dark before some decent lighting in song 3. It meant that I ended up with about 3 1/2 minutes to get some photos…
For both bands, I got to watch song 4 onwards thinking I could get some really great photos with this great lighting… yeah, awesome…
I photographed Arctic Monkeys last night at The Arena. I’d been looking forward to it but it, especially as The Grates were supporting. But then I got told that had to be there at 9pm to be escorted in, and then be escorted out after the first three songs. So no Grates photos. And had to sign contract saying that for 3 months the photos could only be on the publication that was doing it for. So if you want to see them they’re here:
Whilst it’s nice to take your time, I don’t have a problem with the three song rule generally. However, it’s annoying (and seemingly typical) when the first song is played in the dark, the second is loads of strobe backlighting, and the third is mostly red lighting. Having said that I was pretty pleased with a few of the shots I got. There’s a nice one of the drummer that I really like, where there’s a tiny bit of light but it’s on his eye. Even though only saw three songs they were sounding really good.
And to make up for no Grates shots, here’s one from the unseen archives of the lovely Alana playing at Falls Festival last December.
