The Devious Theatre Company are very proud to announce that; we will be broadcasting a brand new hour long radio version of HG Wells’ sci-fi classic The War Of The Worlds, in conjunction with KCLR 96FM, 70 years to the date of the famous Orson Welles broadcast on C.B.S., October 30th 1938.

The Welles version was performed live on CBS with a fictional radio show being interrupted by news of a Martian invasion of earth. Convinced that what they were hearing was real, listeners fled their homes, frantically called loved ones and prepared themselves for the Martian attacks. The countrywide case of mass hysteria caused by the broadcast gave a chilling insight into how America would react if subjected to such an attack. A subsequent Mexican version of Welles radio adaptation led to 6 deaths and caused the radio station to be burnt down by outraged listeners.

Tune in on October 30th to hear our Kilkenny and Carlow located version of the classic tale. With a variety of different narrative devices and accounts of the invasion, we are able to piece together a chilling perspective on the attacks by the fearsome Martian tripods and their destruction of earth’s populace over the course of a 3 week period.

We are delighted to be working on this project with KCLR and we’re hoping that the audiences in Carlow and Kilkenny won’t take this one too seriously.

Check out the newly relaunched www.devioustheatre.com for more details on the project along with a whole host of goodies from all our previous productions.

The Devious Theatre Company’s performance of The War of the Worlds will be broadcast exclusively on KCLR on Thursday, October 30th at 9pm. It can also be listened to live on KCLR96FM.com. 

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!”.

“For folks that are unacquainted with ‘Trainspotting’ performed by Devious Theatre (Watergate, Kilkenny, June), it’s the tale of a dark and dirty Edinburgh told through the lives of five down and out drug riddled friends.

The risky aspect in taking on a production such as ‘Trainspotting’ is the subject matter it confronts; take the infamous toilet scene when Renton retrieves his pills, Alison’s re-enactment of spoiling food when she worked as a waitress and then there is all the business with needles.

It was apparent that this troupe of actors had worked hard to achieve a naturalistic Scottish accent; the dialogue was delivered in a superior manner by many of the cast. Ross Costigan, who played Renton, was able to juggle the accent with volume to a perfect level, but at times Begbie, played by Niall Sheehy, went beyond what could be deciphered. And occasionally the vocal abilities of the one or two of female actors were testing on the audience. That only being a minor note compared to the standard reached by all the others.

The first half ran at a great pace, as Renton was used to marvellous effect guiding the audience along his life of drugs and hard times. Costigan’s skill at portraying this down beaten but lovable character was magnificent; he lived and breathed him.

It was slightly disappointing then, not have the same connection with him in the second half. That being said, there were some beautiful moves throughout the play, especially in two specific scenes where Sick Boy (John Morton) tangoed with Mother Superior (Paul Young) in a junkie frenzy and where Spud reveals his dirty sheets across the breakfast table.

This type of blocking from directors Niamh Moroney and John Morton only contributed to the professional standard of this production.”

You can download a free copy of this months START Magazine HERE, in this months issue where you’ll also find an awesome full-page interview with ‘Vultures’ co-writer Paddy Dunne.

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!!!

As of yesterday filming has begun on Vultures episode 3: ‘The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse’ and as of last night the BRAND NEW VULTURES TRAILER went online over at www.VulturesPI.com.

Vultour, Tennyson and McGrain, the three hapless detectives of VPI are back with a brand new mystery. After moving into a new office the trio are accused of dumping rubbish outside the new premises, and threatened with eviction. With time running out, they must get to the bottom of… lots of bin bags.

Are they being framed? Is someone trying to get them kicked out of office after office? Why are their belongings in this new rubbish? And does Eddie Hobbs actually write his own books?

All will be revealed in Vultures Eps 3: ‘The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse’. The new trailer acts as a bridging point between Episode 2 and the forthcoming episode; with the evicted detectives forced to set up shop in a very familiar looking public park.The third installment in the series will see the return of Noah Hennessy, Sarah Black, Inspector Leeson, Fred Bass, Isabelle Vultour, Tom Moriarty and I’ll be returning as “urban preacher” Jack Street. There’ll also be a few new characters including intense rubbish-hating Litter Warden Ned Savage and Matt McLoughlin the hard-partying, hen night loving V.P.I lawyer.

I’ll also be working as 1st A.D on the production and providing behind-the-scenes shots along with some P.R services so plenty more to come…

For now WATCH THE TRAILER for Vultures Eps3: The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse’.

