After seven months and countless hours of street music, the final round of busking for the competition took place on the streets of Kilkenny on Saturday with finalists Quintet Tarantino, Sean Watmore, Vicky Day, Beef Supreme (above), Annie Chambers and Fionn O’Hargain all competing for the €1,000 cash prize.

As always voting is open to the public so please go to Busker2009.com to watch the six video performances by our finalists and cast your vote for the best busker of 2009.

You will get an email asking you to confirm your vote and please note that only confirmed votes will be accepted.

Voting closes at 23:59 GMT on Friday November 13th.

Voting has closed on Round 4, with Annie Chambers announced as the latest winner. She’ll walk away with €200 and now has a chance to compete for €1000 in the final.

The competition runs until September so there’s still plenty of time to register. You’ll find all the details on www.busker2009.com.

Check out the videos from the first 4 Rounds on the KilkennyMusic YouTube and my photo coverage of the competition on the KilkennyMusic Flickr.

Round 5 kicks off this Saturday so plenty more videos and photos on the way soon.

For the past few weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of joining the progressive grunge rockers in the Mill Studio and I was armed to the teeth with cameras & equipment, shooting on two video cameras plus my D80; finally getting a chance to test my steadicam and my off camera flash triggers, quite literally sticking cameras in their faces throughout the process.

Hanging out in the studio with the lads was so much fun but capturing the recording process and witnessing 12 awesome tracks come together for their debut offering; that I have no doubts will be an awesome album, was nothing short of an absolute pleasure.

So as the recording process draws to a close, here’s a little taste of things to come; the teaser trailer for ‘The Making Of Insula‘ and a teaser image (one of my first attempts using my off camera flash triggers for a strobist style). As usual feedback and comments would be very appreciated.

South’s debut album ‘Insula’ will be released this Summer along with a host of videos, photos and more… so for future updates make sure and subscribe to their blog on the South MySpace.

NOTE: Please view the above video in HD for best results.

The classic rock trio were shooting their first music video ‘Fast Way’ with student film maker Ivars Burtnieks, and they asked me to come along and do a promo shoot. I have to admit that I was quite surprised by the preparation gone into the music video shoot and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Shooting in a freight container in the Hebron industrial estate, the lads were fully prepared for a whole day of shooting; the container had been decorated days before the shoot, the equipment & gear was set up, the container beside was stocked with beers and food to ensure it was a enjoyable shoot for everyone.

I have to highlight that the track used on the above video is only a demo recording!!! Mata Hari are hitting the studio in the coming weeks to record the proper track, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of some shooting/editing practice from my first band promo shoot of 2009.

You can check out all my shots from behind the scenes of the ‘Fast Way’ music video and promo shots of Mata Hari here on flickr.

Filming Vultures means it’s suddenly March and I haven’t shot any bands or done any gig shoots in months, so what better way to get myself back in the game than a night of Burlesque theatre, Cabaret & Vaudeville!? After months of snapping the various scruffy (& often hairy) cast of Vultures, I thought it would be nice to shoot something else, in this case women dancing in fancy underwear!?

Unfortunately, the lighting was more than tricky in Kyteler’s. It’s not the worst in town but with the various acts moving between the stage and the dance floor it’s hard to keep tones and colours consistent, especially with the harsh white spotlight.

I spent the night playing with slow shutter speeds against multiple flash bursts and opposite presets to get a mix of colours from the different lights around the room. With the slow speeds and the acts moving quickly it’s pretty hard to get focus with a 50mm, I tried my zoom but everything was too dark.

You can check out my shots from the Can Can Casino here on my Flickr. I’ve got a couple of shoots over the weekend; so there’s plenty of new band & musician promos on the way along with more Vultures photos and videoblogs too.

