Soundwave might be rolling around again this coming weekend but a long-standing gap in my list of blog posts to complete has been the 2010 festival that was headlined by the reformed Faith No More.  After two years the details of the day are very sketchy to say the least.  Instead of anything meaningful (if that’s the right word),  finally getting around to publishing these posts will have to just be a combination of the photos from the day and the running tweets that send throughout the day and the following day.

• Meant to be shooting Soundwave except no confirmation either way (reviewers got the ok) Gonna have to risk the walk of shame with camera bag
  10:01 AM Feb 20th via web

• In other really annoying news, bought new lens on Monday online to use today, they said it was posted on Tues but it hasn’t arrived.
  10:03 AM Feb 20th via web

• On way to #soundwave. might be a really short journey if don’t have photo pass waiting for me.
  10:31 AM Feb 20th via mobile web

• http://twitpic.com/147lnq – preparing for Soundwave
  10:42 AM Feb 20th via TwitPic

• Media wristband and orange fluoro jacket were waiting for me! Woot! #
  11:19 AM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Now has two spare tickets to soundwave. Going cheap if anyone’s interested.
  11:42 AM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Um. How old is the girl from Rolo Tomassi? I could almost see what she’d had for lunch from where I was stood. #soundwave
  12:13 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Gallows jump shot fail. You knew he was gonna jump from speaker stack into the crowd but was almost under him and moving back missed it
  12:52 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Set Your Goals seem a bit lame after Gallows. #soundwave
  1:04 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Caught last few Sunny Day Real Estate songs. Shame clashed with Gallows. Regret not going to see them when was in Seattle in 94 #soundwave
  1:12 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Taking Back Sunday. Am too old and too male to understand #soundwave
  1:38 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Eagles Of Death Metal. Meh. Aren’t you a bit old to be pulling the lothario schtick? Like old enough to be their dad?
  2:30 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Alexisonfire. Gotta love the craziness. Photo pit now a carpet of shoes, hats and broken sun glasses. Good wholesome christian rock up next
  3:10 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Lol at the silence that greets alexisonfire pay homage to australian bands. Guess crowd isn’t old enough to have heard of half of them
  3:17 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Sat by entrance to first aid watching a steady stream of teary emo kids hobbling by.
  3:29 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

• Stuck a wider lens on old camera. Holy crap did I used to take photos on that
  3:31 PM Feb 20th via mobile web

The Damned have always been one of those bands that I knew who they were but outside a few songs, didn’t really know much about them, despite their importance and position in the 1970s UK punk scene. To be honest, I’ve never been that much of a fan of UK punk music; never thought much of the Sex Pistols, and unless there’s some sort of later-life, light bulb moment of realisation, The Clash will always be one of music’s most over-rated bands to me. I’ve always preferred the music coming out of the US at that time, bands like Television, Blondie, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Pere Ubu and the like (although, as said before, I’ve never, ever got Talking Heads and also commit the cardinal sin of not thinking much of the Ramones; you’ve heard one song, you’ve heard them all, which essentially makes them the Status Quo it’s ok to like). When I think about it, not being anywhere near old enough for the UK punk movement to have had an impact on me, even as I got older the songs didn’t really do anything for me, and it just seemed like a bunch of annoying teenagers getting a bit shouty at the unfairness of their lives, whereas the US music was always so much more glamorous, sophisticated and cool. It wasn’t until a few years after the initial wave of punk bands, that the UK scene became really interesting; I’ll take PIL over the Sex Pistols any day of the week. Regardless, although I didn’t know a great deal about The Damned, I just fancied going to photograph them playing at The Hi-Fi, knowing that it was probably my one and only chance of going to see them play.

The original bill for the night had Hits and The Wrath supporting. Hits were a good fit and although The Wrath were probably less so, having enjoyed photographing them before, it was a good line-up. However, earlier in the day it filters back to me via Facebook and Mess+Noise that neither band would be playing. As there was no official update on any of the venue’s sites about replacement support bands, I decide that I would just go in later, nearer the time that the headliners were due to start. When I get to the venue the set times pinned to the wall of The Hi-Fi had the support acts as being a magician and a band I’d never heard of. It would have been fun and different to have photographed a magician (who does make a quick second appearance straight before The Damned take to the stage to do strait jacket escape routine – I didn’t get any good photos though) but I’m sure I would have been less than happy if I’d been an advertised support act given the boot from the show for a replacement magician.

Although I’ve been using a severely compromised camera for over a month, one that doesn’t have a working LCD screen and one where the anti-shake hasn’t worked for months, the problems are further compounded by having a lens that isn’t working properly and which won’t focus on anything less than about two and half metres away. This is a big problem in a smallish venue but especially in one that has a photo pit and a fairly low stage, like The Hi-Fi. It’s even more of a problem in the three songs I get to photograph The Damned in and frustrating as Captain Sensible is pulling loads of great poses perched on the edge of the stage that my camera just can’t focus on. Other than that there’s the usual Hi-Fi problems with poor lighting, something that gets even worse in the third song when Dave Vanian leaves the stage and Captain Sensible sings Silly Kids Games from his very dark corner of the stage.

From the photo pit (and presumably for everyone at the front) it sounds terrible. The mix is awful and Vanian’s vocals are buried under everything and barely audible. It doesn’t get a whole lot better outside the pit after the three songs, although I find a spot near the exit from the main room where the sound seems to be better and where I watch the rest of the show from. It’s a shame as the times when you can hear his voice more clearly over the instrumentation, it sounds fantastic. The handful of songs I do know sound superb; New Rose is dropped into the set early on and is probably the highlight of the whole set. Eloise and Video Nasty (the song that was the introduction to the band for my generation through their appearance on The Young Ones are played towards the end of the night, before the band encore with Smash It Up and Captain Sensible treats the crowd to an impromptu, acapella version of a bit of Happy Talk. Although Vanian is the band’s lead singer, the real front man is Sensible; he’s the one doing all the between song banter, which includes a couple of shout-outs to The Saints, one for being the first punk band, even though The Damned themselves were often called this in the UK music press and a second one for the Brisbane band being “a hundred, million times better than The Sex Pistols ever were”. They’re nice touches and also hard to disagree with; I’ve listened to those first three Saints albums far more times than I have Never Mind The Bollocks or The Clash’s London Calling.

