Bo Ningen

It’s one of my first gigs since I came back from Japan.

There, among other things, I have strolled with Osaka hosts trying to pick up clients and walked down Tokyo Memory Lane in the rain.

I wanted to look for a different view of Japan from the cliched country depicted in the west.
The “country of extremes” (un)balanced between tradition and modernity.
The country of Geishas, unbelievable nature and HI-Tech… erm… gadgets.

To be fair, I didn’t find the country of extremes. I found a country. A country with its own feel, culture, places, philosophy. I haven’t seen manga in the street, Lupin, or samurais.

They listen to all music, not just grindcore jazz, death metal or classical.
They shop as we do. Eat better then we do and are in a mad love with tuna.
And don’t speak English.

Bo Ningen are Japanese, no questions about that. They dress with colourful long Japanese clothes, have almond eyes, long straight hair.
Bo Ningen moved to London few years ago. They live there and tour predominantly UK.

Bo Ningen are Taigen, singing, screaming and playing bass, Kohhei and Yuki, on guitars, no idea which is which, and Monchan, the drummer closest to your idea of a Samurai you’ll ever meet on a stage.

My first time live with Bo Ningen was at the 1234 Festival in Shoreditch in 2010. It was an early set. They were at their beginning, played a small tent of a small hipster festival when hipster were not yet dressed up as 30s USA farmers with 80s colourful plastic spectacles.

Bo Ningen show was a blast, almost a hour of uninterrupted noise decorated by rigorously Japanese screamed lyrics.

3 years passed and few hundreds bands passed in front of my lens too. In the meanwhile I missed a now legendary set of Bo Ningen at the Wish You Were Here festival, here in Cambridge, and more gigs in London but I kept the memory of that first show and the desire to see them again.

They spent these years playing and recording two albums, both critically acclaimed. Self-titled Bo Ningen in 2010 and Line the Wall earlier this year (2013).

Still is for their live shows that people keep talking about them. Both friends and specialised musiczines never stop praising their sets too much.
The chance arrived by chance as by chance I read that this Japanese quartet was about to touch base on the Portland Arms, the now refurbished and shiny pub not far from my house.

it’s the end of the worst May in… forever… and glimpse of a better weather June it’s highly wished but not on the horizon.
It’s almost my birthday. For the records.
It’s a perfect thursday. I have my scooter. I am in.

Bo Ningen are on stage setting up guitars and pedals while I set up my camera struggling to get the mist condensed on the large front lens of my ultra wide zoom away. The temperature inside is far hotter than the fresh evening I faced on my ride. Physics is merciless. Solution is to wait.

The gig blows up in an eruption of guitars, by the two guitarists and the heavy bass that form the front line. The riffs seem to be neater and more defined to what I remember. Not that I can perceive a clear song structure, it’s not Led Zeppelin, but there is a vague sense of melody, the Japanese way, that makes the songs… actually… songs.

The singing is still in Japanese which to a non Japanese person (maybe to Japanese too) means just another layer of sound sent from the microphone to the mixer that then amplifies it and send back to the speaker next to my left ear. I brought professional earplugs. I am safe.

As for the 2010 festival set I remembered, Bo Ningen show is an escalation that towards the end fuse in a mystical relationship between men and instruments. It’s like trance. There is no more space for those riffs. The magma erupts as if Mount Fuji decided to wake up in a Cambridge pub.
It’s tumultuous and grows to the point of exasperation then, when perfection is reached, it ends.

To define perfection is difficult here, it is much easier to check with your eyes.
Bo Ningen are on the web and may play close to you: [website][facebook][twitter][spotify]

Photo tip

Breaking News! I bought a film camera body.
After 3 years I’ll come back to shooting B&W film. I will do concerts too. Live on 35mm nick still has a reason to exist.
This Bo Ningen show has been the main reason why this happened.

Because I promised a friend some B&W photos of this show for a music website. I couldn’t produce them.

The gig was lit by the much hated led lights, much more hated than the mean old red spots. If those reds are impossible to deal on a digital sensors, there is still space to convert in digital B&W with ‘decent’ results.
It is not a solution, as Mark Lanegan shows, it is better than nothing.

I love blurred B&W shots of concert, one of my all-times favourite set is A Places to Bury Strangers shot here at the old Portland Arms before it went refurbished back in 2009. Those grainy b&w shots live of their own life. (photo below)

A similar but digital of one of the 2 Bo Ningen guitarist B&W shot looks dead. (below)
If you know how I can sort this problem I will appreciate, so far I ordered some ilford rolls and will spend more time in my favourite darkness

Daughter

If you live in London, or you live on the “Web Content Created in London” you heard of Daughter. Fact.

The WCCIL (Web Content Created in London) generates from several MacBook plugged to Shoreditch free Wi-Fi bars and spreads throughout the world. It is London-centric even if sometime seems to dream of being Scandinavian o Icelandic-centric. It just makes it more (East)-London-cool.

Daughter are from London. Originally born as a solo project of talented Elena Tonra, it become a trio with the arrival of guitarist Igor Haefeli and drummer Remi Aguilella.

