Primitai-3

Guy and the lads have just come off a tour supporting White Wizzard. These are some shots taken at the last gig in Camden. I tried to focus on the relationship between the audience and the band.

Nocturnal Hordes

I went back to see Primitai at the Purple Turtle in Camden. It’s a pretty “intimate” (AKA small!) venue, but the guys managed to light it up!

Guy jumped into the Audience, and the guys looked really relaxed and focussed on the stage. Even Srdjan managed a smile or 2!

Anyway here’s some shots that I took…

 

 

I’m going back in a month or so to see them playing in The Underworld, Camden – it’s one of the prime venues in London, so it should be a good gig.

It’s so Easy

I saw Guns 'n Roses at the O2 on Wednesday, but before the usual close ups, I was amazed by how much kit they used! Only some of it was in this shot. I counted 4 sound mixing desks, 3 light control desks, 1 pyro control unit, 2 video mixing desks, 8 gas control valves to produce huge sheets of flame, and a huge number of vari-lights -Oh, and a HUGE sound system!

Guns 'n Roses have a well found reputation for-going on late,Axel throwing hissy fits, and having arguments with the audience, management and security staff. None of that happened! They were only 30 minutes late-and that caught a lot of people out out, so a lot of folk were still in the bar, when they started "Early"!!
Axel's voice has all that cutting edge that he is so famous for...the songs could have come off a CD...BUT his stage presence energy and the stage-show really made it something special!

  

Guns 'n Roses have had more band members than the population of a small European state!
This shot is Axel with one of his 3 lead guitarists.
What got me about this guy-Richard Fortus-was how much he looked like a young Ronnie Wood.

A truly amazing night-great music, no hissy fits, and apart from missing my train home-so I finally got to bed at 3:15 in the morning a perfect evening

The Craft

As well as the ol’ rockers that I’ve been to see and photograph this year, I’ve been to see some up ‘n comers as well. One of them is Primitai website here

I’d known about them for some time as the drummer is a good friend of James (They’ve known each other since they were 5!), and I had heard that the band had won the “UK battle of the bands” competition in the summer. In 2009 over 12,000 bands around the UK entered the national battle of the bands ‘Surface Unsigned Festival’.  Initially an application, and example of the music was submitted, then on the basis of that each band were then invited to play at the first round in regional heats The winners then went through 5 further heats which were all live gigs leading up to the London final, which then culminated in the national final held at Indigo @ the O2 arena in London. 

The scoring was based around text votes, audience reaction, and the judges vote.

So from 12,000 bands and a lot of sweat, Primitai won! and netted around £60K’s worth of goodies! So they were on their way.

I said to Chris, last time we met up, in my best “Snatch” voice, “If I ever find out you have you have played within 20 miles of Reading, and don’t tell me, I will cut your fucking Jacobs off” - he was a bit taken aback, as he didn’t know it was a quote!, and took me a bit too seriously, but he got the message. Anyway, they played in Reading last Sunday, and I went to see them.

They are really, really good, and I can see how they got to win the competition.

I took some shots at the gig, they aren’t that brilliant, but the lighting was so feeble that trying to capture them was not an easy task.

Here are some of the shots

 

These first 4 I put on my photoblog link here

And here are some that never made the cut

Somehow, the lead singer, Guy, found the shots I had put on Aminus3, and made contact,he seems quite happy with the shots, so I’ll go along to their next gig, and take some more when hopefully there will be a bit more light-which will make it a whole load easier to do some of the whole band together.

Guy also asked if I could mention that they are looking for a 1000+ facebook “likes”. They are doing a free promo where in return for registering with your e-mail address. you can down load a track from their latest album, so if you do that, and you like what you hear, why not click on the “Like “ button- you can claim to have helped them to Stardom!!

Iron Man

Ozzy is a phenomena! When you see him on “The Osborne's” you see a stuttering, slurring, shambling ghost of the Prince of Darkness. I went to see him last night at the O2, and he’s not any of those!

Ozzfest is Ozzy’s idea of how a festival ought to be run-Loads acts, loadsa festival fun ‘n games, booze and food-but no rain, mud or smelly toilets. Sounds a good idea!

The whole event was superb-as long as the O2 weren’t involved-let me explain.

On the main stage were Skindred, Murderdolls, Korn and Ozzy, and on the Jaegermaister stage, in the village of the damned were Jettblack, Revoker, Black Spiders and Paradise Lost – 2 good line-ups, however, there are some simple things that need to happen to see a festival-you need to be able to get in, you need to be able to buy food, you need to be able to buy beer-all of those are under O2’s control, and they failed on every one.