And to finish on an entirely different note; if you haven’t gone to see the Secret of Kells then please do! It’s in cinemas now and is a truly beautiful movie produced by the awesome people at the Cartoon Saloon, here in Kilkenny!!! And it’s way better than the utterly disappointing Watchmen! Meh…

First up, my shots from The Lions Mane‘ spectacular return to Cleere’s Theatre with KilkennyMusic.com on the October bank holiday weekend. As I mentioned in my previous post, this gig will go down as one of the best gigs I have ever been to.

A huge crowd that ranged from teenage metallers to near old age pensioners packed themselves in to the backroom in Cleere’s. Outside was a small group of under-agers that had made several failed attempts to sneak into the gig, it was unfortunate, they weren’t there to drink. Situations and varied crowds like this are not your normal thing at a gig in Kilkenny. A lot of the time the only people at a gig are friends of the band. It’s well-known that it’s tough to pull a crowd to a gig in Kilkenny unless you’re into the “keyboards and scarves” scene or you’re still feeling nostalgic about Kerbdog as they play yet another “this is our last ever gig” gig.

This was to be The Lions Mane’ third gig, one that showed that the lion is only beginning to roar, yet another awesome display of musical ability by young Kilkenny musicians that are only beginning to come into their own. The gathered crowd were here to enjoy and encourage this because the result is something truly positive and unlike somewhat naive bands in this town that preach positivity in an effort to be profound The Lions Mane mean what they say. What’s the point of that finger being itchy if you’re too pussy to pull the trigger!? A lesson the almighty himself, king of the scene-to-be-seen, could have learned if he had manged to take a few small steps away from flexing at the bar outside into the backroom for the gig. Members of Atrax Mantis, Blue Meryl, Chemical Addiction, Teratoria and more managed that long walk.

The gig kicked off late, but I don’t think anybody minded too much, the previously unheard of Ethanol Mines were first up on the bill. An Anagram for The Lions Mane, Ethanol Mines was the perfect way to unveil new tracks from debut offering ‘Strands’, known as the DNA tracks, they’re the songs between the songs but no less awesome. People were confused to see members of The Lions Mane take to the stage joined by Gary McGuire on the bodhran. It quickly became unimportant who Ethanol Mines were, the songs; a mixture of acoustic guitars, various percussion from drums, jembi and the bodhran with melodies and harmonies are in a different direction from previously heard tracks but as I’ve said “no less awesome”. I spent the set at the front of the stage playing around with different flash bursts and testing slow shutter settings. Trying not to let the flash kill the awesome atmosphere at the gig.

Ethanol Mines left the crowd well and truly hungry for more, which was sure to follow after a short break. Next up were Tame, newly added to the bill I hadn’t seen them in about two years and was looking forward to their set but not before a trip to the bar, which turned into several conversations and by the time I waded through the crowd to the front of the stage again, Tame were in their final throws, the lads were diving around the stage, people had lost clothing and I had clearly missed an awesome set. Hopefully I’ll get to see them soon.

The Lions Mane returned to the stage, this time minus Gary McGuire but joined by new guitarist Thomas O’Donoghue. Taking it from where they left it with Ethanol Mines, but kicking up the energy, The Lions Mane are clearly capable of pulling the trigger. I spent the beginning of the set squashed at the front of the stage trying to shoot against the direct light which changed colour to the beat, meaning with slow shutter it was very easy to get complete burnt out areas, but using different flash bursts I got what I wanted. By half way through their set I found myself quite frequently putting my camera on the stage so I could join the mosh pit or sing-along. By the end of the set I had to get onto the front of the stage to avoid the constant moshing so I could take any shots. Throughout the gig the energy and warmth in the room was quite visible, the short breaks between songs were filled with interaction between the band who were clearly enjoying themselves and the audience who were clearly enjoying themselves. There was no preaching, just music for music’s sake, and when people shouted slogans like “be your own hero” the room filled with laughter because everyone was in on the joke.