If You Leave is the debut album of Daughter, a record that crowns the music they have been writing and recording for the last couple of years. The flow of links, photos and words that WCCIL uploaded after Daughter first singles, EP make them viral. The usual beginning of the successful indie career then materialised in a long awaited debut. 4AD were the fastest to spot and sign them.

I have got the Daughter virus through the highly infectious WCCIL.
Symptoms are pleasant, it generates continuous listening of the same album. Side effect is the quick arrival of the end of the free Spotify allowance when you are only halfway through the month.

The album slowly (it requires dedication) possesses your body, specifically the mind, you accessories, in particular your wallet, and concludes with a visit to FOPP (or Amazon) with an investment of about 10£. Not too painful.

The recipe is so old that on a superficial consideration it looks incredible such an approach still works. It does.

A miserable girl writing overwritten verses about the end of a relationship and the desire to die? Yes.
It has been done, written, recorded and sang umpteenth times. Yes.

The reason why it works is because relationships end and broke people are always out there willing to alleviate the pain listening to someone suffering with them. Not the same one you listened with your previous relationship, your parents relationship, your best friends end of relationship. We need our music for each of our pain.

Write the right embellished words, keep them general to empathise with most people possible, it will attract crowds of broken hearts.

Winter, the first song of the album, opens with the verse:

“Drifting apart like two sheets of ice, my love
Frozen hearts growing colder with time
There’s no heat from our mouths
Please take me back to when I was yours

And we were in flames, I needed I needed you
To run through my veins, like disease
And now we are strange, strangers…”

Oh brilliant. Does it fit perfectly with your experience? Dicto

Smoother, the catchy single goes…

“I’m wasted, losing time
I’m a foolish, fragile spine
I want all that is not mine
I want him but we’re not right…”

To close with

“I sometimes wish I’d stayed inside my mother
Never to come out”

how many times have you heard a teenager girl saying this?
How perfect is this to close such a song?

To make the end of an ended story, the final lines of the album’s final song Shallows are

“If you leave,
When I go
You’ll find me,
In the shallows.

Lying on my back,
Lying on my back,
Watching stars collide.”

Is that you? Right.

The essence of alternative music, since The Smiths, since Pavement, since (put your favourite artist in the brackets) is to talk the same language of its audience.

Daughter don’t do anything more than this but, listen to me, they do it very well.

Musically the songs sound soft, sublime, angelic. They don’t rock, they lull.

The first reference that comes to (my) mind is Portishead. Despite Elena Tonra is not Beth Gibbons, there is neither Geoff Barrow nor Adrian Utley around.
Despite we are not in Bristol, we are not in the 90s, Kurt Cobain is dead and the internet was born.

There is not Trip Hop but there is Dream Pop. And there is the XX producer behind them.
And there are broken hearts.

Field Day is a festival in East London. Victoria Park becomes hipsters’ paradise every year and gathers the best of the WCCIL scene over several stages.

I have won tickets for life in 2011 edition with a photo of them in there, here.
I was in New York last year and missed it but I am in this year covering it for the (WCCIL webzine) Quietus.

I explained why I am not a fan of photographing festivals. It’s hard work and my compulsion to cover as many bands as possible leave me with no time for the music.

At a concert, you shoot three songs and watch the band. At a festival you shoot three songs and go to the next stage.

Daughter were (or was?) playing Field Day 2013. There is the only big clash of the day with, Bat For Lashes, a silly choice by the organisers. Easier for me, I shot Bat For Lashes several times so opted to see Elena and friends live.

Good choice it was. Not only for the incredible light that the sunset brought into the Laneway tent giving me nice “festival atmosphere shots”. Because it was a great set on its own.

Photographers took few snaps during the soundcheck to rush to Natasha Kahn (see rant at photo tip below).
I stayed for the whole three songs, ignoring Natasha Kahn. Then stayed till the end of the concert, ignoring three more bands and the noise of my stomach asking for food.

The concert was brilliant, the live set was (obviously) louder than the album. An album that seem to ask to be whispered when played through earplugs sounded full live and loud.

Daughter was by far the best set of a poor Field Day. With an album mentioned as one of the best debut of the year by literally everyone

Believe it.
Do like me.
The title is intriguing. A suspended sentence invites to stay till the end, if only, to see what happens “If you (don’t) leave“.

With the amount of music streaming online, with Spotify, with podcasts, with any radio there is far more music to listen than hours we have to dedicate to it.
Even if it is not broken, Daughter lulled my heart.

They are online. They may conquer you too. [website][facebook][twitter][spotify]

Photo tip

Field Day had a strange photo policy this year. We were even asked to sign it to agree.
In brief in every stage photographers were allowed in the photo pit on a first come first served basis.

With tens of photographers and only 10-12 allowed in the biggest pits, guess the consequence.
When assigned to a festival, journalistically implies covering most of it, surely the biggest acts.
To find (only there) that you will not be allowed to shoot many of them makes the experience pointless.

Why is that? Because the pit was full. Full?

That is the point. I can understand and agree even with the obsessional “Health and Safety” rules in UK but at the condition that these rules are kept similar everywhere.