In a way, given that it’s a week night, I surprise my self by staying until the end, rather than the 45 minutes to an hour that I’ve lapsed into doing in more recent times at venues that start late and finish late. It’s easy to do tonight as despite the sound issues, and even though I’m only familiar with a smattering of songs, it’s such an enjoyable show. Although the tour is celebrating the 35th anniversary of their first album, there’s not a hint that it’s an old punk band going through the motions for a quick payday; they sound like a fresh, vital new band that can still entertain. It’s a bit of a surprise and a shame that they didn’t get the band out to play this year’s Soundwave festival, happening just over a month after their tour. They would have been a worthy addition, more than able to keep their own and with the opportunity to play to a whole new generation and show them what punk music really is.

It’s probably the hottest day of the summer so far and although I’m heading to a gig in the Valley, I’m feeling a bit smug about the whole thing as it’s at Woodland and not The Zoo. The Zoo may be my favourite venue in Brisbane but over summer it turns into a real sweat-box that makes seeing a band an uncomfortable experience. When I lived in Newcastle and would go and see bands play at The Riverside, you knew it was a good night when sweat was dipping from the ceiling. However, there’s a huge difference between Newcastle and Brisbane and the humidity in Australia is significantly more draining than an hour or so in a hot venue and the relief of cool air outside at the end. Woodland may be my least favourite venue in Brisbane, to the extent that after tonight my New Year resolution to stop covering gigs here starts, but at least they always have the air conditioning cranked up. Usually it’s so cold in there that you wish you’d brought extra layers. But getting to the venue, there’s no sign that the AC has kicked in and it feels just as hot, if not hotter, than The Zoo would tonight. As the evening goes by there’s no noticeable change in temperature inside Woodland. While it might be down to the AC not working properly, the cynic in me considers that it’s just a ploy to make everyone drink more.

Tight Slip start the evening and include the bassist from Per Purpose. I’ve really liked Per Purpose every time I’ve seen them, but Tight Slip are another one of those fairly generic post punk Brisbane bands. Sky Needle take an age in setting up, with their home-made instruments continually feeding back and causing all manner of problems for the soundman, who runs back and forth between the mixing desk and the stage to change settings on the amps long after the band were due to start. Although they start late, not a surprise for any band playing Woodland, it’s worth the wait as the band are excellent and such a breath of fresh air when compared to the vast array of Brisbane bands who tread a much more traditional route of instrumentation and influences. I’m not sure what half of the home made instruments and electronics are and what they actually do in terms of creating sounds but the overall effect is to create a series of melodic drones while the band’s drummer keeps a very loose beat on an homemade drum kit featuring an array of well battered pots and pans. It’s a shame that they don’t play for longer and a shame that they play under the bluest LED lighting imaginable; they’re definitely one of more interesting Brisbane bands I’ve seen for a long while.

Deerhoof had been advertised earlier in the day as playing at 10:30pm and although Sky Needle had started late, a shorter set by them means that some of the lost time is regained. Coming to see Deerhoof play, and indeed requesting to cover the show, is all about coming to pay homage to the band’s drummer, Greg Saunier. In that respect it’s similar to going to see the Dirty Three to watch and revel in Jim White’s drumming. Although both drummers play behind a minimal drum kit, there’s major differences in the speed that they play at; Jim White is a lot more subtle, whereas Greg Saunier is just a relentless drumming machine. Thinking about it, he’s probably more similar to Battles’ drummer John Stanier (and they even also have similarities in their name). It’s a joy to watch him play and admire the skill and effort that he puts in. Tonight he’s doing all of this in the one of the hottest and most humid gigs I’ve ever been to; when I leave at the venue at the end of the night I’m dripping in sweat and my shirt is drenched and yet all I did was stand there and watch him and the rest of the band play. The one disappointment is that at Woodland and without a photo pit it’s hard to get any good photos of him in full flight. Thinking back to previous times that I’ve photographed him, all of them have been at poorly lit venues with photographing from the crowd; even when they played The Hi-Fi it was without a photo pit. Although I’m always looking forward to the next time I see Deerhoof, I’m especially looking forward to the night when I get to take photos that do justice to him and his amazing drumming skills.

I came to Metronomy initially through reviews and interviews, rather than by actually hearing any of their songs. The point of interest was that the band’s main songwriter and singer, Joseph Mount, comes from Totnes, a small town just south of Dartmoor about 45 minutes drive away from where I come from. Devon is not exactly a hot bed of music and bands, and the county has few claims to much in the way of musical fame: Coldplay’s Chris Martin comes from about 10 miles outside of Exeter, as does Joss Stone, Muse come from Teignmouth, just down the coast from where I come from and Portishead’s singer Beth Gibbons originally comes from Exeter, but that’s about it.

What was even more interesting in Metronomy was that they called their most recent album The English Riviera, named after the area around Torbay/Torquay and from reading interviews with the band the inspiration was to write glamorous songs about the Devon coastline that were the English equivalent of 1970s songs inspired by living along the Californian coastline. Every review I’ve read of The English Riviera has name-checked Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. Personally, other than being a typical Californian 1970s album (although using the Australian rules Fleetwood Mac should be defined as an English band given that they formed in the UK and the majority of the band has always been English), I don’t see much in the way of musical comparisons. That the album is referenced in every review makes me think that an early review mentioned it and all the later reviewers chose to include it in their reviews to make them seem more knowledgable: my bet is that the majority of those reviewers have never even heard Tusk. Although their might be 1970s Californian rock inspiration in the intent behind the songs, Metronomy’s sound is later; it’s a lot more early 1980s New Romantic, with earlier songs sounding more like late 1980s Rave music.