The gig went on well after closing time and as the house light’s finally came on, a polite sign to “get the hell out”, The Lions Mane erupted into a brand new song, ‘New Exact Math’. I don’t think they could have picked a better title, the song is an incredible blast of chunky riffs and changing time signatures that left even the most dedicated moshers struggling to figure out how to throw themselves around to the breakdowns, leaving most of the audience standing stunned as The Lions Mane all finished pummelling their instruments in unison. Unfortunately the song doesn’t appear on ‘Strands‘, it was written after the recording process. But like this gig; the song is a clear indication that this is only the beginning, there’s plenty more to come from The Lions Mane.

You can see all my shots from the gig here on my flickr, knowing I’ll be shooting The Lions Mane several times in the future means I can play around and test new styles. I did make a road-trip with the lads to Dublin for their gig in the Boom Boom Room on Halloween night, but only to watch the gig. Unfortunately we had to cancel our studio shoot last weekend, everything’s a bit hectic, but it will go ahead in the next few weeks. I’ve also got to begin editing the ‘Smegma‘ music video, having shot all the footage when the lads were in the studio recording I’m still trying to sort myself out with an editing suite (more on that soon).

Aside from The Lions Mane, the Devious Theatre production of ‘The War Of The Worlds‘ on KCLR96fm was a big success, I’m not sure if we will get reviewed but there’s still more to come from ‘The War Of The Worlds’ (more on that soon).

Episode 3 of Mycrofilms web-based sitcom ‘Vultures‘, ‘The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse’ goes online and will be FREE TO WATCH on www.vulturespi.com this Sunday, following a cast & crew screening in Ryan’s on Saturday night. It’s surely going to be an awesome night, that’s if I survive my graduation this Friday, I can’t wait to see everyone again but I’m actually nervous about how crazy it will get.

Filming has already begun on Vultures episode 4, my first venture into the world of directing (more on this soon), it’s already proving an awesome experience and I’ll have plenty of behind-the-scenes shots and videos very soon…

Above: Strike Anywhere frontman Thomas Barnett in the Cuba Club, Galway.

The past few weeks have been nothing short of hectic but now that filming has finished on ‘Vultures‘ episode 3 and the Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands 2008 is finally over, I’ve been slowly catching up on my workload. Then, when I heard Richmond punker’s Strike Anywhere were on tour and playing in Galway with 20BullsEach and the Lobotomies, I knew that it was about time for a road-trip.

I first met Dublin-based hardcore punks 20BullsEach two years ago, I went up to shoot the lads as they recorded demo’s for their album ‘Lost Causes’, since then I’ve been a big fan and shot them live a couple of times. One of those times, they brought Belfast “brain-dead punx” the Lobotomies along with them. The Lobotomies ended up staying in my house and drinking everything in sight, including a crate of Stella and a bottle of 70% Polish Vodka. In return, they taught me “the ways of the mohawk” and how to eyeball chav-scum at their gig in Carlow the following day.

I’d like to think my skills in gig photography, mohawk maintenance and eye-balling chav-scum have improved quite a bit in the last two years and I really wanted another chance to shoot these bands again, this was going to be an awesome gig. I’d never heard of the other support bands; ‘Cut the Reins’ or ‘Only Fumes and Corpses’ but they were all playing with STRIKE ANYWHERE, I’ve been into them since I discovered them on the first ‘Rock Against Bush’ compilation, since then I’ve been hooked. Seeing them live was a must, but getting to shoot them would be fucking awesome!

I got in touch with 20BE lead singer Gareth Cummins about the gig, he put me on to Daniel from UsVsThem Promotions and I asked could I shoot the gig, he said no problem. Now, how the hell do I get to Galway? It’s never hard to convince the Chief to go to a gig; all you have to do is say something like “roadtrip to Galway, five awesome bands for ten euro, I’ll pay for diesel and there’s fuck all else to do on a Monday night!?”, and he’ll probably reply with something like; “chalk it down!”. Road-trip on…

We left Kilkenny about 3.45pm, the journey was an expected mix of conversations about KilkennyMusic and Devious Theatre stuff, to a soundtrack of the bands we were going to see. The roads were plagued with tractors, every time we got past one there was another one, which only further dignified my rant about muckers on last week’s Sound System Podcast. The G.P.S (Greatest Pile of Shite) constantly told us we were driving through fields and rivers. Three hours and one impromtu “I need to pee” stop later we arrived in Galway. With the doors due to open at 7.30pm, we grabbed some food (Supermac’s veggie burgers are surprisingly awesome) then stood outside the Cuba Club chatting to the lads from 20BE and other gig-goers.

