I just had dinner with a friend of mine this week. She is young- been shooting for about 5 years around Chicago, but she is, in my opinion, the best of the Chicago music photographers. During the course of the conversation, she told me that she is hardly shooting anymore. She was never the one who went after access to the arena bands, she always went after the smaller, mostly hard rock bands touring through town. Now she is having a hard time- getting turned down more regularly- by even the smaller bands.

I was thinking of this when I read a new book this morning called “Do the Devils Work For Him- How to Make it in the Music Industry.” The book is written by two journalists, one of whom is also a publicist. They work mostly in the hard rock part of the music business. One of the basic premises of the book is that you should work with any band a publicist offers you because

1.That band could become famous and you will have an in with them and…

2. The publicist will be grateful that you are helping the young band and might give you access to some of their bigger bands.

The writers (Amy Sciarretto and Rick Florino) continually talk about building up relationships with the publicists, but they fail to mention one important fact.

For the most part, publicists are not interested in building up relationships with the press, photographers in particular.

In the old days (when cavemen ruled the earth, it seems) publicists used to call me regularly and ask me to photograph their artists. Many even offered to bring them, or send them, to my studio for photo shoots because they saw the value of what I did. It was worth a short period of the artists time for the possibility of the pictures appearing in any of the hundreds of publications that I had access to. This was a regular occurrence- at least once or twice a week. I would always send the publicist a proof, or some duplicate slides, and always let them know where and when the photos appeared in print. Many times they would arrange for the record company to purchase access to one or more of the photos. I always gave them a reasonable rate, as a thank you for working together.

All that has changed. In the last six months, I have gotten only four emails (three from one publicist) offering photo access to their artists. Access was easy, professional and painless, and all the photos are available on the wire service that represents me. The three shoots, in total, took up about 30 minutes of the artists time, and could possibly result in some press for them in the future. Too bad this doesn’t happen very often!

I was hanging out with the band after they got done with soundcheck, and I got in a conversation with Dom Flemons, one of the three Chocolate Drops. The conversation started with a discussion of roots and jazz music, as I was on assignment from Downbeat, the bible of jazz. This evolved into a discussion of roots music in popular culture. It was fascinating talking to a young (I am guessing under thirty) person discussing 100 year old music being played (by them) in a form that could become popular to a young audience in 2010. We were so engrossed in the conversation that we didn’t even notice that the doors had opened and he was sitting there in the middle of the audience that had paid to see him that night.

When the band hit the stage a few minutes later, they put on an amazing show. Each person in the band played at least 4 different instruments, and switched after almost every song. The combination of modern songs and century old songs was phenomenal.

So, it seems that there is still a lot of great music being played out there- you just have to weed through the crap to find it.

In the middle of the show, she did a song about being born and growing up in Chicago. It was interesting to leave the venue, get into my car which was parked in the park her mother and father hung out in, drive by the hospital she was born in, and drive to my house, which is about a mile from where she spent her first several years! Made me like her even more.

A couple of more great shows from this last week:

Mike Relm last Saturday

Here is a guy that is doing something new and interesting in hip hop- mashing up music and video for some great combinations, such as Michael Jackson singing with his younger self, and a currant hip hop track combined with Meg Ryan faking an orgasm at the deli from “When Harry Met Sally.” The audience was with him from the first to the last note, especially when the South Park guys appeared on the screen

The Devil Wears Prada on Monday

I met a group of very quiet young guys next to their tour bus in the bowels of the city of Chicago, underneath the House of Blues. We ventured into an underground construction site, with very weird light, and did a quick photo shoot. The guys seemed very laid back. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and went into the venue and arrived in the pit right before they started to play. YIKES!!! The floor was bouncing 3 or 4 inches through the whole show. No one in the band ever stopped moving. The audience knew the words to every song and sang along to every one of them. Sweat and spit was flying everywhere. A very great hour of music

The Who delivered.

For the haters, they looked old and they didn’t play a single song that was less than 30 years old. But man, were those songs great!!

For the fans, there wasn’t a single moment that the audience couldn’t sing along to, and know all the words. To me that was the best part of the performance.

Just the fact that the band has been successful for more than 40 years is the point of the whole thing. There were 60 year olds and 15 year olds that stood side by side in the stadium and sang along with every note. Could that happen if Arcade Fire or Modest Mouse had performed.

