David Byrne

… at The Royal Festival Hall

I have only been to the TFH for “classical” concerts; it is a lovely sounding venue. I must admit, I was a little concerned before arrival where we would be shooting from. It turned out right from the front of the stage, right in front of row 1. 

It must have been really annoying for those 1st 3 numbers for the audience. Most of us tried to stay low, but in the end we are being paid to do a job and we had to get the images. I did feel quite embarrassed.  I apologise if you were there and I hope the gig was as good as those first 3 numbers promised. 

I know I (just about) always comment on how good a performance is but in this case, it really was true. At the end of the first number I stopped and clapped – believe it or not, when working I have never done that before.

David wore is trademark white suit, which may look good but it is difficult to photograph without the white becoming overexposed (due to the lighting) as of course, the aim is to get the (darker) face correctly exposed. 

Did I succeed? You judge;


Bloc Party

Before 9AM on a Sunday after a gig and I am up and writing a blog entry? Must be something wrong here.


Bloc Party at Olympia last night; wow they let a lot of press photographers in. On the plus side is the pit was nice and large with plenty of space to move around. 

I want to make a comment about the venue here, or more specifically, the venue parking. I drove up on my own last night; single woman (carrying a few pounds worth of Nikon kit) so I thought it was wise to park in the on-site multi-storey car park. I drove up and there is a guy on the entry ticket machine “That will be £15.00, cash”. As I drove up I looked for prices – none were displayed.  Sitting in my car talking to the attendant I noticed a chair covering the standard hourly rates. I refused to pay, as did the car behind me. We both reversed and drove off to find a space in the local side streets. THIS IS WRONG!  I either worry about my safety and get ripped off or I park locally. 

Back to the gig. 

In the past I have just posted a few images but feel maybe I should add some more comment about them. In part this is due to a comment a photographer made last night about my “Starsailor” images (not knowing they were mine) and how as the lighting was awful I had posted more Black and White images to save the set. 

In part, this is true but the real fact is I think “Black and White” is more “Rock and Roll”; my influences are a lot of the 1960′s band photography and I will always feel more emotion from a mono image than a colour one. Take these two images from last night;

I think the mono image portrays far more emotion and conveys more about the performer than the colour image. 

Therefore all of my sets will have monochome images. Bloc Party, I feel are a “colour” band and the set has only one or two monos but others, like “Starsailor” felt more monochrome to me…

The drummer – because it is so rare a clean shot is possible;

Finallly, a shot of the crowd; I feel that the audience at the Royal Festival Hall tonight will not be quite as rowdy!

Starsalior

… at the Shepards Bush Empire.
I have been quiet on the music front for a week or so, but this weekend is quite busy, Starsalior on Thursday, Blocparty on Saturday followed by Brian Eno and “Talking Head” David Byrne on Sunday (I must admit, I am really looking forward to this one, is it showing my age?) 
Back to Thursday and it seems that it was the first time as SBE for both Starsailor and myself. The stage is quite low here which means you are very close to the band (which has its own problems). Here are a few shots.