We had been standing outside for about 20 minutes when the door opened and Strike Anywhere singer Thomas Barnett walked out. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say hello and much to my surprise he stopped and chatted to us for about ten minutes. He’s such a nice guy! I asked if it was cool to shoot their set; I knew the rest of the bands would be no problem, but after my “heated encounter” with the Frames tour manager a couple of years ago I’m still weary of bigger bands; who may have asshole/ignorant tour managers who like to shout at people who already have permission from the promoters to shoot a gig but then take an attitude of “nobody fucking told me” and proceed to block all my shots until I end up leaving disappointed and with the idea that “the Frames are completely over-rated Irish pop wank anyway” cemented in my mind, and who wants to shoot bands like that!? Thankfully, Thomas Barnett seemed genuinely happy to let me shoot Strike Anywhere.

7:30pm came and went, the crowd containing all forms of coloured mohawks and pole-spikes grew and eventually the doors opened around 8pm. I went straight to the merchandise table and grabbed a Strike Anywhere t-shirt and then checked out the lights around the stage. It’s always a nice challenge to shoot in a new venue, I’m so used to shooting the venues in KK, with somewhere new it takes a while to find the best spots to shoot from, plus there’s figuring out the lighting set-up, but of course all of this is part of the challenge. Thankfully, I’ve gotten used to poor lighting in small Irish venues. The stage in the Cuba Club was better lit than most, but none of the lights were spotted properly and the back of the stage was washed in red lights meaning the drums would be difficult to shoot.

First up on the bill were a local support, melodic hardcore band; Cut the Reins. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was instantly surprised and won over as they exploded into their energetic set, the crowd went completely nuts constantly forming huge circle-pits spinning around the floor. There was no hope of shooting from the front of stage, I stayed at the sides, testing and shooting different speeds and settings. Throughout the set, the crowd sang and chanted along, all the while stomping and diving around.  It was a great start to the gig and the crowd were eager for more.

Next up were 20BullsEach and they blasted through their own set of chunky riff-heavy songs filled with breakdowns, melodic harmonies, screams and chants. Disappointingly, I have to say that the sound didn’t do the Bulls any justice, at times the drums sounded like paint cans and a lot of Paul’s double-bass kicks and rolls were lost. This didn’t seem to have any affect on the crowd, still singing, chanting, stomping and flying around in the pit. On the plus-side, 20BE finished up with their first live performance of a brand-new song, later they told me they had fucked it up but I thought it was an awesome sneak-preview of things still to come.

The changeover between 20BE set and Only Fumes and Corpses‘ took too long. The crowd disappeared outside for some much needed fresh air; following two energetic performances the venue was filled with the expected result; a smell of sweat so strong you could taste it in the air. But when they finally took to the stage it was clear that OFAC were worth waiting for, and the crowd quickly returned to full circle-pit speed, taking the smell to new levels of “punk”. OFAC’s set was extremely powerful, filled with melodic frantic riffs and angry breakdowns, vocalist Momme spent more time on top of the crowd than on stage, either way he never let up with his awesome hard-hitting vocals. Halfway through their set I was back at the merch table snapping up a copy of their E.P ‘Read What’s In Between’ along with a t-shirt, just as the Lobotomies arrived (apparently they’re always late!).

