prolific.org

Jason published his yearly “My year in cities” post. I used Meg’s Mayfly-project to do something similar, but brief. So here is my full list, as archived by Dopplr, and some recollections.

Leersum (December)
Boxing Day at my parents’. Cooked Indonesian meal.

Paris (December)
It’s hard to pick favourites in a year of many highs, but I did like this one a lot. A bit of family. A lot of G. Everything was small and intimate. Saw ‘Handsomest Drowned Man’ again and it worked so much better than in Brighton.

London (November)
Saw Scott Walker’s Drifting and Tilting twice. Lovely time with Hg, Pixeldiva, B. and R. Traveled by Eurolines coach. Really, surprisingly comfortable. And cheap.

Galway (October)
Didn’t like staying in a hostel (hell very definitely being other people), but other than that it was good to get away and I think I shot my best picture of 2008.

Dublin (October)
The Dublin/Galway trip was my ’summer holiday’. It was freezing, of course, but sunny anyway when the rest of Europe was awash with rain. Had an amazing time in Killiney filming G. and listening to his new songs.

Antwerp (August)
Unplanned trip to compensate for not getting the Lowlands festival photo gig I’d been promised. Bad karma… nearly got my head kicked in taking pictures in this Belgian city. And that’s no joke.

London (July)
Rogue’s Gallery at the Barbican. Only got photo access to the soundcheck. Light was bad, vibe a little dull, but the gig was good. Really enjoyed staying around Brick Lane. Quiet lunch with G. at morose Italian place.

Dublin (July)
Rogue’s Gallery in the Dublin Docklands. Fa-bu-lous experience. Great access all day, fab to hang with Davey, Gugs and G., lovely vibe in the photo pit, nearly killed myself shooting with the 70-200 for four hours.

Paris (July)
Quick trip to see the deafening My Bloody Valentine. Loved it.

Paris (May)
Became my nephew Louis Gustave’s godmother. Pretended to be Catholic. Everything in French of course. Lovely, but strenous.

Brighton (May)
Brighton was relaxed, just enjoying sea, sand and sun. The gig (’The Handsomest Man in the World’) was unremarkable.

London (May)
Rather fraught and confused start as I was given the wrong medication hours before my flight and I felt poorly and disoriented. Fire alarm at Gatwick on my return.

Cologne (April)
Birthday trip. Didn’t enjoy this much. Party town, stag nights, large groups. No fun on your own. Crap weather too.

Dublin (Feb/Mar)
Sick as a dog, but I went anyway and coughed and sneezed and dripped through a Marc Almond gig (meeting Gini Ball backstage) and lovely dinner with G. at Eden. Also… Bambi!

Dublin (Jan)
No particular reason. Scouted some photo locations. Saw 30 seconds from Mars on a whim.

I don’t think I will be travelling quite this often in 2009.

Reading Matthew’s ‘premature evaluation‘ of R.E.M.’s upcoming album Accelerate, I realised I’d never posted my thoughts on the two shows I saw the band do in Dublin last summer. I did write about it on my Dutch music blog, but even fewer people probably read that than visit over here. So here’s a quick translation.

‘This is not a show,’ says Mike Mills, addressing the crowd through a megaphone. It’s not a gig, it’s an ‘exercise in terror and music’, Stipe explains, ‘We are R.E.M. and this is what we do when you’re not looking.’

But this time we are looking. Stipe may not be wearing make up and he may be cheating with the lyrics, using printed sheets and a MacBook on an upturned flight case, it’s still R.E.M. on stage: the three members of the band, guest guitarist Scott McCaughey and drummer Bill Rieflin.

We are in Dublin’s beautiful Olympia Theatre, a small Victorian venue in the middle of the city. This is the location R.E.M. has picked for five nights, trying out the songs they are recording with producer Jacknife Lee in a studio in county West-Meath.

It’s not the first time R.E.M. has picked an Irish studio to record in. ‘Uncle’ Stipe has godchildren in this country, he’s part the U2 family in the broadest sense of the word. It’s like the mafia, once you’re in, you’re in for life.