We, as concert photographers, are used to photograph shows and protect ourselves and our gear in ridiculously tiny and crowded pits or even with no pit at all. We work in the middle of mosh pits and with flying pints.

All the pits at Field Day were way bigger than most I have seen in London’s venues. Laneway and Eat Your Own Ears stages where so big, large, high that a photographer was using a 400mm to frame an artist. They would have not had any problem to host 20 or more of us.

Still I wasn’t allowed in for Savages. I had to ignore Solange (because I was too far to cover someone else) and decided to miss two bands to cover Animal Collective.
You know, you can’t cover Glastonbury without shooting the Rolling Stones and I couldn’t say to have covereds the Field Day without shooting Animal Collective, the headliners.

If the argument is that the risk to be in a huge pit in 20 is high, there is an option. Let the pit open for the full set not only the 3 songs. So that photographers can alternate and everyone has access and ‘security space’.

I haven’t spoken to big rockstars but I spoke to many musicians in the years and I still have to find one that tells me that photographers are a hindrance or a pain.

As a photographer I am tired of being considered as a nuisance by the security. Tired of feeling their only interest is to show their power by getting rid of us as soon as possible.
Without live photos there will not be a live music scene. It is as simple as this.

Everything Everything

Everything Everything (also known as EE before the 4G telephone company stole the acronym) haven’t found a space on this blog when I shot them. I was too busy organising my last few things before another of my Asian journeys

The first time I heard of Everything Everything, they played a gig at the small Student Union bar of the Anglia Ruskin, the ‘other’ University of Cambridge. Songkick tells me it was the 5th of October 2010. My friend wanted to bring me along but a couple of youtube streams didn’t convince me to get there.

Still Songkick tells me the other reason I was being lazy. Of Montreal gave me a pass for their Koko show in London the following night and, quite new to digital photography and discovering the world of colours at 6400 ISO after years of B&W at 800, I opted for some theatre rather than another indie guitar band with an electro twist.

More than 2 years later, Everything Everything came back to play in a sold out Cambridge Junction.
To my surprise, the band has been steadily gathering a growing following.

I am seeing EE again this Saturday at the Field Day and in the next months they will be playing a large set of summer festivals, Isle of Wight, T in The Park and Glasto included. To be fair, I still have to find a band touring Europe in June and not playing Glastonbury.
Everything Everything also announced a massive UK tour in October closing with two dates at the London Forum. Quite impressive.

Let me be frank, I wouldn’t predict it and wouldn’t bet my money on them. This is also why I don’t bet.

So far, two full length albums in their CVs.

Before the release of the debut, Man Alive in 2010, BBC picked EE at the end of 2009 as one of the Sound of 2010 acts. They were right. Man Alive was received with very positive reviews in UK and, as usual, less positive in the USA with an infamous 3.8 at Pitchfork opening with a now famous Simpsons comparison and the sentence “Like that [Homer's] disaster, Everything Everything’s debut LP, Man Alive, is proof that enthusiastic experimentation can’t save your end product when the underlying elements are so incompatible and unappetizing.”

Man Alive, Man Dead? Not at all.
UK pride is strong and revolt against USA music-zine cult. Everything Everything have been shortlisted for the 2011 Mercury Prize.
It was the unwinnable year. PJ Harvey‘s masterpiece Let England Shake was above anything else by a country mile. She won, being the first time double winner of the Mercury, but EE because of this, didn’t lose.

2013′s Arc, gathered quite an impressive collection of positive reviews from the press and from the public and , guess what, from Pitchfork. They doubled the debut’s 3.8 mark with a 7.6.

Arc sounds better and more focused than Man Alive but I don’t think the quality in the band’s music has got twice as good.
More likely is that since music journo Laura Snapes, English, based in Manchester and writing Arc‘s review, joined Pitchfork’s editorial staff, the British music managed to get a solid grip and more positive visibility in the world most revered music webzine.

In this little world of words of mine, typing here to separate pictures, EE from their Manchester base are pioneers of the alt/indie resistance.
A guerrilla style tough job. The decline of the lad guitar bands from the previous decade and the explosion of girls lead synth-pop armies of these years made the environment harsh and hostile as a jungle.

Their music, fusing jangly guitars with synth extravaganza and abrupt tempo changes, shocks and awe.
It’s one of those rare cases where ‘angular’ works as an adjective to describe a sound. Like for a pinball the notes bump here and there setting an irregular track perfect for Jonathan Higgs swirling falsetto to ride up and down it in his rollercoaster.

Belonging to the same league of Foals, Alt-J (who followed and won both Mercury and Novello this year) and declaring inspiration from everyone, their eclecticism delivers complex songs.
I can find hints of anyone from Mars Volta to Michael Jackson, from Mr Bungle to Muse in the sound and this confusion is what still cannot convince me 100%.

It may appeal to you, go listen. Everything Everything are on the web here [website][facebook][twitter‎][spotify]

Photo tip

The ups and downs of concert photography. In a single image.

One of these photos I took at the Cambridge Junction (above) was published on an Independent review of their London Heaven gig. 
Weird and understandably disappointing for my fellow photographers shooting the reviewed London concert.