The next changeover took a lot less time, soon the Lobotomies were thrashing their way through a whole bunch of  songs I hadn’t heard yet, they’ve changed a lot since I saw them two years ago; they upgraded to a four-piece with Dan moving from bass to guitar. The result of this change is a tighter and heavier  mix of “raw catchy hardcore punk that still manages to keep it’s melodic side and be thrashy from start to finish”, consistently filled with shouts, shrieks, howls, roars and chants from all four vocalists. Once again I’m disappointed at the fact that the Lobotomies had forgotten to bring any Cds or t-shirts. Someday…

It was pushing on 11pm when Strike Anywhere began setting up, I was getting worried that their set would be cut short after being informed that after 11pm, Cuba turns into a night-club. This was becoming evermore increasingly obvious by large bouncers appearing throughout the venue. I chatted to the OFAC drummer about playing a gig in Kilkenny (hopefully early 2009), the crowd gathered at the front of the stage once again and then Thomas Barnett grabbed the microphone screaming; “take this banner…hang it upside down”, Strike Anywhere let rip with ‘Prisoner Echoes’ and the crowd went apeshit.

This was easily one of the trickiest live sets I’ve ever had to shoot, for a number of factors; throughout the set the crowd continued with huge circle pits and stage-dives, I had no choice but shoot from the front of the pit meaning a nightmare to frame and focus, but it was so much fun constantly having to move with the crowd trying to shoot a band going nuts on stage. It was also pretty hard to concentrate on taking pictures when they were playing all the songs I wanted to hear; the high-points being; ‘To the World’, ‘Hollywood Cemetary’ and ‘Sedition’.

It was halfway through their set when a bouncer walked onstage in true knuckle-dragging fashion attempting to put an end to the constant stage-diving and crowd surfing, standing at the front of stage with his furrowed brow as he pointed and shouted orders at the crowd. He clearly didn’t understand this behaviour and wasn’t about to even try. Now, I understand the need for bouncers, and for them to ensure safety in venues but most of the time this is carried out in the form of ogres on power trips (Let’s face it, you need to be an expert in performing headlocks to get the job!). In this particular case, if he had been paying attention throughout this gig, he would have observed something I’ve rarely seen at any gig. The atmosphere was so friendly; where normally a mosh-pit is a bunch of guys running into each throwing kicks and elbows, this was certainly not the case here. Throughout the night, the crowd were stage-diving and forming circle-pits and at the first sign of anybody falling on the ground, people rushed to help them up. There was none of the usual “clicky” music scene shite, where people stay within their own little groups frowning at others. When a band wasn’t onstage, they were trashing it out in the pit supporting the other bands.

The general idea of “fuck authority” was echoed throughout the night, constantly underlining the lyrics of all the bands, it was present on the horde of band t-shirts and logos in the crowd, you could smell it in the sweaty air. And where normally on a Monday night after 11pm the Cuba Club was this bouncer’s playground, this was not the case tonight. A message that was quickly sent to him by Thomas Barnett, who although completely dwarved, simply smiled in his face before leaping out onto the crowd, who picked him up and carried him around the pit as he continued to sing. The bouncer got the message and backed off to the side of the stage, continuing his unimpressed eyeballing of the crowd for the rest of the gig.

Nevertheless, the crowd’s friendly atmosphere continued, when everyone begin chanting “Richmond punks”, Strike Anywhere seemed genuinely grateful for the reaction they were receiving. When talking to him earlier, Barnett seemed disappointed by the reaction they got in Dublin, the crowd just stood around drinking. He returned with the chant “Galway punks”. It was all very positive, reinforced by Strike Anywhere’s passionate messages on-stage and in their songs, finally finishing with ‘Sunset on 32nd’; as everyone sang along to “so we try ,to defend, together. Defend our yesterdays , defend our tomorrows…together”.

When they walked off the stage, the crowd were shouting for “one more song”. It was close to 12pm, night-club goers were already flooding in. Bouncers were shaking their head, they would not be allowed play any more songs. I packed up my gear and we left the venue, delighted to discovered that the shop across the road was serving hot food, myself and the Chief stocked up on munchies and caffeine before hitting the road back to Kilkenny. The road-trip home was quicker, not a tractor in sight, although we did have to drive around a building site Portaloo which was thrown in the middle of a country road!?