Getting in was a nightmare-O2 didn’t have enough wristbands, so consequently, the queues went on forever, and James and I missed most of the first act-Skindred-a real pity ‘cos they are great.

Getting food was just as bad, the wait was so long that we missed most of Korn-again, a pathetic piece of logistic handling on behalf of O2.

So whinge over, what were the highlights?

Everyone dressed in the  regulation uniform of black t-shirts

Skindred , with their odd Reggae metal sound(Really) were very, very good!

 

Steel Panther were their usual 80’s hair metal selves(They are so good that they almost parody themselves)

Murderdolls were their usual subtle selves!

 

But it was Ozzie who made the show!

       

The Prince of Darkness had all the energy, stage presence and tricks of a great performer. The shambling, chaotic Ozzy that you see on “The Osbornes” wasn’t at the O2 !

Totally brilliant!

Slither - Download 2010 – Day 3

Day 3 dawned with a cloud. Peter and I had cooked breakfast for James and Chris on the previous 2 days, and because they were in a different camping area, I needed to meet them at the entrance to our campsite, and get them past security. On day 3 this didn’t work, security wouldn’t let them in.

<Rant>

I know its securities job to stop people going in the wrong area, but not allowing my son into “Family camping” for 1 hour was bloody outrageous, I don’t get it, I don’t like it, and it was part of an occasionally overzealous approach to something that had nothing to do with safety or security. Bad job.

</Rant>

Day 3 boded well. Slash, Motorhead, Stone Temple Pilots and Aerosmith were all goodies to be savoured.

The first act we watched was Slash – bloody brilliant!

Not only was Slash the brilliant player that we all know he is, but he had Myles Kennedy as his vocalist, and he was just stunning. I can quite see why Myles was feted to be the Robert Plant replacement on the aborted Led Zep tour.

 

Peter stayed on to watch Billy Idol whilst I got ready for Lemme and Motorhead-then the heavens opened.Non stop rain for the next 6 hours. I did have a cagoule –but it was in the tent – which, you might remember was a 45 minute walk away, and by the time I had resolved to call it a day, the whole area had been turned into a Glastonbury-like mud bath.

So, I dragged my cold, wet body back to the tent(Which took over an hour because of the crowds all doing the same thing and the slippery conditions), was met by Peter, changed into dry clothes and I got into my sleeping bag to warm up.

At that point we resolved to leave early the next day as the thought of attempting to drag our camping gear up a slippery slope that had been walked by 1000’s of others did not appeal. So like good rock ‘n rollers, we had a nice cup of tea, and went to bed at 11:00

The next day dawned at 6, and even though it was still drizzling, we managed to decamp and get out of the carpark by 7 – a good result as the hill out was already getting treacherous.

So, a bit of a damp ending, but we all had such a brilliant time watching acts that I had only dreamed of seeing previously that we’ve already made a pact to do Download 2011.

Can’t wait

Testify – Download 2010 – day 2

Rock festivals are, as much as anything, about planning what you want to get, and then doing it. This is particularly true of the Donnington site where everything -The campsites, “The Village”, the Arena, the Car park, - are all at least 30 minutes walk away from each other Leave something in the wrong place and you waste an hour. The same is true about your tactics whilst watching the bands. Do you want to be laid back near the beer tents and food, but can’t see what’s going on on the stage, in the mosh pit getting your teeth knocked out , or somewhere in between?

Peter and I decided that the best plan was for us to be next to the aluminium crowd control barriers, a third of the way back. No one is in front of you, you can lean on them whilst standing up, and slump with your back to them when there is an intermission. Also, the walk to the bars was only 15 minutes, so beer re-fills were easy. Because of this strategy we were able to see band after band without the normal back/foot ache. This worked out really well as excellent band after band did their stuff on the main stage.

Cinderella were just a good, old fashioned rock act that had energy, verve, melody, and skill. Five Finger Death punch were, umm, OK. I don’t like formulaic growling, that’s what they did. Lamb of God and Megadeath, however, were really good.

But, of course, the stars of the show were the recipients of the most unlikely award ever – the Christmas number 1 single. Rage Against the Machine, were superb. They made lots of mistakes(But covered them up well), and to be honest, I don’t agree with their politics and their rants, but Tom Morello (who isn’t political) did an amazing job getting sounds out of his guitar that I never knew you could. He really can play inventively, with passion and with great skill.