My new year resolution to not photograph bands who play in the dark, a hastily formed resolution based on seeing The Delta Riggs support the Jim Jones Revue manages to barely last 24 hours thanks to Metronomy, with each of the band having a small light fixed to their upper torso and which is remotely controlled. At times these four light form the only onstage light. A very packed Zoo, the lack of lighting, the difficulty in metering and not being able to preview any shots make it a frustrating shoot. Reviewing the photos later, the individually mounted lights have caused all manner of flare on the images, making the majority unusable. I enjoy the band though, just not the photographing bit.

Melbourne band Oscar+Martin are the support band and are the worst band I’ve seen in a long, long while. Even before we start, Oscar+Martin is terrible band name, especially when there’s a national hair loss prevention clinic who advertise heavily on TV called Ashley & Martin. Even before the band take to the stage, the instruments provide an insight in what to expect, with keyboards, laptops and two auxiliary toms; so you know there’s going to be a drumming jam at some point, probably at the end of the last song. The one surprise is that the band doesn’t finish their set bashing each of the drums they have, with them taking to their drum sticks as early as the second song. The second song also includes one of them doing an excruciatingly bad posh, white boy rap. It’s like all those New Jack Swing songs from the early nineties that were terrible even at the time. Another drumming jam happens in a later song, with the song lyrics that include “…don’t let your booty touch the ground”. It’s car crash music and the set reaches its nadir in the penultimate song when the posh white boy does another rap, this time with what sounds like a heavy Jamaican accent. It’s just jaw-dropping. If you played the song somewhere like London, I think you’d first be met with stunned silence, then you’d be laughed at, and then you’d probably be lynched. It’s a real surprise getting back home and doing some research on them to find that they’re much loved and their album has been highly praised, with some recently saying that it should have been in the short-list for this year’s Australian Music Prize . It’s baffling, they were just terrible, and so bad it was good in a perverse way.  They remind me of something but it’s not until the following morning that that I work out who; Flight Of The Conchords. The only difference is that one is a joke band played for laughs and the other, as far as I know, isn’t.

The second gig of the year, the second in two days and it’s been interesting to compare the two UK headling bands against the two supporting Melbourne bands (I’ll have to update my analysis of supporting bands at Brisbane gigs one of these days. Over both nights the international headliners have show themselves to be a massive cut above the two “local” bands; the gulf in class is immense, and I can’t blame being a massive fan of either Metronomy or Jim Jones Revue for a one-eyed and biased view. As with a lot of gigs I take it as it comes but always hope to see a really good local support, especially when they’re towards the start of their career and you can watch them progress over time. But neither Oscar+Martin or The Delta Riggs the previous night rise to the occasion and it makes you wonder why they couldn’t have found a couple of better support bands in Brisbane instead of flying some up from Melbourne.

After a few weeks off from photographing and a relaxing Christmas spent not doing much at all, I spend the day finding it hard to summon up anything much in the way of enthusiasm for the first gig of the New Year, Jim Jones Revue at The Zoo. I caught a few songs from the band at last year’s Big Day Out and despite not seeing much of them, they were one of the standouts of the day and made me wish I hadn’t had chosen to go and photograph Airbourne on the main stage instead of staying in the Green Stage tent to see the rest of their set.

It seems apt that this first gig of 2012 coincides with me reading Simon Renolyds’ Retromania and a few days after the gig I find myself starting a chapter called ROCK ON (AND ON) (AND ON): The Never-ending Fifties Revival, which explains how the 50s revival started during the 60s and has never really gone away.  I don’t know why, maybe because I expect it from just about all the shows I go to, but I don’t expect there to be much of a crowd there to see them. Unless I know a band is getting or has recently had heavy rotation on triple j, I don’t expect much when I go to a gig these days and so I just assume that the place is going to be largely empty.  I guess if there’s one thing about the never-ending 1950s revival it’s that there’s never a lack of support from people interested in Kustom Kulture and as it goes far beyond what’s currently being played on the radio.  As such, there’s a surprisingly healthy crowd here tonight, a lot more than I thought there would be, although, as would probably be expected from the lack of radio play, the age demographic is older than at most gigs.

The lack of enthusiam from earlier in the day quickly dissipates as soon as the Jim Jones Revue take the stage.  They were everything I thought they were in the few songs I got to see at Big Day Out and getting to see them play a full set makes me even more annoyed at going to photograph Airbourne.  You could list all the review cliches but straight from the off the band really do give it the full 100% and play like their lives depended on it.  The energy and passion that goes into their performance is just mind-blowing.  It’s always interesting seeing overseas, and especially UK bands, play shows in the Brisbane summer and especially at The Zoo, a venue renown for its summer temperatures.  Although you do eventually acclimatise to Brisbane summer, or at least as much as is possible, for people who have just flown in, often from overseas as Brisbane is often the first show of Australian tours, are jet-lagged and have to cope with the humidity, it must a real test of endurance to then get up on a stage and play a show.  Sometimes bands playing in Brisbane seem flat and sometimes they tell the audience that they’re jet-lagged almost as means of an apology for their performance.  What’s even more amazing, or possibly just a bit stupid, is that the band are dressed up to the nines, Jim Jones wearing a waistcoat and guitarist Rupert Orton in a black leather jacket.  The leather jacket doesn’t stay on for long though.  Watching the band play you can’t but think about what it was like back in the 1950s when rock ‘n’ roll was new.  What was it like to be at those early live shows? Obviously the TV recording from the period, as today, are never going to be the same as being in the same room as a live performance, but what was it like to experience those Sun Records acts, or Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent or even The Beatles in their Hamburg days; John Lennon is on record as saying that the best of the Beatles was before they ever set foot inside a recording studio as well as saying that before Elvis there was nothing.  Although it’s hard to compare a modern day band to one from more than 50 years ago,  seeing the Jim Jones Revue maybe makes some sense of how a musical style changed the world forever.  If The Living End were even half as good as this, no one would bemoan them being in a prominent spot on every festival bill each and every year.