Completely giddy and with the gig still ringing in my ears I’ve quickly sorted out the abundance of shots, you can check out all my shots featuring Cut the Reins, 20BullsEach, Only Fumes and Corpses, the Lobotomies and Strike Anywhere here on my new Flickr account. As it was Strike Anywhere’s first time in Ireland, I hope they’ll be back again and hopefully I’ll get to shoot all of these bands again soon.You can also hear myself and the Chief talking about the gig and tracks from some of the bands on the 60th Sound System Podcast.

As I get back on top of my workload I’ll hopefully be getting back to more regular blogging, I’ve got plenty of upcoming shoots as well as news on Vultures episode 3: ‘The Mystery of the Night Time Refuse‘, the Lions Mane ‘Smegma’ music-video, a road-trip to the 2008 Irish Web Awards (we’re through to the final for ‘Best Music‘) and Devious Theatre’s upcoming production; it’s all very hush-hush at the moment so all I’m saying is…”30.10.08…the end begins!”.

It’s well into September, I thought following the crazy summer; things would have slowed down by now and that I would be able to get back to more regular blogging!? It’s still taking a little getting use to the fact that I’m not going back to college but I’ve had plenty to keep me distracted from the “September blues”, here’s an update on what I’m doing;

Firstly, my two newest posts “Meet Matt McLoughlin” and “Meet Ned Savage” bring me up to a total of 237 posts here on Oss237.com just as the statcounter turns over on 80,000 hits. The new shots are also the beginning of a long series of character portraits I’ll be doing for the Mycrofilms web-based sitcom ‘Vultures’. As I’ve said in my previous post, we’re currently in the middle of shooting the third episode in the series, ‘The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse‘.

These new character portraits are just the beginning of a whole host of extra’s we’re working on, in the run up to the release of episode 3. The idea is to provide a series of portraits that give a little insight into each of the characters in the show and you can also read their character bios here on VulturesPI.com. You can also check out a whole collection of my behind-the-scenes shots from the set of ‘Vultures’ here on my new flickr account.

With KilkennyMusic.com reaching three years old; the website is going to get a bit of a new look, bringing in some new features and as a part of this I’m moving all my shots from the KilkennyMusic Galleries (1508 shots in total) to the new KilkennyMusic Flickr. We’ve also just been long-listed for ‘Best Music’ in the 2008 Irish Web Awards.

The Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands 2008 is in the final stages, the finalists have been announced and myself, Ken and Andrew McGuinness will sit behind the judges table one last time this coming Sunday as the remaining bands battle it out. You can see all my photos from the competition so far here. And myself and Ken are back with the weekly Sound System Podcast show, which is still free to download.

The Devious Theatre website is about to be relaunched with a new look and a whole archive of promo material from past productions and our upcoming epic. I’m about to begin transferring all my shots from the last four productions into the new Devious Theatre flickr account. And we’re already in pre-production for our next show, it’s all very hush-hush at the moment, all I’m saying is “30.10.08“. (More on this soon)

In the run up to the launch of their debut CD, ‘Strands’, I’ve been doing a lot of work with progressive-grunge experiment, The Lions Mane. In particular, getting back into music video production. I’m currently working on a video featuring The Lions Mane recording ‘Smegma’ in the Mill Studios. I’ll blog more about the video at a later stage but I’ve begun posting behind-the-scenes video clips on youtube with plenty more to come.

You’ll also find a whole host of new videos on my youtube account, short little video clips from all of my above mentioned adventures and projects. With little time to blog about things, I’ve quickly become addicted to capturing video clips behind-the-scenes on everything I’m doing at the moment.

