Sound Check - Darryl Jones - The Rolling Stones Project

Just about the same time last year my head was already exploding from my first Stones photographing experience in Belgrade and i was preparing for second one in Brno. This year Stones came to Slovenia, well not all of them and not the Stones, but guys who play with them on stage, a sort of concert members for them (Darryl Jones on bass, Tim Ries on saxophone, Michael Davis on trombone and less known but excellent guitar player Frederick Favarell and drummer Marc Miralta). Joined under the name of The Rolling Stones Project, trough leadership of sax player Tim Ries, they visited our seaside town of Portoroz. Music they play is known to all, Stones classics, but not in the usuall way but in a special jazz arrangements. Very interesting and cool to listen, a bit different. They really seem to be enjoying this a lot.

Of course this was an excellent opportunity for me to do some new sound check project images and it turned out quite nicely. I will do this in few parts starting with Darryl Jones, who many consider as the fifth member of the Stones as he has been playing with them ever since the departure of Bill Wyman in 1993. Darryl played with Miles Davis, Sting, Eric Claption Peter Gabriel, Madonna and many more and now for 15 years with Stones. I did not go on stage this time during sound check, but did some shots from the usual position and they listened them play. I also presented Mr. Jones with one of my images taken during the Stones Brno show last year and he really liked it. So cool :)

Seal (ed) in Ljubljana

My Seal oddisey continues. (Here is the first part) This time Seal visited my hometown Ljubljana and to be honest i wasn't expecitng much in terms of good images outcome. We were originally scheduled to be shooting from quite a distance, but at the end they let us work at side stage, two groups and we got sealed behind the barrier. Luckily there was a stage extension into the crowd, a catwalk, where Seal stayed much of the concert. This meant more or less profile images all the time as he was looking directly into the crowd, however we did get some looks and interesting contrasts as he had a direct spotlight beam into his white dress. Not the easiest job, as you end up with overexposed images quite fast. The concert was a true pop show, lots of crowd communication and everyone liked that. Here are some moments. Enjoy!

Chuck Berry - The Prime Minister of Rock 'n' Roll

Chuck Berry, the legend, came to Opatija, Croatia. This legendary man, 82 years of age, who influenced so many generations of musicians all over the world, was playing two hours from where i live. A show you wouldn't want to miss for any reason. Altough i have seen and photographed him before, this time the gig was outside in an open theatre and some great musicians played before he hit the stage (Djuro and Blow Up, Neno Belan, Tommy Emanuel).

I managed to get backstage, of course wishing to get some pictures of him, but i soon realized this will be a no go, as his crew politely asked me not to photograph. Chuck is known to be very unpredictable, so i just quietly stayed a few feet away as he walked by to inspect the stage before the gig. I even said hello and got a wave back from him. He didn't say anything, but all of us in the backstage at that moment respect this man so much that no words were needed to express the feeling after seeing him :) So cool :) He played for about an hour together with his daughter Ingrid and son, Charles "Chuck" Berry jr. After the show Berry was known to drive a Mercedes by himself everytime, but we didn't see this in Opatija as he sat at the back the car and smiled. What a day that was :) Thank you Chuck Berry! Some shots and a video i made during the show with girs dancing on stage next to Chuck. Enjoy!

Together with his son - Charles "Chuck" Berry junior

Video of Chuck Berry performing the song Carol

Status Quo - again

Status Quo played in Graz, inside Orpheum, an old theatre now widely used for concerts too. The size of the hall (about 500-600 people i think) makes the athmosphere much more intimate and much better to photograph. I love such concerts. This time only 6 photographers were in the pit and this made my job much easier. Shooting the same show for the second time brings some advantages as you know what is happening on stage in terms of band movement, songs, posing etc..This is usually all the same. And it helps, you know the terrain of your work. Even somebody from the band might remeber you if the gigs are close. Here are some shots, a bit different than the ones in first post. BTW, this is the 200th post on this blog - woo hoo :)

The Rockin' Quo

John "Rhino" Edwards with his headless Status 4 string bass - check out his tourlog

Rick Parfitt sings a lot, Francis and Rhino rocking in the back

Another "must have" Quo picture of Rick

Hey you photographer? :)

Rare position of a whole band at the back of the stage

The Green Beast Back in Action - Status Quo in Ljubljana

After 4 years Status Quo were back in our little country. This time no festival, but solo gig in Ljubljana. I was looking forward to this a lot. Old readers of my blog will probably remember the post i made last year about green Fender Telecaster played by Francis Rossi. The green beast or beauty is still with him and Rockin' all over the world. If i remebered Quo as very accessible the last time, this feeling stays, as you could see Francis walking around tour buses and talking with crew before the gig, and some lucky fans even got a photo opportunity. After the show guys ran out pretty fast all dressed in blue bathrobes with their names engraved, but still very open taking pictures with few fans waiting, even talking to us. A bit of after show English humor came out from keyboad player Andrew Bown saying he remembered me before the show by my elbows?!? ( i was sitting on stairs next to backstage) They were off to Budapest and Rhino came out to call Andrew that he should board the bus. Concert was great, Quo are always fun to watch and take pictures of course. Untill next time Quo!

20 seconds of usefull light - Roisin Murphy in Ljubljana

I already wrote about bad light on a concert experience a while ago. Something similar happened during performance of ex. Moloko singer, Roisin Murphy in Ljubljana. Knowing just a few of her songs this was one of the tasks when you don't know what to expect, especially as she is known to cause issues, on stage and off stage (it happened in Ljubljana too, as she showed her butt from the balcony after the concert to people drinking beer outside the venue). Normal timing was given to us in the pit, but one major thing was missing, the light. Well, it came in very short, disco-dance-strobo-like intervals and maybe stayed a few seconds at most, not totalling more than 20-30 seconds over 3 songs. One has to take what it gets, and some shots came out quite nicely altough i would love to get more as Roisin was changing her outfit all the time during the show. Well, maybe next time. Few shots (one of them reminds me on Friends Jennifer Aniston a bit) :)

Santana

Finally, Carlos Santana and his band in front of me in Bratislava. This was a long wait. I missed the concert in Zagreb few years ago and almost missed this one too, but luckily the innitial concert was moved from thursday to sunday, because of really heavy storm over Bratislava. It was a small stadium gig, and this meant like 25-30 photographers in the pit all trying to get a glimpse of the man, but the stage was sooo high this was not an easy job (that's why i prefer concert halls) and mr. Santana was not moving much in front of us and decided to stay more at the back. Working in a situation like this means you're more or less waiting at the side shooting the 70-200 between the monitors to get the face and the guitar to the frame. Luckily we were out for 3 songs , around 15 minutes, so there was time for studying the stage movement and some repositioning. This was a day to remmeber and a very nice gig too! Enjoy the pictures!