Earlier in the evening Melbourne band The Delta Riggs opened proceedings.  It’s probably unfair and irrational to have praised the Jim Jones Revue so highly when there some obvious retro similarities between the two bands, but whereas the 1950s never goes out of fashion, who on earth decided that it was a good idea to form a Black Crowes tribute band in this day and age?  It’s all ruffled shirts, wide brimmed hats, and Jagger moves. The first song includes mention of “the preacher man” and the singer even talks in a Southern accent when introducing another.  At another point he does the Mick Jagger finger wiggle and I can’t help but wonder if he’s watched the Rock ‘n Roll Fantasy Camp episode of The Simpsons.  I guess if you stick with a musical style or period for long enough it’ll always come back into fashion and maybe this is The Delta Riggs’ ploy.

Although I get to The Zoo early to photograph The Delta Riggs, they band play in so little light that it’s just not worth taking photos.  It’s at this point that I decide another New Year’s Resolution on the spot to not waste time and effort to photograph bands who play in the dark.  So there’s no photos of tonight’s support act and probably too many of the headliner, but I just liked too many of the photos I took.  When you don’t have the benefit of a working LCD screen it’s very easy to go overboard in taking photos rather than be able to review what you’ve taken and know that you’ve got more than enough good images.  At least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

Out of all the people putting out music in Brisbane, Mere Noise is by far and away my favourite label and has been the whole time I’ve lived in Brisbane. Mere Noise might have a much smaller roster of active bands than some of Brisbane’s more glamorous, bigger and well connected labels but those bands but are a lot closer to representing the true sound of Brisbane and time-after-time their Meltdown mini-festivals have shown themselves to be one of the highlights of the year and a must-attend.

In true street press fashion, I manage to miss the first few bands of the night but get there to catch most of Texas Tea’s set, and get to witness one of the rare occasions where they play with a full band, as well as hear all the new songs from their forthcoming third album that make up most of their allotted time, including their first ever cha-cha-cha ending song.  I think I read on Facebook that they’ve been recording so fingers crossed for a 2012 release, although prior experience has shown they like to take their time.

Practice makes perfect and latest Mere Noise signings Tiny Migrants have come on in leaps and bounds since I last saw them here at Woodland  supporting Ty Segall back in July.  At the time I said they reminded me a bit of early B52s, despite not having any keyboards but that was a bit of an unfair comparison and they’re a lot more garage-y and more surf influenced than that, more 60s Nuggets than 70s New Wave, although there are times, especially when Jacinta and Julien both sing that the B52′s comparison comes into play.

After sets from The Dangermen (who I haven’t seen for an age and who  didn’t realise were still together) and No Anchor (the usual loud, brutal and straight to the point 30 minutes you expect from them), I finally get to experience the Standing 8 Counts.  I don’t know why, but based on the way Mere Noise supremos Pete and Ben have also spoken about the band (they were before my time), I had always assumed that they were a Pete and Ben band, a precursor to Vegas Kings.  Having lived with this assumption for years, it’s a complete surprise to find myself confronted by a complete bunch of strangers.  After all the anticipation they’re not what I expected, it’s very loose and jammy and just a bit drunk.  The last song they play is so loose and jammed out that it’s hardly even there.

The Keep On Dancin’s further cement their place as my favourite Brisbane bands of 2011 before the obligatory Mere Noise Meltdown, killer rock ‘n’ soul revue from The Horrortones ramps up the tempo , this time with added Elton John in the form of  cover of Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting, and Undead Apes launch their second album with another set of no nonsense, two minute punk tunes.

Hits are always an amazing band to photograph and as last time I saw them at Woodland (Flavours Of Scuzz) they’re in top form.  As last time (and maybe times before that) there’s a photographer who crosses the boundary between the “stage” (not that there is one) and the audience.  I’m not sure who he is, I presume he’s a friend of the band, but I always think that it’s a bit of a no-go area for photographers.  Photographing from the side of the stage, even behind the amps or drums is fine but when you’re essentially on stage with the musicians, an active part of the show that the audience is seeing and you’re sticking your camera lens in people’s faces from point blank range, to me at least, it’s over-stepping a boundary.

Although Guitar Wolf are headlining, they’re one of those Japanese Ramones tribute type-bands, similar to Mach Pelican, that are much loved in Australia but that I just don’t see the attraction of.  Or at least didn’t get.  A few weeks after this year’s Meltdown I start reading Simon Renolyds’ Retromania and it covers the Japanese musical ideology of bands needing to completely immerse themselves into the bands of yesteryear and master everything about them, not just the music, but the fashion, the haircuts, as he puts it ”their lack of emphasis on originality and the obsession with details”.  Although the lighting has been less than ideal all night, Guitar Wolf play under the reddest lights imagine able.  The photos at the top of the post (and the one that got published) was a stroke of good fortune in accidentally piggy-backing on someone else’s flash going off (hence the less than great exposure).  It’s another late starting show at Woodland, with Guitar Wolf not starting until 12:30am, so I only stay for five or six songs before heading for home via the joys of a Saturday night taxi rank in the Valley.

Far too many photos from the night, too many that I really liked (despite the difficult conditions) and wanted to show.  I was debating about splitting the post into two but decided that you can have everything in one photo bomb.

Since the early days of me getting into music during the mid 1980s, I’ve always really loved Steely Dan. I think they’ve become one of those 1970s bands that have unfairly been collected into a list of bands from that era and of that ilk unfairly summarised as “Guilty Pleasures”. I’ve always despised the phrase, especially as what could be shameful about listening to Steely Dan: the songs are fantastic, the playing out of this world and the guitar solos some of the best you’ll ever hear. I’d missed the band the last time they played in Brisbane, at the BEC back in 2007, so was really keen to cover them this time around even though I knew that it was going to be a soundboard shoot.

It’s my first time seeing one of the Day On The Green shows at Sirromet Wines at Mt Cotton. I don’t know why, I just assumed being wine related and on a “mountain” that it was going to be way out of Brisbane and somewhere near Mt Tamborine rather than not too far from the city, out towards the coast and not actually too far away from where I live. If I’d been in the country last year at the time, I would have definitely investigated the where it was in more detail as the Blondie/Pretenders double header would have been a dream to see and photograph.