On the P.R side of things, well I’ve pretty much being doing all sorts of P.R activities I can, with all of the above mentioned projects. Every week for the last two months, I’ve been firing out press-releases and photos to all the local media and I’m happy to say that every week the local papers publish everything and give credit where it’s due (They must have got my message) and at this stage myself and Ken should have our own radio show; at least one of us is being interviewed for something every week.

So, September may be here and the weather surely sucks, but at moment the “post-college blues” are nowhere to be found. Now, if only somebody would give me a job!!!

The tour itself was a great success, taking in 8 national venues across Dublin, Kilkenny, Galway, Wexford, Sligo, Limerick and more. Having already had the pleasure of seeing Clive Barnes (legend!) several times before and working with him earlier this year for promo-shots (which were used for the tour), I was really looking forward to getting another chance to shoot him live.

Clive Barnes is a familiar face on the roots music circuit and has been steadily gaining himself a worldwide reputation as one of the finest lap slide/regular acoustic guitarists on today’s scene. He has four critically acclaimed albums released to date, with ‘Welcome to Farewell’ winning Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s (USA) ‘Album of the Year Award 2002’. He’s also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, his countless stories and live performances are nothing short of pure entertainment.

I’ve been listening to Australian based musician Jeff Lang’s ‘Whatever makes you happy’ album (just 1 of 13 studio albums) repeatedly for weeks now, and I was really looking forward to meeting him, seeing him live and having the opportunity to shoot another legend on stage. (Having done all that, I’m now looking forward to catching up on his huge back-catalogue of albums.)

Jeff Lang has earned international acclaim as a virtuosic guitarist, a dynamic songwriter and a “startlingly unique” live performer, playing at major festivals and venues internationally for the past decade. Blending rock, roots, folk, blues, ballads, instrumentals, improvisations and a devastatingly high level of musicality. Long acclaimed as a superbly gifted guitarist, he is now gaining recognition as a master songwriter. Much to my delight, he’s also filled with hilarious stories from adventures on the road (told in an awesome Australian accent), and his live performances are also nothing short of pure entertainment.

Jeff was joined on the tour by renowned Melbourne-based bassist Grant Cummerford. Another legend in my opinion. And having the pleasure of listening to Clive, Jeff and Grant off-stage was an experience itself, I don’t think myself and Ken have ever laughed so much, whilst picking up Aussie terms like “trough-lollies” and “slurp roads”.

My latest series of shots captures Clive Barnes’ performances in Cleere’s Theatre, Kilkenny and Barry’s in Grange, County Sligo. Unfortunately, due to the lights creating a buzz through the P.A in Cleeres, I was reduced to shooting under a single spot-light, meaning I didn’t get to shoot Jeff because of his position on the stage. I made up for this in Barry’s.

Shooting Clive through a doorway at the side of the stage, with lights behind him giving nice flares and colour. I shot Jeff & Grant from the front of the stage, with Jeff on the left side directly under a horrible red-light (I hate them) and Grant fading into the dark-side of the stage, I initially struggled but eventually found a good setting to capture his awesome performance. Then I had the opportunity to shoot all of them together, as Clive joined Jeff and Grant on-stage for a few songs at the end.

I have to say the highlight of my adventures had to be sitting around with Ken, Clive, Jeff and Grant in Barry’s after the gig that night, once the crowd had left. Instruments were passed around for several hours, as the lads jammed together, swapping guitars and stories between songs. I can safely say I have never witnessed such unbelievable musical talent. I left my camera in it’s bag and sat in pure awe into the early hours of the morning, as I’ve said before quite simply in the company of legends.

You can check out all of my shots from the Clive Barnes & Jeff Lang 2008 Tour here in the KilkennyMusic Galleries, until the MyMusicPR website gets an overhaul for the official launch (more on that very soon).

For over two years now I’ve been shooting live gigs in Kilkenny and constantly struggling to get shots of bands who are either badly lit, or not lit at all.