Bono and The Edge are present at the first two shows of the five night run. Stipe thanks them from the stage, for their support and ‘for keeping me grounded’. The band’s real relatives have flown in too. On the fourth night, Stipe is telling the audience a story and when he uses the word ‘blowjob’ he suddenly buries his bright red face in his hands. ‘I forgot we’ve got family members in tonight, young ones too… well, if you didn’t know that word before…’

He’s very talkative in between the songs. They play eleven new tracks every night as well as various oldies from their first couple of albums. They fit in with the new songs the best. For the first time, Stipe explains his obscure lyrics, telling us what the stories are about and shedding light on the art of songwriting. On the third night the old songs are mostly off Fables of the Reconstruction, on the fourth it’s even further back to Chronic Town, Murmur and Reckoning.

The tickets to these shows were exclusively sold via R.E.M.s mailing list, so the people in the audience are mostly big fans, hearts ready to burst. No hits. It’s the dream of every super fan. ‘I hadn’t heard this song in 24 years until this afternoon,’ Stipe says, holding the lyrics in his hands. We savour obscure tracks like West of the Fields, Wolves Lower, Carnival of Sorts, 1000000, Harborcoat, Second Guessing and These days.

The new songs work well in the live setting, sounding like vintage R.E.M. already, with added power courtesy of Bill Rieflin’s power drumming. In ‘Horse to water’ you feel the fire of Gravity’s Pull, and the ballad ‘Until the Day is Done’ is a gorgeous ‘King of Birds’-type ballad. The band was hurt by the slating their last album Around the Sun got in the press and determined to strike back. The songs aren’t finished yet, that much is obvious when Stipe changes lyrics on his MacBook in our presence, or when guitarist Peter Buck stops a song to explain the middle eight to bass player Mike Mills. But they’re getting there.

The band sounds great, a full rich sound, crystal clear even on the upper balcony of the venue. U2’s sound engineer of the last 30 years, Joe O’Herlihy, is manning the soundboard, doing a great job. Whether the band has managed to capture that sound on record, we’ll find out in April.

I don’t see cover bands as a rule, but since I was at this ‘Joshua Tree 20th anniversary release party’ anyway I thought it would be good practice to shoot the band and try ‘different’ things. And not be afraid to screw up the shoot. In the end I didn’t try that many ‘different’ things, but putting a 20mm on the body did give me a different perspective, har har. I am very pleased with this Sigma 20/1.8’s performance in concert circumstances. It’s got great colours.

Not a lot of concerts photographers shoot with primes (= fixed focal length lenses) like I do. They’re either sporting their 70-200’s zoom, or some variant of a 24-70, or wider - I always see this one guy who always has some kind of really flat lens on his body, it hardly protrudes from the body. I hardly ever use anything wider than 50mm, as I tend to go for close ups. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate, get a wide zoom other than my Sigma 24-70/2.8, which I’ve tried to use before but doesn’t seem to work that well.

The lad shooting next to me at the The National gig was using a Tamron 17-50/2.8. I might get me one of those for starters, before I splash out for a Canon 16-35/2.8L .

See the slideshow at Flickr.com.

Nothing, absolutely nothing subtle about this gig. Girls were pulled on stage throughout to kiss birthday boy Leo, then brought backstage by a roadie. Other women needed no coaxing to fling themselves at the band (mostly MC Leo Lhenacho) and support act the Mitchell Brothers. Skinner poured brandy from a bottle down kids’ throats and asked girls to make ’sexy noises’. A spectacle.

‘Who are you voting for,’ he says, rounding off our call before dashing out the door with his rowdy friends. I say televoting’s a waste of money. But I don’t tell him I almost succumbed to sending a few votes towards good old Brian Kennedy. That would be silly, after the slagging we gave him only minutes earlier.

‘He’s not aged well, has he?’

Have we?

Brian was quite a dish back in the day, a Northern troubadour with Van the Man’s approval in his pocket and the voice of an angel to boast. There was a time I had his song ‘Captured’ (mp3) on repeat. He must be desperate for a gig, why else would he be representing Ireland in the Eurovision? A quiet gem among those amateurs, despite that dreary tune’s he’s wrought. Every song is a cry for love? Oh, Brian.

‘Sorry’, he says,’My mates are here, I have to go, I’ll call ya in the morning.’