Not the first time. I shot Laura Marling in Cambridge  and her picture was published, quite big, on the Independent to go along a London Apollo Hammersmith review.
Don’t know why this happens.

To my ego it is rewarding, because I may read someone thinking “regardless it was shot elsewhere I like this so much I will use this”.
Maybe truth is upside down, the same photo editor just being lazy and picking the first on the list without checking its origin. Who knows?

Who would not want to be a concert photographer?

To go to free gigs (free three songs of a gig).
To take pictures of your idols (in the darkness).
To chat with the girls in the front row (they will ignore you as soon as their loved ones appear).
To meet the band (unwilling to stand for another photo or interview and dreaming for a drink).

I lie.
I’ve been doing this for almost ten years, on a weekly base with no interruptions and still love it.

Getting home late, sleepy sitting at a computer, quickly editing the photos, writing the captions, double checking all the keywords are there, uploading the best to the agency’s server.
Goodnight.

I dream of my pic travelling as spiders on the world wide web to landing on some media’s terminal.

There a photo editor of some publication receives a request to fulfil: “I have a review of Everything Everything from London Heaven coming out tomorrow on the paper, can you please pick a photo of them?”.

The photo editor browse Getty, Rex, Retna, whatever… and, wow, picks my photo.

In the morning I check the papers, I check the web and I find my photo, there online.
It always goes… “that’s quite similar to mine…oh wait … that’s mine”.

But there are not credits, nowhere is written it was me doing all the above work, which is not as flattering as being picked in the bucket.
With no credits you don’t even know to be published.

Tomorrow is another day and I have another gig.
Goodnight

Alt-J

2012 was not a great music year to me, among the new music, undoubtedly the breakthrough act obscuring the rest of the competition was Alt-J.

Alt-J are cleverly named after a keyboard shortcut. If you type it on a Mac keyboard It delivers the Greek letter delta ∆. When the combination is executed on a windows machine it is supposed to open the media player. It’s not happening on mine, though. Nevermind.

You could not avoid hearing of Alt-J since the debut album, An Awesome Wave, came out. They got an instant hype on the British music blogsphere. It was about a year ago, May 2012. From the release to the Mercury Prize nomination, about 2 months apart, the growth has been exponential. From the nomination to winning the Mercury prize in september it became unstoppable.

It also attracted Pitchfork attention but England from Chicago is quite far and despite the review was written by the Manchester based editor, the best young music journalist out there, Laura Snapes, her words aren’t in line with the rest of the british press (Clash, Q, NME, DiS… ). I tend to agree with Laura, or with Pitchfork, you choose.

I also tend to be prejudicial but I wasn’t this time. I gave the album several listening yet it did not impressed me.
Together with many 2012 releases that created a storm leaving me indifferent, Alt-J triggered the belief that I was getting unsympathetic with new music.

I always said that there is nothing wrong, once passed 40s, to not be moved by music written by youngsters for their peers.
It’s hard to accept and I am not good on dealing with my ageing, but I am good at rationalizing.

In the ageing unstoppable process, 2013 arrived and, surprisingly, brought some outstanding releases. I have today to acknowledge that I can still be moved by new music, Savages anyone? Maybe it wasn’t an age issue, just the sequence of notes, chords and sounds on those records not appealing to my ears.

In brief (I have to create space for some photos you know) I never liked Alt-J album despite it is one of the few I gave several spins.

For the records, Alt-J formed in 2007 (Wiki source) at Uni in Leeds. A long period to put together ideas and songs till a demo EP released in 2011 and the debut, An Awesome Wave, in 2012 once their effort was recognised and finally signed by Infectious records.
Too long? Maybe. In five years a young band changes too many ideas and if the songs try to bring all of them together the result is messy. Which is what I believe is a problem of the album.

Alt-J yesterday came back to Cambridge with a sold-out gig in the largest of the city’s venues, the Corn Exchange.
Yes, came back because I learnt that Alt-J moved to Cambridge post-Leeds and have been rehearsing here for further 2 years before going to London to record the album.

If you think that I must have stumbled upon them in any Cambridge pub where live music happens daily, well, you’ll be disappointed. I have never heard of them around and learnt of their Cambridge residency only recently. They kept it secret.

I was keen to see Alt-J live. I haven’t been to many gigs this spring 2013 and a show of an upcoming big act in Cambridge is, sadly, becoming a rarity.
Among a quite depressing “What’s On” schedule of declining music stars, musicals and cover bands arriving regularly to the Corn Exchange, a venue where I like to photograph because of the bright lights often provided, the arrive of Alt-J was a breath of fresh air.

To be honest a bit too fresh to be the 14th of May!
Heavy rains, temperature below 10 C degrees and an Italian virus which won my English antibodies, conspired to keep me at home. I am persistent enough, once the pass had been approved, I got paracetamol, got on the scooter in the rain and, drenched, got inside the Corn Exchange very early, together with the hard-core (and very young) fans.

While waiting, I tweeted some complain about the weather pondering whether Alt-J show would be good enough to justify such a miserable trip. Not sure that mentioning @alt_J was a good move.
I love conspiracies theories (I’m Italian), especially if they are supposed to be against me. Feed my egomaniac soul!