You’ll notice from the pictures that the skies were clouding over – more on that in day 3’s write-up

Back in Black – Download 2010 – day 1

Going to Download has become an essential part of my Summer. Each year Peter Aird and I set up camp at this huge(120,000 people) event and meet up with James, Chris C and their posse for good music, good beer and good conversation.

 

James,Chris C and Peter

Because the festival only attracts people who like Metal rock, there is no fighting that you get at other festivals as various factions fight, and in fact the number of “Excuse me’s”, “Please’s”, “Thankyou’s”, “Sorry mate’s” is way more than you would get in a high street.The other thing that tied the crowd together – as always – was black t-shirts. Everyone wears black, grey or grunge colour shirts – end of chat. We were all back in black.

Any event of this size needing policing and this is generally done by wristbands. Depending on where you want to go or do, you have a wristband. So within a few moments of being there you accumulate quite a collection.

So, I’m allowed to see the bands, camp in the orange area,buy beer(Yep, someone actually thought that I might be mistaken for being under 18-what a nice person!),and pick up my phone after charging. Peter and I also had “Comfy Crappers” wristbands for a superior pooing experience!

But, of course the reason that we were there was the music. The line-up was immense!

I can only cover the highlights, with 4 stages and music that was non-stop from around mid-day to 11 there was just too much to cover. These are some of my thoughts from Day 1

Killswitch Engage

were superb. Great stage presence, great music, Howard Jones ability to go from growling to melody was superb

Adam Dutkiewicz in superman stylee and Howard Jones belting it out

What doesn’t come over in any of my shots was just how big the stages were – they are HUGE, and the sound systems are equivalently ENORMOUS. To make sure that everyone could see they also had incredibly large, very hi-res screens

AC/DC

Were just absolutely amazing! They had there own stage – even bigger and louder than the main stage. and there is nothing that I can say that gives any real indication about how brilliant they were – there aren’t enough superlatives!

 

The main stage and the AC/DC stage on the left

The opening

The band made the crowd go mental as they went through all the good ‘ol favourites. Brian Johnson’s voice cut through Malcolm and Angus’ amazing guitar work. Angus was a complete and utter nutter, and Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams were beat and note perfect in the backline.

Angus before he strips off and Rosie sitting on the train – her tits alone were at least 50ft across – big girl – big set!

A brilliant start to day 1

Big Smile!

Black Rock

Last night was my annual homage to Joe Bonamassa. Shaun and Michael Jackson (No, not the dead one), had kindly got tickets for the Hammersmith Apollo, and off we went. The evening started in classical style with a Thai meal on Hammersmith Broadway with, of course, copious beer, and then we sallied forth to the Apollo.

That was where the first shock happened, there was a HUGE queue. When I first heard Bonamassa 3 years ago, he was a niche blues player that no-one had heard of. This was clearly not the case now as the Apollo was sold out to it’s capacity of 5,250

The support act was Sandi Thom, She was very good, but it wasn’t my style as it was Country Blues, nevertheless, well performed.

 

I’d managed to get pretty close to the front and when Sandi was on, it was very comfortable.

Set complete, roadies did their bit and in less than 20 minutes a roar went up from the crowd as Joe got on the stage, and started the gig with “John Henry”

The gig continued with tracks old and new, and by about 30 minutes in the band was really rocking, and the atmosphere was great.

As I mentioned earlier, I was right at the front, next to the bass stack, and was becoming aware of the combination of gut thumping bass, heat, and crushing bodies was make me feel a bit odd. However, it was sooooo good that I let those feelings pass

Bonamassa did a great job as he went through his current and back catalogue, with hardly a seconds gap as he went from perfectly executed song to another.

The only time that he really spoke was to comment on the fact that almost exactly 10 years ago he was supporting Jethro Tull, and thought that Ian Anderson was a nice guy. This, of course, was just a lead up to Ian joining him on stage for 3 numbers

      

An audible laugh went up when Anderson’s leg started to come up and do this weird circling motion. I remember him doing it during the “Aqualung” period, he still does it now.

By this point, the crushing sensation was starting to get to me, so I forced my way to the back of the hall to try a get away from the heat, the bass bins and the bodies. This alone must have taken 5-10 minutes.

I listened to a few more tracks from the entrance hall, but just couldn’t face more crushing, so decided to leave 25 minutes from the end..

It was a great evening, Bonamassa continues his meteoric rise, Shaun and Mike were great company – all in all a really good evening.