Live at Proud, Camden (United Kingdom).
12 October 2011.

http://saintsaviour.co.uk

It’s taken me far too long to upload these photos. Van Coke Kartel & Fokofpolisiekar came over to London in May and gave all the SA expats a chunk of Afrikaans Rock induced nostalgia. Unfortunately I got there too late to catch The Spindle Sect, who I’ve been wanting to see for ages.

The lighting at the Clapham Grand wasn’t great and there wasn’t a press pit so these certainly aren’t the best photos I’ve taken.

Live at IndigO2 for GLOW presented by Feed Me Music.
16 April 2011.

The Curious Incident

Luke Girvan

The Dirty Reds

Van Susans

As much as I loved the show, this write-up is actually about my experience taking live music photos for the first time in ages.

My time in the photography pit has diminished terribly since moving to the UK. The main reason for this was a lack of contacts. In South Africa I had access to the country’s biggest rock band which gave me access to great shows. The industry is small enough to make press passes a breeze to organise. I have taken photos at a few shows in the UK but not as many as I’d like. Now that I’ve settled into my job at Warner I’m eager to get back into it.

This was the first gig and big test for my brand new lens, a Canon 24-70mm f2.8 USM zoom lens. The wide aperture makes it ideal for low-light gig photography.

Fenech-Soler’s lighting was a combination of extremes. The stage was generally very dark with sporadic strobe lights. This looks great to the naked eye but is a serious challenge for any photographic equipment.

I have been experimenting with a technique of shooting on Aperture Priority and underexposing the shot. The theory is that the shutter speed will vary to match the conditions, producing the ideal exposure. This works fine when the lighting is more consistent but is far less effective with flashing lights. The camera would focus and set the ideal exposure but the lights would change so quickly that by the time I took the picture the whole scene had changed. I promptly switched back to full manual settings and got much better shots. I need to trust that I know what I’m doing. There’s no need to rely on auto settings when I know better.

Once I’d shaken the rust off, I made a tragic rookie mistake. The new lens doesn’t fit in my old bag, so I was carrying a Lowerpro backpack that my cousin gave me. When my memory card ran out of space I couldn’t remember where the ‘conveniently located spare memory card pouch’ was. Doh!

I don’t think I got any award-winning shots but it was a good first-run with the 24-70mm. Autofocus struggled a bit in the dark, which was frustrating, but all-in-all the lens performed well in those conditions. I’m looking forward to using it on a bigger stage with less erratic lighting. Watch this space.

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.

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