My comment before the halftime show started was- Did the critics for the daily papers write their reviews before the performance even started. I could have predicted what I would read in the papers the next day. One critic wrote that the NFL had used an Arcade Fire song in a pre game piece, inferring that that is the kind of band that should have been playing at half time. Sure, they could have held a little concert in the end zone, and their hundred fans could have had a great time, and most of America could have used halftime as a bathroom break!

The point is, major events should be programmed for a mass audience. Late last year, I got an email from a woman who was writing a thesis on free live music in public places in major cities. She wanted my comments on her premise that Chicago has almost no live, free music in city parks. I quoted from an informal study that I had done a year earlier where I had determined that from Memorial Day to Labor Day last year, there was an average of three musical acts a day (7 days a week) in our downtown parks. She asked me to give her some details, so I described concerts by the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, World Music throughout the summer and blues Jazz, Latin Celtic and Country throughout the summer. She stopped me to interject- Oh no, that doesn’t count. We are just looking at alternative rock. Why isn’t there more of that? When I stopped laughing, I explained that a good programmer programs for the biggest possible audience. Oh, she said, I guess I will have to rewrite this thesis!

Same with those writers trashing the Who!!

But……… I have to heartily disagree with some of what he wrote in his film review in Friday’s (1/29) Chicago Sun Times.

His report was from Sundance, where a new film was premiered. It is titled “Smash His Camera” and profiles Ron Galella, the king of the paparazzi’s.

His review starts out:

“He is a viper, a parasite, a stalker, a vermin. He is also, I have decided, a national treasure.”  He goes on to say “I disapprove of him, but enjoy his work.”

He describes a press conference where Robert Redford was asked about the film. “He told a tale of shooting “Three Days of the Condor” on location outside of the New York Times Building. To elude Galella, Redford entered one end of the building, raced through its second floor to the other end, slipped ito his trailer, disguised his stand in as a double, and had him run to his car to be driven away. He was able to enjoy the sight of Galella hurling himself onto the limo to shoot through its back window.”

My thoughts:

Was he describing a photographer or a person committing assault on a public street?

Can any of what Galella does be described as photography?

I ran into Ron Galella twice. The first time was in the photo pit at Madison Square Garden. There were maybe 40 photographers calmly waiting for the show to start, Galella among them. When the house light went down and the band hit the stage, people started maneuvering for position. There was plenty of room, and the usual ballet of people with cameras walking around, in front and in back of each other was taking place, all with a certain degree of civility. Half way through the first song, I felt a large elbow crash into my shoulder, knocking me into the barricade. It was Ron Galella, wanting my spot and certainly not caring if I wanted to give it up.

The second time was during the Rolling Stones tour of 1989. On an off night, someone threw the band a party that everyone on the tour was invited to attend. When I was ready to leave, I realized that I was walking out right behind Mick Jagger, who was immediately assaulted by a large group of paparazzi. Being the professional celebrity that Mick is, he stopped and smiled for everyone so that they could all get their shots. He then entered the back of a limo. That is where Ron Galella pounced! Standing right next to the window that Mick was closest to, he repeatedly took the exact same shot, a close up of Mick’s profile, a large flash going off each time, trying to provoke Mick into turning toward him, to no avail.

So the moral of the story, to me, is- Is Galella even a photographer, or just a thug on the street attacking celebrities for profit? And what does that do for the photographers that actually care about the quality of their images, and who think that everyone, even if they are famous, deserve the right to go out in public without being attacked (and then having someone profit greatly from the attack). Is it any wonder that most celebrities equate the word “photographer” with negative thoughts. And….as far as I can tell, Ron Galella pretty much started it all!

I have spent a lot of the month down at Buddy Guy’s club Legends listening to an amazing musician at the height of his power. It is no wonder that people like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and recently John Mayer cite Buddy as one of their biggest influences. Some of the nights this month I find myself crouching in front of the stage forgetting to shoot photos because I am listening so intently.

Last night (1/23) in the middle of his set, he brought Mud Morgenfield (Muddy Waters son) up on stage to do a song with him. It brought back thoughts of the past- Mud sings like Muddy and even kind of looks like Muddy.