It’s a very varied crowd today for Steely Dan. I don’t know what I expected but it was probably a high contingent of older, beard stroking jazz aficionados rather than families and their young children. At least every other car in the car park is a 4×4, the choice of vehicle needed considering the amount of stuff many have brought with them, the full picnic works with rugs and chairs in some cases. Either they’ve all been to one of these before and we’re hopelessly under-prepared or they just don’t go to many gigs. As it’s a warm and sunny day we’ve not even brought any additional clothes, something that proves to be our undoing as soon as the sun sets and the temperature plunges. We’ve got a small fold-up travel rug in the car so we take that with us when he head to the entrance to the site.

Size-wise and in terms of layout, Mt Cotton is a bit like The Riverstage, with the stage at the bottom of a grassed hill. The expensive seats are close to the stage, with General Admission section behind the mixing desk. As there’s a ticket fire sale in the last few days before the show, with 2-for-1 $99 tickets for the General Admission area, I’m guessing it wasn’t a great seller, although it’s a pretty sizable crowd on the day.

Other than the obvious hits, I don’t know much of Steve Winwood’s stuff. He gets a full 90 minute late afternoon set and many of the songs seem to go on for an age, with the full resplendent of organ, guitar, sax, percussion and drum solos throughout. He plays the first couple of songs sat at his organ before moving to guitar and venturing to the front of the stage. Disappointingly he keeps his sunglasses on throughout, although given the strong sunlight shining down the hill, it’s not much of a surprise.

Although I knew in advance that it would be a sound desk shoot, the stage is so far away from the where I’m stood that it might as well be in a different postcode. Even with a 2x converter and a non-full frame camera that makes the maximum zoom 600mm, the individual members of the band come no where close to filling the frame, and even accurate spot metering is impossible. Heavy post-production cropping is required to come up with the final set of photos but really show the age and resolution of my camera when compared to some of the more typical higher spec cameras. But ultimately I’m here to see the band and the photographing is just a secondary interest that has got me through the door. Obviously I would have liked to come away with a really lovely set of photos but it just isn’t happening tonight and as I already knew in advance what I was letting myself in for, I can’t complaint or feel annoyed at the terrible photos I end up with.

The three songs I get to photograph are Aja, Black Friday and Hey Nineteen and although photographing is frustrating I just enjoy watching the band, albeit from afar. It’s a fantastic show. The sound is perfect, something I didn’t expect given the outdoor show and the number of players, but it’s so good you could almost be listening to a recording. As would be expected, it’s a typical greatest hits show, with maybe only one or two songs I don’t recognise from their more recent albums. The classics are just about all in there: Bodhisattva, Rikki Don’t Lose That Number, Josie, Peg, Reelin’ In The Years, Kid Charlemagne, although, from memory I can’t remember if they play Do It Again. They make up for any omissions by playing My Old School, one of my favourite songs of theirs, and one I didn’t expect them to play. Given the band had so many fantastic guitarists – Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter (who found a second career as a missile defence specialist in later life), Larry Carlton, Elliott Randall – I as never sure if Walter Becker was much of a player, but he plays some very tasteful solos tonight, even though he leaves all the fast, flashy riffs and solos to the band’s second guitarist, Jon Herington. Having grown up with the band pre-internet, I also realise that this is the first time I’ve ever heard either of Walter Becker or Donald Fagen actually speak. Given the somewhat serious nature of the music they play (i.e. technical and intricate) I was expecting them to be a lot more serious in the between song-banter but they’re both in good humour throughout. “You’re the greatest audience we’ve ever played to tonight”, Becker tells us at one point. Similarly, Steely Dan have been the best band we’ve ever seen tonight, and for some time after tonight as well.

Every year work takes me down to Melbourne and rural Victoria for a three to four week in late August/early September. Every time I head down I check out the local street press (Inpress and The Beat) to see what shows are on and and try and get to see some of the Brisbane acts in Melbourne at the same time as me. The first weekend I’m down there I head out to see Ben Salter launch his album, supported by Harmony, at the Northocte Social Club. It’s been a long week and although I take my camera I feel too tired to take any photos and instead spend most of the evening sat in a dark corner at the back of the room. I had planned to go and see Velociraptor the following night as they were in town playing a number of shows over the weekend but the luxury of the Premier League, including a Newcastle match, on my serviced apartment’s Foxtel means that it doesnt happen. However, a week later not even the temptation of a comfy sofa and the chance at seeing some football can keep me away from heading out to see No Anchor, and a second support set from Harmony in a week, at the Old Bar.

Chatting to Alex from No Anchor at the gig, he fills me in on the band’s tour itinery, which included driving from Melbourne to Adelaide the following morning for a Sunday night show, before driving all the way back on the Monday morning for another show back in Melbourne. The band have driven down from Brisbane and then also have to drive all the way back. Having done a lot of driving in Australia, it’s not something I would envy doing and I’ve always been amazed at the distances people will drive here as if it’s nothing, especially bands on tour who don’t even have much in the way of luxury or being able to take their time on the drive and stop off or make scenic detours when it suites. Alex also tells me about their upcoming shows back in Brisbane, where they are going to be playing seven nights in a row at The Waiting Room, and I’m more than keen to get along to see them there. The final show with the Keep On Dancin’s was always going to be the pick of the shows for me. The downside of going to the last of the seven shows is that at the end of the night I was kicking myself for not going to more of the shows during the week. If I’d known in advance that the shows were finishing so early (by 10pm) I definitely would have gone to more of them. It’s ironic given my complaining about late shows in Brisbane that I just assume bands are going to play late into the night and miss out when there’s a bunch of earlier shows on offer.

It’s my first visit to The Waiting Room, at least the upstairs bit, having seen Velociraptor for the first time in the tiny downstairs room in early 2010. The Keep On Dancin’s start just as we arrive and one of the first things to notice is just how good the sound is; it’s loud but is really crisp and clean. The room itself is smaller than I imagined it would be. I don’t know what the capacity is but would guess that it’s probably about 80 people. There’s a healthy crowd in tonight and the room is swelteringly hot so it could get fairly uncomfortable in the middle of summer. From a photographic point of view, the room is better than I would have exepcted. Although it’s small and fairly dark, I really like how the “stage” has been formed by what I assume was once a separate room that has been opened out. It gives some separation between the audience and the musicians so that it feels more like a “proper” gig and less like a house party. It’s a perfect blend though as the intimacy, the BYO and the backyard for between band socialising and drinking help provide a relaxed house party atmosphere.

