Gallows - Two Shows/One Day

Gallows announced a while ago that they were going to play Grey Britain in full at the Electric Ballrooom (and they also announced shortly after that they were going to do Orchestra Of Wolves in full at the Dingwalls on the same day). I was looking forward to the show and the more I thought about it, the more it felt like an incredibly important show/day.

The band have been through it all since the release of Grey Britain ranging from parting ways with their label to playing some of the biggest shows they've ever played (supporting RATM) and I felt like these shows (especially the Grey Britain one) was the end of an era. There had been a lot of rumors and talk about them splitting up and I was thinking that if they were going to split, this would be a good time to do it or it would end up being a statement that they aren't going anywhere. One of the other special things about the GB show was the fact they would be playing with a string section.

I've always wanted to try and shoot the whole experience of a show and shoot more than just the live performance and I desperatley wanted to try it for this. I emailed the guys and pitched it too them and they seemed happy to let me come down which I was over the moon about.

On the day I joined them pretty early on for their first soundcheck and tried to shoot as much as possible. I didn't really feel comfortable shooting backstage in their dressing room as this was really the first time I've properly spoken to most of the band and didn't want to push things too far. The day must have been quite stressful and tiring for them and I didn't want to shove a camera in their face while they were trying to relax and calm down. That was a pretty big regret for me.

I found the Dingwalls show pretty hard to shoot. There was no barrier and the crowd were going apeshit. I got stuck on one side of the stage (by Steph) and didn't feel I could get over to the otherside to cover Lags and Stu so I don't feel there's as much variaty as I would have like. The show was superb though.

The Electric Ballroom was going to give me a lot more freedom to shoot as there was a barrier and I could move about a lot more. In my head I had a lot of things I wanted to try and do as well as places/angles I wanted to shoot from. The show seemed to fly by and I tried to do the things I thought about but it wasn't as easy as I had hoped and I didn't feel like I was nailing the live stuff as easily as I have in that venue before. I missed a few things like Richard Carter coming onstage for 'Black Eyes'.

They had said all day they wouldn't be doing encores and I was at the back of the stage as they were finishing 'Crucifucks' and Steph mentioned they had decided to do 'Orchesta Of Wolves' but would I take a photo of the five of them onstage before they played again. I was absolutely shitting myself. I was panicing about the photos not coming out and having blown a massive moment for them. I got up on Lee's drum stool and just shot as much as I could hoping SOMETHING would come out ok.

While I was taking the shot I just had a realisation that this is what I've always wanted to do and this was what I had dreamed about doing. It also felt like I was part of something great. I went back into the pit to shoot the last song and felt incredibly overwhelmed and emotional. If you'd have told me six months ago that I would have been in this situation I'd have laugh at you. The GB show was truely stunning and the band over the day were amazing to be around. They've all been incredibly supportive and I still feel on a bit of a high.

It may seem silly to some people and shit loads of other photographers are in this situation all the time but this sort of thing doesn't happen to me. The band, the music and taking those photos meant the world to me and it was one of the best things that's ever happened to me.

As a whole I love a lot of the photos I took but I do think I could have done better and I could have done more but I'm hoping from this I'll get the chance to do this again and it could be the start of something good.

I really want to thank Frank, Steph, Lee, Lags and Stu along with Clare, Paul and all of the Gallows crew. I know I've done this a million times already.

The photos from the pre/post show and sound check photos are here.

The rest of the photos from the Dingwalls show are here.

The other Electric Ballroom shows are here.

The photos are also up on Frank's website (frankxcarter.com) and (twice as many photos) are on the Gallows Facebook page.

Japanese Voyeurs & Young Guns - Electric Ballroom

I got an email from Romily (the singer of Japanese Voyeurs) saying she'd seen the photos of them I'd taken at the MAdM show and liked them. She offered to sort me out with a pass for their show supporting Young Guns at the Electric Ballroom. Recently I've felt a little weird with regards to my blog. Some days I'm proud of it, really enjoy writing it and putting it up. Then other times I struggle to find things to write and feel like it's incredibly boring and self indulgent. Things like the email from Romily make me a bit more sure and justified about the way I do things.

I'd been away with work for several days and had worked some ridiculus hours so before hand I really wasn't excited for the show but the minute I got to the venue I felt a hell of a lot better. Japanese Voyeurs were on early and they killed it. I really like them and they are great to shoot. There's something about them. The Swellers were second and were ok but not 100% my sort of thing. I've photographed Young Guns before and their singer Gustav is really fun to photograph, he has a lot of energy and covers the stage well.