Whether someone read it or not, I was approached by the security of the Corn Exchange advising that the band’s management wants photographers to be escorted out of the venue after the 3 songs for the photos.

We were two. A young guy, first time here, asking me if this was the usual policy. I said that I have been shooting bands at the Corn Exchange for 10 years, hundreds and hundreds of shows, and it never happened to be escorted out without letting me stay to see the gig. Curious.

So… three songs on and I was out in company of the rain. Back on the scooter. Back home.
It is impossible to review this show, sadly, because I was liking it.

The band live, despite remaining a British indie band in love with Radiohead has a sound that is livelier than many more I have seen.
In the very difficult attempt to refresh a music that gave its best a decade ago with an infusion of nervous- electro-vibes that are depicting this decade, Alt-J were convincing me after 10 minutes.
I wasn’t allowed to listen to the other 50 minutes so I can’t comment further.

I’ll wait for the next time, hoping that the hype won’t be too high and the snobbish attitude would be left out to give space to the down-to-heart nature of indie-rock.

In the meanwhile, I mean from when I wrote this 24 hours ago to now, Alt-J added the Best Album at The Ivor Novello Awards among their achievements. Congratulations. Better you follow Alt-J online here to know what’s gonna be next: [website][facebook][twitter][spotify]

Photo tip

Too much light? Yes, it’s rare but it happens. And contrary to what you’d expect, I’m about to complaining about it.

Alt-J show was full of light. Packed with bright spots, columns of leds, strobes. Far more light than needed.
I found myself shooting at f8, with fast shutter, ISO800 and below. Miles away to the struggling 1/80s f2.8 ISO6400 which is the standard.

Still, I was disappointed. Or not too happy.

Despite we need light to create images, unbalanced light is a problem.
When the difference between the brightest areas and the darkest is so huge, not only Ansel Adams’ zone system but even modern sensors, despite their huge exposure latitude, suffer to cope.

I tried spot metering, I tried “manual everything” still some images cannot be balanced and I had to opt to what to get exposed and what to get either totally burnt or totally dark.

It is surely easier to deal with more light than less light. Technically it is as difficult and you need to read and interpret it in the quick slot you have allocated.

In a split second you need to know what is your subject. You need to get it well exposed. Composed. You need to know what will happen to the rest of the frame. You need to follow the gig and think at the next photo.

One of the ways to achieve this is to use spot metering, as long as you know what spot metering do and doesn’t. In theory you want to point an average lit area. Not the brightest not the darkest.

In the real world the brightest area is the easier to notice and, often, also the ones you want in focus (i.e. a singer’s face hit by a white spot). A way to achieve a good result is to point the bright face with spot metering and at the same time compensate the exposure. Try overexposing a couple of spots. i.e. +2 or even +3 EV.

The result is the bright spot (the face) being brighter than average (but still readable in the details) with that +3 able to bring out of the darkness the shadows.

If you like burst shooting, give bracketing a go. It means setting the camera (most can, check your manual) to shoot 5 or even 7 frames in sequence with the exposure +/- 2-3 EV around a preferred setting.

It is not something I do, because I am not a fan of burst shooting (I tend to wait for the moment before pressing the shutter) and because, concerts not being as landscapes, in the few seconds of the bracketing the scene changes and the best composed photo risks to be the wrong exposed.

To me good composition comes first than good exposure. You can address exposure more in post-editing than composition.

Jessie Ware

It has been a while. And I will be short.
I have been away from shows and UK for a while shooting something else.

It’s a tough time for personal blogs, social networks more than driving traffic to them, nowadays are withdrawing from them.
Once there was liveon35mm.com … you went there to see concert shots.
Then it was myspace and Facebook and twitter. I put a link on there everytime something new was posted here. You clicked on the link and came to see photos and read my crap words.

Nowadays we have too many FB friends, following countless on Twitter and we scroll everything on a phone. The most we do is clicking a like or commenting “awesome” without even opening the page. Facebook pages have more visitors than the webpage they aim to sponsor.

Which translates, what I am writing now will be read by fewer people of the short sentence I’ll write on FB and Twitter to sponsor it. So better keep it short and let the photos speak.
But I don’t believe photos can speak for themselves, so few words.

This is back from March. Jessie Ware opened her 2013 tour at the Junction in Cambridge, her most anticipated tour, and for a while I wanted to catch her live.

Jessie Ware is a hot pop musician at present. She is liked by people, mainstream, blogger and last year her debut album was one of the 12 Mercury nominated records.

Apparently everyone, in UK at least, writes and says only good things about her at the moment.
Jessie Ware has the rare merit of let the mainstream press to agree with the blogsphere. The hipsters and the general public.
Could I miss this? No I couldn’t.

The consequence of the general ovation is a 85 out of 100 Metacritic score.
After few years lending her talent to other British acts, as SBTRKT or Jack Penate she went solo.

Side Comment: What did happen to Jack Penate? I still remember being almost insulted when I said to someone who thought he was about to storming the music scene that he would have not stormed even his living room in a couple of years.