I think the last time I’d seen Happy New Year’s (another terribbly named Australian band) Elena was when she was playing with Gazzonga Attack at 4ZZZ’s Market Day at the RNA Showgounds. Her new band’s music is a lot difference from the punk-stylings of her old band and a lot more shoegazey. For a few songs it sounds really interesting and different but then it starts to sound a bit samey for the rest of the set. I guess that was always one of the drawbacks about shoegaze.

No Anchor are loud, really loud and the smallness of the room means there’s no let up in the volume even stood against the back wall. But as with the other bands on show tonight, it might be loud but it’s also perfectly crisp, with not a hint of distortion from from the speakers, something that’s a rarity in just about all of Brisbane’s venues. It’s easily the best I’ve heard the band sound and, as noted above, makes me wish I’d come to see more of the seven shows they’ve played here in the last week. I really regret not coming to the Wednesday night improv session. Although the band have played a different set each night, tonight is what i think i would have expected them to have played. Come the end of the year best-of lists, it’s great to see the band do so well, even getting an honourable mention from Forbes for being one of the best free (you pay what you want to download) albums of 2011. They’ll be another Brisbane band to keep on eye on during 2012.

Having really enjoyed the night, both the bands and the venue, plans are made on the way home to come back the following night to see Dreamtime, a band that had been recommended to me by a number of Brisbane’s better educated tastemakers, who are lauching their CD at the venue. The Saturday night brings another trip to West End and we make it all the way to the end of the road for a pre-gig curry before deciding that we’ve eaten far too much and need to go and lie down before we lapse into a curry coma. Despite being a couple hundred metres from the venue, we walk all the way back to the train station and get the train back home. It’s the most un-rock ‘n’ roll excuse in the history of poor excuses for not seeing a band, the only surprise is that I’ve never read it as an excuse for missing bands in a street press live review. At the time oif writing this (Jan 2012) I still haven’t seen Dreamtime: I probably should add it to my ever expanding list of New Year’s Resolutions as well as getting back to see more bands at The Waiting Room.

I got to see the New York Dolls a couple of time back in 2007 when I went to both the Sydney and Gold Coast V Festivals. When you get to see a band a couple times in quick succession, you realise just how planned and rehearsed everything is, from the same set lists in the same order night after night to the same between song banter and jokes. Unwittingly the New York Dolls brought about one of the weekend’s most humorous incidents by repeating the same introduction to a cover of Piece of My Heart. Introducing the song by means of talking about the band’s influences he dedicated the song to Janis Joplin and the band launched straight into the song. At the Gold Coast show on the Sunday he used the same introduction only just as he was about to say “Janis Joplin” someone in the crowd, who had obviously also been to the Sydney show the day before yells out her name and completely steals David Johansen’s thunder, leaving him momentarily flummoxed. “Yeah…um…right….Janis Joplin”. Having seen the band those couple of times, I didn’t come away that impressed. They weren’t bad but you still couldn’t relate the band back to the band they might have been in the early 1970s and the impact they made on punk. Other than that song introduction, the residing memories of seeing the band were that Sylvain Sylvain wasn’t a very good guitarist, hamming it up, playing a few chords but leaving all the flashier playing to the band’s second guitarist and that David Johansen had scary old women hands. When you’re close up and looking through a camera viewfinder and seeing the nail varnish and all the rings on someone’s hands as they hold the microphone, you just ending noticing things like that.

Putting in to cover tonight is as much about the other bands playing as it is about the headline act, with three of Brisbane’s best live bands supporting; Millions, Velociraptor and Hits. However, the time that Millions were due to play rolls by and it seems like it’s typical service from The Hi-Fi, where the bands always play later than the venue has advertised on its Facebook page. When the curtain at the front of the stage finally opens, its Velocirpator who are revealed, lead singer Jeremy Neale explaining during their set that Millions had to drop out. Typically raucous set from Velociraptor, which ends with drummer Jesse taking his drum off the stage and into the open space between the between the stage and where those who have come early are stood. It’s one of those times I wish I had a flash with me as it’s just far too dark to photograph. Hits follow and play as well as they can but get absolutely no help from the sound system; it’s as bad a sound as I’ve heard at the venue, which has a well earnt reputation for having poor sound. It’s a shame but as with any Hits show, the audience don’t really seem to mind. The audience that’s come to see the New York Dolls, are a slightly older demographic with less mainstream, more old school punk tastes (e.g. 4ZZZ listeners) and so there’s no lack of crowd support for the band tonight.

When The New York Dolls start, the first thing to notice is that they have far superior sound than the support bands; the mix between instruments is far more even, you can hear the vocals more clearly and it’s a lot louder and less muffled. Although support bands are always going to get the rough end of the deal in terms of time to soundcheck, the difference between the headliner’s sound and the two supports tonight makes you think that it’s been done purposely so that no one has a chance to upstage the Dolls. Other than playing a much longer set than the 45 minutes or so they got at V Festival, and ultimately being better and a more enjoyable gig than those festival appearances, there’s very little change from when I saw them last time; Sylvain Sylvain is still a very average guitarist with a beautiful guitar collection who spends more time preening and hamming it up than he does actually playing much, although it obviously makes for good photos, and David Johansen still has old lady hands.

Sylvain still leaves all the flashy guitar playing to the second guitarist but as Johansen and Sylvain are the only two original members of the band still alive, I spend my three songs in the photo pit concentrating on them, only taking a handful of photos of anyone else on the stage. Back home after the show, when I’m checking the spelling of “Johansen” on Wikipedia, I find that the second guitarist in the band at the present time, the guy playing all the flashy riffs and solos while Sylvain Sylvain  strums the occasional chord, is none other than Earl Slick, guitarist on not just my favourite Bowie album but one of my all-time favourite records, Station To Station.  If I’d known I would have taken a lot more photos.  The moral of the story is to always do your research before you go and photograph a band.

