The full collection of photographs taken on a boat trip along the Thames with live performances by Joe Robbins and Plush. Featured song is ‘Lucky Fish’ by Plush.

Really intimate performances from Plush and Joe Robbins on a boat cruising along the Thames River. 24 July 2010. London, United Kingdom.

When I still worked at Beatroute Records and Communion we shared an office with Autonomy Music Group. It certainly was a strange coincidence that they are the company responsible for marketing The Parlotones in the UK. I used to tell them about watching The Parlotones perform to a less than 10 people back in 2003. They invited me to watch the band at The Electric Ballroom in Camden.

Since moving to London I’ve been to a lot of big shows, but I have really missed the kind of photography access I had back in SA. It was brilliant to get back into the pit for a big show with decent lighting. The support band, The Little Million, were top class and really entertaining.

I haven’t seen The Parlotones live for ages (aside from a packed Flowerpot gig where I couldn’t actually see them). By the time they exploded in SA I had watched them so many times that I refused to join the masses at shows… I was always better at supporting the underdog. It was great to see how polished and professional they are these days, yet they still manage to keep a humble and approachable presence, even from the stage. They’ve worked really hard to get to this point and I’m really impressed that they haven’t let it change them. It was a quality show and made me proud to see a South African band pull such a crowd in London (even if it was the entire population of South London). That said, they are steadily growing a decent UK fanbase. Radio play and a tour supporting Ash are bound to take them to a new level.

Handshake
‘Dance Before You Die’ EP launch.
The Flowerpot (Kentish Town, London).
19 March 2010.

Thanks to Songkick, I heard that We Are Scientists were rumoured to be the surprise guests at a Barfly gig as part of the NME Shockwaves Tour. The rumours were true and the show was brilliant.

The Chapman family were the official headline act with support from Bicycle Thieves (and another band we missed). Bicycle Thieves were good but it felt like we were watching them through one-way glass. Aside from mumbling, “We’re Bicycle Thieves” at the start, they didn’t interact with the crowd at all. It’s a pity because their songs deserve more than that.

I previewed The Chapman Family on Spotify earlier in the weekend and the songs made me apprehensive about the show but they certainly sounded better live. My lazy description would be, “White Lies with a lot more noise”. The noise was immense, plenty of distortion that would jump out and bitchslap you when you least expect it. The band seems to take their art very seriously, with the vocalist turning his mic cable against himself in an act of auto-asphyxiation during their final song. It was a bit surreal but I think I’ve out-grown that kind of musical darkness.

The not-so-secret headliners seemed very out of place in this line-up of generally depressing music – I don’t say depressing as a criticism, but rather a style or genre. So the crowd was fairly glum by the time We Are Scientists took to the stage. It was such a great contrast to be treated to some energetic sing-along songs broken up by hilarious stage banter. It was great to see the band in such an intimate venue. I even managed to get a few photos by shooting over people’s heads or squeezing in between those kind enough to let me.

Charly Coombes & the New Breed live at the Monto Water Rats (London, United Kingdom). Supported by John McKeown, Nicole Fermie, Dixie and Radio Riot.
19 January 2010.

Head over to www.nativenoisecollection.com/desktop-wallpapers to download your favourites.

Click here to read the blog and view photos

My first Christmas since moving to the UK was bound to be different. It would be my first Christmas without my family and my first during Winter (aside from a family holiday in 1994). I got a very different one indeed. We’d planned a trip to Scotland to celebrate the holidays with Ana-Paula’s family (her sister is married with two kids).

A few days before the office closed we had our first snow. Snow in London is beautiful for a few hours but quickly turns into muddy slush. The novelty was still very exciting for me but it doesn’t come without problems.

The snow caused serious travel problems that saw many people spend Christmas in the airport. We replaced a cancelled train to Luton by sharing a cab with a more prepared traveller. Our short flight to Edinburgh included 5 hours on the runway before take-off and another hour after landing for crew to clear a walkway for us. I thought Scotland was closer than a 12 hour journey.

Every cloud has a silver lining and our travel disruptions were worth it when we saw how beautiful Scotland was. I was treated to a real White Christmas. We had snowball fights, poor attempts to make a snowman, sledging into hedges, snow angels and the excitement of Santa bringing gifts for two young children.

Our Christmas Day ended in a Karaoke session at the neighbour’s house. They had a decent selection of songs to choose from. Ana-Paula and I totally rocked ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’, ‘Fight For Your Right’ and ‘Living on a Prayer’ (any song that involved shouting rather than singing). I must say it was a little bit disturbing to hear the kids singing, “Yooooour, Yoooour sex is on fire!”

It really was a lovely Christmas and made up for missing a warm Indian Ocean swim after stuffing myself with Mum’s cooking.

I do need to have my say as an angry customer. I was very disappointed that Ana-Paula’s gift didn’t arrive in time. The snow made deliveries difficult for most companies and impossible for the highly incompetent UK Mail courier service. As I write this (3rd January), we’re still waiting for the order I placed on the 10th December. So I advise you to avoid buying anything that will be delivered via UK Mail.

I’m very impressed with the pics I got using my Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. It is an amazing little lens.

Go to the download page to get your copy of the Native Noise Collection Seether screensaver.
http://www.nativenoisecollection.com/screensaver/

I used Adobe Flash to create an animated swf file and then two great pieces of free software to convert the animation into screensavers.
Instant Storm Screensaver Creator for Windows
SWF Screensaver for Mac

During my recent holiday visiting friends and family in South Africa I had one night to go out in Jozi. Fortunately two of my favourite bands (Heroes Wear Red and New Academics) were both playing at the same venue.

Heroes Wear Red, New Academics and Broadway Screamer live at the launch of HWR’s music video for ‘Am I’.
Back 2 Basix (Johannesburg, South Africa).
27 November 2009.

This show had some very odd lighting. The entire stage was lit up by bright blue lights that created a very difficult environment to shoot photos. I Photoshopped the hell out of these pictures to try and compensate for the blue haze that covered them all. I always process my RAW image files in Photoshop, but I don’t like to mess with them too much. This was an interesting experiment for me.

Plush / Rory Eliot
Plush Website
Plush on Myspace
Rory Eliot on Myspace
Plush Facebook Fan Page

Stuart Dooley
Stuart Dooley on Myspace
Stuart Dooley Facebook Fan Page

Mike Dignam Myspace
Gabrielle Aplin Myspace
John McKeown Myspace
John McKeown Official Website

The Shotguns performing at The Halfmoon in Putney (London). Supported by Craig Moore.