At the moment, Cleere’s Theatre has two working lights; a crappy white spotlight and an even crappier yellow one. The Zoo club has one four-colour light, which only lights the back of the stage and two of the colours are pretty much useless to shoot in. It leaves very few options to keep gig photos interesting. On the plus side it means I have to be constantly re-inventing my approach to shooting gigs if I want to avoid all my photos looking the same.

Over the past few months I’ve started branching out in styles and learning lots of new techniques, in particular studio photography. When I heard 23 were playing the Zoo, I saw the perfect opportunity to try adapt some of these techniques to a live environment. Last time I shot 23, they were awesome and I knew that they’d provide the perfect display of energy and what I like to call “rockin out” for me to get the shots I had in mind.

I already knew the shots I wanted well in advance of 23 taking to the stage. As I shot the support bands I was making little mental notes of angles and positions I needed to be in. During Na Damanta’s set I played around with the flash, figuring out settings and for Chemical Addiction, I was figuring out angles and how to use the crap light to my advantage.

The only problems being I would have to avoid people constantly flying through the air and I would have to reverse everything I was doing if I was to get the studio effect to work. For most of the gig I climbed up on the amps at the side of stage and sat waiting for the shots I wanted to happen in front of me. With 23 “rockin out” throughout the set, I didn’t have to wait long.

Using the flash to direct where I wanted lit I could darken most of the background in the frame. Instead of getting the background to white out, it would black out. I’m not sure of the correct technical terms but tech-talk is the reason I don’t talk to a lot photographers in this town. That and most of them won’t talk to me. (I’ll get to that in a minute.)

I did have to remove certain things from the shots afterwards, for example that horrible orange poster at the back of the stage which was impossible to get the effect on. But overall the effect worked perfectly to provide a series of studio-style live promo shots, that I’m quite happy with.

On a 23 photo related matter that I would like to rant about; last week three local newspapers printed my photographs to promote the upcoming gig. Whilst I was asked for photos which were printed in two of these newspapers I gave them under certain terms; I did stress that as I was not being paid I wanted to be credited for the photos. Once again I was not.

The third newspaper didn’t even have the courtesy to contact me and instead took one of my photos WITHOUT PERMISSION. I believe the correct term is “stealing”. How do I know it was mine, well two reasons; the first being that it contained the oss237.com watermark. The second being that all the newspapers PAY and CREDIT other photographers in this town every week. Photographers who I must point out don’t bother their asses to cover the Kilkenny music scene and even when they do, they sure as hell don’t take shots like I do. I must also point out that most photographers paid by papers to take photos in this town take photo’s your grandmother could take with a phone and then throw me dirty looks!? (Note: I said most photographers. Hi Dave)

So if the local media wants quality photos that obviously aren’t being provided to them, then why not give me a job!? You obviously think I’m good enough if you’re stealing my photographs and you’re reading my blog! And I’m actually more qualified than some of your journalists!

However, if you’re not going to extend professional courtesy by crediting me for my work then you simply will not get any of my photographs from now on. The next newspaper to print one of my shots WITHOUT PERMISSION will win themselves a prize; I’ll visit your office and explain to you the principles of Irish law, in particular terms such as copyright infringement and how you now owe me money!

As I’m on a bit of a rant. Local venue owners and gig organisers; whilst your lack of buying lighting for your venues and gigs means I must be creative when shooting gigs, I seriously doubt that is your intention. The words “being cheap” come to mind. Despite several factors such as elitist crowds boycotting any band that doesn’t contain their friend, Kilkenny has an awesome music scene, with awesome bands like 23 (who rock!) continuing to visit us. You make a lot of money from this music scene so how about actually putting some of that money towards decent lights!? So the bands play in venues fitting of their high quality and music fans can actually see them. Hey, if the venues are better quality, more bands will want to play, maybe more people will come to gigs, you’ll make even more money and maybe the papers will credit me for my hard work.

To my normal blog readers and 23; sorry about the rant but it was necessary at this stage. I hope you like the shots and I’d really appreciate feedback on this new style of live/promo shots.