I’ve been flat out the past two weeks, working on several different projects, PR work, shooting several gigs including the Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands (I’m an official sponsor and also a judge) and of course with Devious Theatre’s 4th production ‘Smitten‘.

Only weeks after our highly successful production of Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting‘, people thought we had gone a bit mad deciding to put on another play this soon. And I have to admit at some points we thought they might be right, with very little pre-production time and early casting difficulties, we hoped we weren’t going to “drop the ball” with this one.

This time around we also wouldn’t have the big name selling power behind the show, ‘Smitten’ is a brand new play, written by our very own John Morton (who also wrote Heart Shaped Vinyl), you can read more about the play here. We were hoping that at this stage, we had established Devious Theatre as a reliable source of entertainment in Kilkenny. If of course people could actually find the little known location of Church Lane!?

In the weeks towards the show, Devious Theatre once again kicked it up a notch and began our onslaught. Rehearsals were hectic but hilarious, the local media were bombarded with press releases, photos and promo material, the set was designed and built. Window displays, signs and maps to the venue went up around the town and people were on the radio talking about the show. Once again I had the pleasure of working on some photo-shoots with Paddy Dunne, who once again produced an awesome series of posters. Props, rostrums, sets, seating, costumes, lights etc were all assembled in the Barn and Wednesday the 20th (opening night) approached.

As I walked up Church Lane that day I was kind of disappointed, despite Devious Theatre’s best efforts, there seemed to be little interest in the show, tickets sales were poor, it looked like it was going to be a quiet week. Would it have all been worth it, everyone had worked so hard!? I walked into the Barn just as the phone call from Rollercoaster Records (our ticket-seller) came through… it was around about that moment that the week took off like a rollercoaster and Devious Theatre are still a little shellshocked (once again). The phonecall was brief, the message spread throughout the cast and every time it was met with the same open-mouthed, wide-eyed face; “am?…we’re sold out tonight!?”.

The lights came up on the first ever performance of Devious Theatre’s ‘Smitten’ by John Morton, with a full house staring at us (yet another Devious moment I will never forget), and I can easily say that the entire cast appreciated this moment and in return gave it everything they had. Afterwards, everyone was slightly stunned by the reaction we received. Rumour had it, it was going to be a quiet one, but the official word is “we went to Morrissons!”.

I walked into the Barn on Thursday, around about the same time that the next phonecall from Rollercoaster Records came through… the call to tell us that the entire run of Smitten was now sold out. People loved it, they laughed at the funny bits and tears welled up at the sad bits, John Morton had written an awesome show and the Devious Theatre Company did what they did best, entertain. Crowds varied from teenage metallers to 92 year old grandmothers. Some people had gotten in early enough to get tickets so they could come every night. And John said it best with “All the while we stood by quite amazed.”

To be honest, it still hasn’t really sunk in yet, but two things I’m certain about is that it was more than worth it (and Devious throw awesome after-parties!). I’d really love to go into more detail about the show, it really deserves it but between shooting Vultures Episode 3, the Battle of the Bands, several gig shoots to sort and other projects, I’m backlogged with work. You can check out all my behind-the-scenes shots from Smitten rehearsals and live shots of the show here on the Devious Theatre Bebo Page.

All that’s left for me to say is a long list of thank you’s; firstly to director Colm “No Notes” Sheehan and John “Apollo Creed” Morton for your awesome work. To the amazing and friendly people at Barnstorm for allowing us to move into the Barn and endlessly helping us throughout our stay. To my fellow Devious Committee members, once again you’ve made me so proud of what we can achieve (I hope we do that photo-shoot with the monacles). To Paddy Dunne, for once again using my photos in your awesome work. To Eddie Brennan for another awesome set, and to all those who helped him. To Gerry Taylor for the lights.

A really important thank you to my fellow cast; Stephen Colfer, Amy Dunne, Ken McGuire, Kevin Mooney, Lynsey Moran, Niamh Moroney, Maria Murray, Suzanne O’Brien, Jack O’Leary, Annette O’Shea and Geoff Warner Clayton. It was awesome to spend time with all of you and I look forward to working together again.

Finally, thanks to all of you who came to see the show, for showing your encouragement and support for something that we simply love doing. Keep an eye on DeviousTheatre.com over the next few weeks for announcements on our next production (no, we’re not mad, we’re taking a break first!).

Roll on the reviews…

L-R: Paddy McQuinn, Carey Harte and T.