Jessie Ware, on the contrary did. Someone picked her back voice and made it front. Good choice, the voice is good and the scene is perfect for her dance infused pop with no frills for the “austerity age”.

I don’t know how to describe the music except for being simple, light-hearted but also wholehearted. Jessie doesn’t exaggerate anything in her songs, they’re just about right.

The same happens at the concert. No light excess, no pop grandeur. A simple stage, simple lights, simple dress and good pop songs to make everyone at the Junction happy, and everywhere else sold out.

Laura Mvula support was a hard to beat set, but Jessie didn’t compete. She just stack to what she can do best: sing her songs. And she delivered a faultless set.

I haven’t been converted into a fan, this is not the music. I will never sit at home with a Jessie Ware album spinning on my record player. It is not even the music I would buy a ticket for another concert, but this is me. An incurable lover of depressing and unorthodox sounds.

Still I was curious enough and wanted to see her live. Which you may well do. Consider the plus that likely for few months you can still catch Jessie in reasonably small venues. If you wait for the next record you may be rushing on seetickets website to get a seat miles away from the stage on a big arena.

Follow her success online here some links: [website][facebook][twitter][spotify]

Photo tip

What Camera bag to use for concerts?
I realised I have never talked about camera bags in the photo tip. There is a reason. Camera for concerts are not so important as when you do street or travel photography (unless you walk from home to the venue!)

I don’t think there is a perfect bag, every photographer has her/his favourite, my experience suggests that, whichever you like, it’s better to go cheap.

It’s about 10 years I shoot concerts. I started on film with prime lenses, that meant carrying two or three small bodies, lenses and few films at hand ready to use. 35mm film gear was substantially smaller and lighter than most recent digital equipment unless you had the massive Contax AX with you. (comment – undoubtedly this is the best SLR film camera ever made – end of comment).

I moved to digital and zooms only few years ago. Everything became heavier and bulkier. So the bag needed to be larger to fit all the lenses. You don’t have films, memory cards are tiny but you want to bring spare batteries.

The key point about a bag, is that at concert you can’t have your bag with you.
Either shoulder, belt or backpack, a pit is too tiny to have it on you without being a hindrance (and insulted) by other concert photographers. Don’t!

The ideal setting, if you can afford two bodies, is a strap that allows you to hold the two cameras with the lenses you use the most on each shoulder at all time.
The standard choice is a 24-70mm + 70-200mm. That would cover 95% of a concert situation but I consider going wide with the 14-24mm if the venue is a tiny one, or keep a fast prime at hand if it is a very dark one.

If you don’t have two cameras, or if you use more than two lenses, start with the 24-70mm (still covering 75% of your need in a medium size concert). Your other gear will stay in a bag sitting under the barrier that divides the pit from the fans.

Access is not easy. You will have to kneel down in the dark, change lens with people moving around and start again. Three songs go very quick so all you need is a bag is easily accessible with lenses ready to use. Leave all lenses uncapped with hood mounted. It is better some dust that to miss the good shot because you forget to remove the front cap.

To close, my “best bag for concerts” suggestion is to leave your best bag at home.
Your fashionable Crumpler or Think Tank bag will get dirt and all those clever sized pockets and comfortable straps won’t be useful.

Bring instead that old cheap black bag you bought years ago and abandoned somewhere. You won’t have to carry it around, so it’s not important that it’s comfortable. You won’t have to show it off, so it’s not important it looks cool. Actually quite the opposite. if you’re in a small pit with fellow photographers you meet all the time, fine, but if you are at a big festival with tens of photographer you’ll never see again I would be cautious of leaving your expensive gear exposed in a fashionable bag. You know what I mean.

Kaiser Chiefs

I’ll get to the Kaiser Chief at some point throughout this post. Scroll down for a double treat with loads of photos on 35mm B&W film, back from 2005, and colour one from 2013.
Happy Easter Monday everyone, or April’s fool day you choose it is the same this year!

I have been thinking about this since the winner of 2013 World Press Photo have been announced. I was working at some photos I shoot in Kashmir that I had post-edited two years ago and now do not fit my taste.
I brought the cursor back to the original levels and looked more balanced.

I am not a radical of un-touching raw files. I don’t believe photography represent the “real” it never did since the day Daguerre photographed a street that looks desert apart from what it is supposed to be a shoe-shiner. Road wasn’t desert, it is the long exposure needed that did not allowed the people walking on the pavements to be recorded.

I don’t think a camera sensor is faithful to reality and I am for using retouching software to the point it helps on having our picture as we want it. Indeed the perfect negative (or raw file) still is a noble concept, but if we can get our shots to be what we intended It is then up to our ethic and taste to stop and decide if it is too much or not.

Going back to my post-editing, revisiting my photographs I moved the saturation down to normal. Then down again till the RGB channels were silenced and the image became a plain monochromatic, familiar, old black and white.

Then I asked myself a question.
Black and white is nothing else then one extreme of photo manipulation. Black and white is fictional, it is not real, it is photography on class A drugs. Black and white is not what we see in the viewfinder is not what we have in front of us either. More, none of us has ever seen the world in black and white.

