Pardon?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A picture I recently posted with reference to tinnitus struck a nerve with a number of people who saw it. Seems there are quite a few of you who suffer as I do, and I'm very sorry to hear it. (No pun intended!) We really weren't warned so much in the way that kids are nowadays about the dangers of loud noise, and I for one used to love getting my head as close as possible to the PA systems at the gigs I went to. Here's a shot from Manchester Apollo just to highlight my stupidity. I wonder if the people in the picture have got squeaky ears ..

Back in my day ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On another day, I might have called today's blog "On being smug and thinking it was better in the old days" .. because that's exactly how I'm feeling! 

I saw a tweet the other day from a photographer asking how they could cut down on the amount of time it took to edit their work. I wasn't the only person to reply "Take less shots! Yesterday I watched a TV programme featuring a young photographer from Liverpool, who's made quite a name for himself by photographing gigs. At one point a caption came up that said he took 'between 1,000 and 2,000 shots per gig'. Reader, I nearly fainted! Holy shit, that's a lot of pictures. I've never taken that many shooting a whole bloody wedding! Does kinda make you think he just leaves his finger on the shutter button and machine-guns what's in front of him, doesn't it?

So why am I feeling so smug? Well, I'll tell you. When I photographed the Joy Division gig in 1979 I sensed that this new band was 'different'. They were so exciting and different to anything I'd heard before that I decided to throw caution to the wind and use a second roll of film. I took the sum total of 72 photographs! Man, I was crazy in my youth ..   

(And just a quick note on today's photo. It's from the Manchester Air Show, circa 1978. I love the guy shooting on a Mamiya!)

A day without music ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's not a lot of moshing going on at the moment, is there? Not that I go gigging very much these days, but it's a shame for 'the kids', who are being deprived of a very vital part of their lives. I couldn't have lived without bands and music when I was in my twenties ..

As if to illustrate the point, I happened upon my diary for February 1981. It tells me that, this exact week forty years ago, I went to see Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Bad Manners and the UK Subs, and also that The Spliff Radio Show were on the Old Grey Whistle Test and there was a new single from a band with the very apt name of The Photos ..

Just to show that's not a fluke, the next week I went to see The Drones, the Expressos, U2 and The Freshies, and the week after that I saw Duran Duran, Discharge and The Revillos ..

Out of all those I can only remember the U2 gig, which was at Manchester Poly, where there was a big painting of Dennis the Menace on the wall. Gives a bit more meaning to their song 'A day without me' ..

Crossing the line ..

People ask me if I still photograph gigs and the answer, I'm afraid, is no. Ok, I might shoot a few snaps when I go to see someone, but nothing that you'd call 'professional'. Probably because I don't actually go to many gigs anymore. There aren't any new bands that I like, and I hate to sit through a gig when it's somebody I don't like. The main reason though, is access. Three songs and you're out. That's all a pro snapper is given these days. None of that hanging around and walking on the stage like I did with Joy Division. I hate the way groups are kept so separate from the fans - those big metal barriers that say 'Stay away' from us ..

Today's shot is from the gig I went to in London a couple of weeks ago. Believe it or not a steward told me to 'get back behind the line' when I was standing thus that Saturday. Rock 'n roll? I think it died and went to Health and Safety school ..