Kilkenny based grindcore metallers, Atrax Mantis, have just released the artwork for their upcoming debut E.P ‘Condemned to Hatred’. Which means I can finally reveal my conceptual promo-shots for the inlay of the E.P, and behind-the-scenes shots from my first time working with MakeUp/Special Fx artist Carey Harte.

Last year was my first time as a judge and official sponsor for the Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands, I offered a photography package to the winning band, who turned out to be Atrax Mantis. I also offered a photography package to runner’s-up, Decadation (more on that soon). Following the competition, Atrax hit the studio to record their debut offering and when it was near completion, we met up to discuss the artwork. Much to my delight, the lads had a very clear idea of what they wanted on the E.P and we had several meetings and brain-storming sessions to work out the concept.

Around about the same time, I had been chatting to MakeUp/Special Fx artist Carey Harte, about working on some projects together and this seemed the perfect opportunity to get us started. Sticking with the concept of “Condemned to Hatred”, myself and the Atrax lads had come up with a sequence of shots portraying two characters, I’ll call them “the prisoner” and “the guard”. We’d need bruises, we’d need blood, we’d need Carey! She said yes.

After a short search for models and locations; Paddy Mc Quinn stepped up to be “the prisoner” and Atrax voKillist T would play “the guard”. We found the perfect location, a dead-end corridor in a warehouse that was currently under renovation on an industrial estate, we got permission to shoot there and we were good to go.

On a Sunday in early May, we all met in my house. This would be the first time I would get to meet Carey in person, and on doing so I pronounced her name wrong, she secretly thought this was funny and allowed me to further embarrass myself all day. I was apprehensive about introducing her to Atrax Mantis!? They’re not called the “foul as f**k” metallers for no reason! And they also had “the merchanDykes” with them to add to the madness. I introduced Carey (as Carrie), everyone began chatting and soon it became clear that we were all going to laugh quite a lot that day.

Carey got to work on Paddy, covering him in bruises, slashes, missing teeth and general battered-ness, soon we were on our way to the warehouse. The corridor looked perfect for the shoot, but with all the construction work there was a heavy layer of concrete dust, meaning a nightmare trying to keep my lens clean and keep the dust out of my camera.

The next problem being that the only power source in the building was several floors upstairs, meaning we’d have to run adapters the whole way down to a set of construction lights, quite a stretch, meaning the lights would barely come to the end of the corridor. We stood the lights on top of a large construction table, they filled the darkened corridor with light but I’d have no room to move them and it would cause huge shadows. In the end, I climbed a ladder to the ceiling, and gave the lads from Atrax various jobs.

Dylan held the ladder, “Fuzz” stood on the opposite side of the corridor shining a large heavy-duty torch at a reflector held by Guilly, I told him where to reflect the light to brighten dark areas around Paddy and T’s faces etc, Carey re-did any necessary make-up, the “merchanDykes” supervised, the dust flew around. After initial test shoots with my 18-135mm lens I changed to the 50mm (cheers Ken), which limited my depth of field but meant I could shoot as low as f1.8. We moved around the corridor, I tried out various different angles, shutter-speeds and colour temperatures, the dust continued to fly. Sooner than expected we had a huge collection of usable shots, alternative angles, and the dust had gotten everywhere.

You can check out all of my behind-the-scenes shots from the shoot here. You’ll also find the finished artwork for the E.P, with design and photo-shop work by T.

Quite happy with the results and with time to spare, we decided to move around the warehouse and get some promo/press shots of Atrax Mantis as well. The results of which I posted several weeks back, the only problem with this shoot was trying not to make Fuzz laugh or smile, it’s “not very metal!” and it’s very easy to make him smile.

This type of conceptual shoot was another first for me, and I’m really happy with the results. I’m eager to work on more stuff like this very soon. At this point I have to say a huge thank you to the very lovely and talented Carey Harte. It was awesome to meet you and work with you. I hope you like the results. Hopefully we can get to work on our next project very soon!?(Later that night Carey txt me to tell me I that had pronounced her name wrong all day. She still finds it funny, I still find it embarrassing.)

I’d also like to say a huge thanks to Paddy McQuinn and T, for their patience throughout the shoot, especially when Paddy was standing on T’s face, I was playing with settings on my camera trying to get it just right, and dust was flying everywhere. Finally a huge thanks to Atrax Mantis, I’m proud to have my work featured on your debut offering (which I’ve already heard and it’s awesome!).