Still, no jury would ever think to reject an entry to a photo contest because the image is black and white. Black and white is tolerated, even appreciated, surely permitted. Leica has just launched a digital body which sensor records only B&W images. It’s like putting in your camera the old Tri-x film film.

In the meanwhile the entire web has been discussing, animated, whether the image winning the WPP, which is clearly desaturated from its original tones but not to the point of monochrome, was tolerable. The argument being, it is not real, it is an artefact to emphasize and exploit the human natural reaction to pain making it more similar to Hollywood posters than the Gaza reality.

This Kaiser Chiefs gig happened on Saint David which in Wales, and elsewhere because of the osmosis of Welsh people throughout UK, translates into a big night out with ‘permission’ to drink more than usual. Many people arrived to the Corn Exchange enjoying Kaiser Chiefs in the company of several pints.

Years ago I read that if alcohol was discovered today it would be sent to top the list of Class A drugs, banned worldwide and its commerce outlawed. As that of cocaine, crack and heroine. Alcohol is on sale, though, cheap too. it is a permitted class A drug and this is only because it’s known by 5 millenniums or so and became part of the cultural background of humanity. It has rooted so deeply that cannot be eradicated.

B&W photography it is not yet 2 centuries old but digital manipulation software are not more than 2 decades. It makes a meaningful comparison.
We accept B&W because in 1880 there was no option but taking a B&W image. Colour was non-existent. We accepted it the same way we smile at a Roman mosaic depicting Bacchus drunk in a Roman Villa.

It’s archetypical. B&W photos (or alcohol) are tolerated more than manipulated images (or heroine) only because back in time these were only options. We got to accept, digest, them.
When some new stuff emerges we are scared and natural reaction to fear is rejection. We are not ready, we don’t have the enzymes to digest and we think it may be dangerous for our health.

I am not a fan of Kaiser Chiefs but, with or without alcohol, they know how to put a concert on. Live is one of the most enjoyable band to photograph. They have fun and their fans have too. They always wanted to take the rock’n’roll side of bands as The Who and revamp those feelings bringing mod culture into a new millennium.

Rickie Wilson secreat dream is to be reborn Roger Daltrey. He studied any stage attitude of The Who singer.
I have followed Kaiser Chiefs throughout their career without much pathos. It’s not my band but undeniably songs as I predict a Riot or Ruby or Oh My God that they wrote in 4 or so albums are perfect pop-songs.

These never seen before black and white photos of Kaiser Chiefs here were shot on film in 2005 when the band was first on the line-up of the most successful of NME Award tour and The Killers still allowed photographers to shoot their shows.
I haven’t scanned the negatives for a long while, they opened the NME tour night in this same Cambridge Corn Exchange. They were followed by the likes of Bloc Party, Futurheads and The Killers.

The colour photos, are for a bout a month ago. March 2013. There are 8 years in the between, the same amount of energy, a bit less jumps to be fair, but much more self-confidence and professionalism.
Maybe many of those kids enjoying I Predict a Riot for the first time came back tonight. The audience is older than I’d expected, less hair, more beer belly and rings on left hands.
Maybe a teenage babysitter is at home listening to Kaiser Chiefs CDs.

Kaiser Chiefs are not going to be The Who, but they’re going to be remembered for being a fun show to watch. If it were the nineties, a Greatest hits CD would sell a lot now. These days all you can get is a greatest hits concert. Which you should treat yourself with if you like the happy side of British pop.

Follow them around and check when it’ll going to be next to your home.
Here: [website][facebook][twitter][spotify]

Photo tip

restrictions. Restrictions. RESTRICTIONS!
Three songs, that is fine, actually it is not fine at all, the concert got much better towards the end but this is tolerated by concert photographers as alcohol and B&W are by modern society.

I shot hundreds of shows at the Corn Exchange and its pit is the first I entered with a proper photopass. It was Black Rebel Motorcycle Club concert almost 10 years ago.
The pit is large, the stage is pretty high, lights are good. One problem is the side walls of original red bricks on the sides of the stage that can make a confusing background.

Overall I like shooting here and photographers are allowed to stay for the show, if they want to.
Actually, it is even better. There is a nice mezzanine for VIP (!?), accessible with a photopass, where to sit and enjoy the show out of the crowd after those three songs.

This is also a nice spot to take photos from the back of the venue. With a 70-200mm lens the stage is framed, the crowd is a dark silouhette. Some experience with gig photography allows to snap the ‘decisive moment’ and experience with a camera would tell the setting for a perfect exposure.

What’s the problem? You tell me. The problem is that some security people that perhaps are paid to look at me, instead of monitoring the venue security, come up as soon as I snap some photos. They arrive with the clear body language, red in face in anger, shocked and willing to exercise a useless power, telling me what? To stop shooting. Three songs are over you are not allowed to take pictures.

Every other fan is doing it, and they don’t care. The excuse is that fans don’t use professional camera, the reality is that it is impossible to stop everyone while is much easier to stop me.

So why letting a band be represented by unprofessional photos taken by non photographers instead of being represented by good images that would reflect better a show.
Oh, You tell me! One of the most difficult skills of concert photography is not about the right camera settings, but about the right moment. To understand when the photo is there, half a second before it happens in order to catch it….”Well, this is not allowed. If you keep taking pictures you will have to leave the venue.”

