On stage with ex Bijelo Dugme singers

Another great night in Tivoli. This time no screaming teenagers, but a few thousand screaming lovers of ex you-rock group Bijelo Dugme. 3 of their legendary singers (goran Bregović is not cooperating in this project) joined forces and created an event where they sing all the known songs and make halls go crazy. It was no different this time, and lots of emotion in the hall. Great night, great work conditions and again some stage shots. At first i didn't plan to be there at all, but it turned out it is possible so why not :) It is always nice to get a photo with artists loking at you and screaming fans in the back..it is just so cool :)

Mladen Vojičić - Tifa, Željko Bebek and Alen Islamović posing for me :)

Alen Islamović

Željko Bebek in his typical white dress

Tifa and the lights ...

.. the end ...very loud and crazy..

Stage view

Why do i love stage access on big concerts? Because if offers a totally different view on happening in the hall and you can really feel what musicians feel during their show....here are some snaps from recent concert of Tony Cetinski (a very popular croatian singer) in Ljubljana. I was on stage for some 5 songs, not being able to move much but instead catching moments from the back..pretty cool actually :)

Easy Livin' with Uriah Heep in Ljubljana

Finally a true rock band in our little town. Uriah Heep ended their 2008 tour right here in Ljubljana. Not so many visitors but great gig and fans all over the hall. I love this type of shows as the band was really relaxed from song one untill the end. They seemed to have enjoyed it really big time. And one more thing happened that i never photographed before, a guitar player in a rock band wore Crocs plastic blue "shoes". Usually it is all black down there or snake skin covered..this was quite funny. I guess there must be a reason for doing so..and i know Crocs are really comfortable too :) I really enjoyed this concert and it served as a big contrast of my assignment a day before, when more pop type artist filled up the big hall right next door. I am also happy with pictures and those cool moments in backstage that don't happen that often with original rock bands that actually started before i was born. So cool!

... see the shining cross ? This pic made my day!

Here's one group shot for Miro - Uriah Heep, 13. december 2008, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Jinx Jinx Jinx

Just a quick shot i made seconds before Jinx (an excellent croatian band) finished their sold out show in Cvetlicarna, Ljubljana. It is always great to see them play, this time i had a chance to run behind them and see the end of their show from drummers perspective...pretty cool :)

Kid Rock - or how we drove for 8 hours in a snow storm

Kid Rock played in Schladming, Austria. After leaving Slovenia, loaded with weather forecast, saying we're to expect a nice sunny day everything seemed to be working just fine. Soon after crossing first tunnels in Austria, no more sunny day but true winter conditions with quite heavy snow falling from time to time. Here we go :)

I was going for an assignment to shoot Kid Rock during press conference and concert, marking the opening of ski season in Schladming. This is an event worth seeing as there is less and less special pr stuff being done with major artists in the area. It is also a good opportunity to get closer to the artists and of course shoot some daytime images, not only typical concert coverage. This one was actually nice as it was held in the middle of the ski hill, outside, and Kid Rock drove himself to the place with the snow "ratrack" (what's the english word for that?). He came out with a cigar, changed clothes and actually talked a lot. We had 15 minutes for some images, not beeing able to move much, so most of the stuff is done from one position but catching different moments, like smoke exhaustion his cigar playing, nice explanations and some posing. Pretty cool. Well, it was off to the warm sorroundings of the bar next to the stage and lots of time before the concert. That was normal, even snowing stopped during our 3 song time and 30 photographers around me. This was a record number this year on a concert like this.

Well the adventure didn't finish after that, but actually started as on the way back (around 240 km for us) . We got stuck before tunnels due to major truck accident in one of the tunnels and it was snowing quite nicely. After 2 hours of waiting, wishing, hoping, we managed to get outof the jam and tried searching for an alternative route. GPS helped and took us around the mountains and into more snow storms. We came back, and what it took less than 3 hours to get there, took more than 8 to get back home. Pretty cool, a ? :) Anyway, here are some images of Kid Rock.