Atrax Mantis will release ‘Condemned to Hatred’ at the Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands 2007 Winners Showcase gig in the Zoo Club on September 14th at 4pm. Don’t miss it!

So I ordered one and after waiting several frustrating weeks of delays and postage mix-ups, it finally arrived yesterday morning. It was worth the wait. Last night was my first chance to use the lens, as we were shooting more promotional material and posters for the upcoming Devious Theatre production; ‘Smitten’. Once again I have the pleasure of collaboration with Mr Paddy Dunne, he’ll be working his photoshop magic on the shots and Devious Theatre should begin releasing posters for the show this coming weekend.

Today was my first proper chance to test the new lens, a promo-shoot with progressive grunge rocker’s The Lions Mane. I’ll be working with the lads in the coming months as they begin to make a dent in the local music scene with a string of gigs, videos, E.P releases and of course more promo-shoots. I’ve shot most members of the band before, as they either are or were members of various bands throughout the Kilkenny Music scene, so they were all more than used to me sticking a lens in their face.

With no real concept, other than print media promo-shots for the band’s debut performance in Kilkenny, we chose to keep it simple. I chose the Boreen in Kilkenny because of the great selection of simple locations for posed-group shots; lots of stone walls, winding lanes and quiet locations to set up shots. Using the new lens’ limited depth-of-field to my advantage by positioning band members, playing around with in-camera colour temperatures and levels. Keeping in mind the style the lads were going for, in-line with their long-list of progressive and grunge influences and indeed their promo-shots. I’m more than happy with the outcome and the new lens. The lads will release more promo-shots from today’s shoot in the coming weeks.

The Lions Mane will play their debut full-band performance in Cleeres Theatre on August 16th in association with KilkennyMusic.com. A night of melodic, riff-heavy songs with ambient guitars, layered vocals and highly percussive-independent rhythms. Support on the night comes from Dublin-based progressive metallers Hero In Error, also playing their long-awaited Kilkenny debut and I’ve also being waiting a long time to shoot these guys live. This is going to be one of the gigs of the summer, an example to certain bands in Kilkenny that “progressive” music is exactly what the title suggests, it’s meant to be progressive, or let’s say go somewhere. It’s not about the tattoos, the right t-shirts or haircuts, it’s music for the sake of music, and it’s awesome.

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).

Here’s the official Devious word on the show;

“Smitten depicts a tragicomic series of loosely interlinked vignettes set in Kilkenny City over a succession of rainy summer nights. The play takes its cues from the short stories of Raymond Carver and the films of Woody Allen (the early funny ones that is). The characters at the core of Smitten are trying to get their bearings in life, each stuck in their own limbo. The realities of adult life are dealing a harsh blow to the best laid plans, in a way that leaves them totally smitten… in all the meanings of the word.

Alcoholism. Pregnancy. Testicular Cancer. Apathy. Doomed Relationships.
Sock Puppets. Those elusive mystery girls. How to dance to Bruce Springsteen. And rain. Lots of rain. Smitten functions as a theatrical collage, with intertwining narratives and varying forms of narrative giving life to the comic and often tragic stories that litter the rainy streets of Kilkenny City.” Read More…

Here’s my two words; “It’s Awesome!”.

We’re already knee-deep in rehearsals as well as preparing promotional material for the show, with just five-weeks until the opening night. Thankfully, I’ll have a lot more time to be snapping behind-the-scenes on this production and will hopefully get to blog through-out as well. I’ll also get another opportunity to work with Paddy “the photoshop wizard” Dunne on some promo material. Awesome!

This series of slow-shutter shots was more of an experiment for shots to come, I’m hoping to do individual character promo shots closer to the show. Taken at rehearsals, camera on a tripod, 50mm lens (cheers Ken, I ordered my own over 4 weeks ago!), trying different speeds between 10″ to 30″, using the remote with flash-bursts as the shutter opened and closed, also using the natural light beams coming in through the windows as the sun went down. Quite simply it creates nice trails, different saturation levels and levels of movement as people move around the room. Just a test but more to come. You can check out more of my behind-the-scenes snaps from ‘Smitten’ rehearsals here on the Devious Theatre Bebo.

Tickets for Smitten are being sold in Rollercoaster Records, Kieran Street from 21st of July and they are 10EURO. The show runs August 20 – 23 and starts 8pm nightly. For more information and updates, check out www.devioustheatre.com