I hear his old pal’s familiar growl and the line goes dead just before the fucker gets the chance to grab the phone.

Woman yields to boys’ night out.

I watch the voting with half an eye. My country’s pathetic trio won’t make it. But Brian’s through.

Unexpectedly my heart swells.

If you’d like to know why I keep jetting off at the drop off a hat to see a relatively unknown artist perform in all corners of the world, check out the video stream (smil, Real Video) of the gig I went to see in Dingle late last year, which has now been put online by the lovely people at RTE Ireland. The full stream is 35 minutes, but for the best impression scroll to the 20 minute mark and start from there (’Caruso’ and ‘Rags to Riches’). This is the first video footage of some substance since 1989, and the director and his team did a great job.

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Only an hour delay on the way back. Good weekend, shopping, meeting friends, great gig. Sunny days, Sunday felt like Spring. Back at work now, most of the snow has melted but it’s still cold.More about Declan O’Rourke’s outstanding gig later. Some pics at Flickr, but I didn’t put a whole lot of effort into them. Remind me not to take my migraine meds in the daytime - they make me very sleepy.

I worship at the shrine of Marks & Spencer, the only shop in the world where I can grab three pairs of jeans / trousers off the racks and know that they’ll fit, perfectly, without having to try them on. I think most of their clothing is a bit, um, too old for me, eventhough I AM of that age, but trouser-wise M&ampS is da bomb. And it’s even better now that I’ve found out that even their ‘medium’ length is short enough for a leprechaun like myself. Currently wearing brown rib cords for the first time since the 70’s.

Other good shtuff in Dublin:

* The fruit smoothies at Stephen’s Green shopping centre and at the airport (forgotten name of franchise)
* Room #25 at Kelly’s Hotel (view, cleanliness), not to mention the unexpected price drop of (another) 10 Euro. Fifty Euro a night in the city centre is unheard of.
* Burgers and malts at Eddie Rockets. For junk food, they are top notch.
* John Kelly, who is one of the few gents in the business.

Bad shtuff:

* “Service” at the Octagon bar in the Clarence Hotel. Dear U2, please hire people who speak English and don’t fight among each other. And when I ask for brown sauce, I don’t want garlic sauce.
* Bad service just about everywhere. Ireland was my REFUGE from that, man, what the fuck?
* Ridiculous internet access pricing.
* Mr F. (The F. stands for Fucking unreliable cunt.)
* Iskander’s. Formerly best kebab place in the world. Now inedible.
* Getting ripped off by taxi driver. 28 Euro for the airport - city centre drive. I remember when it was 8 pounds.

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10:27 AM. ‘If you are receiving this notice the current demand on the site is too high to allow you to continue at this moment.’

No tickets for the prol yet. Too many people online these days. Why don’t they all f.o. to wherever they were in their pre-connected days.

Update 4pm: No joy whatsoever. I can’t remember not being lucky with online sales. The problem lies in U2.com’s presale code. Once there’s an error, the system thinks the code has been used and renders it useless. Oh well, next shot on the 28th when general sales start. Wasted 40 dollars on U2.com membership. Bono can give another round in the Clarence. But someone I know will suffer greatly for this.

Meanwhile, USA pre-sales are starting. The first complaints are trickling in. Wheeeee.

Update 6pm: One of my mates got through for Brussels. So I’m sorted for that gig. London, however, not yet.

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I ain’t half back and already arranging my trip to Ireland (Dec 14 - 18). It’s going to be a bit of a trek, flying into Cork on December 14, catching a bus to Tralee and then on to Dingle (4 hour trip). The gig is the next day, Dec 15th, in St James’s Church, seating 60 people. I don’t have a ticket (only available via e-mail, payment by cheque. Huh?), but I’ll just show up for the soundcheck and let Gav sort the credentials. (Update: ticket sorted) (Update II: heh, apparently guestlist sorted too. Good boy.) Apparently there are other artists besides him on the bill. Hmm. The next day I’ll take the bus to Dublin (8 hour trip) arriving there past 7pm. I then have a day to spend riding the Luas or sipping cocktails in The Clarence, and back to Amsterdam on the 18th.