Originally I wasn’t sure if I was going to put into photograph Parklife again this year. It always coincides with a really busy time at work every year when I find myself flying between Brisbane and Melbourne for work all around Victoria. I guess what helped me decide was that the original call out from Rave went completely unanswered and so they emailed all the photographers again to say that they needed to put someone forward by the deadline later that day. I’m always surprised by the lack of interest from photographers for Parklife. While I’m not much of a dance music fan by any stretch of the imagination, it’s one of the festivals I most enjoy photographing for a number of reasons:

1. It’s the start of the festival season and it always takes place at a time of excitement of what the summer months might bring in terms of photo opportunities and good bands playing shows in/around Brisbane.
2. As the first festival of the season it’s always good to break the winter break (although it’s only really been a couple of months since Splendour), get straight back into photographing a multi-stage event and to get one of the major festivals ticked off.
3. As it always coincides with the stupidly busy time at work, it’s refreshing to have a good excuse to not go into work and spend all weekend in front of a computer writing up reports. Saturday was my first full day off in over a month and despite the long day and time spent on a computer renaming/editing/resizing photos, it’s left me feeling slighty reinvigorated for Monday morning, at least a lot more so than had I spent the weekend writing reports.
4. It happens in the middle of Brisbane, something that makes it much more appealing than getting down to and back from the Gold Coast or an expensive long weekend away to Byron or Woodford.
5. As a camera-bearing voyeur it’s far and away the best festival going for people watching. It’s a one day free pass into another world. Do people come up and ask for you to take their photo? Yes, of course they do, as they do at any festival, but for once I do want to take their photo. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate social photos but Parklife is just different. It’s the one day of the year when I really look forward to people asking me to take their photo.
6. I don’t think you really get it in Australia in the same way as you do in the UK but the first day of summer is a noticeable event as everyone loses several layers of clothing, casts off their winter fashions and suddenly, out of nowhere, there’s all this naked flesh on show. Parklife is a bit like that. Parklife is the first day of summer.

Despite its locality, I’ve never managed to get to Parklife for the very start. Plans to get in to see the much touted (although possible just from their mates) Pigeon don’t eventuate and instead I manage to make it to the Riverstage for the second act of the day Wolf Wolf, yet another triple j unearthed winner. A triple j unearthed winner seems to be a mandatory requirement for every festival these days although as time goes on I’m having more and more issues with it. Although I’ve obviously never applied, based purely on reading the press release spiel advertising the slot on the bill never provides much information as to how the acts are chosen, what the scoring criteria is, who the judges are; the whole thing is a bit of a black box process, with bands entering at one end via triple j’s website and one being magically selected out the other end. There’s also been the obvious change over the last five or six years where much more attention is given by the station to acts winning the ongoing and never-ending triple j unearthed competitions, only reinforcing the notion that triple j revels in its position as a feeder station for commercial radio and is obsessed with it’s own brand. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, it’s just that it all becomes a bit self-fulfilling when they’re in the best position to hype a band by giving them as much exposure as it can and then making a big noise about discovering them. As for Wolf Wolf, well he’s dressed in a dinner suit, is wearing a wolf mask and plays some not-to-exciting, standard fare dance music to a crowd of about 10 people.

Despite the big noise, other than the massively overrated and really-quite-dull-actually duet with Gotye, I’d never actually bothered to find out what Kimbra’s solo stuff was like. I’ve blogged many times that one of my greatest irritations about the Australian music scene is that it follows UK and US music fashion two to four years behind the times and in watching Kimbra perform it’s clear that the Australian music industry decided it needed an Amy Winehouse/Duffy, white female soul singer of its very own (even if it had to get one from New Zealand). It’s all very slick but all a bit soul-less and the continual hand movements quickly begin to irritate (although I guess they make for more interesting photos). Watching Kimbra it’s also scary just how wide she opens her mouth when she sings. I couldn’t work out whether the hair was all her own but I saw her walking around after she’d played and it looks like it is her real hair. Off stage, and not towering over the everyone in the photo pit, she’s tiny. Maybe that’s why the hair looks so big…

If there is one major annoyance at Parklife, it’s that the bulk of the live music is on the two stages furthest away from each other; the main Riverstage ‘Sahara’ stage and the small ‘Atoll’ stage. Most of the day is spent doing the long hike between these two stages and I only make it to ‘Kakadu’ for Digitalism and don’t make a single visit to ‘The Cave’ stage this year. Even worse than having the two stages the furthest apart, the one way system that Parklife has in place again means you’re forced to take the long way around, with a final walk back up the slope when you get to the entrance to the Sahara stage. Heading back to The Atoll stage also means negotiating your way through the crowd to get onto the one-way path away from the main arena. When you’re working on very tight time schedules, first three song rules and only a matter of minutes to get from one side of the festival to the other it starts to get tiring, even more so when you’re carrying a heavy bag of camera gear and especially so when you’re making the trip between stages in the hot early afternoon sun.

In typical festival photographing-mode fashion, the afternoon goes by in a flash. After catching a bit of Yacht DJs, having been told they had onstage dancers to photograph only to find they didn’t make their appearance until well after we’d had to vacate the photo pit and a most of Little Dragon, who were ok but not what I would have pitched as a mid-afternoon sun festival type of band, it’s time for Death From Above 1979. Now, what I know about DFA 1979 is mainly through second hand information about how they’re the best band ever. Maybe I’m missing something or maybe I’m just too old but I’m just not getting it. At all. Seriously, what’s the big deal about this band? Or are they just one of those bands where the post-band mythology has completely taken over? I’m left thoroughly disappointed, having expected so much, both from the band but also from the photographic experience. Again, I think they would have been much better at a small club show rather than an outdoor stage at a big dance festival. Further disappointment is experienced by heading back to the Sahara stage to get some photos of The Naked & Famous. Having seen them a few times previously, I know not to expect much and it’s more about beefing up the number of acts I’m photographing today, making the most of anyone playing live as opposed to anyone hid behind some decks and/or a laptop and/or a load of wires and cables. The disappointment comes in finding they have probably the biggest crowd of the day (I don’t see headliners Duck Sauce though) and not only that, but when they play Punching In A Dream, the whole hill at the Riverstage is singing along at top volume. Australia needed a first album MGMT of its very own and once again they had to go to New Zealand to find one to fill the position and once again their about four years behind the time.

