It’s time we used the High Fives to recognise some of the people who work incredibly hard to support independent and unsigned artists. In a business where the highest levels have a “dog-eat-dog” mentality, you might be surprised to discover that at grassroots level the approach is much more cooperative and collaborative. All of the people mentioned below have collaborated with others listed and rather than mention this in the individual pieces, we’ll say now that they’re all lovely people and great to work with. Over to Allan for some background. As ever, they’re in no particular order:
You may have heard the name if you’re a bit of a rock historian; you may not. Tony played keyboards in the original Iron Maiden before they decided they weren’t a keyboard band before taking up a similar role in Cutting Crew in the mid-eighties. He’s been involved in club management and promotion, first at The Kashmir Club and, for the last twenty years at The Bedford in Balham. For the last two years he’s also been programming music at the new Camden Club in Chalk Farm. He’s a champion of new music and he’s still playing live and recording after forty-five years in the business.
Lorraine Solomons
Lorraine’s been a fixture and inspiration on the live scene in London and elsewhere for years now and she’s passionate about introducing new artists to the public. At her Success Express showcases across London, she always tries to introduce a couple of artists at each event that she hasn’t worked with before and has brought artists from all over the UK and the United States to London gig-goers. Her enthusiasm for her vocation is legendary.
Saskia Griffiths-Moore
She isn’t a promoter as such, but Saskia is a singer-songwriter with a beautiful voice who ounded the organisation Talent is Timeless which was set up to give exposure to songwriters over the age of fifty. Saskia has given freely of her time and organisational abilities to set up live events, organise merchandise, set up the annual competition including organising judges, and setting up recording sessions for the winners at Abbey Road studios. She’s energetic yet laid-back enough to deal with the inevitable frustrations that come with event organisation. She’s always fun to work with.
Ray Jones
Ray Jones, CEO of Talentbanq, has also been involved with the London music scene for years now. In his previous position as Development Director at Time Out, Ray took responsibility for the magazine’s Rising Stars live showcases. In August 2017 left to join the board of Talentbanq alongside Pablo Ettinger and Lord Mervyn Davies. Talentbanq was set up to promote new talent and to ensure that everyone involved in live production (including technical staff) received a fair fee for their services. The company has gone from strength to strength and celebrates its sixth birthday in January 2024. Ray’s very hands-on in his approach and ensures that artists and audiences have a great experience at every Talentbanq gig. It’s very much a team effort at Talentbanq and it’s only fair to mention the rest of the team who are James Gamble, Natalie Brundle and Tayah Etienne.
Ian Douglas Forteau
Ian was involved in various aspects of the music business before setting up So Live Sessions in 2018 with similar aims to Tony, Ray and Lorraine. Ian has the same aims the other promoters and seems to find some very different locations for his gigs, featuring a huge range of musical styles. It’s because of one of Ian’s showcases in Dalston that I met up with the wonderfully talented Amy Taylor who I’ve shot many times now. Here’s an interesting fact for you. Ian attended the same school as Ray jones, although not at the same time.
Well, we’re hoping to bring you some great photos from some of the best live music photographers on the circuit as part of this High Fives season, but until then you’ll have to make do with another selection from our resident snapper, Allan McKay. This time he’s picked out a selection of colour shots of male performers from a widely varying range of venues.
John Crimes (Jaxhill)
This was taken at Leek Blues and Americana festival in October of this year. This is a great community event staffed by volunteers and features a stack of free events in the town’s pubs (there are a few of those) plus a small number of ticketed events, over a period of 6 days. The smaller events are interesting because they don’t usually have any stage lighting, so it’s about playing the hand you’re dealt. Turning away from singer Mike Gledhill, I noticed that John was beaming out this 100—megawatt smile. Press the shutter button and there you go.
Maceo Parker
This shot was from Maceo’s show at The Roundhouse as part of the Innervisions Festival in 2019. Why do I like this festival? Easy, you can go home at the end of each gig, have a shower and sleep in your own bed. This shot was a combination of planning and luck. I saw Maceo place the wooden ‘Love’ sculpture on the stage and thought that there must be a way of working it in to a shot. After trying the sculpture on its own and as an out-of-focus foreground, Maceo walked to the back of the stage and there was the shot. I like to take away a lesson from every gig. The lesson here was that LED stage lighting and a shaven head isn’t a great combination.
Martin Harley
Leek Blues and Americana again, and this was the first ticketed event of the festival at the wonderful and intimate Fowlowe Theatre. I’ve photographed Martin before, but usually in much smaller venues, acoustic, and with upright bass player Daniel Kimbro. This time he was leading an electric trio and, apart from the Weissenborn songs, playing standing. The combination of those things with the heavily-modified Stratocasters created opportunities for some images that were very different from past gigs. And there’s a bit of the lead guitarist thing going on there as well. Combine that with decent stage lighting and you’ve got a shot.
Lewis Bewley-Taylor (Hardwicke Circus)
Hardwicke Circus is cracking young band from Carlisle with great songs, bags of energy and presence, and a hint of early seventies-era Stones. They’re managed by the legendary Dave Robinson and they’re always worth seeing live. This shot was from the newly-refurbished Bedford in Balham. It’s always had a reputation as a great music venue and it has one huge bonus for photographers; it has a balcony over the back part of the stage allowing you to shoot from above, which works well for drummers and keyboard players. The shot was made by the seventies prog-rock setup and the carpet and the use of an unusual viewpoint. You really want a bit of trivia don’t you? The band’s name is taken from a traffic island in Carlisle.
Jim Maving (Dean Owens and The Southerners)
Taken at The Exchange Theatre in Twickenham. Jim is a stunningly good guitar player who has spent some time recently working live with Dean Owens and Tom Collison. Jim isn’t keen on being photographed, but was good enough to tell me that he liked the shots I’d done at this gig. The thing that I really like about this shot is that it captures some of the intensity of Jim’s playing and the purple stage lighting (not normally my favourite) works really well with Jim’s silver hair.
