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!

An evening with Rade Šerbedžija

Hot sunday, temps over 30C and i had an open festival assignment in the middle of Ljubljana. However, the real energy for that day came from the fact that Rade Serbedzija had planned a concert in Križanke. 10.000 people in one place, loud music, a bit over 1000 in Križanke and very quiet and intimate feeling just few hundred meters away. I didn't have the time to stay for the full concert, but Rade was kind enough to do a mini session before the concert, of course with his trademark, the hat. There were two TV crews eagerly awaiting for the interview so i had hurry up, but i am quite happy with the result. I played a bit with the image, made it B&W and i like it. Also, few shots form the concert.

Rade Šerbedžija, Križanke, Ljubljana, 22.6.2008

Radar 2008 or mission Bob Dylan

Radar 2008 happened in Varaždin, Croatia. I came there early, drove out with Vlado Kreslin and his band in a van, that was pretty cool actually. It didn't look too good, as there was just heavy rain all over but soon it cleared up a bit and it stayed with no rain up untill the end. This year Radar festival brought THE man and legend Bob Dylan, Manic Street Preachers, Majke, Vlado Kreslin and Drago Mlinarec. Of course, my mission was to get some pictures of him on stage, unfortunately, and i knew this before, there was no photo passes for him (in fact, there are none for several years now as i heard). So, after unsucessfull negotiations with Dylan's tour manager, ton of security scouting for lens in the crowd, all over place, backstage pass and lots of positive thinking, we were sent out of the venue after Manic Street Preachers and given a piece of paper saying any picture taking will be prosecuted. It was the first time i was given something like this, but that's Bob Dylan, i guess :) So, "officially" i didn't take any pictures of him ...but here are few shots of other acts and a video of Bob Dylan on stage i found on YouTube. Hopefully Bob comes back someday and allows us to take a few shots of him on stage. Everyone would be so happy :)

Vlado Kreslin was on stage right after Drago Mlinarec ...

... Majke came and did accoustic set ...

... lead singer Bare, was in "a good mood" - he saw me taking pictures on stage, and this is how he saw me :) That was very funny!

... Manic Street Preachers were very energetic ...

... altough i didn't know much of their music, also the stage was pretty high and monitors obstructed the view...

... we were jailed out after Manic Street Preachers and this is how i felt at the time :(

When first lady visits National Gallery

I had 20 minutes before i had to leave for Brdo ( to photograph George Bush, Janez Janša and Jose Barroso during a press conference) on a special media bus, and managed to get at the National Gallery in Ljubljana just minutes before Laura Bush and her motorcade arrived there for a visit.

What first seemed like a calm situation (ok, with special police all over, closed streets and fences all over) then turned into unbreakable barricade. This is how it looked when a group of Pool photographers and cameramen ( these are selected few representing major media that are allowed to go into the gallery for two or tree photo opportuniuties). As you can see their equipment was checked all over first by bomb sniffing dog, each camera was manually triggered a couple of times and tele lenses were looked into. Can you guess what happened after the last picture? :)

Julio Iglesias - the arrival and more limitations for photographing

After much anticipation, the day finally came when Julio Iglesias landed in Ljubljana. I was given an exclusive to be at the airport in the official welcome group just minutes after he landed. My expectations were high up untill the moment where his tour manager / pr person came out of the plane and told us to go back few meters, and gave us strict instructions that we're only allowed to take pictures of Julio on his right profile. Ok, that's fine and normal with many singers like this.

So, we moved closer, after Julio waved at us and invited us to the airplane. I was allowed to shoot during his very short TV interview, and the distance was nice for 70-200 portrait. But as soon as i started i was told that i have to lift up my camera with both hands above my head and shoot like this. You know, a position basketball players usually take after they slam dunk and hang for a few seconds. I probably looked very funny shooting like this, but as soon as i lowered my hands (it is actually hard or almost impossible to hold them like this and try to get the correct frame) they told me that i am too low and hands need to go back up. Well, so i did, but still it was the first time those instructions were so detailed and in a such way.

The concert was not an ideal one too (lots of sound problems). Only two of us had the photopass and it didn't help much as we were taken all the way back to the hall. I had the 300mm lens but still not enough to get a nice image. I respect Julio and his career, but i think this time his management was a bit overdoing it with limitations like this. After all, people in the hall all had their cameras and catched nice portraits from first rows. For me, just another experience in the life of a concert photographer and something to talk about. Here are a few shots from the airport so you can see :)

.. his private jet ...

.. girls coming out of the plane .. .

... Julio waves at us and invites us closer ...

... Julio from right side, hand slightly lowered

... Julio again, this time with hand quite far up (see the camera position for angle)

...and so they went ...