Crystal Fighters are fun to photograph but not really to listen too and having expected so much from Santigold she’s another disappointment. Comparisons always seem to be made between Santigold and MIA, which is a little unfair, but MIA is fantastic to photo. Although it was a really hard task photographing her at Parklife a few years ago, partly because of poor lighting on the Kakadu stage, partly because she never stops still for a single second, those photos are some of my favourite photos I’ve taken at Parklife. I guess Santigold also had to live up to last year’s main stage major female artist performer, Missy Elliott. And that wasn’t ever going to happen. That was another incredible performance and the sort of thing that makes me keep coming back to photograph Parklife.

A quick detour via Sebatien Tellier (who I think I might have been referring to as Jurgen Teller during the day when discussing my photographic plans for the day with some of the other photographers….) I head up to the Kakadu stage for the first and only time of the day. In a way it’s a shame, as having seen it from afar on the walk between the Atoll and Sahara stages, it looked like it had a sizeable crowd throughout the day who were really getting into everything and everyone playing the stage. Digitalsim have brough me here though, another act that I’d enjoyed photographing at an earlier Parklife. Last time was a prime slot on the Sahara stage so it’s surprising that that they’ve been relegated to one of the smaller stages and are playing at a similar time (from memory). Although the stage is much higher than the Sahara stage and the lighting isn’t great I manage to get a few decent shots but also spend a bit of time practising slow shutter sync on the crowd, remembering to turn the flash off when I turn around to focus back on the band.

Although this is The Streets’ final farewell, I can’t remember ever having seen them/him play before. After all these years festival line-ups and who I’ve seen gets a bit blurry (I even had trouble remembering who I’d seen at Parklife when I started writing this post a couple of days later and had to refer back to the program). But I’m 99.9% certain I’ve never experienced Mike Skinner live before, mainly because I’m sure I would have remembered it based on just how good The Streets were tonight. It’s a classic festival performance that has it all; girls flashing their boobs, crowd surfing guys in wheelchairs, naked men (allegedly, it’s referred to from the stage and mentioned in every review I’ve read but I didn’t see anything so it might have just been a figment of stage banter making good copy), and at the heart of it all Mike Skinner, playing up to the crowd, egging them on, encouraging them to support Manly in the NRL Grand Final and still finding time to sing/rap a greatest hits set of songs, with a really tight band, including The Music’s Rob Harvey on guitar, backing him up. I just wish I’d gotten to see them play before, although I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ll hear from him. It’s one of the real highlights of the day.

I’d always wanted to photograph The Gossip but didn’t put in to cover their show when they played The Zoo a few years back. It was a sold out show and as The Zoo doesn’t have a photo pit, getting good photos from a sold out show there can be difficult and I imagined that it would be a less than ideal situation to get a good set of the band. Plus it was in December and sold out summer gigs at The Zoo aren’t the most pleasant of experiences. It’s a decision I regret a bit though as The Zoo is my favourite venue and I usually manage to get some photos from most of the shows shoot there that make it to public viewing. I also regret it a bit as although the low height of the Sahara stage, the large photo pit and the good lights makes it easy to photograph, it feels a bit sterile and the stage just seems far too big for the band. Although the band is augmented to a five piece (with bass and keyboards), they still seem dwarfed by the stage, placed at the very back of the stage while Beth Dittos struts back and forth across the stage in front of them. You would imagine that a smaller stage like The Zoo, and the physical closeness of the band on stage, would have presented the band as a more unified unit, whereas tonight it feels and looks more like Beth Ditto plus backing band. That probably does a disservice to the band, maybe they prefer hiding in the shadows (so to speak) and they do sound great, so it doesn’t really matter. Maybe it’s just part of the regret at not seeing them on a small stage in a hot, sweaty venue in the middle of summer, with the band right in your face and having that connection between the closeness of the band on stage and the closeness of the band to the audience. But I’m glad to have had the change to photograph Beth Ditto and having good lighting to photograph drummer Hannah Blilie is something you would be unlikely to get at The Zoo. Ditto would make a fantastic photographic subject regardless, but give her a couple of toilet rolls (thrown at some point during the day from the crowd onto the stage) as a prop and she really comes alive.

I get to watch a few more songs from The Gossip (or is it just Gossip these days?) after the first three songs in the photo pit before one last walk up the hill and back to the Atoll stage for the last time of the day. By now the sun has long since gone and the fashion statements that made so much sense in the warm afternoon soon, now don’t look quite so clever in the mid-evening chill. There already is a steady stream of people heading for the exit, probably as much in search of warmer surroundings than for having nothing else they want to see at the festival.

Parklife has put some interesting headliners on each of it stages but having them all start at the same time (8:30pm) means realistically there’s only time to photograph one of the headline acts. It was never going to be Duck Sauce, at least from a music point of view and I’d already made my mind up even before the festival that Lykke Li would be the last act of the day for me. We’d been given advance notice that we would have to pick a side and stay there, and that there would be no photographing from the middle of the photo pit. I often call this the Robert Smith rule as The Cure have the same rule, allegedly to minimise multiple chin photos from photographers being below him and photographing him from a less than flattering angle. I can’t really see Lyyke Li having it for the same reasons. In a way I probably could have played it better than I did; having chosen the far side from the entrance into the pit I should have feigned to leave but stayed and gotten some photos from both side of the pit, rather than just staying on the one side as I did. Ultimately I find myself liking the side I’ve chosen, and watching her perform I don’t think there’s any real advantage in swapping sides, other than to get some shots from a different angle. I don’t know her stuff at all, only knowing her by the people’s recommendations. I like what I see from a visual point of view, even if it is dark at at times and even though the regular blasts of dry ice render the stage a wall of white smoke at times during the first three songs. Musically I’m left wanting to find out more, even though at times it’s hovering at the point of just becoming too twee and cutesy.

Parklife all over for another year but hopefully I’ll be back again next year.