Neil Young & Crazy Horse, RDS Arena, Ballsbridge, Dublin, 15th June 2013
2013 Mercury Prize winners Alt-J played a hugely-anticipated show in The Olympia Theatre in Dublin. Expectations were high, the crowd was huge and the band were rather good. A fantastic light show helped things, and gave a great atmosphere to the music. Made my life nice and easy. A band also not known for running around the stage, up PA gantries and the like.
ASIWYFA, or And So I Watch You From Afar, to give them their full moniker, popped into Hot Press for a shoot to mark the release of their new opus ‘All Hail Bright Futures’. Cracking live band, and great fun to shoot in the studio too. Did a mixture of indoors and outdoors, as the weather did me a favour for a change.
Lot of buzz about these four gentlemen, and the shoot I did with them in Hot Press ended up on the cover. Read the interview with them here.
For this, myself and Mr Dave Keane of The Art Dept decided to go for a more processed ‘cinematic’ feel to the images. Or we were messing with Photoshop, something like that!
Well, it was the biggest planned group shot I have ever taken… 12,500 people in The O2, Dublin to be more precise. All set up, so during the latter part of the show where the lads normally do a ‘twit pic’, I was quickly ushered onto the stage, and thankfully Danny actually pointed me where to stand! Then, they chatted to the audience, which was weird as I couldn’t really hear anything. Very surreal… Then 13 secs and 44 shots later I got this in amongst it all. All helped by the wonderful planning and co-operation from the band, their crew and record label.
Very much the men of the moment, The Strypes are a rhythm and blues band from Cavan. They have been name-checked by, take your pick from, Paul Weller, Jeff Beck, Elton John, Cerys Mathews. The list, I am told, goes on…
They have just signed a deal with Mercury Records and are currently preparing material for their debut long-player. Think all the cool sixties band and you are sort of close. These gentlemen can play, and I suggest you check them out soon. In the meantime, here are shots from the most enjoyable session for the Hot Press ‘Hot For 2013′ issue.