I'm pretty happy with how the photos have come out and I'm really enjoying how I'm taking photos at the moment. I'm trying to shoot a bit more free and looser. I hope it shows.

Thank you to Japanese Voyeurs for sorting this out.

Japanese Voyeurs

The Swellers

Young Guns

The rest of the photos of Japanese Voyeurs are here.

The rest of the photos of The Swellers are here.

The rest of the photos of Young Guns are here.

Someone at the show I had a brief exchange that went like this:

"Who do you shoot for?"
"Me"
"Oh so you do freelance for a lot of different people and magazines?"
"No, I just shoot for me"

I feel like photography and music photography especially can be a bit of a pissing contest and unless you are working for someone it can feel like you are being looked down upon. It shouldn't matter who I work for, I do what I do because I enjoy it and it made me really appreciate the other photographers I know who don't make photography feel like a competition. The only person I compete with is myself. I am constantly battling with my confidence and self esteem and when I am happy with the photos I take (like I was last night) and get emails or comments like I did from JV (and Gallows), it justifies everything for me.

Eyes Set To Kill - The Underworld

The kind people from/involved with Eyes Set To Kill sorted me out with a pass to see them support I Am Ghost at The Underworld. I've really wanted to see them for a while and am hoping to catch them on Warped this summer when I go.

This was obviously my fourth show at The Underworld recently and I felt like I really struggled with this show.

The lighting was pretty shit and it was too busy at times to be able to get into the crowd to shoot from the front. Both the singers from Lower Than Atlantis and Eyes Set To Kill played guitar as well so were in the centre of the stage and I found it hard getting decent shots of them. It was a combination of the limitations of my set up mixed with trying to get decent angles around other band members.

I've also been really tired and quite stressed out and as much as I wanted to see ESTK and Confide. I don't think I was in the right frame of mind. It was just one of those days. I left before the headliners I Am Ghost but really enjoyed the three support bands.

These photos definitely aren't my finest hour and I wish I could have got some better photos. I think I need a break from shooting at The Underworld.

Lower Than Atlantis

Confide

Eyes Set To Kill

The Lower Than Atlantis photos are here

The Confide photos are here.

The rest of the Eyes Set To Kill photos are here.

I worry a lot about slipping back into how I was for most of last year and am trying hard to keep my head above water. I'm feeling like my work is getting a bit stale and boring and I want to photograph something new but I don't really know what. I think I may try and do some more London street photography and I need to start writing stuff down and getting things planned for my book idea. I'm not sure whether to leave working on the photos till after New York or start it before.

Blessed By A Broken Heart - The Underworld

I don't know why but virtually every show I want to shoot at the moment is at The Underworld at the moment. My third recent trip there was for Blessed By A Broken Heart. I saw them last time they were over but it's taken me some time to appreciate them and enjoy how fun they are if you don't take them too seriously.

I had a pass for the show but as it wasn't rammed I decided to shoot the bands partly from the side and partly from the front in the crowd.

The lighting was average for the support bands and I hadn't heard the first two bands but shot a few pictures anyway. The main support was Lovehatehero and I was quite looking forward to seeing them and they were good. Really energetic and one of the drummer and guitarists seemed to have a lot of fun posing for shots.

As BBABH came on stage it got absolutely flooded with smoke as they were using lasers which made it pretty hard to shoot well. It's hard to use flash because everything comes out quite hazy but it's even worse to shoot without. As well as shooting from the front of the stage I shot from both side stages as well which I don't often do there trying to cover all the members of the band. They put on a good show but it got crazier and crazier as it went on as the stage kept getting invaded by the crowd and during the last song I ended up helping rescue a keyboard and stand before it got lost to the crowd.

I had a lot of fun during this show and it was pretty laid back and stress free which is always a positive.

My fourth show at The Underworld will be seeing Eyes Set To Kill and Confide supporting IAMGHOST.

The Morning After

The First

Lovehatehero

Blessed By A Broken Heart

The Morning After / The First photos are here.

Lovehate here photos can be seen here.

The BBABH photos are here.

I forgot to mention in the last update about the TRC show that someone was sick on my camera bag at some point during the gig. It was pretty fucking rank. Cheers to whoever that was.

I also passed up on some regular with webzine which I might go more into in another blog. Another gig I shot this week was Third Eye Blind but the photos should be used on Bring The Noise but I'll wait till they are up before writing about the gig and posting photos.