Last week my friend Matthew Skoller called and asked if  he could bring a group of guys over to my house for a photo shoot. They had recorded a CD late last year, and it was nominated for a Grammy. They needed some publicity shots. So on Thursday (1/21) some great blues musicians started appearing at my house. First Billy Branch, one of the great harmonica players in Chicago. Next Carlos Johnson, a blues guitarist that I had photographed many times around Chicago. Next was Billy Boy Arnold, a major part of almost all of Bo Diddley’s great songs from the 60’s. Next in the door was Lurrie Bell, son of Carey Bell- Muddy Waters harp player for many years, and one of Chicago’s greatest guitar players. Finally, to round out the group, John Primer (Muddy Waters guitar player for many years) rang the bell. For the next two hours, an amazing discussion –and a few beers- was passed around the room. (And many pictures were taken).

This whole month is reinforcing in my mind why I still do this crazy job, and why sometime it could be the greatest job in the world!

It seems that professional singer and songwriter Nicole Scoffield wrote a composition called Sea to Skyway about the road that links Vancouver and Whistler, which come February, will be the main sites of Olympic sport events. Scoffield sent the song to VANOC, as well as to B.C. premier Gordon Campbell and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson.

She got a shock when officials at VANOC sent her a contract demanding she give up ownership and royalties — even before they would listen to it.

This got me to do some research some other Canadian websites

TechDirt has some great stuff about what the Vancouver Olympic Committee is doing concerning controlling rights to certain words such as Olympic!

So after living through the years of  discussion about whether or not the Olympics would be good for Chicago, and then having the whole point rendered moot by the Olympic committee’s rejection of my fair city, I am glad that I will never have to deal with that mess. Just the everyday mess of the music business!!!

On an unrelated note, just photographed the mighty Anvil last week. The publicists (Heidi Ellen Robinson and Julie Arkenstone) couldn’t have been nicer and more professional. One email set up the shoot and the photo pass and a perfect followup email with all the details was sent in plenty of time to print out and bring to the gig. Anyone who has ever worked with Heidi knows that she is one of the great ones, and anyone who works for her is learning form the best. Makes me long for the good old days!!

Start small- every band who is playing arenas was at one time traveling around in a van, playing in clubs, usually having no problem with people photographing them.

A prime example:

In 1981, I was asked to photograph a 10 day music festival in downtown Chicago called Chicagofest. Many stages, and at least 4 bands per day per stage.

On July 30^th I went down to the rock stage in the middle of the afternoon and found a bunch of really cute women sunning themselves on the lakefront before they played their set. I looked at my schedule and found out that they were called the Go-Go’s. They were more than glad to pose for some pictures before they went on, and we remain friends to this day.

A little more than a week later, on August 9^th, I went to the same stage to photograph Jimmy Vaughn, who had just quit the Fabulous Thunderbirds to go solo. He told me I should catch his brother Stevie Ray, who was opening for him. WOW! Stevie invited me to his show at a club that night, where I did some photos of him. We remained friends until his tragic death in 1990.

I had the opportunity last month to photograph him for the cover of Downbeat magazine. As per usual, he wanted to do the photo shoot at 10 AM- imagine a rock musician wanting to get up that early- and took great pride on the fact that he beat me to the club that morning. He was very gracious and did whatever was needed to get the shot we wanted

So, I won’t get much sleep for the next month, but it will be worth it!

Instead I want to talk about something that is taking up most of my time these days. About five years ago, my friend Alice Peacock and I started a not for profit called Rock For Reading. We do two things:

1.We give monetary grants to small after school reading programs and small organizations that help with literacy issues in the Chicago area. At this time we have made monetary grants totaling $250,000.00.

2. We acquire books from book drives and from publishers and supply them to schools and after school reading programs in the area, many times stipulating that the books need to go home with the students- sometimes the first books that the child has ever owned! To date, we have donated 425,000 books. We recently received a donation of 93,000 books from a publisher in Minnesota, which will be sorted and inventoried this week and distributed after the first of the year. Also, I have just come home from the second of two days of driving around in a rental van (through a driving blizzard yesterday) picking up 300 boxes of books from 21 Borders book stores in the Chicago area. Borders held a book drive between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we are the recipients of all the books. Total should be about 30,000 books!! They will be sorted and distributed after the first of the year.

Doing this makes me feel like I am doing something positive in the world. It also makes me forget about all the morons in the music business that I have no interest in dealing with! (Couldn’t resist!!)

Happy New Year!!!