Nonsense. I said it many times. I will keep saying it. It is utter nonsense.
Against photography, against bands, against music, against venue and even against the security of the fans.

Laura Mvula

Everything happened in 12 hours.
And I can’t only blame myself. I mean, it is impossible to read or listen to everything but I am quite into the music panorama to have a feel of what is going on still…

Morning coffee. It is the 6th of March 2013.
Reading the papers, I am in the live music reviews to check live pics and I come across two pictures of the same girl.

I learn that Laura Mvula debuted at the Tabernacle in London with a show presenting her album released the day before: Sing To The Moon.
The Guardian and the Independent both have a review of the same gig. Something you may expect for the return of My Bloody Valentine or Radiohead but not of an emerging singer unless…

Lunchtime. Still the 6th of March.
I receive the e-mail confirming I am assigned to shoot Jessie Ware opening her tour at the Junction in Cambridge.
As I usually do in this situations, lunchtime browsing to check live photo to see what to expect and a quick visit at songkick.com to know who’s Jessie Ware‘s support and decide if it is worth going to take some snaps.
Surprise surprise, Laura Mvula will be opening this tour.

Evening. The same 6th of March.
The English expression “to kill two birds with one stone” doesn’t sound nice here but surely I am about to shooting two birds with one camera in a couple of hours.

I do some more research to discover that it is, as usual, my fault.
Laura Mvula is 4th on BBC sounds of 2013 poll, the same of Savages that I recently just posted. She is also shortlisted as critic’s choice awards at the Brits and has appeared at TV shows.
Such exposure is also possible because RCA (owned by Sony) signed her. There is a big production working on the background but it is nice to see it allocated where it is also deserved.

Night. 6th of March. 12 hours since I read the morning papers.
Many people arrive early at the Junction and it looks clear this is one of those rare occasions when a ‘double bill’ is worth its name.
Laura Mvula is not just a filler to avoid fans that the night they look for ends too early. People are arriving early to check her live.

Laura Mvula arrives on stage with a six pieces band. A double bass, cello and her sister, Dionne, on violin. Full strings support the warm sound of her songs.
She sits at the keys and it is clear from the beginning, even before she begins to sing, I am in front of a ‘pop star to be’.

Laura has the charisma, the attitude and the stage presence of someone who is confident and has only to wait to be big.

As soon as she sings I get the full picture. Literally.
Classically trained, soul inspired, pop driven and Jazz lover, the songs have everything to please a wide audience. And the audience appreciate.

Her natural place would be (and will be, trust me) Later with … Jools Holland or a spot at one of those literary festival, as Cambridge folk or Latitude stage.

I am not a fan of easy listening, soul-gospel-infused-pop or anything that can remind me of it, either in its historical form or in any Michael Kiwanuka surrogate. It’s me, it leaves me cold.
But I have to be sincere, Laura Mvula is talented and throughout the short slot she plays, I can hear songs deserve to have a bigger place. They are not derivative, they are good and she makes them very personal.

British audience love this music. Since HMV agonized, supermarkets CD sales increased and WHSmith re-stocked its chain with recorded music.
It will be nice to see those commercial spaces diplaying a quality album among the ‘reduced to clear’ pop crap.

Since Amy’s death, Duffy’s flop, Lily’s baby and Adele’s Oscar there is a void to be filled in the market.

RCA smelled it and signed Laura Mvula to fill the void. 2013 will be her year, she’s only 25, and a world is waiting to listen to her songs.

With such a short time, I don’t really have much more to say about her, I am now listening to her album on on spotify and will surely go back to photograph her once she does her very own tour.

If you are a fan of Emeli Sande or Lauryn Hill and I made you curious enough, these are the first places to satisfy your curiosity: [website][facebook][twitter][spotify]

Photo tip

There are concerts where the first three songs are in complete darkness (talking to you Nick Cave) or under red lights (and you Mark Lanegan) and there are songs where the artist for the first three songs is stuck on a side.

Then, as the last chord of the third songs is played, the security guy ‘kindly’ escorts photographers out of the pit, the artist comes out in full splendour.

I don’t know if this is done on purpose (why?) or because they don’t know (I’m telling you!) but if you are an emerging artist, or anyone in search of media exposure, if you accept photographers and want to be represented at your best by images, it’s better you give a variety of your performance at the beginning. Everything that will happen late would be unreported or, worse, reported on youtube crap.

Laura arrives and sits behind the keyboards for the first three songs. I appreciated this may be an artistic choice which cannot be changed but we stay there for 10 minutes and to take the same picture hundred times means there will be only one photo, samey, for anyone.
Then, as soon as I leave the pit, she stands to sing the rest of the set.

This is a short appeal, destined to go unread but, if you are a musician and you want to see pictures of you that are not all the same, since we are allowed for the first three songs to portray you, it is better if you start your show with three songs that show what to expect from your gig.

I know it is your choice, but let me tell you, photography helps much more than word to fix your image in peoples’ mind. Never underestimate the power of a good image.