Original Kid Rock

Kid Rock during makeover

Kid Rock as Schladminger

Kid Rock as Schladminger, but still smoking

Kid Rock as Kid Rock

.. his microphone flies ...

.. he actually flies too ...

Jerry Lee Lewis - Vienna

Jerry Lee Lewis in Vienna. The man, the legend and just a few feet away from my position. This was one of those concerts where you'll see me walking up and down before the event, not really nervous, but in a way full of expectation and respect. Somehow i tought, we're going to shoot from the distance, but Jerry let us close, directly in front of him. Actually, the crowds were seating, only a few standings were left for those at the far end of the hall. As soon as he came to the stage, full of energy, smiling, everyone stood up and cheered him big time. His little smile, face expression and a small wave to the crowds said it all...the passion is still there after all the years and not so happy moments for him.

We had normal working conditions, but taking a picture of the piano man is always tricky. Most of the time they'll look down and play, so catching the other moments is importaint. Luckily Jerry Lee talked a bit and even looked at us as if he said, hey, i see you :) So cool and hearing Great balls of fire from Lewis himself made my day complete :)

Whitesnake and one more thing not to do on concerts

So Whitesnake played before Alice Cooper last week in Munich. I had taken photos of them before, but David Coverdale is always an interesting subject to take pictures. I am posting some of that, but i want to talk about the last one.

It tells the story pretty much by itself. This is something i don't like seeing when i work. Some people just don't care that there are like 5 other photographers behind them and they simply raise their hands up like this and shoot, without loking back to see if they interrupt anyone. Not really nice, and usually the result is not as good as they think. Well i saw this guy doing it several times before and had my wide lens mounted and decided to catch this moment a bit differently.

Alice Cooper - Munich

Shoting concerts is so cool. Especially when things turn out ideally. Alice Cooper and Whitesnake played in Munich. Everything normal, except the fact that the organizers told us that we can shoot Cooper 4 songs with a flash...this usually rings a few bells in photographers head, as nobody would want to use it on such a concert. Even if there was not light, they wouldn't want us to have a picture (like Marlyn Manson did ) anyway and would not allow flash. Luckily Whitesnake played before Cooper and we could see some good light there and this meant some hope for the main act that night. You never know. I was a bit nervous, but as soon as we arrived into the pit and saw the show start i unscrewed my flash off (not to disturb anyone, more on this in next post) and started workin'. It turned out great and even due to the fact that Cooper looks pretty scary everything worked beautifull. This was the day one of my crazy mid-week-concert-workout-around-Germany-and Austria :) Here's some stuff!

Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene in 2008

Jean Michel Jarre, the man himself, some call him the father of electronic music but still a true rock 'n' roll star to sell 80 million records finally visited Ljubljana. The show was full of expectations as we did not hear new stuff and did not get fancy lightshows, but instead an interesting experience of actually hearing and seeing the 30 years old synths playing his Oxygene project. I was assigned to cover the little interview session with him, but was not allowed to take pictures there at the end..some portraits there would be really nice as there was a nice table with cool reflections where he seated. Well, that's the way it goes sometimes, but it was still very interesting just to listen about his projects and ideas and shake hands with him. The concert, altough short, was interesting, both from photographic experience and just by watching and listening. We did quite a lot of walking to and then back and again to the stage..we were allowed some 10 minutes in front of stage, then taken back to the end of the hall, waited there for 10 minutes and then taken back to the stage, during Oxygene 4, where a huuuge mirror came down allowing an interesting aerial view of Jarre performing. Pretty cool effect. Here are some moments, as you can see the lights were intimate and not too bright :)

... before the show talk ...

... the man in action ....

... mirror view at the back ...

... see, i told you he rocks :)

... aerial view ...

... whole setup (audience was sitting so we had to keep a low profile too)

.. and the old geezer (looks really cool with all the switches and everything)